John Frierson is the go-to guy for news about Moc Football. He's the UTC beat 'n blog writer for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, and fielded our questions about what to expect Saturday night.
Tell us about Tony Pastore, tabbed as the Mocs starting QB Saturday night. Pocket passer, or a guy with mobility?
Tony's a pocket guy, but Jare Gault, who started the first two games and is more of a scrambler, will play a fair amount, as well. Both have strong arms, but Pastore (15 of 27, 320 yds. last game) has been with the program for two years and knows the system a lot better than Gault, a junior college transfer (East Mississippi CC).
Has Tony come of age football-wise after a shaky start last year?
That remains to be seen. Making good throws and good decisions against a mediocre NAIA team like Cumberland, when you're not even close to getting sacked, is much, much different than doing it against Oklahoma or Florida State or Appalachian State. If nothing else, Tony's confidence is a lot better than it was a year ago.
Coach Allison is eager to get the run game cranked. Will we see a more balanced attack, or will the Mocs come out throwing?
I think the Mocs will try for balance, but you can probably expect a lot of runs as UTC tries to keep the clock moving. That's what allowed the Mocs to stay close against Arkansas last season (won by Arkansas, 34-15).
With three INTs and a blocked punt, has the Moc defense improved from game one?
The defense sure looked a lot better, but there's no way to compare the two performances since one was against a team that could win a national title and the other was against an NAIA team that won three games last season. But any time you're forcing turnovers, that's a good thing.
Is the team now fired-up and more confident after the win, believing they can make a statement against FSU?
The Mocs definitely feel better about themselves after having been productive on offense and defense against Cumberland. But they know Cumberland is Cumberland and Florida State is Florida State and nobody will ever confuse the former for the latter.
Still, my perception is that while ideally they would love to come in and pull off the upset, more realistically they're hoping that Saturday's game is competitive, at least for a while, which their game at Oklahoma never was.
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