2022 Chattanooga Mocs Football
at Illinois – Sept. 22 – Memorial Stadium
Postgame Notes
 
GENERAL
- The 9th-ranked Chattanooga Mocs dropped a 31-0 decision at Illinois on Thursday night in Champaign…Mocs are now 3-1 as are the Illini.
- Entered the game ranked No. 9 in the AFCA FCS Coaches Rankings and No. 10 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25.
- Tied for first in the Southern Conference standings at 1-0 with Mercer and Furman…the winner of Saturday's Western Carolina at Samford contest will make it a quartet at the top of the early standings.
- All-time record of 557-546-35 (.505) in 1,137th game…115th season.
- 3-43 since FBS/FCS split in 1978 vs. FBS teams…prior wins: 9/17/1983: at Louisiana, 38-14; 9/1/1984: Louisiana, 9-7 & 9/7/2013: at Georgia State, 42-14.
- Last win over a Power 5 program? Nov. 8, 1958, 14-6 at Tennessee. Near misses includes at Tennessee (6-10, 1964), Vanderbilt (19-20, 1971), Ole Miss (10-13, 1971), Auburn (7-14, 1972), Vanderbilt (12-14, 1973), Louisville (3-6, 1975), Vanderbilt (29-31, 1980), Vanderbilt (0-7, 1985) & Kentucky (23-28, 2021).
- Back-to-back games with a first meeting against a conference…played Nebraska in 2011 in their final Big 12 season…last week's foe North Alabama is in their first year in the newly-formed Atlantic Sun Conference football group.
 
SERIES
All-Time Meetings: 1
Record: 0-1 | Home: 0-0 | Away: 0-1

• 6-1 against Illinois schools: 4-0 Illinois State & 2-0 Eastern Illinois

 
COACH
Rusty Wright (Chattanooga '96)

• Record: 18-14 | Home: 10-5 | Away: 8-9
• vs. Big Ten: 0-1 | Home: 0-0 | Away: 0-1
• 0-1 vs. Illinois.

 
TEAM
- 3-1 start…there are just six 4-0 openings in program history…1931 (4-0), 1951 (4-0), 1968 (7-0), 1979 (5-0), 2016 (6-0)  & 2018 (4-0).
- Defense has allowed 65 points to start the year, 16.3 ppg…fewest to open a full campaign since 35 in 2016 (Shorter, 66-0; Presbyterian, 34-0; at Furman, 21-14; Samford, 41-21)...fewest against four DI opponents since 33 in 1985 (@Vanderbilt, 0-7; @ETSU, 12-0; Georgia Southern, 14-19; SE Louisiana, 27-7).
- Shutout snapped streak of three straight games with 30 or more points…the last time the Mocs had a streak of four or more 30+ contests was eight to end 2014 season going 7-1 over that span…lone loss was 35-30 at New Hampshire in FCS Quarterfinals…it came after the 45-10 loss at Tennessee.
- 0-2 in the red zone…entered the game a perfect 10-10 on the year with nine TDs and a field goal.
- Fighting Illini was 3-3 inside the red zone…opponents entered at 50 percent when reaching the Mocs 20 going three for six.
- Illinois' touchdown on their opening possession is the first against the Mocs defense this season…it happened only twice last season in Week 3 at Kentucky and Week 11 vs. The Citadel...it was the first score of any kind on any opening possession this year.
- Illinois WR duo of Isaiah Williams (9-103) and Pat Bryant (6-112) are the first opponent duo to post 100-yard games since 2013...it was in the 42-13 win over Georgia State in 2013 (Albert Wilson-132/RObert Davis-100).
 
INDIVIDUAL
- Devonnsha Maxwell's second quarter sack was the 32nd of his career…that puts him alone in second all-time breaking a tie with Chattanooga native Keionta Davis who registered 31.0 in his career.
- D-Max registered 2.0 sacks on the night…8th career multi-sack game...now 4.0 shy of Davis Tull's school and conference record 37.0.
- Ailym Ford's 39-yard run in the second quarter was his second longest against a Power 5 opponent…his long is 48 in the narrow loss at Kentucky last season.
- Ford ended up with 93 yards on 17 carries…2,668 career rushing yards...now 329 yards outside the top 5 behind Derrick Craine '16 with 2,997.
- Ford combined with Gino Appleberry (11-34) for 127 yards on 28 carries for the running back room.
- Reuben Lowery III had six tackles with 0.5 for loss…RL3 has 5.5 TFLs for the season from the slot safety position…that's tied with edge Jay Person for the team lead.
- Gabe Boring had a season-long 65-yard punt in the third quarter…hooked up with his long snapper Cody Olszewski who downed it on the one…three punts inside the 20 tonight and five over the last two weeks.
- Kam Jones had a team-high seven tackles…14 tackles in the two games in Illinois this season.
- Tyron Arnett led the receivers with three catches for 32 yards.
- Jay Gibson's two receptions tonight for 10 yards is his third straight multi-catch game.
 
OPPONENT SCOREBOARD
No other SoCon games tonight