Mocs End Spring Drills Friday With The Spring Showcase at Finley Stadium
(gomocs.com)
CHATTANOOGA—The Chattanooga Mocs football team entered the final week of spring practice drills Monday morning. The Mocs are completing their 34-day window with the annual Spring Showcase this Friday, March 8, at Finley Stadium.
There are 83 currently on the roster with a solid base of returning starters and key contributors. The staff is also mixing in a strong contingent of transfers and early enrollee freshmen getting their first taste of Chattanooga football.
With the numbers where they are, as well as the ability to start the process early in the semester, the coaching staff was able to bring back an old friend.
“We were looking at some things and decided to bring back some physicality in the early part of practice,” Coach Rusty Wright shared. “That was something we hadn’t done lately because we were trying to figure out who the quarterback was the last two years. But this year, we went back and just brought some physicality to practice, and I think the guys have been good in that regard.”
Getting an early start is beneficial in many ways. The biggest aid is in the case of injuries. A prime example is defensive tackle E.J. Thomas who was injured last spring. He was back for week 4 of the regular season providing a depth boost in the interior line.
It also leads to a focused athletics performance plan when the squad returns from spring break at the conclusion of spring drills as well as beginning the evaluation process for the roster heading into August and the start of fall camp.
“We have we got a long way to go (until August 31),” Wright added. “We need to find some more depth in a couple of spots as we wrap up this next week and look forward to the end of it. But you know, the biggest thing is we brought back the physicality part of it gave ourselves an opportunity.
“I think it’s a good group. We’ll be physical and do some things. It’ll be interesting to see how we finish up. See how these guys, you know, take off into the workouts and how we do this summer.”
The Spring Showcase is free to the public and is slated for 7 p.m., Friday at Finley Stadium.
“The biggest thing is we’ll get over there and get under the lights, and they’ll be in a different atmosphere compared to practice every day,” Wright explained. “I don’t know if we’ll play a game per se as much as we’ll just go out and practice game situations and do those things like we need to and try to get the best matchups we can while trying to create some situations and stuff that we need to continue to work on and kind of go from there.”
