Chattanooga knew the challenge that awaited it walking into Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.

Alabama (10-1, 7-0 SEC) was the “hottest football team in the country,” according to Mocs head coach Rusty Wright. The Tide had 134 players suited up for senior day compared to the 62 available on the visiting sideline. The economics of college football clearly displayed in front of tens of thousands of cheering fans.

As Wright said postgame, the outcome was never in doubt. But Chattanooga could’ve done a little bit more to keep it closer than the 66-10 final on the scoreboard reflected.

“Ain’t got a lot to say. We got our ass kicked,” Wright said to start his postgame recap. ” … Knew it was gonna be a challenge. We can’t throw interceptions. We can’t let them return punts. We can’t do things that we can control that could make life, never would’ve changed the outcome but we could’ve done things better. That was the goal today.

“We could have been a little smarter as coaches at times, in some situations, and some things, and we weren’t. We were stupid. And it’s plain and simple. We were about as stupid as you can be in some situations.”

To be clear, Wright wasn’t upset with his team’s effort. The Mocs went down 21 points early, amassing just 13 total yards in the first quarter, but responded with a more competitive second frame (they produced 90 yards to Alabama’s 134). Ultimately, Chattanooga couldn’t match up with Alabama’s Jermaine Burton on the boundary or the five UA ball-carriers with at least 40 rushing yards.

The bright spots came in bursts. Jay Person recorded the game’s only sack against Jalen Milroe. Gino Appleberry busted through Alabama’s defense with a 40-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Appleberry, a senior from Atlanta, ran it 22 times for 104 yards. He became the first FCS running back in 20 years to reach triple-digit rushing yards against UA.

“Did a pretty decent job of upfront at times, put pads on pads and he ran hard, he ran physical,” Wright said of Appleberry.” … I’m happy for him. Happy he had that opportunity. Doesn’t surprise me, not really. Wouldn’t have expected anything less, honestly.”

Redshirt freshman quarterback Luke Schomburg, a native of Huntsville, made his first career start. He completed 10-of-21 passes for 107 yards and an interception thrown to Kristian Story. Schomburg was able to catch Alabama sleeping once, however, hitting Javin Whatley for a short pass that went 54 yards into Alabama’s red zone. The breakdowns led to Nick Saban keeping the starting defense on the field into the third quarter before letting underclassmen gain experience.

“Chattanooga got better today because of (Schomburg),” Wright said. “That young man can go out there and play against that? I know he wasn’t perfect, and didn’t get a whole lot of help.

“I mean, that group played. They showed up all year. Not always been perfect. Not always been pretty, but that comes back on us as coaches. But that group played their tails off. They’ll fight. I hope they get an opportunity to fight one more time.”

The Mocs fell to 7-4 and are 6-2 in the Southern Conference. Chattanooga will need to be an at-large selection to the FCS playoff bracket. NCAA.com’s latest projections listed Chattanooga among the first teams out.

The Crimson Tide will travel to Auburn for next weekend’s Iron Bowl before facing Georgia in the SEC Championship.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].