Mocs Prepare For Their Monster Road Trip to VMI

Chattanooga-(WDEF-TV) Chattanooga Mocs are 0-1 in the Southern Conference, as they head out to V-M-I this weekend.
The Virginia Military Institute might be the last place UTC wants to go in search of their first conference victory.
It’s an arduous road trip to a stadium that’s not exactly modern.

Playing at VMI’s Foster Stadium is apparently like playing at one of college football’s most famous venues.

Said defensive lineman Jamarr Jones:”You know how people talk about the Rose Bowl. How it’s old and traditional. It kind of feels like a mini-Rose Bowl.”

Mocs coach Rusty Wright doesn’t exactly get a Rose Bowl vibe.

Said Wright:”Well the whole corps is there. There’s no lights. So you play every game in the afternoon. It’s always early.”

Said receiver AJ Little:”It’s gray. No lights. It’s a good place to play, but at the same time it’s a love-hate relationship.”

The field at Foster Stadium likely won’t be featured in Better Homes and Gardens.

Said Wright:”It’s grass. It’s a grass field. We don’t have too many of those left. Still has a little bit of a crown on it. Those things are different.”

Mocs basketball coach Dan Earl knows all about the football environment at VMI.
He used to be the Keydets hoops coach before coming to Chattanooga.

Said Earl:”Part of the situation is they give you a place to live right there. If the punter shanked a punt, it would have wound up in my front lawn. I lived there seven years. We were super close. They have the cannon and the Keydets. It’s a cool stadium.”

Cool stadium.
But not a cool trip for Chattanooga.
Roughly 7 hours by bus.

Said Little:”Take my shoes off. Relax with my feet up. Have a neck pillow and blanket. So I’m kind of prepare for the road.”
Said Jones:”Such a long, tiring trip. Sometimes that can get to players. And the hotel for sure. The hotel was really bad last year.”

Reporter:”Does it almost feel like bare-knuckles football just given that old stadium and the Corps and all that?”

Wright:”That’s a good way of looking at it. Yeah. They are. They try to be a physical bunch. We’ve got to be that way on Saturday.”

Kickoff time in Lexington, Virginia, is set for 1:30pm.