Its first foray to California produced big results — five junior college signees, including a couple of potential starters — and now the the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is back for more.

Defensive line coach Fred Tate arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday and today will attend the JCFootball.com Southern California unsigned sophomore combine at Cerritos College. His primary objective is offensive and defensive linemen, Mocs coach Rodney Allison said.

“We would take (an offensive) lineman. That would probably be our No. 1 objective,” Allison said. “Then 1A would be we’d still take another defensive lineman. We’d probably still take another inside or outside linebacker and maybe another safety.”

The Mocs went through spring practice with just five healthy offensive linemen. They’ll get a starter back for the 2008 season when William Giles returns following a severe thumb injury, and they have four freshman signees coming in, including the Northwest Whitfield duo of Adam Miller and Dustin Tate.

Recruiting coordinator Jason McManus, who will attend the Northern California combine at Chabot College in Hayward (near San Francisco) on May 16, said neither he nor Tate knows what to expect from the combines. Most of the better players, and better students, have already signed by now, McManus said, so there’s no guarantee that the trip will yield results.

“Anybody that we see that we like, we’re going to have to research these guys because there’s probably a reason they’re unsigned,” McManus said Wednesday. “It’s going to be slim pickings at a lot of positions, and the chances of finding a quality player are probably 50-50.”

Several of UTC’s assistants were on the road recruiting this week, looking for players who might be able to help the Mocs this season and for the following signing class. McManus and Tate were in Mississippi, a state that’s been plucked clean of quality junior college players, McManus said. While Tate headed to California on Thursday, McManus paid a visit to Georgia Military College.

“There’s nothing left in Mississippi (for next season),” he said, which makes the two trips to California that much more important because the Mocs must build their depth in the lines. “But we’re already recruiting for the year after that as well.”

Camacho gets arena tryout

Former UTC safety Chris Camacho, who was sixth in the country in tackles per game last season, is still hoping to sign with an NFL team. That hasn’t happened yet, for him or any other UTC players this spring, but Camacho said he does have a two-day tryout lined up for later this month with the San Jose Sabercats of the Arena Football League.

He said it appears he also might get a chance to try out for the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League.

“We’ll see what happens,” Camacho said. “If it doesn’t work out, I’m OK with that. I’m close to my degree in criminal justice, and I’ll finish school and then head out into the real world.”

Comments