Football (Rusty Wright, head coach) – 8-5, 6-2 SoCon/T2nd • NCAA Championships Second Round
• Finished the season ranked No. 14 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 and 17th in the Coaches Poll. It’s the 13th time finishing a campaign ranked nationally and seventh in top 15.
• It’s just the fourth time that the Mocs ended back-to-back season ranked in a national poll.
• Eight wins for the 13th time in school history and the first since 2016 (9-4).
• Six SoCon wins for just the fifth time: 2013 (6-2, T1), 2014 (7-0, 1st), 2015 (6-1, T1) & 2016 (6-2, T2).
• Made 5th FCS Playoffs appearance (1984, 2014, ‘15, ‘16, ‘23): 4-5. Claimed 1st Playoff road win, 24-21 at Austin Peay, on Clayton Crile’s game-winning field goal as time expired.
• Four All-America mentions: Edge Jay Person (1st team), DB Kam Brown (1st), WR Javin Whatley (2nd) and OL Reid Williams (3rd).
• Person repeated as SoCon Defensive Player of the Year. The squad boasted nine All-SoCon selections with four on the first team and five more on the second.
• Seven (QB Chase Artopoeus, P/K Clayton Crile, LS Jake Hall, OL Jeremiah Katt, OL Griffin McDowell, LB Alex Mitchell & OL Reid Williams) earned CSC (formerly CoSIDA) Academic All-District with DB Reuben Lowery III and Williams claiming spots on the FCS ADA Academic All-Star Team.
• The wide receivers room ranked 16th in the country with an 84.5 grade per PFF College. That ranked between LSU (15) and Texas (17) and was fourth among FCS programs behind North Dakota State (3), South Dakota State (5) and South Dakota (T13). They were led by the first trio since 2000 to collect 50 or more receptions in a season: Jamoi Mayes (62), Sam Phillips (60) and Javin Whatley (55).