The Times Free Press is taking a positional look at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football roster with the Mocs' season set to kick off in less than two months on Sept. 2 at North Alabama.
Here's a look at the linebackers.
Who's gone: Ty Boeck (four-time All-Southern Conference selection; twice on first team, twice on second team) and Kam Jones (27 career starts) graduated, while Justin Sanders left the team.
Who's back: Junior Bo Spearman (15 tackles in 2022); sophomore Alex Mitchell (16 tackles, 1 tackle for loss); redshirt freshmen Connor Delashmitt and Kendall Jackson.
Who's in: Senior Kobe Joseph (transfer from Harvard); junior Kameron Brown (transfer from Auburn); freshman Zion Rutledge.
Analysis: From a name perspective, it appears the Mocs lost everything at the position with the exits of Boeck and Jones, the team's starters at linebacker the past three seasons. But the Mocs are going to be better at linebacker than most would expect given the losses, because guys like Mitchell and Spearman gained tons of experience due to the coaching staff's four-player rotation in the middle. The two are going to be vastly different early in the season, but each had solid moments a year ago.
The players at this position are usually the primary tacklers in UTC's defensive scheme -- the Mocs have had an All-SoCon linebacker every year under head coach Rusty Wright and defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward, who have been in place since 2019 -- so the standard is high. Mitchell and Spearman have performed well enough to make it believable that nothing will change in that regard, but if not, the Mocs feel pretty good about the depth accumulated through the transfer portal with the additions of Brown and Joseph as well as Rutledge, the defensive player of the year for Cobb County, Georgia, as a Hillgrove High School senior last fall and a state champion wrestler as a junior.
Contact Gene Henley at [email protected].