Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
COLUMN: On a wide open 11-team Conference USA, and three Blue Raider Stars from Friday
10/2/2022 4:08:00 PM | Football
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — There's so much to not like about Friday night games in college football.
Friday night games cut off college teams from the local football ecosystem at its very root: Friday night high school football, preventing college coaches from scouting future players, of course, but also forcing countless fans to choose between supporting the hometown team, or the neighborhood one, with the latter, as it often should, winning out.
There are benefits, to be sure, from a college Friday night game, particularly for schools like Middle Tennessee in Conference USA. Where nearly every game in C-USA this Saturday was on ESPN+, a useful place to find them for the fans, but not so much the casual viewer, thousands more watched the Blue Raiders and the UTSA Roadrunners from home on Friday than would've otherwise.
But on a personal level, coming home late at night after covering a tough loss for MTSU Friday, being finished with my work week threw my whole internal clock off the rest of the weekend as well.
With that, this Sunday column is a little different. With my Saturday free, I got to actually watch a fair amount of the rest of Conference USA in action this weekend, whether that was live on ESPN+ or through scoreboard watching and switching feeds. With no divisions this year, things are already starting to take shape, and I thought it was worth highlighting some of the more interesting broader trends between teams before the thick of C-USA play starts.
Then, I wanted to highlight a couple of under the radar things that have stuck with me from Friday night's game. With that, let's dive in!
A Conference USA Whiparound
North Texas 45, FAU 24: Anecdotally, just from the FAU folks I follow on twitter, it sounds like the Owls were banged up a fair bit before they traveled to Denton. Even with that, giving up 300 yards on the ground to a program that is a) generally associated with airing it out on offense and b) lost 58-27 to (an admittedly much better than usual) UNLV is rather concerning for the folks in Boca Raton.
FAU looked strong to start the year against Charlotte and has been right in games with Ohio and Purdue on the road. But already, at 2-4, it looks like the Owls need to use their upcoming bye week to find their footing and find it quickly.
As for North Texas, the Mean Green are very quietly at the top of the C-USA standings, thanks to their Week 1 win over UTEP making them the only team with two wins in conference so far this season. Drawing UTSA and Western Kentucky AND UAB all on the road is a tough slate to pick up enough wins to stay in the top two of the standings, but so far, they've got a bit of momentum heading into a bye of their own.
UTEP 41, Charlotte 35: Fun fact of the week — This was UTEP's first ever win as a program in a game played in the Eastern time zone, with the Miners improving their record to 1-26-1 all-time in the ET. The difference in this game ultimately being a fumble recovery by defensive lineman Jadrian Taylor returned 100 yards for a touchdown right when the 49ers are knocking on the goal line to cut the game to one score.
The Miners are very much a team worth waiting and seeing how they develop ahead of MTSU's visit to El Paso at the end of the month. They've got some good strengths, particularly on defense, and the schedule sets the Miners up well with a road game at LA Tech this week and FAU at home before the Blue Raiders visit the Sun Bowl. But there's a little too much inconsistency, both in results and opponent quality, to make any judgments on their prospects from my perspective.
Charlotte is an entirely different team when Chris Reynolds is at quarterback and the team has played much better since the signal caller's return against Georgia State. I'm betting they're going to put up a lot of scares to teams fighting for conference title berths and bowl bids the rest of the way as long as Reynolds is healthy. But when the fewest points your defense has given up in a game all season is 41? It's real hard to win football games that way, and the 49ers are already two losses away from not making a bowl.
Troy 34, WKU 27: A game every coach in C-USA will watch, as the Hilltoppers are upset on their home field by a decent, but not conference title contender, Sun Belt foe.
WKU has been on fire to start the season, against admittedly a pretty weak schedule (Hawai'i and FIU will likely be two of the bottom ten teams in the country this season, and their other win in Austin Peay). But still, you can only play who's in front of you, and WKU's offense under D-II National Champion Austin Reed at QB looked like it hadn't missed a beat. He had another good night, Saturday, throwing for over 400 yards and three touchdowns.
But Troy was able to bring pressure (five sacks, nine tackles for loss), including a forced fumble to seal the game as the Hilltoppers put together a drive in the closing couple of minutes, perhaps giving a blueprint for other teams to follow in the weeks ahead. Things don't get any easier with a trip to UTSA this weekend. Then a second road game here at Floyd Stadium the week after.
The one bright side? WKU is still 1-0 in C-USA play, thanks to that 73-0(!) win over FIU last week. If they can correct what went wrong against the Trojans, they'll have every chance to play for that title.
FIU 21, New Mexico St 7: In a preview of a 2023 Conference USA Matchup, FIU earned its first win against an FBS opponent since the Panthers victory over Miami, 30-24, in the Miami Marlins' ballpark on November 23, 2019, as well as the program's first true road win since November 17, 2018 (42-35 over Charlotte).
Both teams are undergoing massive rebuilds ahead of the C-USA reshuffle next year, so not much to ascertain about the Panthers at this stage, other than to tip your hat to Mark McIntyre and his staff for getting the team ready to play after a program-record loss to the Hilltoppers a week prior, a task far easier said than done, as last year's FIU team's outlook as the season progressed can attest.
Rice 28, UAB 24: Slow clap for the Rice Owls, who have played their way into the C-USA race where no one expected them to be at the start of the year, thanks to a solid defense (save for their season opening loss at USC). They're not flashy, but Mike Bloomgren has kept the offense balanced and also had a little magic with time of possession, either keeping it even (perfectly even against the Blazers, with each time having the ball for 30:00 of game time) or in some cases dominating it (41:51 against Louisiana).
Suddenly, the Owls are a much trickier team to have on your schedule than 10th place finish they were projected into at the start of the year.
As for the Blazers, who the Blue Raiders travel to this week: they've got a lot to figure out on the offensive side of the ball. Maybe it's just road game problems for UAB, as both of the Blazers' two losses (Liberty and Rice) came away from Protective Stadium, but if you can stop the UAB rushing attack, you can shut down pretty much everything else they throw at you, as the Owls showed the conference last night.
The defense, no question, has not missed a beat from last year, which will keep them in every game and will likely win them a few outright. But for a team that was considered the second favorite, if not co-favorite, for the C-USA title this year, there's a lot to improve on in the weeks ahead.
Three MTSU Stars from Friday
As for the Blue Raiders, I thought, with some preseason hockey coming across my feed in recent days, it would be apt to dole out "Three Stars" from this Friday's game, which I've learned originated as a sponsor tie-in for Imperial Oil thanks to this wikipedia article. As is tradition in hockey circles, the "1 Star" honoree gets top marks, followed by 2 Star and 3 Star.
I'm not sure if this will be an every week thing, it might be something that makes its way into the Monday Notebook in the future. But there were a couple under the radar stories from this week I wanted to make sure got some attention here.
1 Star: Jaylin Lane's wide receiver play was massive down the stretch, with 10 catches for 179 yards, 63 of those yards coming after the catch. But what caught my attention more than his great play at wideout, which I more or less expected this season with his increased playing time, was the return of J-Lane to the kick return game.
Whether it was because of the strong wind or just a poor scout, UTSA kicked the ball to Lane five times on Friday, twice on punts and three times on kickoffs. And the preseason All-American made the Roadrunners pay, adding 88 return yards, including a 35-yard kick return and a 23-yard punt return, giving MTSU great field position throughout the night.
"Kickoff return was the one thing on special teams that was lacking all season, because we just had no production," Lane said after the game. "So, I felt like it was good to get some stuff going for sure."
2 Stars: Decorian Patterson doubled his season interception total on Saturday night, jumping a redzone pass as well as dominating on a 50/50 ball along the sideline to give MTSU a shot to tie the game late. The kind of plays that folks around the program thought Patterson might make this season after he clearly had made a big jump in his skillset this offseason.
But what I'll remember about Patterson in this game is the fact that he left with a shoulder injury, early in the second quarter. The team's pass defense struggled mightily without him. And through his own will, with some help from the training staff, he found the guts to get back out there, making those two huge plays after his injury.
"I knew I brought energy whenever I got back on the field," Patterson said. "Whatever I had to do to get back on the field, that's what I was doing."
3 Stars: Buried deep in the Blue Raider football media guide next year, you'll find Chase Cunningham's name all over the individual records. He already tied the longest completion in program history last week. This week? He tied his quarterbacks coach, Brent Stockstill, for the second most passing attempts in a single game with 56. His 35 completions were also good for third most in a single game in program history.
Some of that production is the air raid, which will throw the ball a lot more than most offenses, of course. But I'd credit most of that production to Cunningham himself, who continues to acquit himself with some of the best QBs in Conference USA with his play, to say nothing of his grit to pop back up after facing tons of pressure during most of MTSU's comeback attempt.
Friday night games cut off college teams from the local football ecosystem at its very root: Friday night high school football, preventing college coaches from scouting future players, of course, but also forcing countless fans to choose between supporting the hometown team, or the neighborhood one, with the latter, as it often should, winning out.
There are benefits, to be sure, from a college Friday night game, particularly for schools like Middle Tennessee in Conference USA. Where nearly every game in C-USA this Saturday was on ESPN+, a useful place to find them for the fans, but not so much the casual viewer, thousands more watched the Blue Raiders and the UTSA Roadrunners from home on Friday than would've otherwise.
But on a personal level, coming home late at night after covering a tough loss for MTSU Friday, being finished with my work week threw my whole internal clock off the rest of the weekend as well.
With that, this Sunday column is a little different. With my Saturday free, I got to actually watch a fair amount of the rest of Conference USA in action this weekend, whether that was live on ESPN+ or through scoreboard watching and switching feeds. With no divisions this year, things are already starting to take shape, and I thought it was worth highlighting some of the more interesting broader trends between teams before the thick of C-USA play starts.
Then, I wanted to highlight a couple of under the radar things that have stuck with me from Friday night's game. With that, let's dive in!
A Conference USA Whiparound
North Texas 45, FAU 24: Anecdotally, just from the FAU folks I follow on twitter, it sounds like the Owls were banged up a fair bit before they traveled to Denton. Even with that, giving up 300 yards on the ground to a program that is a) generally associated with airing it out on offense and b) lost 58-27 to (an admittedly much better than usual) UNLV is rather concerning for the folks in Boca Raton.
FAU looked strong to start the year against Charlotte and has been right in games with Ohio and Purdue on the road. But already, at 2-4, it looks like the Owls need to use their upcoming bye week to find their footing and find it quickly.
As for North Texas, the Mean Green are very quietly at the top of the C-USA standings, thanks to their Week 1 win over UTEP making them the only team with two wins in conference so far this season. Drawing UTSA and Western Kentucky AND UAB all on the road is a tough slate to pick up enough wins to stay in the top two of the standings, but so far, they've got a bit of momentum heading into a bye of their own.
UTEP 41, Charlotte 35: Fun fact of the week — This was UTEP's first ever win as a program in a game played in the Eastern time zone, with the Miners improving their record to 1-26-1 all-time in the ET. The difference in this game ultimately being a fumble recovery by defensive lineman Jadrian Taylor returned 100 yards for a touchdown right when the 49ers are knocking on the goal line to cut the game to one score.
The Miners are very much a team worth waiting and seeing how they develop ahead of MTSU's visit to El Paso at the end of the month. They've got some good strengths, particularly on defense, and the schedule sets the Miners up well with a road game at LA Tech this week and FAU at home before the Blue Raiders visit the Sun Bowl. But there's a little too much inconsistency, both in results and opponent quality, to make any judgments on their prospects from my perspective.
Charlotte is an entirely different team when Chris Reynolds is at quarterback and the team has played much better since the signal caller's return against Georgia State. I'm betting they're going to put up a lot of scares to teams fighting for conference title berths and bowl bids the rest of the way as long as Reynolds is healthy. But when the fewest points your defense has given up in a game all season is 41? It's real hard to win football games that way, and the 49ers are already two losses away from not making a bowl.
Troy 34, WKU 27: A game every coach in C-USA will watch, as the Hilltoppers are upset on their home field by a decent, but not conference title contender, Sun Belt foe.
WKU has been on fire to start the season, against admittedly a pretty weak schedule (Hawai'i and FIU will likely be two of the bottom ten teams in the country this season, and their other win in Austin Peay). But still, you can only play who's in front of you, and WKU's offense under D-II National Champion Austin Reed at QB looked like it hadn't missed a beat. He had another good night, Saturday, throwing for over 400 yards and three touchdowns.
But Troy was able to bring pressure (five sacks, nine tackles for loss), including a forced fumble to seal the game as the Hilltoppers put together a drive in the closing couple of minutes, perhaps giving a blueprint for other teams to follow in the weeks ahead. Things don't get any easier with a trip to UTSA this weekend. Then a second road game here at Floyd Stadium the week after.
The one bright side? WKU is still 1-0 in C-USA play, thanks to that 73-0(!) win over FIU last week. If they can correct what went wrong against the Trojans, they'll have every chance to play for that title.
FIU 21, New Mexico St 7: In a preview of a 2023 Conference USA Matchup, FIU earned its first win against an FBS opponent since the Panthers victory over Miami, 30-24, in the Miami Marlins' ballpark on November 23, 2019, as well as the program's first true road win since November 17, 2018 (42-35 over Charlotte).
Both teams are undergoing massive rebuilds ahead of the C-USA reshuffle next year, so not much to ascertain about the Panthers at this stage, other than to tip your hat to Mark McIntyre and his staff for getting the team ready to play after a program-record loss to the Hilltoppers a week prior, a task far easier said than done, as last year's FIU team's outlook as the season progressed can attest.
Rice 28, UAB 24: Slow clap for the Rice Owls, who have played their way into the C-USA race where no one expected them to be at the start of the year, thanks to a solid defense (save for their season opening loss at USC). They're not flashy, but Mike Bloomgren has kept the offense balanced and also had a little magic with time of possession, either keeping it even (perfectly even against the Blazers, with each time having the ball for 30:00 of game time) or in some cases dominating it (41:51 against Louisiana).
Suddenly, the Owls are a much trickier team to have on your schedule than 10th place finish they were projected into at the start of the year.
As for the Blazers, who the Blue Raiders travel to this week: they've got a lot to figure out on the offensive side of the ball. Maybe it's just road game problems for UAB, as both of the Blazers' two losses (Liberty and Rice) came away from Protective Stadium, but if you can stop the UAB rushing attack, you can shut down pretty much everything else they throw at you, as the Owls showed the conference last night.
The defense, no question, has not missed a beat from last year, which will keep them in every game and will likely win them a few outright. But for a team that was considered the second favorite, if not co-favorite, for the C-USA title this year, there's a lot to improve on in the weeks ahead.
Three MTSU Stars from Friday
As for the Blue Raiders, I thought, with some preseason hockey coming across my feed in recent days, it would be apt to dole out "Three Stars" from this Friday's game, which I've learned originated as a sponsor tie-in for Imperial Oil thanks to this wikipedia article. As is tradition in hockey circles, the "1 Star" honoree gets top marks, followed by 2 Star and 3 Star.
I'm not sure if this will be an every week thing, it might be something that makes its way into the Monday Notebook in the future. But there were a couple under the radar stories from this week I wanted to make sure got some attention here.
1 Star: Jaylin Lane's wide receiver play was massive down the stretch, with 10 catches for 179 yards, 63 of those yards coming after the catch. But what caught my attention more than his great play at wideout, which I more or less expected this season with his increased playing time, was the return of J-Lane to the kick return game.
Whether it was because of the strong wind or just a poor scout, UTSA kicked the ball to Lane five times on Friday, twice on punts and three times on kickoffs. And the preseason All-American made the Roadrunners pay, adding 88 return yards, including a 35-yard kick return and a 23-yard punt return, giving MTSU great field position throughout the night.
"Kickoff return was the one thing on special teams that was lacking all season, because we just had no production," Lane said after the game. "So, I felt like it was good to get some stuff going for sure."
2 Stars: Decorian Patterson doubled his season interception total on Saturday night, jumping a redzone pass as well as dominating on a 50/50 ball along the sideline to give MTSU a shot to tie the game late. The kind of plays that folks around the program thought Patterson might make this season after he clearly had made a big jump in his skillset this offseason.
But what I'll remember about Patterson in this game is the fact that he left with a shoulder injury, early in the second quarter. The team's pass defense struggled mightily without him. And through his own will, with some help from the training staff, he found the guts to get back out there, making those two huge plays after his injury.
"I knew I brought energy whenever I got back on the field," Patterson said. "Whatever I had to do to get back on the field, that's what I was doing."
3 Stars: Buried deep in the Blue Raider football media guide next year, you'll find Chase Cunningham's name all over the individual records. He already tied the longest completion in program history last week. This week? He tied his quarterbacks coach, Brent Stockstill, for the second most passing attempts in a single game with 56. His 35 completions were also good for third most in a single game in program history.
Some of that production is the air raid, which will throw the ball a lot more than most offenses, of course. But I'd credit most of that production to Cunningham himself, who continues to acquit himself with some of the best QBs in Conference USA with his play, to say nothing of his grit to pop back up after facing tons of pressure during most of MTSU's comeback attempt.
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