FOOTBALL Middle Tennessee at Ole Miss Game Thread
- Thread starter Shayne_Pickering
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Going to be a long year. I was hoping to find some positives coming out of this game considering we all knew it would be a predictable loss.
I can’t find any. We have a few good players but not nearly enough to be a good team. I’m also highly suspect of these coordinators. I think both are a clear downgrade over Mitch Stewart and Scott shafer thus far. Predictable play calling on offense, no identity or strength on defense. In both games it feels like we have let the opposing offense totally dictate the terms of the game. We put up some resistance in first half against TTU but havnt seen any since then. Shafers cover 0 and cover 1 used to drive us insane when we gave up the big play but when we played well and executed we could hang with most teams in the country.
Gonna be a long season.
I can’t find any. We have a few good players but not nearly enough to be a good team. I’m also highly suspect of these coordinators. I think both are a clear downgrade over Mitch Stewart and Scott shafer thus far. Predictable play calling on offense, no identity or strength on defense. In both games it feels like we have let the opposing offense totally dictate the terms of the game. We put up some resistance in first half against TTU but havnt seen any since then. Shafers cover 0 and cover 1 used to drive us insane when we gave up the big play but when we played well and executed we could hang with most teams in the country.
Gonna be a long season.
We're 1 and 1. That's what I thought we would be at this point.
Have to keep in mind that we won only four games last year. We had very little talent coming back outside of Vattiato and Willis. It’s going to take a while. Offense has looked better this second half because they started flinging it around. Got away from trying to run straight ahead against an SEC DL. I like what I see out of Gagliano.
Game Comparison
| STAT | MT | Ole Miss |
|---|---|---|
| Total Yds | 279 | 655 |
| Pass Yds | 251 | 397 |
| Rush Yds | 28 | 258 |
| Penalties | 8-60 | 8-78 |
| 1st Downs | 18 | 33 |
| 3rd Downs | 4-14 | 7-9 |
| 4th Downs | 1-2 | 0-1 |
| Total Plays | 66 | 73 |
| Avg Yds/Play | 4.2 | 9 |
| Avg Yds/Completion | 9.7 | 14.7 |
| Avg Yds/Rush | 1.1 | 6.1 |
| Sack-Adj Rush Yd(Avg) | 42 (1.8) | 275 (7.1) |
| Red Zone | 1-3 | 8-8 |
| Time of Poss | 33:10 | 26:50 |
| Turnovers (Def Pts Off) | 2 (14) | 0 (0) |
| Fumbles-Lost | 1-1 | 1-0 |
| Sacks (Def Yds) | 3 (17) | 2 (14) |
| TFL (Def Yds) | 6 (27) | 9 (31) |
Refs cost us 1 TD. I'll timed penalties probably 1 more. Saw some good things, but need more consistency. OL/DL improve some, overall team will be better.
Offense looks better than defense. I thought defense would be ahead of Offense with Mason being a defensive guy, but it appears not to be the case. Maybe Mason should start running the defense himself. It appears we just don't have the players this year. It's hard to believe we can't get one stop the whole game no matter how good they are.
Injuries are killing us already. Sure seems like we're the most unlucky teams every year.
Injuries are killing us already. Sure seems like we're the most unlucky teams every year.
Room for improvement for sure but I still think next week will be our first true gauge of what we are. I'm not panicking yet. We all knew this would be a rough year with lots of ups and downs.
I do hope Peasant isn't seriously injured.
I do hope Peasant isn't seriously injured.
Conference games are the most important and they should improve each game, if the coach is good at coaching.
Gonna be a pillow fight next week imo. WKU looks very weak and beatable, like us. G5 teams in general look weaker than ever in my opinion. Outside of a few quality programs it's been an absolute blood letting in the OOC games pitting G5 vs. P4. Much more so than before the transfer portal era.
It's so depressing to see the direction we are headed. G5 glorified junior colleges now. Many G5 coaches now approaching recruiting with the idea of getting players "to the next level." It's hard to imagine such a thing. No coach ever would have been agreeable to such a thing 5 years ago. "Hey, come be great at Middle Tennessee for a year or two and we'll get you that SEC money!".....There's no way the coaches are enjoying this, but I guess they have zero options at this point. Either embrace it or be labeled a dinosaur and lose your job.
Sickening
We played about what I expected. Of course Ole Miss was going to be stronger, faster, and such. I saw a few good things out there. This still looks like a 4 or 5 win team but it’s still early. Quite honestly I haven’t been that impressed with any team in our conference yet. I guess maybe FIU won big today but who knows how good CMU is. We probably won’t know too much about our team until we’re halfway in October.
I'm at the WKU game, of middle can zone read them, it's will be a W for MT. EKU had a 93 drive, just running zome read. Came up.short the kicker hit the upright
It's a double edged sword. Your thoughts are spot on and how a lot feel. At the same time, using what I bolded is exactly what they do and can help us with the right people in place.
Same as I've said before about coaches getting plucked. Do it enough and players will want to come here because they will know they can get noticed. Especially with the scholarship changes that may happen if the NCAA case is ever settled. They may not be PWOs anymore, but they'll ride the bench at Power schools. Come here and play. I'll gladly let them use us to prove the Power schools wrong. Let em go and bring in the next guy with a chip on his shoulder.
No surprise today, the real test is this coming week. Let’s go blue!
I agree WKU looks very beatable.
Actually, everyone in this conference is looking beatable and weak to be honest. Even Liberty, who will be lucky to leave Las Cruces tonight with a W.
Bad year to not be good....
Yep, thank you for the cash Ole Miss.
Write this one off.
Real season starts next week.
Wow I’ve never felt this sentiment from you before.
The fact we were able to keep Vattiato & Willis was absolutely crucial to this offense! With one year left and the numbers Willis put up & his body of work for MTSU and what he showed yesterday vs a top SEC team with all the OL struggles this guy had options….but he stayed & thank God he did. Many wouldn’t and didn’t.
That & LBers reacting late, running up to blockers and grabbing for air. Safety staying back in no man’s land rarely coming up to pop somebody. Yes, it’s SEC top ranked team but at some point as defensive player does it not enter the mind to fight like he$$ even if you get a penalty. We were padding them too many yards all day & what offensive skill player doesn’t find that open area with defense so soft! We were even late reacting to the play at that. One play our starting safety is literally in the back of the end zone never coming up. Might have well been sitting on the sideline. LBers are a puzzle. Where is Parker Hughes & Drew Francis????? They showed the last 2 years they could have put for more effort than what was on the field Saturday. #27 made a great play defending end zone pass from safety. Maybe we need to see more of him. I know some coaches don’t like to do this, but go watch some film from last year to at least see what field performance looked like from these players. I don’t care who you brought in as your guy, or what your previous relationship was with any of these players. Film will show you what did work & what didn’t work. No way they have watched film & started out with personnel & play calling thus far overall. I think they surely have figured out Willis stays in game as much as possible, OL has to give Vattiato time to run the offense & execute play. May have to roll him out more until we fix it. We have weapons!!!!!!!!! Receivers going over the middle can’t be scared. Take one for the team! Catch the darn ball, take a lick or make a miss….something. Some looked deer in headlights, or lost, or not up to challenge. Kelly has to step up and consistently play harder against tough teams….gotta make hard catches. #5 Butler showing some consistency as well as #19 Stewart. Good hands to compliment Willis. Peel your ears back & attack. Defense needs ripped, chewed up & ripped again. Fix the OL & offense goes off! Where’s this blue collar physicality? A few show it, many aren’t. Playing an SEC team is zero excuse for lack of effort. If that was best effort, then perhaps there is someone else on the sideline whose effort and abilities would result in better outcome. Nothing like losing your job like competition. Fix these things and the team will look night and day different & so will the W column.
I'd say being able to move the ball down the field all second half against a top-5 team in the country was a positive. Holden had a good game and they put in plays to get him the ball in space. Being able to get home a couple times in the backfield was also good to see. Need to finish drives and do several things better but they had a lot of good flashes against a top-5 team. The real tests start that matter now however
Exactly how many opportunities in the red zone did we have & come up with zero points? That’s fixable & I say looking back a positive if we clean that up. The fact you got there so many times shows, even with OL struggles, that we just need to execute better in those situations. A few more TDs go on the board!! Give us that TD back for the nefarious OL hold penalty, get a do over on the INT in the end zone play & there is possibly 2 TDs. Get better personnel or better effort, approach on angles, improvement on tackling, and some nasty fire on DL and we hold teams like Ole Miss to a couple fewer TDs or more. This score could have been closer, but……
Looking back we’ll be fine if we can stop the injuries, prepare & fuel our bodies for endurance, protect QB better, and fix the defense. And for crying out loud, stop wasting plays running up the middle against a wall like Ole Miss DL! Much better chance running ball outside the tackles with TE/WR/RB blocks. It’s a no brainer! So staff has some things to work on as much as the players.
Yea, sure, after Ole miss pulled all their starters on defense we were able to get some first downs. Big whoop.
They moved the ball effectively from the mid-second quarter onward and Ole Miss had their starters in until the last couple of drives.
Drive chart for MTSU since the mid-second quarter:
Punt that pinned Ole Miss at the half-yard line -- 50-YARD LINE -- 3:31 time of possesion
Field goal to get points on the board -- OLE MISS 14 -- 2:52 top
HALFTIME
Interception in the end zone -- OLE MISS 16 -- 6:51 top
Fumble turned over -- MTSU 14 -- 0:55 top
Turnover on downs trying to get a touchdown on the board -- OLE MISS 6 -- 5:32 top
Punt -- MTSU 18 -- 3:02 top
Young Guys/Backups Enter
Turnover on Downs -- Ole Miss 45 -- 1:52 top
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