Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Week 2 bye a rare blessing for Blue Raiders
9/10/2020 6:00:00 PM | Football
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — A unique start to the 2020 football season includes a Week 2 bye for Middle Tennessee, and the team is treating the week off as a blessing.
"I'm glad we have the bye week this week," head coach Rick Stockstill said. "We have so many people hurt, we need a week to recover. … It's a good thing we have the open week."
The Blue Raiders haven't had a bye in the second week of the season since 1993. That year, they played at Hawaii in their first game then were granted a week off to travel back to Middle Tennessee and prepare for the home opener against Campbellsville University.
Prior to this season, the earliest MT has been granted a bye week in Stockstill's 15-year tenure was Week 3 in 2011. After that week off, they traveled to Troy for their first Sun Belt Conference game that year.
While they haven't been in the same conference since Middle Tennessee moved to Conference USA in 2013, the two teams will meet in a similar fashion Sept. 19, with the Blue Raiders again coming off an early bye. This time, though, it'll be in Murfreesboro.
"We'll use this week to implement things we'll do against teams moving forward, because there's so much similarity between everybody the rest of the way," Stockstill said. "This open date will not only help us from a recovery standpoint, but also from an installation standpoint."
Middle Tennessee is glad to see a familiar foe. Though the Blue Raiders and Trojans haven't met on the gridiron since 2012, they've squared off 20 times, with MT holding a 12-8 all-time advantage. They'll play twice this season, with the second matchup at Troy on Nov. 21.
After only having a couple of weeks to prepare for Army's challenging triple option offense in Week 1, the Raiders are ready to switch back to preparing for something a little more common with Troy's spread.
"I'm happy we can get back to doing some of the things we normally do," redshirt sophomore Jorden Starling said. "For Army, we had to slow down and read the option, and now we get to attack."
The Blue Raiders also might be chomping at the bit to go against the Trojan defense, which was one of the lower rated units in college football in 2019, giving up an average of 34.8 points and 434.2 yards per game.
Army made things tough on MT's offense, shutting the Raiders out for the first time since the 2012 season finale.
"The bye week helps us work on our details and get better at everything," senior offensive tackle Robert Jones said. "It wasn't a nice look out there [Week 1], but we have time to get better.
"We're working on effort and our details. We faced some adversity [against Army] … and threw some of our details out the window."
The unique Week 2 bye is just the first of three off weeks for Middle Tennessee this season. The Blue Raiders sure are glad to see it after a tough first week.
"We have to get into rehab as much as we can," Stockstill said. "We have to improve in how we played on Saturday. We have a lot of improvements to make."
"I'm glad we have the bye week this week," head coach Rick Stockstill said. "We have so many people hurt, we need a week to recover. … It's a good thing we have the open week."
The Blue Raiders haven't had a bye in the second week of the season since 1993. That year, they played at Hawaii in their first game then were granted a week off to travel back to Middle Tennessee and prepare for the home opener against Campbellsville University.
Prior to this season, the earliest MT has been granted a bye week in Stockstill's 15-year tenure was Week 3 in 2011. After that week off, they traveled to Troy for their first Sun Belt Conference game that year.
While they haven't been in the same conference since Middle Tennessee moved to Conference USA in 2013, the two teams will meet in a similar fashion Sept. 19, with the Blue Raiders again coming off an early bye. This time, though, it'll be in Murfreesboro.
"We'll use this week to implement things we'll do against teams moving forward, because there's so much similarity between everybody the rest of the way," Stockstill said. "This open date will not only help us from a recovery standpoint, but also from an installation standpoint."
Middle Tennessee is glad to see a familiar foe. Though the Blue Raiders and Trojans haven't met on the gridiron since 2012, they've squared off 20 times, with MT holding a 12-8 all-time advantage. They'll play twice this season, with the second matchup at Troy on Nov. 21.
After only having a couple of weeks to prepare for Army's challenging triple option offense in Week 1, the Raiders are ready to switch back to preparing for something a little more common with Troy's spread.
"I'm happy we can get back to doing some of the things we normally do," redshirt sophomore Jorden Starling said. "For Army, we had to slow down and read the option, and now we get to attack."
The Blue Raiders also might be chomping at the bit to go against the Trojan defense, which was one of the lower rated units in college football in 2019, giving up an average of 34.8 points and 434.2 yards per game.
Army made things tough on MT's offense, shutting the Raiders out for the first time since the 2012 season finale.
"The bye week helps us work on our details and get better at everything," senior offensive tackle Robert Jones said. "It wasn't a nice look out there [Week 1], but we have time to get better.
"We're working on effort and our details. We faced some adversity [against Army] … and threw some of our details out the window."
The unique Week 2 bye is just the first of three off weeks for Middle Tennessee this season. The Blue Raiders sure are glad to see it after a tough first week.
"We have to get into rehab as much as we can," Stockstill said. "We have to improve in how we played on Saturday. We have a lot of improvements to make."
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