After a bye week, The Citadel ready to face nationally ranked SoCon opponent

If The Citadel coach Maurice Drayton had his druthers, the Bulldogs would have played this past weekend and not taken their bye week.

The Bulldogs were coming off back-to-back victories for the first time since 2022, including a convincing 28-11 win over Samford .

The Citadels defense had been dominant in the two wins, the Bulldogs were relatively healthy and had all the momentum heading into the final three games of the season.

All that didnt matter as the Bulldogs game against Chattanooga would have to wait another week.

The Bulldogs will take on FCS No.

23 Chattanooga in the final home game of the season for the Bulldogs at 2 p.m.

Saturday at Johnson Hagood Stadium.

I would have preferred to have played last weekend, Drayton told the media on Nov.

4.

We had all the momentum going in our favor.

Things were going good for us, we were playing with a lot of confidence, but wed played nine weeks in a row and probably needed a little break to rest and be fresh for what were going to face over the next three weeks.

The Citadel defense grounds Samford's 'Air Raid' offense in victory Drayton and his coaching staff spent most of the week reviewing video from the previous nine games and working on the game plan for the Mocs.

You want to take that time and do a lot of self-evaluation, Drayton said.

We did a good bit of self-scouting and a lot of percentage-based research to try and take a look at some things were going on both sides of the ball.

There are some things we wanted to tweak for what were going to be doing over the final three games of the season.

We spent about 20 minutes during each practice putting in our game plan for Chattanooga.

With NIL, the transfer portal and collectives, The Citadel athletics department is at a crossroads Meanwhile, Chattanooga is coming off a 38-34 loss to No.

22 Western Carolina.

Chattanooga quarterback Chase Artopoeus, a transfer from UCLA, missed the game with a shoulder injury.

Chattanooga started sophomore Luke Schomburg, who threw for 314 yards but had three interceptions in the loss to the Catamounts.

We expect that Artopoeus will be back out there on Saturday, Drayton said.

Citadel AD Mike Capaccio announces retirement How does a college football coach spend a Saturday in the fall when his team isnt on the field? Drayton spent most of his weekend watching the other football soccer as his daughter, MaKena, plays for Charleston Soccer Club and Cane Bay High School.

I had a lot of opportunities to watch my daughter play soccer, and thats normally something I dont get to do this time of year, Drayton said.

I got to be Daddy this weekend, which was nice.

Drayton, who can become animated on the sidelines, said he tries his best to remain as calm as possible when watching his daughter play.

Im very quiet in the stands, Drayton said.

I never want to be one of those parents.

I dont say much.

I watch and make comments to myself.

Ill take notes, and when shes ready to talk about it, well talk.

At The Citadel, active duty Marine living a football dream I learned my lesson a while ago about talking about the match right after the game is over.

Shes a feisty one, and she doesnt like losing.

Drayton did get a chance to spend some time on the couch watching some American football as well.

Watched pretty much all of the NFL games, especially the ones where I have friends that are still coaching, said Drayton, who coached in the NFL with Green Bay, Las Vegas and Indianapolis.

Watched Clemson and South Carolina play and really enjoyed watching South Carolina State get a win over North Carolina Central.

It was a great weekend to be a football fan.

The Las Vegas Raiders fired offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, offensive line coach James Cregg and quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello on Monday.

Drayton worked for the Raiders during the 2022 season as a special teams assistant coach.

This is a brutal business, Drayton said.

Any time you have friends lose their jobs, it hurts.

This is how we feed our families..

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