2018 SEC non conference games (more details)

[blueraiderJT]

"MURFREESBORO – In a joint release with the University of Georgia on Tuesday, it was announced Middle Tennessee and Georgia will meet in football during the 2018 season. The Blue Raiders will receive a guarantee of $1.7 million to play the game.

The Blue Raiders will travel to Athens on Sept. 15 to face the Bulldogs for the second time in school history. The only other meeting between the two schools came in 2003 with No. 8 Georgia taking a 29-10 victory between the hedges.

Middle Tennessee has played a member of the SEC 26 times since turning I-A (FBS) in 1999 and has faced every team in the league at least once except for Auburn.

The Blue Raiders will also travel to Vanderbilt in 2018 on Sept. 1 to go with a road game against Kentucky on Nov. 17."

2018 Schedule thus far....

Sept. 1 - @ Vandy
Sept. 15 - @ Georgia - 1.7 mill payout!
Nov. 17 - @ UK - Wow, that's late in the season but I'm goin.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

So we only get 5 home games in 2018, Brent's last year...It seems like the budget is being balanced with road games - three SEC road games that year.

 

[BRaiderDave]

Tangible proof that we are broke.

 

[AustinLewis]

Nothing quite like being the prostitute for the SEC

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

Well, I guess we know where we stand. We couldn't even have confidence going against 1-AA schools such as McNeese. Let's take advantage of playing these teams and make them stumble along the way.

If SEC is our sugar daddy then so be it. Business-wise, we have to do something that generates revenue or income. Between 18 and 19, the big payouts are almost 3 million dollars. This is great and gives us sustainability.

 

[sWiley]

Tangible proof that we are broke.

QFE

 

[MTFNBY5]

If we could fill our stadium to 80 or 80% capacity (before the tarp) for most games this wouldn't be necessary even with the falloff in TV dollars. But, just to stay afloat we're having to prostitute ourselves in ways unimaginable when we moved up to D-1 in FB. I'm afraid the days of just one money FB game per year are over and we may get to the point where visits to The Murph by power conference teams for men's BkB games are a distant memory.

As for moving the program forward with improvements such as the End Zone renovation, an IPF, a BkB practice facility, or complete renovation of The Murph; forget it in today's climate with our dwindling fan base and lack of either corporate of individual donors with deep pockets. It's not surprising why we haven't seen anything concrete about fund raising campaigns and timelines for needed facility enhancements.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

I would just like to thumb 50 bucks if I wanted to.

Not advocating dropping football but would we have these problems if we didn't play football?

 

[AustinLewis]

I would just like to thumb 50 bucks if I wanted to.

Not advocating dropping football but would we have these problems if we didn't play football?

I would say so. The 2.5 million+ MT will earn by (likely) getting slaughtered by an SEC team or two will help pay for uniform for the track team and travel for the softball team.

 

[TrueBlue147]

Are we sure we aren't playing these games to fund the future facility improvements and not just to stay afloat? Sadly, I don't see our attendance improving until Coach Stock is gone. There is just zero excitement with him at the helm.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Are we sure we aren't playing these games to fund the future facility improvements and not just to stay afloat? Sadly, I don't see our attendance improving until Coach Stock is gone. There is just zero excitement with him at the helm.

not sure, but I sure wouldn't bet on it being anything otherwise. Huge reduction in tv revenue + cost of attendance for student athletes leads me to doubt it's anything but to sustain where we are.

 

[MTsumner92]

I think it is to raise money for improvements plus it gives MT the opportunity for national respect. Our offense should be the best ever in 18 and who knows what our D will look like then.

 

[dukewayne]

With a stagnant mediocre performance in football for years, this was to be expected in my opinion with stagnating to declining football attendance. As has been obvious now for years, there just isn't any buzz or energy about MT football. There's some good players to be sure, one can only hope the OC & DC can start to improve the team overall.

It's also becoming increasingly clear, that coach stock is not going to be able to continue with the "bowl eligible" mantra as some sort of measure for success. MT and coach stock has settled into a handful of years of enough terrible to mediocre opponents to help MT get to that mediocre 6 or 7 wins in most seasons. Due to the loss of fan interest over average or mediocre performance, declining attendance and support has resulted in declining $$$ revenues. So now money games in the ooc games means mediocre performance will not get you a win. Combine that with FxU finally investing in quality and/or big name coaches, and MT will no longer have those two games each season to almost automatically provide 2 wins in the win column.

Coach Stock's teams will have to get substantially better just to maintain average or mediocre records that result in being "bowl eligible."

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

Ok, here is where we are right now - right where CKD was after about 10 years - I am on my knees asking for dramatic performance improvement so I can eat a big bowl of crow on Stock. Can we strike lighting twice?

 

[MT Glenn]

Maybe all these games will keep Coach Stock from getting his automatic extensions. Make money and reduce the buyout at the same time.

 

[blueraiderJT]

I know I might be in the minority but I love these games. You can recruit with these games. If we somehow won this game, we are shot into the sports TV and radio stratosphere for a while and we get paid to do it.

With Vandy and UK, we have a shot. More than a shot actually. With UGA, not so much but you go and play anyway. You don't get better as a team by playing Alabama A&M. Sorry, but you don't.

I love the fact that we are playing Vandy, Cuse and Minnesota this year. That's a decent P5 schedule. No gimme wins with a crappy fcs team no one care about. How can we win a CUSA championship if we don't go up against better teams?

We're always gonna need money. Our attendance is awful and we don't have rich donors. Play these teams anytime and anywhere, get tough and make money while doing it. It's a win win for me.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?

 

[MTTim]

I agree JT. These are winnable games and some close enough to drive. As proven last year, we did not get better after the Ala A&M game. In fact we got curbstomped by a decent Vandy team.

 

[MTLynn]

Ok, here is where we are right now - right where CKD was after about 10 years

The difference is that Kermit just needed better players. Rick has needed better coordinators - and he has that now. I'm expecting a strong defense this fall.

 

[SpaceRaider]

...I'm expecting a strong defense this fall.

strong might be going too far... 'stronger' might be a stretch... My expectations are not all that high for this fall... disappointing is what I've come to expect...

 

[MTLynn]

If Nix was still the D.C. I'd be expecting a poor defense

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

I know I might be in the minority but I love these games. You can recruit with these games. If we somehow won this game, we are shot into the sports TV and radio stratosphere for a while and we get paid to do it.

With Vandy and UK, we have a shot. More than a shot actually. With UGA, not so much but you go and play anyway. You don't get better as a team by playing Alabama A&M. Sorry, but you don't.

I love the fact that we are playing Vandy, Cuse and Minnesota this year. That's a decent P5 schedule. No gimme wins with a crappy fcs team no one care about. How can we win a CUSA championship if we don't go up against better teams?

We're always gonna need money. Our attendance is awful and we don't have rich donors. Play these teams anytime and anywhere, get tough and make money while doing it. It's a win win for me.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?

Its not so much the SEC games, its the fact they are all on the road in the same year - 3 road SEC games in one year isn't wise. Be nice to get one at home (other than Vandy) again.

 

[blueraiderJT]

We curbstomped ourselves vs. Vandy. 3 turnovers that changed the entire game and a terrible run D.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

We curbstomped ourselves vs. Vandy. 3 turnovers that changed the entire game and a terrible run D.

We were in the game for a little while and then after the stoppage they steam rolled us. Our margin to even beat Vandy is small...we can't have turnovers. They physically ran over us the year before in the 4th Q. You have to give them some credit.

 

[MTTim]

Our D was horrible. I think Brent led in tackles for a while during that game.

 

[SmithO1906]

Its not so much the SEC games, its the fact they are all on the road in the same year - 3 road SEC games in one year isn't wise. Be nice to get one at home (other than Vandy) again.

agreed. just look back at 2002

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

I feel like we can beat Vanderbilt but we looked a bit lost last year and we let it slip away in 2015.

The delay of game seemed to have helped Vanderbilt's game plan where we didn't know what to do. Unfortunately, I knew from then that our D was less than average.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

agreed. just look back at 2002

I wonder if 2002 was bad due to the fact that our road swing of UK, UTK, Vanderbilt, and Alabama took so much out of us or if it was coaching. We had all of he pieces to be successful with Hicks, Calico, Wright, Lee, and Calloway. Losing Wes Counts in lieu of Andrico was huge.

That was the year that I was sure we were going to win 50% of our SEC road swing and win the Sun Belt. Unfortunately, that year seemed to be the beginning of the slappy train wreck.

I think we just need more Utah passes.

 

[SmithO1906]

I wonder if 2002 was bad due to the fact that our road swing of UK, UTK, Vanderbilt, and Alabama took so much out of us or if it was coaching. We had all of he pieces to be successful with Hicks, Calico, Wright, Lee, and Calloway. Losing Wes Counts in lieu of Andrico was huge.

That was the year that I was sure we were going to win 50% of our SEC road swing and win the Sun Belt. Unfortunately, that year seemed to be the beginning of the slappy train wreck.

I think we just need more Utah passes.

I think that team was extremely beat up after that 3 game swing. We werent built to play an SEC schedule.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

I wonder if 2002 was bad due to the fact that our road swing of UK, UTK, Vanderbilt, and Alabama took so much out of us or if it was coaching. We had all of he pieces to be successful with Hicks, Calico, Wright, Lee, and Calloway. Losing Wes Counts in lieu of Andrico was huge.

That was the year that I was sure we were going to win 50% of our SEC road swing and win the Sun Belt. Unfortunately, that year seemed to be the beginning of the slappy train wreck.

I think we just need more Utah passes.

I think that team was extremely beat up after that 3 game swing. We werent built to play an SEC schedule.

And remember who beat us at home in our first home game in front of 25k? SEMO. That was the beginning of the end of Andy Mac.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

2002 and 2003 had some zingers. Losing to SEMO and then to FAU the next year. It was a one two punch that, to this day, still hurts. The beginning of my honeymoon was in south florida in 2003, the weekend after the FAU loss.

I kept the last 43 seconds of the FAU game if anyone can bear it:



"unbelievable"

 

[blueraiderJT]

We also nearly upset BAMA and beat VU in 2002 as well. UK was a much better team then and UT was UT. We were 2 seasons into D-1a life. We were still playing with some d1aa talent. While it was the beginning of the end for Andy Mac, it wasn't the cause. We lost Fedora and one of the best QB's we've had. To the earlier post, the SEC had nothing to do with us losing to FAU the next year.

The 2016 Vandy loss was different. no. 27 fumbled and VU scored a FG (3 points) Richie fumbled a punt into our own endzone (2 points plus a short field for another 7= 9 points), a near pick 6 that set up VU from our 6 yard line which led to another 7. Our kick return coverage let their returner nearly take it to the house which setup another TD.

Those 4 mistakes costed us 26 points right there. We lost by 23. We curbstomped ourselves by not being mentally tough and making stupid mistakes. VU was a decent team but had we had a little bit better of an defense and not made silly mistakes, we would have won. They didn't out talent us.

Playing 3 middle of the pack SEC teams is not gonna destroy us. Now, it will make us better because we can recruit with it. In 2019, we have Iowa on the road and Duke at home. We're gonna be fine.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

It is pretty obvious in the downward spiral of attendance. Also, the fact that the "top crowds" and their respective years keeps getting farther away. We need a buzz bigtime. This is killing the program. http://www.goblueraiders.com/sports/2014/7/9/FB_0709140906.aspx

TOP CROWDS
1. 30,502 Georgia Tech 9/10/11
2. 28,105 Memphis 9/12/09
3. 28,010 Troy 10/5/10
4. 27,568 Tennessee State 9/5/98
5. 27,519 Southeast Missouri 9/28/02
6. 25,908 Minnesota 9/2/10
7. 25,766 Florida Atlantic 9/30/08
8. 25,411 Vanderbilt 10/3/15
9. 24,911 WKU 9/13/14
10. 23,992 Memphis 9/14/13

With a stagnant mediocre performance in football for years, this was to be expected in my opinion with stagnating to declining football attendance. As has been obvious now for years, there just isn't any buzz or energy about MT football. There's some good players to be sure, one can only hope the OC & DC can start to improve the team overall.

It's also becoming increasingly clear, that coach stock is not going to be able to continue with the "bowl eligible" mantra as some sort of measure for success. MT and coach stock has settled into a handful of years of enough terrible to mediocre opponents to help MT get to that mediocre 6 or 7 wins in most seasons. Due to the loss of fan interest over average or mediocre performance, declining attendance and support has resulted in declining $$$ revenues. So now money games in the ooc games means mediocre performance will not get you a win. Combine that with FxU finally investing in quality and/or big name coaches, and MT will no longer have those two games each season to almost automatically provide 2 wins in the win column.

Coach Stock's teams will have to get substantially better just to maintain average or mediocre records that result in being "bowl eligible."

 

[SmithO1906]

We also nearly upset BAMA and beat VU in 2002 as well. UK was a much better team then and UT was UT. We were 2 seasons into D-1a life. We were still playing with some d1aa talent. While it was the beginning of the end for Andy Mac, it wasn't the cause. We lost Fedora and one of the best QB's we've had. To the earlier post, the SEC had nothing to do with us losing to FAU the next year.

The 2016 Vandy loss was different. no. 27 fumbled and VU scored a FG (3 points) Richie fumbled a punt into our own endzone (2 points plus a short field for another 7= 9 points), a near pick 6 that set up VU from our 6 yard line which led to another 7. Our kick return coverage let their returner nearly take it to the house which setup another TD.

Those 4 mistakes costed us 26 points right there. We lost by 23. We curbstomped ourselves by not being mentally tough and making stupid mistakes. VU was a decent team but had we had a little bit better of an defense and not made silly mistakes, we would have won. They didn't out talent us.

Playing 3 middle of the pack SEC teams is not gonna destroy us. Now, it will make us better because we can recruit with it. In 2019, we have Iowa on the road and Duke at home. We're gonna be fine.

I wouldnt exactly call Georgia a middle of the pack SEC team. They aren't Alabama but they are usually in the top 10-12 year in and year out

 

[blueraiderJT]

They weren't last year. So far Smart ain't Richt. Smart might not even be there by the time we play em.