Randy Smith: Mocs Looking To Soar In 2024

The Chattanooga Mocs' football team was 8-5 in 2023 and 6-2 in the Southern Conference. The Mocs made their first FCS playoff appearance since 2015 and head coach Rusty Wright was awarded with a five-year contract extension. Things are going very well right now for Chattanooga football. The Mocs are also a pre-season top ten team in the FCS polls and they're the consensus choice to win the 2024 SoCon title. If there were ever any questions when Coach Wright was hired in 2018, they've all been answered.

As always the schedule will be tough as the Mocs open the 2024 campaign at Tennessee on Aug. 31. Of course all FCS schools have to play a big money game and every fourth quarter years or so, the Volunteers are signing the huge check. It was just a couple of years ago that the Mocs took Kentucky to the wire in Lexington before the Wildcats pulled it out in the fourth quarter.

It’s been a quiet five-year stretch for Coach Wright. The former linebacker for the Mocs got off to a rocky start in his UTC coaching career…having to deal with Covid in year two. Remember, the SoCon decided to move the 2020 season to the spring then got back on schedule by playing the 2021 campaign in the fall. That’s two dozen football games in eight months. Still, Coach Wright and his team survived and here we are preparing to face the Volunteers in just a few days.

In this day and age teams must deal with the Transfer Portal. Even though you may have several starters returning on both sides of the ball, as the Mocs do, you never know how the newcomers from the portal and the incoming freshman class will change your team’s personality. “No matter how many guys you got coming back, we’re adding more pieces now than we ever have besides the freshmen that you signed,” said Coach Wright.

No matter how enthusiastic people are for Mocs football, the crowds at Finley Stadium never match that enthusiasm. This is a good brand of college football, folks. UTC used to try and schedule their games around Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama but gave that up a few years ago. It just wasn’t working.

The Mocs will be huge underdogs against the 15th ranked Vols in game one, as expected. It would be a big boost for the program if they kept things close against the Big Orange. Regardless, this could be a special season for the Mocs, and Coach Wright deserves it.