Seniors Harrison Moon (75) and Cole Strange (69) will be key in anchoring the Mocs' offensive line for the 2021 campaign.
photo by gomocs.com
The 18th-ranked Chattanooga Mocs continue fall camp in preparation for the 2021 campaign. GoMocs.com starts its 8-point season preview series this week with the foundation for success on both sides of the ball. Today, we look at the offensive line before shifting to the defensive front on Friday.
Starters Returning (5): Harrison Moon, Cole Strange, Kyle Miskelley, McClendon Curtis & Colin Truett
Starters Lost (0): N/A
Impact Transfer (1): Blake Mitchell (Austin Peay)
Returnees with career starts (12): Mitchell (17), Riley Bodine (2), Brock Bethea (1), Sam Hall (1), Jeremiah Katt (1), Cameron Perry (1) & Reid Williams (1)
That’s a lot to take in.
Competition for a role is fierce. For the most part, offensive linemen play every snap. There’s not much in the way of rotation throughout the game.
“It’s more of a unit grind than anything,” first-year offensive line coach Tommy Galt explained. “They are the closest group because they’re the closest together, physically, on the field. If they make a mistake, there’s somebody two feet from them whereas a wideout may not be within 20 yards of a teammate.
“It’s more of a ‘oneness’ grind. Chemistry is more important at that position than any other spot.”
It’s a special group. Cole Strange is the reigning Jacobs Blocking Award winner in the Southern Conference. He’s looking to be one of the few 5-year starters in the history of college football with 33 of the line’s 126 total starts with 96 of those coming in the Blue & Gold.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
“You can’t function without one. You gotta be good up front to protect the quarterback and run the football. Thankfully, we have some older guys up there that know what we want to do and accomplish.” – Coach Rusty Wright
“No one is better in our league than our offensive line. You can see it on film, they’re more aggressive guys. It really prepares us going against our offensive line.” – All-American DL Devonnsha Maxwell
“We have a very experienced o-line. I feel like they are the foundation of the team…the offense and they set the tone. The running backs are the guys that follow the offensive line, so essentially they’re the leaders.” – RB Ailym Ford
STATS TO LOOK FOR
The offensive line is difficult to quantify performance with no recognized statistical standard at the completion of games. There’s a lot of film work that goes into grading and analyzing their respective play and even that can be somewhat subjective. So, what can you look at on the stat sheet to get an idea of the line’s performance?
“Your quarterback isn’t dirty, and you were able to run the football. That’s the biggest thing.” – Coach Wright
“Did you win or lose? That’s the first thing. Then you want to see how yards your running back rushed for. Then which side he rushed for yards on. We can break that down if you’re getting cocky (smiling). Win or lose is the most important thing but then it’s rush yards.” – LT Harrison Moon
GoMocs.com continues its annual position-by-position preview Friday with the defensive line. The preview series starts with an article on the home of all things Mocs, GoMocs.com, followed throughout the day on various social media channels @GoMocsFB.
NOTES
- Strange is one of five Mocs in their sixth year in the program. Curtis is one of six others in their fifth, and he’s listed as a junior due to COVID year.
- Moon is one of three in their seventh collegiate season joined by Chris James and Montez Wilson. Moon and James are both in year four at Chattanooga with this being the second for Wilson.
- All five returning starters are in year four or later on a college squad with grad transfer Blake Mitchell back for year five starting his career at Mississippi State before transferring to Austin Peay where he was an All-OVC performer.