Chattanooga Mocs football has a first year tight ends coach in Wesley Satterfield, but the former all-state quarterback from Trousdale County is far from a new face to the sport in Tennessee.

A third generation coach in the Volunteer State, Satterfield follows in the footsteps of his father, Clint, and his grandfather, Jim.

Clint led Trousdale County High School (Hartsville, Tenn.) to 260 wins and five 1A state championships between 1990 and 2005. Jim started coaching at Hartsville HS in 1955, won a state crown in 1972 with state runner-up finishes in 1973-74-75

Friday was the start of Mocs practice for the 2012 season and Satterfield is excited about the talent and depth at the tight end position

“We have a good group of tight ends here at UTC and they will be valuable in the blocking scheme as well as in our passing game,” said Satterfield who is not related to Mocs offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield.

Returning starter Faysal Shafaat earned Southern Conference All-Freshman Team in 2011 with 19 catches for 179 yards and two touchdowns.

At 6-5, 240, Shafaat (sha-FAHT) presents a good target for Mocs quarterbacks Terrell Robinson and Jacob Huesman and looks to improve on his numbers from a year ago.

Four other tight ends on the depth chart also have good size; returners Sean Stackhouse (6-4, 250 Sr.) and Jarrod Coleman (6-4, 240, RS Fr.) and freshman Kevin Niethammer (6-3, 215) and Troy Dye (6-3, 245).

Stackhouse was used mainly on special teams in 2011, while Coleman was red-shirted and both made the SoCon Honor Roll with a 3.0+ GPA.

“Wesley is a bright young coach and we know that he will work well with our tight ends,” said UTC head coach Russ Huesman.

“Overall I would say our first day of practice was average, but our tight ends had a really good day running correct routes and catching the ball which is encouraging.”

Satterfield was successful as a runner and passer in high school and college and that background will be beneficial as the tight ends will be incorporated into the UTC pro spread offense for 2012.

College QB Stats: At Sewanee (NCAA D-III), he ran for 2,500 career yards and passed for another 4,000 with a combined 47 touchdowns.

In addition to his coaching tight ends, Satterfield will also work with special teams in the kicking game.

“I kicked in high school and punted in college (Univ. of the South) and also was the holder in college on extra points and field goals and kicked off,” stated Satterfield who majored in history at Sewanee and was tri-conference player of the year as a junior in 2005.

Satterfield brings a good knowledge of D-I college coaching experience to the Mocs program as he spent three years at North Carolina, followed by the past two falls at Ohio State.

“I learned a lot about coaching at the college level at both UNC and Ohio State and that experience at the highest level of college football will help me in coaching the tight ends at UTC,” said Satterfield who played for his dad a decade ago and led the Yellow Jackets to a pair of state semifinal appearances.

“My background as a kicker was key to my getting the graduate assistant’s job at Ohio State the past two seasons.”

Football Mania: “Football is big at UNC and Saturday’s in the fall at Chapel Hill are great, but football is king in Columbus, Ohio,” said Satterfield with a smile.

“Ohio State is one of the top five or six programs in the nation and with 100,000 strong cheering on the Buckeyes every Saturday and the band spelling out script Ohio and the drum major dotting the “i”, Ohio Stadium is quite an amazing place to be in the fall.”

Satterfield looks to add his football knowledge to the Mocs pro style offense and help make Finley Stadium an amazing place to be on Saturday’s in the Southern Conference.

 contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net