I posted this in another thread. One of the posters thought it would be best for it to have it's own thread, so I am pasting it in a new thread. It was a response to a LSU fan asking information about the Blue Raiders. Thanks for the welcome. I'll do my best to answer your questions and hopefully you won't consider this post too long. I have actually attended both of our first games and I am the publisher of the Blue Raider Scout site, www.BlueRaiderZone.com, so I have some knowledge, but I certainly don't have all the answers. First of all, a lot of people don't know this, but Middle Tennessee has the largest undergrad enrollment in the state of Tennessee. Yes, even more than our Orange wearing neighbors in Knoxville. I wish I had the answer about the huge turnaround from game one to game two. We also accomplished it on a short week. To me that's nothing more than amazing. Last year we were co-champions of the Sun Belt based on a very conservative offense and a dominating defense. Our defense was supposed to be our strength again this year, but so far that hasn't happened. We tried the same style of play in our first game. Unfortunately, due to a couple of mishaps Florida Atlantic had 3 possessions before we ever touched the ball. After holding them to 3 and out they had to punt. It was a very bad punt, but it hit one of our players and FAU recovered. They ended up scoring. We then fumbled the ensuing kickoff. I think a combination of being on the field too long in the 1st quarter and the Florida heat/humidity really hurt us in that game. We appeared to have a different game plan against Louisville. We went to more of a spread offense. We moved one of our biggest playmakers, Desmond Gee (pronounced "G") from running back to wide receiver. DeMarco McNair is our starting tailback. He runs a 4.35 forty. He is complimented by back-up Phillip Tanner. Tanner is a little bit bulkier, but he ran a leg on our track relay team. He has explosive speed as well. Joe Craddock, our QB, is a first year starter. He has a good arm and he has mobility. We are hurting on the O-line. One reason why we went to the spread is because of a major lack of depth on the O-line. We have had numerous injuries at that position and we only had 7 scholarship O-linemen available for the Louisville game. I look for us to continue the spread offense because there is no way we can line up with the Tigers D-line. Our defensive line is supposed to be our strength. We return basically all our 2-deep players from last year. We have not looked very good this year so far, but there is some real talent on the D-line. Our secondary is not bad. # 24 Bradley Robinson has really been hitting hard this year. If you saw the Louisville game you might remember he was the one who stuck Douglas on the goal line. Roy Polite has been laying the hits on as well. Our secondary might be the hardest hitting one you have faced this year. Our linebackers are young, but talented. This is going to be an extremely tough test for the Blue Raiders. If we play like we did the first game then it will be over in the 1st quarter. If we play like we did against Louisville, I look for some Tiger fans to be somewhat nervous at halftime, then your depth will take over. I was very proud of the way we played at Louisville (even though I'm never happy with a loss). I think we showed flashes of the talent we have. We are nowhere close to being on the same level as a LSU, but this is college football and as fans we can always pull for our team, no matter the odds. I'm not sure who you could compare our play to in the SEC. Our Head Coach is Rick Stockstill. He played Quarterback under Bobby Bowden. He has also coached under Bowden, Spurrier, and Lou Holtz. Our offensive coordinator is G.A. Mangus. I think he played under Spurrier. I do know his style is like Spurriers. Many even call him Spurrier Jr. I think he really wants to open up the offense, but I think Stockstill has been hesitant until last week. If you have any more question just post them and I will see if I can't answer them FYI, as a side note, I think you have a much better team that USC.
That game against Louisville was just outstanding. I wasn't too interested at first but after 21 points were scored in the 1st 3 minutes I could look away. Wish it could ahve turned out better for you guys.
Thanks for visiting TF, and thanks especially for the info about your team. I enjoyed watching you guys the other night against Louisville...wish you could've pulled that one out. I think...no...I know, the defense you'll face Saturday night will be MUCH better than the one you saw Thursday night...but you guys do seem to have good speed on offense, and running the spread should help out early. I would like to think after watching Appy St beat UM and the way you guys hung with Louisville, our team should not be overlooking you. Again, thanks for posting, and we hope you enjoy the game. Come around and talk football with us more often.
This was a really informative post. I have been looking for information on Middle Tennessee. Thanks much. And welcome to the forum.
Thanks for the kind words. As a Blue Raider fan I would love to get the upset, but I know the chances of that as super slim. I know we are playing the toughest team we will face all year. I am looking for our guys to improve over last weeks performance. That's what I want to see. There was an article in our local paper. It was talking about turnovers. We were tops in the SBC last year in holding on to the ball. This year we are ranked very low in the nation. We have committed 8 turnovers in 2 games. I know LSU is one of the best so far in creating turnovers. That's one area I want us to focus on. We need to make LSU work to beat us, not just hand them the ball and good field position.
BRZ, you seem like a terrific poster, and I'd like to echo what other Tiger fans are saying. We have several "resident" rival posters from AU, Alabama, Iowa, even USC and OU. We'd love to see you before and after the game and any time you want to talk some football.
what year? Smells like Tigerbait! against the spread, id guess lsu will play a lot of nickel and dime packages. drop sanders out and bring in mccray/eugene/jones. our LB highsmith will have a big game against the spread because of his speed and experience and our dbs are as good as every other unit of the D. it will be interesting to see if our D has some difficulty in figuring out what to do against your spread or if your qb has difficulty figuring out what to do against pelini's D
Very interesting information. Thanks for sharing. I know MTSU went to a bowl game last year, and I saw a lot of speed on that offense the little I watched y'all against Louisville. I'm glad to hear you guys run a spread. If nothing else, it will provide good practice for when we hit Florida, who may be the best team we face all year. I'm worried about what a running QB can do to us. I don't think our defense is designed to account very well for a QB who can make rushers miss. I hope we put you guys out of the game early, but I'm not so sure we will.
Middle Tenn will provide a good challenge for us. Not your typical rent a win here but a legitimate team with a good offense. It will be fun to see how our speed matches up with yours, Blueraider. It will also be a good challenge for our defense, ie running QB containment and speedy wideouts. I hope you guys win all the rest of your games ...... after Saturday night.
