FOOTBALL Duke at Middle Tennessee Game Thread

[Shayne_Pickering]

Amazing to think we're already a 1/3 of the way through the season. Time flies. Last year this team finished an extremely disappointing 4-8. Looking at the rest of the schedule & the fact there has been zero week to week improvement, it's hard to find 3 more wins this year. Don't think this team can even match Last year's record. Thinking 2-10 or 3-9 at best.
I know CDM said he felt rejuvenated coming into the season. Can't imagine him & the staff still feeling that way after this afternoon.

There is a lot that has to be cleaned up but the team has also showed good things recently. They just can't have such putrid performances in the small things whether that's special teams or turnovers and so on. Conference USA also hasn't looked too hot outside of Liberty and WKU so you have that going for you. Bowl game is still very much so on the table and that has been a goal for a successful season from the start.

 

[Shayne_Pickering]

Not what you want as a bright spot, for obvious reasons, but our freshman punter was fantastic today.

I asked Mason about him tonight. Will have a story up this week. Averaged 48.5 yards per punt I think it was, but if you take out the 31 yarder that pinned them deep, it was a net plus (subtracting return yards) of 50+

 

[sWiley]

Bowl game is still very much so on the table and that has been a goal for a successful season from the start.

I admire your positivity.

I'm not so sure about a bowl game though. Will be lucky to get another win

 

[MT01]

LMAO. Calling turnovers small things is not positivity. It’s ignoring reality as it’s slapping you.

 

[Shayne_Pickering]

LMAO. Calling turnovers small things is not positivity. It’s ignoring reality as it’s slapping you.

I meant the smaller games within the game that often get overlooked

Duke got 21 quick points off turnovers early in that game and completely changed the dynamic of the game. MTSU was able to do some good things but bc of the turnovers it limited how much it actually mattered

 

[Predarat]

Is that Blue Raider Brats stand still there this season, and was it there yesterday? I did not find it.

 

[MT01]

I meant the smaller games within the game that often get overlooked

Duke got 21 quick points off turnovers early in that game and completely changed the dynamic of the game. MTSU was able to do some good things but bc of the turnovers it limited how much it actually mattered

Yeah it’s called not being any good. Everything that’s happened in all four games is what very bad football teams play like. It seems you don’t see that?

 

[ewglenn]

Nick Vattiato is back in

Was Luther hurt?

 

[MTTim]

Instant Analysis: Duke

Murfreesboro, TN – It was déjà vu at Floyd Stadium for the second week in a row. The MTSU Blue Raiders had some bright

middletennessee.rivals.com

You forgot to mention 1)Vatiato was running for his life all night and 2) special teams suck.

 

[ewglenn]

Is that Blue Raider Brats stand still there this season, and was it there yesterday? I did not find it.

Yes, I posted more details on where it was in the other thread you commented on.

 

[MTTim]

I asked Mason about him tonight. Will have a story up this week. Averaged 48.5 yards per punt I think it was, but if you take out the 31 yarder that pinned them deep, it was a net plus (subtracting return yards) of 50+

If we are talking about how great our punter is., we are in worst shape than I thought.

 

[TRUEBLUE73]

Based on what i could watch and the remainder of the season I'm thinking 3 wins tops. When you can't hang on to the ball you will lose. This program continues to be a flop. Changing coaches we look to be worse. Coaching in the transfer portal time will expose all unless you can build a culture. This currently feels like the start of “Brick by brick”

 

[RaiderDoug]

Again, nothing unexpected last night. Not going to worry too much about Memphis either.

Real judgment season starts vs LaTech in 3 weeks.

 

[MT01]

Again, nothing unexpected last night. Not going to worry too much about Memphis either.

Real judgment season starts vs LaTech in 3 weeks.

Are you flipping serious? I thought the real season started last week?

Duke is not a good football team. They made us look awful. We should have lost to an FCS team that also had a new coaching staff. To suggest the real season starts after next week is beyond ludicrous.

The real season is a third over and we are not good. Right now there isn’t a single redeeming quality with this team.

At this point there’s only two things to focus on if we want to take the blinders off and be realistic: 1) They need to begin playing younger people and begin developing them to prepare for next year and 2) just try to begin showing some degree of improvement as the season progresses.

 

[RaiderDoug]

Are you flipping serious? I thought the real season started last week?

Duke is not a good football team. They made us look awful. We should have lost to an FCS team that also had a new coaching staff. To suggest the real season starts after next week is beyond ludicrous.

The real season is a third over and we are not good. Right now there isn’t a single redeeming quality with this team.

At this point there’s only two things to focus on if we want to take the blinders off and be realistic: 1) They need to begin playing younger people and begin developing them to prepare for next year and 2) just try to begin showing some degree of improvement as the season progresses.

I don’t think it’s ludicrous at all.

Ive maintained from day 1 and will until the final whistle of the last game that the appropriate way to judge this transitionary season is to take it all into account and see if we’re growing and improving. Never demanded or expected 17 years of losing to be turned around in a few months.

Losing my shit on here every week because we are losing games to (sometimes vastly ) superior opponents, which I expected from the start of the season, is silly.

It’s going to get ugly vs Memphis as well.

As far as I’m concerned, Mason is playing with house money until LaTech.

 

[ewglenn]

Are you flipping serious? I thought the real season started last week?

Duke is not a good football team. They made us look awful. We should have lost to an FCS team that also had a new coaching staff. To suggest the real season starts after next week is beyond ludicrous.

The real season is a third over and we are not good. Right now there isn’t a single redeeming quality with this team.

At this point there’s only two things to focus on if we want to take the blinders off and be realistic: 1) They need to begin playing younger people and begin developing them to prepare for next year and 2) just try to begin showing some degree of improvement as the season progresses.

Last week was a horrible display, this week was expected but a little worse. To really be able to judge this team we need to play our peers. We beat the team we were supposed to and we lost to 2 P4 teams. WKU was ugly but I need to see us against more CUSA competition before I can really make a judgement call on this season. We still have a lot of ball games left. We all expected to lose to Memphis at the beginning of the season and so I’m not going to hold that against them. I said 6-6 at the beginning of the season and I originally thought we would be 1-4 after the first five games. I went back and forth between 5-7 and 6-6 but went the optimistic route. All that being said, we do look really bad so far this season.

 

[TrueBlue147]

It doesn't matter what anyone thinks of Msson right now. He will be here for the next 5 years. We might as well hope he can improve. Hopefully he is rusty being out of coaching for a year and once he gets his players here things improve.

 

[ppvpasstve]

Finally Lost The Game

 

[MT01]

Duke is not that good - much less superior - and the season will bear that out. Ole Miss aside we've seen enough to be able to extrapolate what team 2024 is about.

Tech will be an 11 to 14 point favorite too. I agree with you that what we need to see is progress which is exactly what I said above. All that said my biggest concern is this coaching staff. A lot of the problems we see isn’t just talent deficiency so that’s discouraging a bit.

 

[ewglenn]

Finally Lost The Game

Welcome to the board!

 

[RaiderDoug]

Duke is not that good - much less superior - and the season will bear that out. Ole Miss aside we've seen enough to be able to extrapolate what team 2024 is about.

Tech will be an 11 to 14 point favorite too. I agree with you that what we need to see is progress which is exactly what I said above. All that said my biggest concern is this coaching staff. A lot of the problems we see isn’t just talent deficiency so that’s discouraging a bit.

Duke may not be great, but they’re 4-0, have a big time QB transfer, beat a big 10 team, and probably will scrounge a couple of more wins to go bowling. They still have the bones of a program that won 17 games and 2 bowl games in the last two years, and got their last coach hired at Texas A&M.

I don’t think we’re good, and I would liked to have seen more competitive play earlier this year, but it hasn’t happened. Every team we’ve played other than TTU will likely have winning seasons, go bowling, all but Duke might win their conference, and Ole Miss and Memphis have playoff aspirations.

All things considered, it’s not the end of the world for a rebuilding team with a new staff, new systems, and like 40+ new players to open 1-4 against a tough schedule.

 

[MTFAN61]

Actually I have no problem with the fact we have opened with a 1-3 record, & after next week will be 1-4. Many of us probably predicted that. The problem is all 3 losses have been by a whopping average of 35 points. We haven't offered up an ounce of competition to a fellow fbs team as of yet. And based on what we've seen (reverse that, what we've not seen), pretty good odds that 35 point loss average is going to be right on par next week in Memphis.
To tell the truth Memphis is going to be mad as hell after losing to Navy. Unfortunately for us they're definitely going to take it out on MT next week.
Will be reminiscent of the Ole Miss game. Infact will take same score.
Score prediction sadly:
Memphis: 52-3

 

[sWiley]

Actually I have no problem with the fact we have opened with a 1-3 record, & after next week will be 1-4. Many of us probably predicted that. The problem is all 3 losses have been by a whopping average of 35 points. We haven't offered up an ounce of competition to a fellow fbs team as of yet. And based on what we've seen (reverse that, what we've not seen), pretty good odds that 35 point loss average is going to be right on par next week in Memphis.
To tell the truth Memphis is going to be mad as hell after losing to Navy. Unfortunately for us they're definitely going to take it out on MT next week.
Will be reminiscent of the Ole Miss game. Infact will take same score.
Score prediction sadly:
Memphis: 52-3

Right. Has nothing to do with the record. It's the product on the field. Seems some people are not actually watching the games. This is the worst team we've fielded in 20+ years. We have a major talent program and our coordinators are not good

 

[mtfblue]

it amazes me, that everyone thinks how this season is playing out, isn't what was projected by most people. you have 65 new players and really brought no talent back. This is where they are, the program was a dumpster when they took over, and even with portal it's going to take them a few classes to get right. They should get to 6 wins which would be good. It could be worse, FIU lost to Monmouth tonight. WKU is a better team without Finley at QB, they beat Toledo.

 

[sWiley]

They should get to 6 wins which would be good.

I am willing to bet any amount of money this doesn't happen