Palpable excitement filled the air this past Tuesday evening at Finley Stadium. As players in various states of undress poured out from a pair of school buses and into the locker room, equipment managers and assistant coaches scurried to set up equipment.
The hits of Drake, Future, and other rap stars began to play from the stadium’s loudspeakers as players, now uniformly outfitted in helmets and shoulder pads, sauntered onto the field.
Though this was only the fourth day of practice for the Chattanooga Mocs football team, today felt a little different.
It was the team’s first practice at the stadium where games are actually played rather than at Scrappy Moore Field.
The Mocs are coming off of a respectable season where they finished with a record of 6-5 and never lost a game by more than ten points. Despite this, the team fell short of the preseason projections to win the Southern Conference and finished 12th in the final FCS rankings. One spot behind rival ETSU.
Once again in 2022 the Mocs find themselves face to face with high expectations. They are the favorite to win their conference for the second consecutive season and have been ranked 12th in the FCS top 25. Coach Rusty Wright did not necessarily anticipate this budding hype, but he welcomes the challenge.
“This group has worked really hard to be really good at a lot of different things and a lot of different aspects of life,” says the signal caller. “The accountability factor with each other, the work they’ve put in, and the effort they’ve shown through their work has really blown me away.”
“It’s a blessing to have the recognition, but if we’re expected to be something then we should be it.” says defensive standout Devonnsha Maxwell. Maxwell emphasized the importance of senior leaders like himself stepping up and making an example when difficulties arise during the season.
This offseason, accountability has been stressed time and again by the upperclassmen leadership and coaches. From little things like picking up trash after workouts or pushing chairs back into their place after watching film, to game shifting mistakes like getting substitutions off the field before the start of the next play.
“This year I feel like a lot of guys have bought in from the time that workouts started. I’m most excited to see how this team gels together.” said longtime Moc McClendon Curtis.
The Chattanooga native is set to anchor an offensive line that produced an NFL first round draft pick in Cole Strange just last year. Curtis showed enthusiasm to be another of the veteran leaders on a team that is showing signs of congealing even after only a handful of time together on the field.
Though there are still many unanswered questions surrounding this Mocs team, they seem to be progressing towards September 3rd and the start of their season with a growing certainty of their team identity.