Tennessee opens up its highly anticipated 2024 season on Saturday afternoon when it hosts instate FCS foe Chattanooga at Neyland Stadium.
Each week, Rocky Top Insider will take you behind the scenes with a question and answer with a media member who covers Tennessee’s opponent.
To start, the Chattanooga Times Free Press’ Gene Henley talks the internal expectations for the Mocs entering the season, what the roster looks like on both sides of the ball and much more.
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What are the internal expectations for Chattanooga entering the season?
“This team believes it has the tools to compete for a Southern Conference championship and make a deep run in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. And it’s very possible, considering there’s experience returning on every level of both the offense and defense.”
What style of offense does Chattanooga run? Which areas do you expect to be the strengths of the offense?
“The Mocs are very multiple in offense. Typically they go with three receivers, but sometimes they toss in some two TE sets. They return their quarterback from last season in senior Chase Artopoeus, who threw for 2,672 yards and 20 touchdowns in 10 games last year. They’ve also got a pair of talented receivers in preseason All-American Javin Whatley and fellow junior Sam Phillips, who was a Freshman All-American in 2022. The running game lost its primary two ball carriers from last year, but junior Reggie Davis rushed for 97 yards in the playoff win at Austin Peay last year and Justus Durant is an explosive back. I don’t love the depth of the offensive line, but the starting unit should be pretty solid.”
What are supposed to be the strengths and weaknesses of Chattanooga’s defense?
“Typically UTC is built from the front back and that’s pretty much how this team is. The middle of the defense is all returning from last year with preseason All-American Marlon Taylor and Quay Wiggles; linebackers Alex Mitchell and Kobe Joseph; and safeties Jordan Walker and Josh Battle. But they lost an All-American edge rusher in Jay Person; a three-time all-conference edge rusher in Ben Brewton and both starting corners. They’ve got guys, but as of today (Tuesday) I have no clue who is going to start at corner, which isn’t the best spot to be in considering how Tennessee plays.”
What would have to happen for Chattanooga to keep this game competitive into the second half?
“Jeremy Pruitt would have to return. I suffered through 2019 like a lot of your readers.”
Score Prediction
“With it being the season opener, I don’t see UTC trying to play in a way that makes the final more appeasing to its fan base. But I was also there in 2019 when the Vols were an 0-2 team that had suffered frustrating losses to Georgia State and BYU, and yet over 86,000 showed up for that team against UTC. Now there are expectations and what’s expected to be an elite quarterback, so I think Tennessee jumps on the Mocs early and rolls. But this is also a top-10 UTC team with a lot of FBS transfers, and I expect it to make a few plays here and there to make its fanbase optimistic about the rest of the season.
Tennessee 63, Chattanooga 10
