Bad news for Tennessee Chattanooga

[Skjellyfetti]

Three key members of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team in 2010 won’t be returning this fall, and two of them are gone for good.

Mocs coach Russ Huesman said Monday that wide receiver Brian Sutherland has left UTC for personal reasons and All-Southern Conference defensive end Chris Donald is giving up the game because of recurring wrist problems.

Huesman also announced that he suspended running back Keon Williams for the 2011 season. Williams recently received two years probation after pleading guilty to charges of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

“They’re all good players — good players and good kids,” Huesman said. “Any time you lose anybody, it’s damaging [to the program].”

The small-but-speedy Sutherland — he’s 5-foot-7 with a 4.34 40-yard dash time — transferred to UTC from Miami (Ohio) in 2009. That fall he played in the first two games before abruptly leaving the team and school for personal reasons.

Huesman allowed Sutherland to rejoin the team that spring and last season he had 50 catches for 729 yards. Sutherland also was an effective returner, taking a kickoff back for a 98-yard touchdown against Auburn.

“Brian has decided not to come back to school here and there’s personal issues that I can’t get into,” Huesman said.

Sutherland led the SoCon with 165.7 all-purpose yards a game and just as much, if not more, was expected of him this fall. The Mocs return third-team All-American Joel Bradford and Marlon Anthony, as well as several backups, but the loss of Sutherland could open the door for incoming freshmen Marlandas Crane and Ron Moore.

Donald was a five-star recruit coming out of Huntingdon High School and was rated the No. 1 inside linebacker prospect in the country and the top overall prospect in Tennessee.

He came to UTC in January 2010 after seeing limited action in two seasons at the University of Tennessee. In his only season with the Mocs, Donald led the team with 7.5 sacks, was fourth on the team with 47 tackles and earned second-team All-SoCon honors.

Donald played most of last season with wrist injuries and had surgery each wrist in the offseason. Huesman said Donald’s recovery has been slow and Donald had not even started lifting weights.

“Chris gave four years to football and he’s so banged up — he still can’t do anything — and he’s just too banged up to play,” Huesman said.

Despite the loss of Donald, Huesman said he felt good the Mocs’ defensive ends. Joshua Williams returns for his third season as a starter on the right side and redshirt freshman Davis Tull turned some heads during spring practice. The Mocs also have redshirt freshman Zach Rayl, who moved to end from linebacker this spring, and senior De’Markus Lee.

Huesman met with Williams on Monday and informed the former all-state rusher from Red Bank High School that he will not participate in any football-related activities this fall. Beyond that, Huesman said, it’s up to Williams.

“What we’re going to do is re-evaluate him after the fall, see where he is academically, socially, all aspects of his life,” Huesman said, “and if he does everything he’s supposed to, we’ll bring him back on the football team.”

Along with two years of probation, Williams must serve 10 court-ordered days of public works and submit to regular drug screenings for six months. He may also be facing undisclosed disciplinary action from UTC, Huesman said.

“He’s going to be a busy young man, so he better have his head on right,” Huesman said. “He’s got his work cut out for him. If he’s back on this football team, he came a long way and did a lot of things to get back on it.”

The Mocs report for preseason practice on Aug. 3.

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[SDHornet]

Terrible news. Wasn’t UTC finally turning it around?

[T-Dog]

This was posted on UTC's message board.

"I read these forums every so often but with the release of today's newspaper article I figured the forum would be abuzz. After reading the comments I felt compelled to tell the truth about what's really going on. I'm a current player on the roster. Coach Huessman has run B. Southerland and C. Donald off the team. You will soon learn that DT Nick Craig will also not be returning and that OT Dustin Tate has been deemed ineligible for the fall season. Nick Craig was run off as well. Instead of focusing his concerns on the well-being of the players, Huesmann acts as if his only worries are finances and APR scores. I played under coach Allison. He might not have been a winning coach but he did care about us as people. Huesmann is cold plain and simple. This is starting to become a pattern. Do we forget about DT lanard Carr and backup safety Briant Henry? These aren't just transfer students that are off the team. If my count is correct, that's 7 players with game experience that are no longer with us. I would not be surprises if there was more to come. The Russ Buss seems to be coming to a halt. Frierson is about to have a field day with this one."

AnonMocPlaye

[ODUalum11]

that program seems like its in a real mess right now.

[Tribe4SF]

UTC will be fine. Huessmann is a great coach who is cleaning the place up. If that's really a player commenting, I'd want him off my team as quickly as possible.

[ODUalum11]

UTC will be fine. Huessmann is a great coach who is cleaning the place up. If that's really a player commenting, I'd want him off my team as quickly as possible.

I assume he heard from coaches and the adminstration about that post. I think a post like that doesn't necessarily helps the situation.

[YoUDeeMan]

To back up that former player...it is true that Huesman is running players off if the don't abide to his code. I am a former player and the way Huesman ran his program may have seemed like he is cleaning up and making it better. But like it was said earlier Huesman didn't care bout the players...so many times players played hurt and thru alot of serious injuries. APR is all that matters to him. I can't wait for more and more players to speak up on Russ so yall can see whats really going on. U think all these players just up and left with no problems???it doesn't add up..think about it. To the players still there the best of luck but for Huesman...i hope the truth is exposed.

Gosh, UNKNWN_Fallan, what truth needs to be exposed? You're supposedly smart enough to attend a university, yet you can't explain a single thing that the coach had done that is bad. If anything, you are demonstrating poor communications skills and a cry baby attitude.

Running players off? A coach wants his players to be students who graduate and a couple players don't want to abide by that code? The horror!

[Aho Old Guy]

... APR is all that matters to him... To the players still there the best of luck but for Huesman...i hope the truth is exposed.

The truth?

Multi-year football APR at UTC is 885. Two-year APR is 867 - meaning for those as APR-challenged as you that the multi-year APR will be forced even lower in the next few years.

What this means?

UTC is limited to awarding aid to 68.0 overall counters over the equivalency value of 55.18 financial aid awards (this means you have lost 8 full schollies and based upon the UTC two-year APR you most likely will lose even more).

UTC is limited to 5.0 days of countable activity per week with a total of 16.0 hours. Using that big giant brain of yours, subtract game day activity/hours from that.

UTC had also been banned from Friday practices, but my understanding as of the 9th or 10th week from last Fall, the NCAA determined that sufficient progress had been made, and Friday practices were re-instated.

So ... in summation: The good thing about UTC football and their academic progress in the lowest reported percentile of all NCAA institutions is that they make Georgia Southern in the second lowest reported percentile of all NCAA institutions look good.