2013 Football, Game 8: The Citadel vs. Chattanooga

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel at Chattanooga, to be played in Chattanooga, Tennessee, at Finley Stadium Davenport Field, with kickoff at 2:00 pm ET on Saturday, October 26. The game can be heard on radio via the thirteen affiliates of The Citadel Sports Network. Danny Reed (the “Voice of the Bulldogs”) will call the action alongside analyst Josh Baker, with Lee Glaze roaming the sidelines.

WQNT-1450 AM [audio link], originating in Charleston, will be the flagship station for the network; the station will have a two-hour pregame show prior to each football game. It is also possible to listen to the game via a smartphone, using a TuneIn Radio application.

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Links of interest:

The Citadel game notes

Chattanooga game notes

SoCon weekly release

Kevin Higgins on the SoCon media teleconference

Russ Huesman on the SoCon media teleconference

Devin Bice says it isn’t time to give up on the season

Jeff Hartsell “crunches the numbers”

Chattanooga’s red zone defense is better than superficial numbers suggest

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Non-football link: my preview of the upcoming season for The Citadel’s basketball team

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There are two schools of thought about how The Citadel should approach the rest of the season, in terms of on-field activity. One is that, with no real chance at the playoffs or a winning campaign, a youth movement should be accelerated.

The coaches, in that scenario, would give lots of playing time to reserves and experiment with some aspects of the offense and/or defense (like moving Ben Dupree to slotback, etc.).

Devin Bice has other ideas, however:

If we look at the rest of the season like it’s spring practice, or whatever people are saying, we will go downhill. If we keep our heads up and work hard, we can still have a winning season and still actually do something this season.

For a lot of us, this is our last time playing football, so we want to do the best we can do.

I can see both sides of the argument, to be honest. Ultimately, though, I want what is best for the program in the long term. If that means playing a lot of younger guys to prepare them for next season, so be it.

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In the italicized blurb that leads off all of my football previews you may have noticed that I referred to Chattanooga’s football facility as “Finley Stadium Davenport Field”. That’s actually the official name, though it is almost universally called “Finley Stadium”.

It seems only fitting that the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga would have such a double-barreled naming setup for one of its sports facilities, given its recent history of confusing nomenclature, from its school name to its sports nickname to its mascot.

Chattanooga? UTC? UT-Chattanooga? Tennessee-Chattanooga? University of Tennessee at Chattanooga? Moccasins? Mocs? Is the mascot a bird, a shoe, or a train?

From the school’s game notes:

On first reference, it is acceptable to refer to us as the “University of Tennessee at Chattanooga”. After that, we prefer to be called “Chattanooga” or “UTC.” Our nickname is “Mocs.”

I guess you can’t call it U.S. Grant University anymore…

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When it comes to describing Chattanooga’s defense, there are no issues. It’s good. Very good.

The Mocs lead the SoCon in total defense, scoring defense, and pass defense. Chattanooga is fourth nationally* in both total and scoring defense.

UTC has a lot of good defensive players, but as Kevin Higgins pointed out this week during the SoCon media teleconference, one key is that the Mocs have a truly outstanding player at each “level” on defense. For the defensive line,  Davis Tull. Among the linebackers, Wes Dothard. In the secondary, safety D.J. Key and cornerback Kadeem Wise.

Tull was the 2012 Defensive Player of the Year in the SoCon and has 6.5 sacks so far this season. Dothard was a first-team all-SoCon pick in both 2011 and 2012 and currently leads the Mocs with 50 tackles.

In last year’s game between Chattanooga and The Citadel, Wise had eight tackles and an interception, resulting in player of the week honors from the conference. Key led the Mocs that day with twelve tackles.

Chattanooga’s red zone defense numbers look bad on the surface. Opponents are 17 for 17 in terms of scoring when in the red zone. However, only eight of those seventeen red zone trips have resulted in touchdowns for opposing teams.

That defensive red zone TD% would rank in the top 20 of FBS, and probably would be at least as good among FCS squads (there is no readily available data to confirm that). In contrast, The Citadel’s defense has allowed touchdowns on 23 of 29 red-zone possessions (the worst percentage in the SoCon).

*Quick tangent: I didn’t realize until reading the SoCon’s weekly release that Georgia Southern and Appalachian State are not listed among FCS programs in the NCAA’s statistics summary. That makes sense, though.

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Chattanooga head coach Russ Huesman made a decision after last season to emphasize running the football in 2013. Early returns have been largely positive.

The Mocs are twelfth in FCS in rushing offense, fourth in the SoCon (behind the three triple option teams). UTC is third in the league in yards per carry and second in third-down conversion percentage.

The bottom line for an offense is scoring points, and UTC is third in the SoCon in scoring offense, averaging just over 31 points per game. Last season, the Mocs averaged 25.5 points per contest. Chattanooga’s yards per play has increased from 5.1 in 2012 to 5.7 this year.

A key factor to the improved running game has been the emergence of Keon Williams.The 6’0″, 225 lb. junior running back is averaging 98.1 yards per game (second in the SoCon), with five 100-yard rushing efforts this season. He’s the bellwether for UTC; in the two games he did not rush for 100 yards (against UT-Martin and Georgia Southern), the Mocs lost.

After a bit of drama last season, Jacob Huesman (son of the head coach) is now firmly established as Chattanooga’s quarterback. He is having a fine season, completing over 67% of his passes with eleven TDs and four interceptions.

He is also a threat on the ground, averaging 79 yards rushing per contest. Huesman had 148 yards rushing against Georgia Southern.

Huesman’s competitor for the starting QB spot last year, Terrell “Silk” Robinson, is playing receiver while also listed on UTC’s depth chart as the backup QB. In 2012, Robinson caught 40 passes, including five touchdowns. Against The Citadel at Johnson Hagood Stadium, he rushed for a touchdown and also threw a TD pass.

Robinson has not had as big an impact so far this season, with eighteen receptions in six games (eight of his catches came against Western Carolina). UTC has two players with nineteen receptions, and tight end Faysal Shafaat has seventeen. Shafaat and backup wideout Marquis Green have combined to catch seven TD passes.

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Starting cornerback Chaz Moore is also UTC’s primary kick returner, and he is currently sixth in the FCS with a return average of over 30 yards. Moore had an 81-yard KO return versus Western Carolina. Tommy Hudson is the Mocs’ punt returner and is averaging an impressive 9.5 yards per return.

Nick Pollard handles the placekicking and punting duties for Chattanooga. He is 3 for 4 on field goal attempts (with a long of 35), and is averaging 40.6 yards per punt. Nine of his twenty-five punts have landed inside the 20-yard line.

UTC’s kickoff coverage unit is slightly below average.

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Odds and ends:

– The Citadel’s players did a variety of things during the bye week. Some left campus for the first time since August, according to Kevin Higgins (we’ll excuse the coach for forgetting about the Bulldogs’ three road games).

During the SoCon teleconference, Higgins also mentioned that the coaches were focused on “changing tendencies” and trying to get the team to “execute better” on both sides of the ball, including making sure players “finish blocks” and tackle by “wrapping up”.

– Jeff Hartsell focused on a few statistics in a column that I linked earlier. Just to follow up on his comments about the offense’s struggles converting third downs, last year The Citadel averaged 5.2 third-and-long plays per game (third-and-long being defined as third and five or more yards to go for a first down).

This year, the Bulldogs are averaging 8.9 third-and-long plays per contest. That’s a significant difference.

– If Chattanooga wins on Saturday, it will be its 500th all-time football victory. UTC’s most common opponent over the years has been The Citadel, oddly enough. The schools have met on the gridiron 46 times.

The Citadel has faced six opponents more than 46 times: Davidson, Furman, Presbyterian, South Carolina, VMI, and Wofford.

– Per at least one source, Chattanooga is a 14-point favorite over The Citadel. The over/under is 51.5, which is basically what you would get if you averaged total scoring per game for each team.

– Russ Huesman says that The Citadel is “the best 2-5 team in the country, bar none.”

I would much rather be the worst 7-0 team in the country…

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To me, there are two questions that stand out about this game:

1) How motivated will The Citadel be? Will the team come off its bye week ready to make a statement over the second half of the season, or will we see a repeat of the general malaise that has defined the campaign so far?

There are still several games that the Bulldogs are capable of winning. I’m counting the one coming up on Saturday as one of them. Does the team have that type of mindset?

2) Just how good is Chattanooga?

The Mocs are 5-2, losing to UT-Martin and Georgia Southern. Both the Skyhawks and Eagles are good teams, with a combined eight wins between them.

UTC’s five wins have come versus teams with a combined record against Division 1 opponents of 4-31. Furman is responsible for three of those wins. The other D1 win in the group is Elon’s victory over…Furman.

Put it this way: the best win any of Chattanooga’s opponents has all season is Furman’s win over The Citadel.

That doesn’t mean the Mocs aren’t good. It does explain why a 5-2 SoCon team isn’t ranked, and why the jury is still out on this Chattanooga team.

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After this game, we’ll probably have a good idea how the season will wind down. An indifferent performance will not go over well with the fan base, particularly with Homecoming looming.

Plenty of alums will be arriving in Charleston in a week’s time, and a lot of them will be asking why a potential playoff team hasn’t been winning. Some of those conversations might be rather direct.

If the team plays well in Chattanooga on Saturday, it will help keep things relatively calm. It won’t stop the questions, but the questions will be more politely phrased.

Here’s hoping for civility…

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Football, Game 6: The Citadel vs. Chattanooga

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

I’ll begin this post with what may become an annual riff on UTC nomenclature.  As I noted last year, trying to determine what to call the athletic teams of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga isn’t the simplest thing in the world to do:

Recently the school began using a ‘C’ mark, for “Chattanooga”.  The university’s teams have variously been referred to over the years as “UT-Chattanooga”, “Tennessee-Chattanooga”, “UTC”, and “Chattanooga”.

The nickname/mascot history is even more tangled.  A “moccasin” used to be a snake, then a shoe, then a cartoon Cherokee Indian called ‘Chief Moccanooga’, and now a mockingbird train conductor (and “moccasin” has morphed into “moc”, for mockingbird).

There is an explanatory page on the school’s website detailing some of the nickname history.

I’ve actually made a change from last year in how I am referring to the school.  While the school itself is still called the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, it is now consistently calling its athletic teams “Chattanooga” while still using the “UTC” acronym.  Therefore, I’ll drop the “UT-Chattanooga” usage.

Irrelevant but semi-interesting:  while surfing UTC’s website (the main one, not the athletics site) I found out that UTC was actually a private school until 1969, when it merged with the University of Tennessee.  Between 1889 and 1907, it was called U.S. Grant University.

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Both UTC and The Citadel have had football programs that have been in the doldrums for a decade or more.  However, the Mocs appear poised to finally move up the ladder in the Southern Conference, under the direction of Russ Huesman.  Huesman inherited a program that had gone 1-11 in the year before he arrived.  In 2009, his first year at the helm, the Mocs improved to 6-5.

This season Chattanooga is 2-2, after losing its first two games to Appalachian State and Jacksonville State, both currently ranked in the FCS Top 5.  The Mocs rebounded with victories over Eastern Kentucky and Western Carolina, the latter game played in Cullowhee.

Those two losses may have excited the UTC fan base more than the two wins, as both were close games against quality opponents.  Chattanooga led Appalachian State 28-7 at halftime before the Mountaineers scored 28 fourth-quarter points to take a 7-point lead.  The Mocs scored what would have been the tying touchdown with under a minute to play, but Huesman elected to go for two.  It didn’t work, and Appalachian State escaped Finley Stadium with a victory.

Chattanooga also led Jacksonville State 17-7 entering the fourth quarter, only for the Gamecocks to respond with 14 fourth-quarter points.  JSU’s game-winning TD came on a 72-yard pass play with 1:16 remaining.  That game, played in Alabama, came one week after Jacksonville State’s stunning win over Mississippi.

UTC’s 42-24 victory over EKU included 548 yards of total offense, including 375 yards passing (4 TDs) from B.J. Coleman and 122 yards rushing from Erroll Wynn.

Against Western Carolina, the Mocs turned the ball over four times, one of those being a fumble returned for a touchdown (Chattanooga lost three fumbles overall).  UTC was also burned by a wide receiver pass for a TD, but prevailed 27-21 in part because the Mocs D forced four turnovers of its own.

Speaking of Coleman (a transfer from Tennessee), you may remember him from last year’s game, in which The Citadel blew a 15-point lead.  During the UTC rally, the Mocs went to a no-huddle offense, and the Bulldogs never stopped it, despite the fact Chattanooga could not run the ball.  Coleman somehow threw 61 passes without being sacked, and was only “hurried” once.

Obviously, The Citadel has to turn that around on Saturday, but it won’t be easy.  For one thing, UTC appears to actually have a running game now, with senior Erroll Wynn averaging exactly 100 yards per game in three games (he didn’t play against App State).  That should take a lot of pressure off Coleman, who is averaging almost nine yards per pass attempt and has thrown 10 TD passes (against only 3 interceptions).

Chattanooga doesn’t seem to be missing Coleman’s main target from last season, Blue Cooper, all that much, as Joel Bradford has already caught 30 passes and is averaging over 126 yards receiving per game (nearly 17 yards per reception). Bradford is also a fine punt returner.

Other than the fourth-quarter problems against Appy and JSU, the Mocs D has played well, holding both EKU and WCU to less than 60 yards rushing and forcing eleven turnovers in its last three games, including nine interceptions.  Four of the picks were made by freshman Kadeem Wise.

Defensive end Chris Donald is another Tennessee transfer making an impact for the Mocs.  He has 4.5 sacks so far this season.  UTC is currently ninth in the country against the run.  One reason for that is linebacker Ryan Consiglio, who is averaging almost eleven tackles per game.

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You may have seen Jeff Hartsell’s breakdown of The Citadel’s recent recruiting classes on “Bulldog Bites”.  Just for comparison, here is the two-deep from The Citadel’s playoff game against North Carolina A&T in 1992.  I could be wrong about a couple of these guys, but I should have most of this right.  The number by a player’s name is the year he entered The Citadel (for instance, Jack Douglas entered in the fall of 1988, hence “88”).

QB — Jack Douglas (88) and CJ Haynes (90)

FB — Everette Sands (89) and Travis Jervey (91)

LHB — Erick Little (90) and Terrance Rivers (90)

RHB — Cedric Sims (89) and Undra Mitchem (90)

TE — Marty Fagan (88) and Greg Perry (89, and originally a walk-on)

WR — Cornell Caldwell (89) and Damond Boatwright (90)

LT — David Morelli (88) and Doug Cobarras (89)

LG — Shayne Stephens (89) and Levi Davis (90)

C — Brett Copeland (88) and Bart Hearn (91 walk-on, I think)

RG — Lance Hansen (88) and Scott Reagan (89)

RT — Carey Cash (88) and Mike Wilkerson (91)

PK — Jeff Trinh (91)

DE — Garrett Sizer (89) and Ed McFarland (89, and originally a walk-on)

DE — Judson Boehmer (89) and Brad Keeney (92)

RT — LaQuincy Powell  (89, and yet another walk-on from that class), Todd Lair (91, maybe a walkon; not sure)

LT — Jake Erhard (89) and Lenny Clark (91)

LB — Micah Young (91) and Jim Wilson (88)

LB — Rob Briggs (89) and Tracey Gamble (90)

LB — Mike Wideman (89) and Kendall McKnight (90)

LCB — Torrency Forney (89) and Chauncey Chappelle (92)

RCB — Detric Cummings (90) and Corey Gay (90)

SS — Dan Johnson (89) and Ahren Self (91)

FS — Lester Smith (88) and Speizio Stowers (89)

P — Eric Willingham (88)

The return specialists were all part of the offense-defense two-deep.  Sizer was the long snapper.

46 players —

9 fifth-year seniors (including Douglas, Smith, and Cash)

17 players from the ’89 recruiting class, including three walk-ons

10 from the ’90 recruiting class

8 from the ’91 recruiting class

2 “true” freshmen

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One quick note on the above:  the 1991 recruiting class was actually rather thin; only two other scholarship members of that class would contribute in future seasons. Whether that “lost class” was a key factor in the eventual decline in The Citadel’s gridiron fortunes is hard to say, although it certainly didn’t help.

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I had plenty to say about the loss to Western Carolina last week, and about some things that rather obviously need to improve.  I’ll add a little to what I already mentioned, and note a couple of other things:

— I was glad to see that Kevin Higgins acknowledged the poor play of the secondary against WCU (you can read about his press conference here and here).  Watching the lack of ball awareness was excruciating.

— He also addressed game-planning for opposing defenses, explaining what he feels the issues are.  I suspect that this wouldn’t be as big a problem if the Bulldogs were in Year 3 or Year 4 of the triple option.

Teams that have run an option attack for a long time, like Navy or Air Force or Wofford, generally force the opponents to adjust to them, not the other way around.  That’s because their players have been in the system long enough to recognize different defensive looks, and understand basically (if not always specifically) what each person’s job is when facing a certain setup.

Having said that, I was a little concerned that Higgins seemed confident in what Russ Huesman’s defense will probably do on Saturday.  He’s basing that on what Huesman has done in the past against the option, but the Mocs have had a week off and presumably a lot more time to put in new things.  What if UTC comes out in a defensive formation for which the Bulldogs aren’t prepared?  Another lost half for The Citadel’s offense?

— Amidst all the talk about changing quarterbacks, his decision to change placekickers has seemingly gone under the radar.

— About those quarterbacks…

I’ll be honest.  I don’t care which quarterback starts.  If Higgins thinks Sam Martin starting might jump-start the team in the opening quarter, then by all means run him out there.  The bottom line is that both Martin and Matt Thompson are going to play, and they’re both going to play about the same number of plays — at least, that’s the plan.

Martin has looked more comfortable in the offense than Thompson, but he hasn’t been that much better.  We’re not talking about the second coming of a healthy Jamelle Holieway here.  At this point, we don’t know if we’re talking about the second coming of a healthy Brendan Potts (which would be okay by me).

Neither Martin nor Thompson has mastered the center/QB exchange (to be fair, neither have the centers).  Thompson seems to still struggle with the “mesh”, and should also heed the advice of John Wooden — be quick but don’t hurry.  However, he’s a true freshman with some obvious talent, and he deserves a chance to show what he can do (as does Martin).  This is, as I’ve said before, a transition season, although not everyone seems to understand that.

While leaving the stadium on Saturday after the WCU game, I overheard a Bulldog fan say, in a non-ironic way, that the loss to the Catamounts meant “we won’t go to the playoffs now.”  You don’t say…

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One thing both quarterbacks must improve (and for that matter, their receiving corps): the Bulldogs currently have a pass completion rate of 35.4%.  While The Citadel doesn’t throw the ball a lot in this offense, it has to do better than that.  Completing less than 36% of your pass attempts is just horrendous.  If that percentage holds up, it would be the lowest completion percentage for a Bulldog squad since 1965.  Care to guess how many games that 1965 team won?

Two.

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The Bulldogs will be Underdogs on Saturday, and deservedly so.  However, I’ll close this post by pointing out that there is hope for the game against UTC:

1)  Chattanooga, while improved, hasn’t really proven that it’s made a move to the next level in the Southern Conference, at least not yet.  Those two games against Appalachian State and Jacksonville State were both impressive in a lot of ways, but they were also both losses.  Last year The Citadel also lost a close game to Appalachian State at home, in overtime.  It did not lead to a winning season.

I’m not quite ready to buy stock in a team which to this point in the season has only beaten Eastern Kentucky (which has just one win on the season) and Western Carolina.

2)  The Bulldog offense may continue to struggle, but I find it hard to believe that the defense (particularly the DBs) will have two consecutive clunkers.  I think there is a lot of talent on that side of the ball, and sometime (hopefully soon) it will begin to show. Also, there is something to be said for regression to the mean.

We’ll find out Saturday.

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