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FOOTBALL Middle Tennessee(1-2) vs Duke(3-0), Homecoming/'24 Hall of Fame Class, (ESPNU), 3PM, Saturday, 9/21/2024

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DUKE UNIVERSITY
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Founded:
1838
Enrollment: 16,780 Undergrad: 6,417 Postgrad: 9,991
Acceptance rate: 7%
Colors: Duke Royal Blue & White Nickname: Blue Devils Mascot: The Blue Devil
Fight songs: Fight! Blue Devils, Fight! & Blue and White
Series: 0-1 Duke leads
Stadium: Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium Capacity: 40,004
Head Coach: Manny Diaz (Florida State, 1995)
Record at Duke: (3-0) Overall: 21-15 (3)
2023 Record: 8-5 2023 Bowl: Birmingham Bowl
Starters Ret./Lost: 10/16 Lettermen R/L: 28/41
2024 DUKE FOOTBALL INFO:
Offense:
Spread Defense: Multiple
Lettermen Returning: 28(12 Offense; 14 Defense; 2 Special Teams)
Lettermen Lost: 41(23 Offense; 16 Defense; 2 Special Teams)
Starters Returning: 10(4 Offense; 4 Defense; 2
Special Teams: Starters Lost 16(7 Offense, 8 Defense, 1 Special Teams)

Where: Johnny Red Floyd Stadium, 1500 Greenland Drive, Murfreesboro, TN 37130

Weather Forecast: Partly cloudy. High 92F. Winds light and variable. 6% Chance of Precipitation, 50% Humidity

Game Day Information:
Game Day Central

Television: ESPNU
  • Play-by-Play - Matt Schumacker
  • Analyst - Dustin Fox

Radio: PxP: Chip Walters, Analyst: Joe Dubin
  • Murfreesboro: WGNS 101.9 FM / 1450 AM
  • Smyrna – WGNS 100.5 FM
  • Nashville: 93.3 FM
  • App: Blue Raiders

SIRIUS/XM (Duke): SiriusXM 382 or 972 and on the SXM App

Streaming: WATCH, Listen

Live Stats: Live Stats


Newspapers: The Chronicle,

Message Boards: Devils Den - Football, Duke Football Talk, Devil Insider,

Blogs/Podcasts:
Ball Durham (Fan Sided), Duke Football Talk's Section 17 Podcast, DBR (SBNation), Locked On Blue Devils, ,,

Athletic site:
goduke.com, GoBlueRaiders.com,

Media Guides:
Duke Blue Devils, Middle Tennessee

Preseason Previews: ,

Game Notes:
MT Game Notes, Duke Game Notes, CUSA Game Notes

Roster: Blue Devils, Blue Raiders

Game Previews: ,

Twitter/X:
@DukeFOOTBALL, , , ,

Hashtags:

Facebook:
Duke Football

Youtube: Duke Football

Instagram: dukefootball

2019 Game Thread: Middle Tennessee(1-1) vs Duke(1-1), Black Out Game, (Stadium on Facebook), 6PM, Saturday, 9/14/2019
 
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This should tell us how bad our defense actually is. 26 points in 3 straight games. We do matchup a lot better against them though. Going to be a tough one to win but probably a better shot than the following week.
 
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This should tell us how bad our defense actually is. 26 points in 3 straight games. We do matchup a lot better against them though. Going to be a tough one to win but probably a better shot than the following week.
And you are going to see that. Oh and also how bad our offense is. This is the worst team we’ve had since 2-10. We may not get to 2 this year.

55-13
 
The Class of 2024 includes:

Jeff Beachum, baseball – Four-year starter at shortstop who started 223 of 225 career games. Three-time All-Sun Belt Conference. All-time hits leader in Sun Belt Conference history.

Marvin Collier, football – The 1985 Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Year. He led the Blue Raiders to an 11-0 record and No. 1 national ranking in 1985. Ranked first for career total offense at the completion of his decorated career.

Kermit Davis, men's basketball – The all-time winningest coach in MTSU and Sun Belt Conference history with 332 wins. Led MTSU to one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament history vs. Michigan State (2016) and followed that with an upset of fifth-seeded Minnesota (2017) to reach the Round of 32 in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history.

Jamari Lattimore, football – The 2010 Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Lattimore helped lead MTSU to consecutive bowl appearances and capped his career second all-time for sacks.

Ebony Rowe, women's basketball – Five-time All-American and the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in Lady Raider history. Only MTSU player, male or female, to amass 2,000—plus points and 1,000-plus rebounds. Conference USA Female Athlete of the Year (2014).



 
The Class of 2024 includes:

Jeff Beachum, baseball – Four-year starter at shortstop who started 223 of 225 career games. Three-time All-Sun Belt Conference. All-time hits leader in Sun Belt Conference history.

Marvin Collier, football – The 1985 Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Year. He led the Blue Raiders to an 11-0 record and No. 1 national ranking in 1985. Ranked first for career total offense at the completion of his decorated career.

Kermit Davis, men's basketball – The all-time winningest coach in MTSU and Sun Belt Conference history with 332 wins. Led MTSU to one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament history vs. Michigan State (2016) and followed that with an upset of fifth-seeded Minnesota (2017) to reach the Round of 32 in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history.

Jamari Lattimore, football – The 2010 Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Lattimore helped lead MTSU to consecutive bowl appearances and capped his career second all-time for sacks.

Ebony Rowe, women's basketball – Five-time All-American and the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in Lady Raider history. Only MTSU player, male or female, to amass 2,000—plus points and 1,000-plus rebounds. Conference USA Female Athlete of the Year (2014).



You just know they will put Stockstill in the HOF at some point and a kick in the groin to all of us.
 
Parker Hughes out again. Such a shame. I am eager for him to return he's one of the few things left on the team to enjoy at the moment. Mark my words when/if he comes back he will be all over the field making plays.

Two new corners starting this week. Looks like Raby lost his job and I guess the other is maybe injury? I saw some serious loafing in the secondary against WKU. We remain very weak at safety IMO which is crazy considering we were almost like a G5 Safety university for a while with Byard and Blankenship. Unfortunate. With the front 7's inability to put any pressure in the back field it's going to make anybody we put back there look bad. I still think Marvae Myers and Raby are our best corners, De'Arre should have stayed at safety like the previous staff had him in my opinion even if he is a more natural corner we are poverty at the safety position right now.

I just don't see this game going well. Mason talked about this defense not being able to set the edge and you better believe Duke is gonna exploit that, amongst many other things. It won't be as high scoring as previous games simply because that isn't Duke's style but they'll score more than enough to get an easy win.

When I see the roster moves Mason has made it's very clear to me he wants to be bigger at every position. Hopefully he understands that, at the G5 level, you can't have size and speed. You have to pick one. If he is intent on having good size at every position I believe we will continue to get smoked on the back end by any offense with a pulse. Only way this is gonna work is if we can generate crazy pressure in the backfield....and rushing 4 or maybe 5 every time with no creative blitzing isn't going to get that done. This defensive coordinator is gonna have to get more creative.

Mason should have retained Shafer in my opinion. Shafer is almost like a perfect candidate for a D-coordinator for a low level G5 like us. His defenses rarely got outschemed and almost always put our offenses in a decent position to win games. I don't care who he was feuding with within the athletic department, letting him go was a mistake.
 
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On Diaz's coaching start and time while at Middle Tennessee:

"Yeah, four years at Middle Tennessee, four great years. Not just myself, Justin Watts and Willie Simmons on our staff as well. I'm sure there will be some familiar faces that will be there, and some have already reached out. I'm excited to get back to that area, we loved living there. We had a great time there and the first four years of my defensive coordinator, it will always stand out. But I also remember beating an ACC team on the road there, we almost beat Virginia in [2007], and we beat Maryland in [2008], and then went to Maryland, beat them in [2009], back when they were in this league. So, we understand that they're a first-year staff trying to get the right mix of guys, and just like we're doing, trying to learn how to master their schemes, same way we're doing with our guys. There will be some familiar faces, and it'll be fun to get back into that Middle Tennessee area."



 
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Finally a big recruiting weekend with no rain 😂

Yea that's good. An upset here would go a long way towards remedying the current situation. Things are looking about as bleak as they can at the moment. Uncompetitive in every game we've played except for the FCS match up that took heroics to win.

We are 0-3 ATS (against the spread) thus far so we are even under performing Vegas' expectations.
 
Yea that's good. An upset here would go a long way towards remedying the current situation. Things are looking about as bleak as they can at the moment. Uncompetitive in every game we've played except for the FCS match up that took heroics to win.

We are 0-3 ATS (against the spread) thus far so we are even under performing Vegas' expectations.

This game will be over by halftime. We have absolutely no chance of winning this game. At the moment this program is where it is. All we can do at this point is hope that Mason is actually the guy to rebuild it.
 
The negativity between yall two is too much. I hope yall are more positive in the rest of your lives. Mason has to rebuild and we knew what this year was going to be. Literally no surprises. Drink a beer and enjoy the sunshine.

So, you acknowledge the statement is on point and then chastise for it. Interesting approach.
 
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This season is right where I expected, except for the Tech game. That was inexcusable as far as I'm concerned. Just got to push through and give him time.

We got what we all wanted with Stock finally being canned. We can all how his presence impacted Florida State so far. Yes, I love watching FSU crash and burn... I am not going to dig through, but I'm pretty sure we were all talking this was going to be a long season.

I would be excited about a winless season if it meant 7 wood and Massaro being gone. Neither are capable to leading this university from an athletics standpoint.

Did you hear the Gof5 Guys podcast and discussing university leadership. It was on their site, I think roughly 53 minutes in. Go listen.
 
This season is right where I expected, except for the Tech game. That was inexcusable as far as I'm concerned. Just got to push through and give him time.

We got what we all wanted with Stock finally being canned. We can all how his presence impacted Florida State so far. Yes, I love watching FSU crash and burn... I am not going to dig through, but I'm pretty sure we were all talking this was going to be a long season.

I would be excited about a winless season if it meant 7 wood and Massaro being gone. Neither are capable to leading this university from an athletics standpoint.

Did you hear the Gof5 Guys podcast and discussing university leadership. It was on their site, I think roughly 53 minutes in. Go listen.
I did listen to it and I loved everything they said. The Group Of Five Guys are coming to the game Saturday! Dukes schedules not very impressive. Let’s go pull off the upset!
 
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I did listen to it and I loved everything they said. The Group Of Five Guys are coming to the game Saturday! Dukes schedules not very impressive. Let’s go pull off the upset!

Upset? Let’s just try to make sure we see the opposing teams punter this week…..we havnt fielded a punt since the TN tech game.

Has that ever happened here at MT before ? 2 games where the defense couldn’t get one stop.
 
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Murphy was 100% accurate and I applaud him for using his platform to call it out. Starts around 56min in. While Stock was part of the problem (staff work/life recruting philosophy especially...I still can't get over that from when CM said it), he wasn't the only issue. There are good things happening, but it is 100% catch up.

 
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Murphy was 100% accurate and I applaud him for using his platform to call it out. Starts around 56min in. While Stock was part of the problem (staff work/life recruting philosophy especially...I still can't get over that from when CM said it), he wasn't the only issue. There are good things happening, but it is 100% catch up.



Ummm....This has been discussed both on the message boards and throughout the athletic department since we were getting soundly beat by Troy both on the recruiting trail and on the field circa 2006/2007ish. I guess it's nice to see people with a platform FINALLY discussing it ????

Stockstill, to his credit, has been saying we need new facilities since not long after he arrived. Stockstill had a lot of faults, but he was telling anyone who would listen (I was a student in his class) that we cannot recruit against some of our peers because they simply have superior facilities. There's a reason Troy won all those SBC championships in the 00-10 decade and beyond, and it wasn't because Troy, AL was a major destination or they had dominating coaching staffs. Larry Blakeley was a scum bag and mediocre coach at best, but Troy had a sweet heart movie theatre company donor that built them some amazing facilities so they got all the good players and won nearly every head to head recruiting battle with us.

Our facilities at MT are terrible and they've been terrible for decades. It's been discussed here on the message boards ad nauseam for 20 years now. I assure you the coaches made it clear they needed new facilities too. Nobody cared or listened.

We've been dogging McPhee for DECADES. This is not new or news. It's just becoming apparent now because we've changed coaches and people are learning and maybe finally accepting that this is a leadership issue, not a coaching issue.

Maybe that's why McPhee kept Stockstill around for all those years. He was the perfect scape goat and fall guy. "But we can't fire him, the contract!"

Maybe McPhee is the smartest person of us all here. Manipulating the situation perfectly to milk those fat president checks until he's ready to retire.

Pathetic.

hey Steve Smith you are an incompetent clown too. Don't worry we have not forgot about you and the terrible decision making you've afforded this university.
 
Ummm....This has been discussed both on the message boards and throughout the athletic department since we were getting soundly beat by Troy both on the recruiting trail and on the field circa 2006/2007ish. I guess it's nice to see people with a platform FINALLY discussing it ????

Stockstill, to his credit, has been saying we need new facilities since not long after he arrived. Stockstill had a lot of faults, but he was telling anyone who would listen (I was a student in his class) that we cannot recruit against some of our peers because they simply have superior facilities. There's a reason Troy won all those SBC championships in the 00-10 decade and beyond, and it wasn't because Troy, AL was a major destination or they had dominating coaching staffs. Larry Blakeley was a scum bag and mediocre coach at best, but Troy had a sweet heart movie theatre company donor that built them some amazing facilities so they got all the good players and won nearly every head to head recruiting battle with us.

Our facilities at MT are terrible and they've been terrible for decades. It's been discussed here on the message boards ad nauseam for 20 years now. I assure you the coaches made it clear they needed new facilities too. Nobody cared or listened.

We've been dogging McPhee for DECADES. This is not new or news. It's just becoming apparent now because we've changed coaches and people are learning and maybe finally accepting that this is a leadership issue, not a coaching issue.

Maybe that's why McPhee kept Stockstill around for all those years. He was the perfect scape goat and fall guy. "But we can't fire him, the contract!"

Maybe McPhee is the smartest person of us all here. Manipulating the situation perfectly to milk those fat president checks until he's ready to retire.

Pathetic.

hey Steve Smith you are an incompetent clown too. Don't worry we have not forgot about you and the terrible decision making you've afforded this university.
I have similar feelings about this. If Stockstill was still roaming our sidelines as HC they'd still be praising him as the nearest equivalent to Jesus in college football and blaming the fans for not putting up with the BS the university tolerated. Just because they decided to shine a little light and tell some truths NOW, repeating what fans have been saying for at least a dozen years, doesn't gain them instant credibility with me. So welcome to club guys but get back to the end of the line behind the rest of the fans waiting for the expiration date on the university leadership.
 
This state has demonstrated with undebatable evidence of just how much bad leaderships can destroy a college athletics department. First was Memphis in the oughts. Then came UTK for most of the 10’s decade and then there is MT which has not only done it across both decades but also is the only one that refused to move on from failed leadership.

And today Memphis is a top 25 program. UT has one of the best athletics departments in the entire country and then there is us.

The worst part about all of this is that all three of the other FBS football programs in the state have been atrocious for many years and the monumental opportunity that was lost to steal share from those institutions is a failure that will keep giving to us for years after they are finally gone.

And just to recap a point earlier BlueRaiderSC it’s less about the myopic perspective of where we are after three games, my frustration stems from what’s been lost far beyond a single game that we will likely never get back.

That said my self imposed exile of more than 3,000 days will end next month. I hope Mason breaks the tradition of us granting noobs their first FBS win. No program in America has done that more than us.
 
And just to recap a point earlier BlueRaiderSC it’s less about the myopic perspective of where we are after three games, my frustration stems from what’s been lost far beyond a single game that we will likely never get back.
Exactly.

Don't get me wrong, I am still pissed about the way this season has started. And I question anybody who is not. Getting bent over and owned by your rival in your home stadium is never acceptable under any circumstances. Guys, they didn't even punt....We should not be having uncompetitive games with Western F'ing Kentucky. This isn't Boise State we are talking about here. This is a relatively newer FBS program that has somehow beat us every year since I can't remember when (I've literally lost count, was it 2018 we last won ?)

The start to this season has kind of just reinforced what I have (and many others) known all along. The "leadership" of this University is incompetent. So incompetent it's probably unfair to the word incompetent to call them incompetent.

They have absolutely no idea what they are doing and in true ignorant fashion they are too stupid to even have the insight to realize it.

I mean jesus christ. McPhee has been here how long ? Is it normal for President's to stick around that long ? Especially ones that suck at their job and have a history of controversy ? Why do we have to be cursed with this cancerous "leadership" that just never goes away ?
 
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I agree with everyone. I'm not lauding Go5G as an amazing feat. My point is we as fans have known the issues for years. Not everyone saw the problems. Certainly not the average fan who only saw us on Miami highlights or announcers bragging about Stock being here so long. Average fans or true fans of another G5 achool who listen to their podcast might have no idea how things are here. That is my point. They have a large reach and people outside our little circle can know now.

Maybe I'm naive and everyone already knew. But I've always been under the impression that only a few fans saw all the real issues. That it wasn't general knowledge. And I admit until abiut 8-10years ago with us, I had zero idea how much am administration can affect football. I always assumed hire the right coach and win. But it isn't that simple. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought that. It is even more true nowadays with NIL.

I think we could've had Bama money and facilities and Stock still wouldn't have won a championship as he had his issues. But the problem is he was never given that chance. Is Mason? IDK yet. He's reaping to an extent what Stock started (dude did donate his own money).

And no. The avg tenure of a D1 president was 8.5yrs in '06. In '22 it was 5.9yrs. Average for an AD is only 4.9yrs. So none of what we do is normal. And 100% the Board and Steve Smith let it happen.

I'm not saying any of this is new to us. But to a lot of people it is, and Go5G have a nationwide platform to let others know and they are doing so. My hope is more pressure will come to force changes. One can hope anyway.
 
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And the length of tenure would be fine - maybe even incredible - if they were successful. That would be bucking the trend in a positive way. And yet they think they are successful which is truly the scary part. It really does boil down to culture. We don't have a good one. And it's going to take new leadership across the board to ever change. I'm talking about the board and president.
 
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