Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Gone fishing with two Blue Raiders
6/9/2018 9:00:00 AM | Football
Behanan, Kee love the lake
It was a humid Tennessee morning in early June. Fog filled the air while a thin film covered the murky-green water of J. Percy Priest Lake. As the clock struck 7 a.m., a silver Ford sedan followed by an F150 rolled into the parking lot of the Fate Sanders boat ramp in Smyrna. As the pickup circled toward the ramp, a 6-foot-3 man wearing a bright blue three-quarter sleeve Columbia shirt approached the boat. The truck was thrown into park, and a smaller gentlemen with a smile as wide as the mouth of where the marina opened into the lake hopped out and greeted "Big Rob."
After a quick, "What's up, Kee?" MTSU offensive lineman Robert Behanan jumped into the cab of his former teammate Michael Kee's pickup, which fit him much better than his sedan. After backing Kee's 20-foot maroon Mercury bass boat into the water, the off-the-wall pair set off into the foggy morning in search of enough bass to feed Rob and the rest of the Blue Raider offensive line.
When he's not pounding on inside linebackers or protecting his record-setting quarterback, Robert Behanan likes to spend his free time with a pole in his hand and a balaclava on his head to protect him from the hot summer sun. That's the way he's done it his entire life.
Growing up as an only child in a suburb of Cincinnati, the nearest lake to his Fairfield, Ohio, home was in Indiana. Luckily for Behanan, his grandfather's brother-in-law owned two fishing ponds near his home where Behanan's grandpa taught him how to tie his first knot on a hook and what kind of bait to use to lure in each different species.
Behanan's counterpart on Percy Priest, Michael Kee, grew up exactly 1,100 miles south off Interstate 75 in Naples, Florida, where he fished the Gulf of Mexico along with the hundreds of streams that eventually make their way south to The Everglades.
Although the two fished very differently growing up, they found themselves together once again for a day on the Tennessee lake that they've gotten to know very well over the past four-plus years.
As the Mercury knifed through the water as if it were a slab of butter, the pair made their way north in search of shorelines where the once-bustling old moonshine roads ran before they were flooded in the 1960s.
A cutout no larger than the lot Floyd Stadium sits on supplied the shallow, warm water that was the first stop of the day. As the multi-bass-tournament-winning Kee readied his arsenal for the day, "Big Rob" wasted no time as he kicked off his Nike flip-flops and got his line in the water. While Kee was getting situated, Behanan pulled in his first catch of the day: an 8-inch largemouth bass.
"What was that on?" Kee asked.
"A good ole square-bill (crank bait)," Behanan replied.
After pulling the tri-hooked lure out of the jaws of his energetic catch as it thrashed around on the carpet of the boat, Behanan released it back into the water. Although the goal was to catch enough fish to feed the entire Blue Raider offensive front, Kee and Behanan wouldn't open the live well for the entire day. Bass aren't commonly kept by most anglers, however, that's not the reason no fish were taken home on the trip.
"We're all about conservation," Kee said.
After the former wideout – whose final game was the 2015 Bahamas Bowl - got his pole rigged up, he began working the trolling motor and the boat slowly moved along the shoreline about 20 yards out. Small bugs chirped along with the birds in the trees as the sun began to rise higher in the sky.
The patience needed to be a successful fisherman became evident, as the fish almost seemed to need to wake up and begin their daily routines. Then, breakfast time set in, and the ambush predator of Percy Priest, otherwise known as the bass, began feeding.
As Behanan slowly cranked his reel, he felt a small bump vibrate up his reddish-black baitcaster. A split-second later, he hooked up with something. The rod bent down like a newly grown branch and small flashes of the belly of the fish appeared in the sunlight that came through the trees to the east. After a battle much like that of a center deadlocking with a defensive tackle, Behanan pulled the fish to the boat, and just as it showed its face, it dove back deeper into the dark water and underneath the boat. Using the patience he exhibited waiting on the next bite, the Ohio native let the fish tire itself out until it finally rose back toward the surface.
"Oh yeah, it's a smallie," Behanan said as he pulled the darker-colored smallmouth bass out of the water. "It's the biggest one I've caught out of here. It's about 2 pounds. Sweet!"
A small accomplishment, but one that got Behanan excited.
After finishing the slow troll of the cutout near the old road where moonshiners once ran from the law and seeing Behanan eventually pull in a small sunfish along with a catfish, Kee needed to get in on the action. He claims to know all the best spots along the lake that runs northwest from the Sulphur Springs community north of Murfreesboro to Nashville Shores water park. He's just a month removed from participating in a bass tournament on Percy Priest in which he won $2,000.
Kee got back into the captain's seat of his 20-foot Mercury that resembles a rocket scooting across the water and headed for the dam. Following a quick, 10-minute ride on the water that would take nearly 30 by car, the boat came to a slow halt along the rocks of the J. Percy Priest dam that was constructed by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers nearly 50 years ago.
"See these rocks? They drop off and the bass hide in there," Kee said. "You want to keep your bait as close to the rocks as possible but parallel to the shore. Keep the rod-tip up in the shallow water and after the bait sinks, lower the rod-tip and crank (the reel) fast."
Kee pulled off a once-in-a-lifetime feat in this very spot.
"I hooked a 5-pounder and a 2-pounder on the same rig," he said. "I heard my drag go 'whoosh,' and I got them both up to the boat before they got off. I thought it was a horse."
It was almost destined that the Florida boy was going to catch something, even as it clouded up and the heat made things slow down. Bouncing a Texas-rigged (a setup where the hook and bait sits above a split-shot weight on a line) lizard along the bottom, Kee hooked up along the muddy bottom of the lake about 75 yards from the mouth of the dam. Sure, it may not have been a horse, but the 1-pound largemouth was good enough to put that big smile back on Kee's face.
As the heat began to beat down and the morning fog was bygone, it was time to head back toward Fate Sanders for the last stretch of the day. Kee's father and younger brother were on their way up from Florida to join him on the water for the remainder of the afternoon, and Behanan needed to muster one more fish out of the already successful day he'd enjoyed.
Upon arrival at the marina, a small group of evergreen trees poked out of the water on a sandbar nearly a half mile from shore. After catching a "tree-pounder" -- what the duo calls caught tree limbs -- another bizarre catch was pulled aboard by the 298-pound lineman when a 3-foot snapping turtle rose to the top of the water, almost as if to wave hello.
"Take a look at that thing!" Behanan said. "It's gotta be 30 pounds. You'll see a lot of weird stuff when you come out with us."
"I wonder how much damage that thing could do," Kee added.
Luckily, the safety of the boat kept the mysterious creature of the depths where it should stay as Behanan and Kee motored closer to the boat docks.
The boats sitting in the slips provided a possible last-second catch before Kee's family arrived and Behanan would have to head back to his dorm on Middle Tennessee's campus in time to catch a nap before a team meeting.
With a side-armed flick of the rod much like that of Blue Raider quarterback Brent Stockstill firing a shot downfield while rolling out of the pocket, the bait continued popping perfectly into a narrow gap between the starboard side and the concrete side of the boat.
As they approached the final dock, Behanen gazed awkwardly at the last house boat that sat in front of the open water.
"That's a handmade houseboat," he chuckled. "It looks like it's made out of aluminum, and those are actual windows from a house."
Nothing took the bait as the former teammates trolled through the final slip in front of the boat launch. The handmade houseboat was an unconventional sign, though, of the bond the pair has found on the Tennessee water away from the Ohio ponds and warm Gulf they grew up fishing.
After a quick, "What's up, Kee?" MTSU offensive lineman Robert Behanan jumped into the cab of his former teammate Michael Kee's pickup, which fit him much better than his sedan. After backing Kee's 20-foot maroon Mercury bass boat into the water, the off-the-wall pair set off into the foggy morning in search of enough bass to feed Rob and the rest of the Blue Raider offensive line.
When he's not pounding on inside linebackers or protecting his record-setting quarterback, Robert Behanan likes to spend his free time with a pole in his hand and a balaclava on his head to protect him from the hot summer sun. That's the way he's done it his entire life.
Growing up as an only child in a suburb of Cincinnati, the nearest lake to his Fairfield, Ohio, home was in Indiana. Luckily for Behanan, his grandfather's brother-in-law owned two fishing ponds near his home where Behanan's grandpa taught him how to tie his first knot on a hook and what kind of bait to use to lure in each different species.
Behanan's counterpart on Percy Priest, Michael Kee, grew up exactly 1,100 miles south off Interstate 75 in Naples, Florida, where he fished the Gulf of Mexico along with the hundreds of streams that eventually make their way south to The Everglades.
Although the two fished very differently growing up, they found themselves together once again for a day on the Tennessee lake that they've gotten to know very well over the past four-plus years.
As the Mercury knifed through the water as if it were a slab of butter, the pair made their way north in search of shorelines where the once-bustling old moonshine roads ran before they were flooded in the 1960s.
A cutout no larger than the lot Floyd Stadium sits on supplied the shallow, warm water that was the first stop of the day. As the multi-bass-tournament-winning Kee readied his arsenal for the day, "Big Rob" wasted no time as he kicked off his Nike flip-flops and got his line in the water. While Kee was getting situated, Behanan pulled in his first catch of the day: an 8-inch largemouth bass.
"What was that on?" Kee asked.
"A good ole square-bill (crank bait)," Behanan replied.
After pulling the tri-hooked lure out of the jaws of his energetic catch as it thrashed around on the carpet of the boat, Behanan released it back into the water. Although the goal was to catch enough fish to feed the entire Blue Raider offensive front, Kee and Behanan wouldn't open the live well for the entire day. Bass aren't commonly kept by most anglers, however, that's not the reason no fish were taken home on the trip.
"We're all about conservation," Kee said.
After the former wideout – whose final game was the 2015 Bahamas Bowl - got his pole rigged up, he began working the trolling motor and the boat slowly moved along the shoreline about 20 yards out. Small bugs chirped along with the birds in the trees as the sun began to rise higher in the sky.
The patience needed to be a successful fisherman became evident, as the fish almost seemed to need to wake up and begin their daily routines. Then, breakfast time set in, and the ambush predator of Percy Priest, otherwise known as the bass, began feeding.
As Behanan slowly cranked his reel, he felt a small bump vibrate up his reddish-black baitcaster. A split-second later, he hooked up with something. The rod bent down like a newly grown branch and small flashes of the belly of the fish appeared in the sunlight that came through the trees to the east. After a battle much like that of a center deadlocking with a defensive tackle, Behanan pulled the fish to the boat, and just as it showed its face, it dove back deeper into the dark water and underneath the boat. Using the patience he exhibited waiting on the next bite, the Ohio native let the fish tire itself out until it finally rose back toward the surface.
"Oh yeah, it's a smallie," Behanan said as he pulled the darker-colored smallmouth bass out of the water. "It's the biggest one I've caught out of here. It's about 2 pounds. Sweet!"
A small accomplishment, but one that got Behanan excited.
After finishing the slow troll of the cutout near the old road where moonshiners once ran from the law and seeing Behanan eventually pull in a small sunfish along with a catfish, Kee needed to get in on the action. He claims to know all the best spots along the lake that runs northwest from the Sulphur Springs community north of Murfreesboro to Nashville Shores water park. He's just a month removed from participating in a bass tournament on Percy Priest in which he won $2,000.
Kee got back into the captain's seat of his 20-foot Mercury that resembles a rocket scooting across the water and headed for the dam. Following a quick, 10-minute ride on the water that would take nearly 30 by car, the boat came to a slow halt along the rocks of the J. Percy Priest dam that was constructed by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers nearly 50 years ago.
"See these rocks? They drop off and the bass hide in there," Kee said. "You want to keep your bait as close to the rocks as possible but parallel to the shore. Keep the rod-tip up in the shallow water and after the bait sinks, lower the rod-tip and crank (the reel) fast."
Kee pulled off a once-in-a-lifetime feat in this very spot.
"I hooked a 5-pounder and a 2-pounder on the same rig," he said. "I heard my drag go 'whoosh,' and I got them both up to the boat before they got off. I thought it was a horse."
It was almost destined that the Florida boy was going to catch something, even as it clouded up and the heat made things slow down. Bouncing a Texas-rigged (a setup where the hook and bait sits above a split-shot weight on a line) lizard along the bottom, Kee hooked up along the muddy bottom of the lake about 75 yards from the mouth of the dam. Sure, it may not have been a horse, but the 1-pound largemouth was good enough to put that big smile back on Kee's face.
As the heat began to beat down and the morning fog was bygone, it was time to head back toward Fate Sanders for the last stretch of the day. Kee's father and younger brother were on their way up from Florida to join him on the water for the remainder of the afternoon, and Behanan needed to muster one more fish out of the already successful day he'd enjoyed.
Upon arrival at the marina, a small group of evergreen trees poked out of the water on a sandbar nearly a half mile from shore. After catching a "tree-pounder" -- what the duo calls caught tree limbs -- another bizarre catch was pulled aboard by the 298-pound lineman when a 3-foot snapping turtle rose to the top of the water, almost as if to wave hello.
"Take a look at that thing!" Behanan said. "It's gotta be 30 pounds. You'll see a lot of weird stuff when you come out with us."
"I wonder how much damage that thing could do," Kee added.
Luckily, the safety of the boat kept the mysterious creature of the depths where it should stay as Behanan and Kee motored closer to the boat docks.
The boats sitting in the slips provided a possible last-second catch before Kee's family arrived and Behanan would have to head back to his dorm on Middle Tennessee's campus in time to catch a nap before a team meeting.
With a side-armed flick of the rod much like that of Blue Raider quarterback Brent Stockstill firing a shot downfield while rolling out of the pocket, the bait continued popping perfectly into a narrow gap between the starboard side and the concrete side of the boat.
As they approached the final dock, Behanen gazed awkwardly at the last house boat that sat in front of the open water.
"That's a handmade houseboat," he chuckled. "It looks like it's made out of aluminum, and those are actual windows from a house."
Nothing took the bait as the former teammates trolled through the final slip in front of the boat launch. The handmade houseboat was an unconventional sign, though, of the bond the pair has found on the Tennessee water away from the Ohio ponds and warm Gulf they grew up fishing.
Players Mentioned
Raider Report Week 3 - MTSU vs. University of Nevada
Friday, September 12
Derek Mason LIVE: Presented by The Boulevard Bar & Grille Week 3 (Video)
Monday, September 08
MTSU Football Weekly Press Conference 9/8/25
Monday, September 08
MTSU Football Postgame Press Conference @ Wisconsin on 09-06-25
Saturday, September 06
