Outmanned Mocs put up fight to end
Posted on Sunday, October 7, 2007
Tennessee-Chattanooga’s players had no doubt how Arkansas approached Saturday night’s game.
“They overlooked us,” junior tailback Erroll Wynn said.
“I know they took us lightly,” senior safety Chris Camacho said. “If you look at a our record, we lost to a Division II school [Carson-Newman ], but I think we showed them we can play.”
Chattanooga, a member of the Football Championship Subdivision formerly known as Division I-AA, made the defending SEC West champion Razorbacks work much longer and harder than expected for their 34-15 victory at War Memorial Stadium.
“They came out here and found out they were in a ballgame and had to play until the end,” said Fitzgerald, who rushed 14 times for 123 yards. “They’re pretty good, but they put on their pants just like us and we work hard every day.”
Chattanooga received a $ 325, 000 guarantee.
“We didn’t want to just be a paycheck,” said Camacho, who had 18 tackles.
Fitzgerald’s 65-yard touchdown run up the middle, on which he jumped over a tackle attempt by cornerback Jerell Norton and juked free safety Kevin Woods, pulled the Mocs within 24-15 with 1: 49 left in the third quarter.
“That felt really good,” Fitzgerald said. “I’ve been thinking about this the whole year, doing something good against Arkansas.”
Chattanooga Coach Rodney Allison decided to go for a two-point conversion after Fitzgerald’s touchdown run to make it a seven-point game, but a pass attempt failed.
“I shouldn’t have done that. It was mistake because it didn’t work,” Allison said. “But my thinking was if something crazy does happen and we score another touchdown, I was going for two to win the game. I wasn’t going to overtime.
“ If we were fortunate enough to score another touchdown, we were going to try and win the game.”
The fact Allison and the Mocs (1-4 ) could think in those terms late in the third quarter was a testament to the game’s competitiveness.
“I thought we gave ourselves a chance to compete with them by running the football,” Allison said. “That gave us our best chance to make plays. We just couldn’t make quite enough.”
Led by Fitzgerald, the Mocs rushed for 161 yards on 41 attempts, but senior quarterback Antonio Miller completed only 4 of 22 passes for 11 yards, though he connected with fullback Brent Hayes on a 4-yard touchdown pass.
“The [difference in ] athletic ability really showed more at those particular positions than anywhere else on the field,” Allison said of Chattanooga’s receivers against Arkansas ’ defensive backs. ”They pressed us in man coverage, and we just couldn’t handle it. ”
Camacho smiled when he learned the Mocs held Arkansas All-America tailback Darren McFadden to a seasonlow 122 rushing yards, which kept McFadden 32 yards shy of setting the Razorbacks’ career record.
“We’ll always remember playing against him and that he didn’t get the record against us,” Camacho said. “We tried to keep him inside and not let him get outside.”
Chattanooga took a 2-0 lead on the game’s first play when Brandon Golder tackled Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick in the end zone for a safety when he failed to handle a snap from center Jonathan Luigs.
“When we scored on the first play of the game, it was like, ‘Wow ! We can make a run for it,’” Camacho said. “That was wonderful to get points on the board right away. We needed that boost to quiet down a big crowd.”
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