Randy Smith
I've never really liked to compare teams from one era to another. It's really not fair to either team, but when I look at the 2016 UTC football team, I see a lot of similarities with the 1998 Tennessee Volunteers. In case you might need to be reminded, those Vols finished 13-0 and won the national championship.
The Tennessee team the year before made a lot of noise, finishing in the top ten, with Heisman runner-up Peyton Manning leading the way.
Manning had led the Vols to an SEC Championship before losing to eventual national champ Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Most Tennessee fans felt when Manning graduated to the NFL, all hopes of a national title went with him. The Vols would be good in 1998; they had a very strong defense, and a good running game, but an untested quarterback in Tee Martin. What transpired that year proves just how well the Vols and Coach Phillip Fulmer had been recruiting.
Fast forward to 2015. The Chattanooga Mocs finished 9-4, but 6-1 in the Southern Conference. They made their second straight trip to the FCS playoffs, beating Fordham in round one, but losing to Jacksonville State in the quarter-finals. Their leader was Jacob Huesman, son of head coach Russ Huesman, and the "Peyton Manning" of Mocs football. Jacob was an all-American and held practically every offensive career and single season record at UTC, and was a three-time SoCon Player of the Year. Huesman is now playing in the Canadian Football League.
Leading the Mocs charge in 2016 is quarterback Alejandro Bennifield, a southpaw who spent the last two seasons backing up Huesman at UTC. He gets his chance at a very good time, as the Mocs have surrounded their quarterback with enough talent to compete for a national crown. The Mocs are currently 4-0 and ranked third nationally; their highest ranking in school history.
Do you see where I'm going with this? A lot of times having the best player in school history doesn't mean you will have the best team in school history. As was the case in 1998 with the Vols and eighteen years later with Chattanooga, the pinnacle of success could come the year following the best player's exit.
As far as the rest of 2016 goes, the Mocs will likely be favored to win the remaining games on their schedule, except for the last one when they face Alabama in Tuscaloosa in the season finale. The toughest game left for the Mocs, other than the Crimson Tide, would be when they play at The Citadel on October 15th. The Bulldogs are currently 3-0 on the year and ranked tenth nationally.
So when the season finally comes to a close, the smoke clears and the Mocs are National FCS Champions, remember where you "heard" it. I'm picking them to win it all. The only thing left, would be for them to draw crowds at Finley Stadium fitting for a national champion. They deserve it.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have five grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, Mattingly, DellaMae, and CoraLee.