Randy Smith
UTC basketball fans are now faced with getting to know a new men's basketball coach for the third time
in four years, as
on Wednesday Coach Matt McCall was announced as the new head coach at UMass.
McCall was 48-18 in two years as the Mocs' head man. That record includes a school record 29 wins in his first season in 2015-2016. That season the Mocs posted wins over the likes of Georgia, Illinois and Dayton all on the road. UTC was the Southern Conference Champion that year and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Though the 2017 campaign was a nightmare down the stretch for the Mocs, it also included a big win over Tennessee in Knoxville.
Just two years ago, McCall was hired to replace Will Wade who coached here for two years as well, before leaving for Virginia Commonwealth. Wade was recently hired to be the next head coach at LSU after two years coaching the Rams. Now UTC Athletic Director David Blackburn is faced with hiring his fifth head coach in just four years on the job. He also hired Jim Foster as the women's coach at UTC and most recently Tom Arth as the Mocs football coach. That's a lot of major sport head coach hires in a short period of time, which is more common than one would think at the mid-major level.
UTC has long been a stepping stone for coaches to move up the college coaching ladder. Some examples are, in football Joe Morrison to New Mexico, then later South Carolina. Tommy West who was here just one season before leaving for Clemson, and Buddy Green who left UTC in 1998 to become the defensive coordinator at North Carolina State, and later the same position at the Naval Academy. Tom Arth was hired just a few months ago when Coach Russ Huesman left for Richmond.
In basketball, Coach Murray Arnold left in 1985 to take an assistant's position with the NBA Chicago Bulls and after a year was hired as the new head coach at Western Kentucky. Mack McCarthy left after taking the Mocs to the NCAA's "Sweet 16" in 1997 to become the head coach in waiting at Virginia Commonwealth until Sonny Smith retired. On the women's side Jim Foster replaced Wes Moore who left in 2013 to become the new head coach at North Carolina State. Moore by the way is a national Coach of the Year finalist. Will Wade and Matt McCall are just two more in that long line of coaches who cut their teeth in Chattanooga before climbing up the coaching ladder.
I certainly wish the very best for Matt McCall as he begins the next journey in his career at UMass. He left the Mocs' program in great shape for the next guy who comes in., I'm confident of one thing as far as UTC basketball is concerned; AD David Blackburn will make a great hire as the Mocs' new head coach. The man is brilliant when it comes to finding the next young superstar in the coaching ranks and bringing them to Chattanooga. I hope UTC fans are also confident in Blackburn and his choice for the next Mocs' head coach. I also hope the fans and supporters get to know the new guy quickly, because he may not be here very long at all.
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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 30 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.