Randy Smith
As the Chattanooga Mocs open their fourth season under head coach Rusty Wright, there is an air of excitement and high expectations. The Mocs are the pre-season favorites to win the Southern Conference Championship as well as being ranked 12th in the polls before the season gets underway. That's pretty good for a guy who has more than paid his dues since he graduated from UTC in 1995. He's been an assistant at several stops including Georgia State, Butler and Furman.
He also has two different stints at his alma mater and, after spending four years as an assistant coach in his second tour of duty, he was named head coach in 2019. He has climbed the ladder and worked his way through the ranks to get where he is today and he's proven in his first three seasons that UTC made a great decision to give one of their own his first head coaching position.
You might call Rusty Wright a "blue collar" football coach. He's always ready to go to work and he doesn't just wait until August. "It' s what we've done since January. Just the attitude and work they've put in since January to get us to this point. The competition....the things we've done internally gets me excited for these guys."
The reason for all this excitement is the fact that the Mocs return 25 starters from last year's squad that finished 6-5. It's not really a season that indicates there are great things to come but there is plenty of talent and, when you add in 43 newcomers and 17 redshirts, you can't help but get excited.
UTC had great success under another former Moc player when Russ Heusman took over the program in 2008. Now it's Rusty's turn to bring the Mocs back to the glory days of Joe Morrison in the 1970s . Since then, Chattanooga has been an up and down program while competing in the Southern Conference. In fact, the Mocs have been members of the SoCon since 1977. That's 45 years for those who are counting. It was just a year or so ago that the Mocs were approached by the OVC and a couple of FBS leagues. UTC was obviously not interested in breaking from the Southern Conference but to be totally honest, joining a bigger better conference is the only way for the program to grow.
You need to look no further than former UTC foes Appalachian State and Georgia Southern. They were once big rivals and big draws at Finley Stadium. Now, the biggest opponent to enter Finley in 2022 is Mercer or Wofford, the Mocs' season opening opponent on Sept. 3rd.
I've written about this several times before and no one seems to take it seriously. Forty-five years of mediocrity may be enough to satisfy some people, but the majority of Chattanoogans I've spoken with support a move up for the Mocs. In the meantime, Coach Rusty Wright has things moving in the right direction. We are more than lucky to have him at the helm!
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Randy Smith can be reached at rsmithsports@epbfi.com