Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
COLUMN: Five Blue Raider Football Storylines I’m watching in August
7/31/2022 5:42:00 PM | Football
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — July turns to August, the parking spots at the Greenland Dr lot become a bit harder to find during the week, and whistles will soon rain down from the practice field behind Dean A. Hayes Track & Soccer Stadium.
Yes, it's finally time for the start of fall camp here in Murfreesboro, as your Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders return as the reigning Bahamas Bowl champions for the 2022 season in Conference USA, now reorganized into a single, 11-team conference standings, where the top-2 teams at the end of the regular season will play for the C-USA title.
Before we can get there, however, there are position battles to be won, chemistry to gel and packages to install in fall camp for MTSU. With some parts of the roster featuring tons of continuity, while others seemingly have turned over almost completely, there's plenty to keep an eye on as camp starts on Wednesday, August 3, this week.
Here's five storylines I'll be following closely ahead of MTSU's season opener on September 3 at James Madison.
1) A Quarterback Battle with a return to the Air Raid
Almost every preseason quarterback battle I've followed throughout my time as a fan, and later as a reporter, is defined by its uncertainty.
That's not surprising. Whether it's a long-time starter moving on to the next level (what UNC went through after Mitch Trubisky left for the NFL when I started covering the team as a junior) or it's a team that has several options that haven't proven themselves in that environment (looking at you, Matt Rhule's Carolina Panthers), there is often an air of pessimism, or at the very least caution, when a team doesn't know who QB1 is at the start of camp.
That is very much not the case here at MTSU, however, as fans have seen both Chase Cunningham and Nicholas Vattiato produce at a high level behind center Jordan Palmer just last season. Cunningham tossing 16 touchdowns against just three interceptions until his season was cut short due to a knee injury, while Vattiato rebounded from being thrown in the fire against WKU to finish the Blue Raiders' season with wins in three of his final four starts.
Knowing that both guys will have the tools to be successful makes this quarterback battle a much more fun one to cover, as I anticipate both Cunningham and Vattiato to impress throughout August and push their teammate to be their very best. And whoever gets the nod against the Dukes will certainly be the one that's been the best.
Within that battle will also be a chance to see new offensive coordinator Mitch Stewart's air raid offense at full strength for the first time in Murfreesboro. Both Cunningham and Vattiato have praised the offense in the Blue Raiders' preseason media blitz, highlighting its ability to get the ball into space and let players make plays.
"The offense now is super quarterback friendly," Cunningham said. "You don't really need to overthink anything. Obviously, there's a lot of playmakers out there. You've just got to get the ball in the playmaker's hand and let them do their thing."
Added Vattiato: "I'm just excited for everyone to be able to see the product we put on the field."
2) New running backs need to turn up their production
It's no secret that running back production has not been where Rick Stockstill and his staff would've liked these past two seasons. While the quarterback position has occasionally been able to supplement the running game (see Cunningham's 65 rushing yards on nine carries at Charlotte last year...or the career stat lines of former QBs Asher O'Hara and Mike DiLiello), ultimately the running backs are where a rushing game's identity is established.
The running game from the MTSU running backs have been such a red flag in scouting MTSU over the past two seasons that Eric Henry, Co-Managing Editor of SBNation's Underdog Dynasty, asked essentially the same question at this year's C-USA Kickoff as he did at last years. To paraphrase: it's been a challenge to get production out of your running backs the past few seasons. Is that still a point of emphasis, and how do you get more production out of them?
"We've been very inconsistent the last couple of years in the running game, we've got to be a better running team," Stockstill said at C-USA Kickoff this week. "You're not going to force the running game, you're not going to force the passing game, you're just going to do whatever it takes to win. Hopefully, we'll be able to run the ball better this year than we did last year."
Personnel wise, Frank Peasant will have the most experience as a Blue Raider of anyone in the RB room come the start of camp, though Joe Ervin (Kansas State transfer) and A'Varius Sparrow (West Virginia transfer) will both certainly push for time as well.
Mitch Stewart's offenses at Samford had the ability to produce incredible games for their running backs, most notably Jay Stanton's 13-carry, 137-yard rushing performance in a win over The Citadel. He pointed out to me when I met with him in the spring that the Air Raid is not about passing all the time for the sake of passing, at least when it's run well. It's about "raiding the space" that the defense provides.
So, if MTSU can find space for its RBs this year, I expect that production will step up. Finding that space, however, will depend on just how much this next group gels.
3) A retooled offensive line with a new point of emphasis
Rick Mallory, currently the tight ends/H-back coach, but at the time one of the offensive line coaches, said something during the Blue Raiders' signing day celebration this past winter that stuck with me throughout spring ball and into the summer as I got a glimpse of this team's progression.
Namely, that it was a point of emphasis for the staff to try to recruit bigger offensive linemen for this cycle than they have in the past. Both with players that might see the field early and with those that are expected to take a redshirt.
We'll see how it translates to the field, but on paper, it was mission accomplished for the Blue Raider coaching and recruiting staffs. Of the six offensive linemen MTSU signed in 2022, three of them are taller than 6-foot-4. Led by JuCo products Joseph Stone (6-foot-7) and Ethan Ellis (6-foot-6), filled with lots of new faces throughout the room, I'll be excited to see this group gel after a spring where they often only dressed six at practice due to roster turnover, injuries and spring class schedules.
It's true that MTSU will be replacing four regular starters on the offensive line, with center Jordan Palmer as the only holdover from a season ago. But after the struggles of the previous group in generating space for running backs in particular, and occasionally having quarterbacks under pressure too often on top of that, I'm very curious to see if this line construction idea bears fruit this August.
4) Life in the Back-7 post DQ Thomas and Reed Blankenship
The back seven of the defense is the other spot with the most turnover on MTSU's 2021 roster. Unlike the offensive line, however, this turnover is not in sheer numbers, but rather in who has moved on. Namely, All-conference linebacker DQ Thomas and all-conference safety Reed Blankenship, both who are currently in NFL camps, as well as the transfers of Quincy Riley, Greg Grate and Jurriente Davis, each of whom started most of last season for MT when healthy.
That final bit is key, however, as injuries in this group have given a plethora of Blue Raiders lots of experience even with the absence of two of the best defensive players in the Rick Stockstill era here at Middle.
At linebacker, Johnathan Butler is expected to lead that unit after a solid 2021 in which he battled through injuries. Devyn Curtis and Raquon Hartley both impressed at points during last year as well, while newcomers like Mississippi State transfer Timar Rogers will push for playing time as well.
In the secondary, safety is predictably deep, as it always has been since the days of Kevin Byard playing at Floyd Stadium. I'm looking forward to seeing Tra Fluellen step up into a full-time starting role at safety after being all over the field in a utility role last year.
Teldrick Ross is another versatile weapon for defensive coordinator Scott Shafer that could find themselves in a bigger role on Saturdays, capable of top-end coverage at nickel, outside corner or safety. And don't forget Decorian Patterson and Jalen Jackson, two corners with a lot of snaps under their belts that will get a chance to make their marks as well.
5) A defensive line that can feast
In complete contrast to the rest of the defense, the MTSU defensive line returns pretty much everyone from a unit that created a lot of havoc a season ago. All-conference defensive end Jordan Ferguson will get a lot of the headlines from the media and attention from opposing scouts, and rightfully so with his 16.5 tackles for loss and 9.0 sacks a season ago.
But as Ferguson noted at the C-USA Kickoff last week, this defensive line room is filled with a lot of "upper division learners" who have been in the system a long time. You know most of the names: Zaylin Wood, Ja'Kerrius Wyatt, Marley Cook, Richard Kinley, Jordan Branch, and Ralph Mency. That's a lot of guys that not only have played a lot of snaps in their time in Murfreesboro, but have gotten a lot of production as a unit.
So much of camp's competitive periods, particularly scrimmages, are defined by which units have gelled the most early on. The hope being that by the final scrimmage a week before the season opener you've got all of your units working at a high level, even if they didn't start out this way.
This group should start out at a high level from the very day they step out on the field with no pads. By the time we have stats to report from the scrimmages, I hope I'll be able to share how much this group is dominating early on, before the other units get up to speed with them.
Yes, it's finally time for the start of fall camp here in Murfreesboro, as your Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders return as the reigning Bahamas Bowl champions for the 2022 season in Conference USA, now reorganized into a single, 11-team conference standings, where the top-2 teams at the end of the regular season will play for the C-USA title.
Before we can get there, however, there are position battles to be won, chemistry to gel and packages to install in fall camp for MTSU. With some parts of the roster featuring tons of continuity, while others seemingly have turned over almost completely, there's plenty to keep an eye on as camp starts on Wednesday, August 3, this week.
Here's five storylines I'll be following closely ahead of MTSU's season opener on September 3 at James Madison.
1) A Quarterback Battle with a return to the Air Raid
Almost every preseason quarterback battle I've followed throughout my time as a fan, and later as a reporter, is defined by its uncertainty.
That's not surprising. Whether it's a long-time starter moving on to the next level (what UNC went through after Mitch Trubisky left for the NFL when I started covering the team as a junior) or it's a team that has several options that haven't proven themselves in that environment (looking at you, Matt Rhule's Carolina Panthers), there is often an air of pessimism, or at the very least caution, when a team doesn't know who QB1 is at the start of camp.
That is very much not the case here at MTSU, however, as fans have seen both Chase Cunningham and Nicholas Vattiato produce at a high level behind center Jordan Palmer just last season. Cunningham tossing 16 touchdowns against just three interceptions until his season was cut short due to a knee injury, while Vattiato rebounded from being thrown in the fire against WKU to finish the Blue Raiders' season with wins in three of his final four starts.
Knowing that both guys will have the tools to be successful makes this quarterback battle a much more fun one to cover, as I anticipate both Cunningham and Vattiato to impress throughout August and push their teammate to be their very best. And whoever gets the nod against the Dukes will certainly be the one that's been the best.
Within that battle will also be a chance to see new offensive coordinator Mitch Stewart's air raid offense at full strength for the first time in Murfreesboro. Both Cunningham and Vattiato have praised the offense in the Blue Raiders' preseason media blitz, highlighting its ability to get the ball into space and let players make plays.
"The offense now is super quarterback friendly," Cunningham said. "You don't really need to overthink anything. Obviously, there's a lot of playmakers out there. You've just got to get the ball in the playmaker's hand and let them do their thing."
Added Vattiato: "I'm just excited for everyone to be able to see the product we put on the field."
2) New running backs need to turn up their production
It's no secret that running back production has not been where Rick Stockstill and his staff would've liked these past two seasons. While the quarterback position has occasionally been able to supplement the running game (see Cunningham's 65 rushing yards on nine carries at Charlotte last year...or the career stat lines of former QBs Asher O'Hara and Mike DiLiello), ultimately the running backs are where a rushing game's identity is established.
The running game from the MTSU running backs have been such a red flag in scouting MTSU over the past two seasons that Eric Henry, Co-Managing Editor of SBNation's Underdog Dynasty, asked essentially the same question at this year's C-USA Kickoff as he did at last years. To paraphrase: it's been a challenge to get production out of your running backs the past few seasons. Is that still a point of emphasis, and how do you get more production out of them?
"We've been very inconsistent the last couple of years in the running game, we've got to be a better running team," Stockstill said at C-USA Kickoff this week. "You're not going to force the running game, you're not going to force the passing game, you're just going to do whatever it takes to win. Hopefully, we'll be able to run the ball better this year than we did last year."
Personnel wise, Frank Peasant will have the most experience as a Blue Raider of anyone in the RB room come the start of camp, though Joe Ervin (Kansas State transfer) and A'Varius Sparrow (West Virginia transfer) will both certainly push for time as well.
Mitch Stewart's offenses at Samford had the ability to produce incredible games for their running backs, most notably Jay Stanton's 13-carry, 137-yard rushing performance in a win over The Citadel. He pointed out to me when I met with him in the spring that the Air Raid is not about passing all the time for the sake of passing, at least when it's run well. It's about "raiding the space" that the defense provides.
So, if MTSU can find space for its RBs this year, I expect that production will step up. Finding that space, however, will depend on just how much this next group gels.
3) A retooled offensive line with a new point of emphasis
Rick Mallory, currently the tight ends/H-back coach, but at the time one of the offensive line coaches, said something during the Blue Raiders' signing day celebration this past winter that stuck with me throughout spring ball and into the summer as I got a glimpse of this team's progression.
Namely, that it was a point of emphasis for the staff to try to recruit bigger offensive linemen for this cycle than they have in the past. Both with players that might see the field early and with those that are expected to take a redshirt.
We'll see how it translates to the field, but on paper, it was mission accomplished for the Blue Raider coaching and recruiting staffs. Of the six offensive linemen MTSU signed in 2022, three of them are taller than 6-foot-4. Led by JuCo products Joseph Stone (6-foot-7) and Ethan Ellis (6-foot-6), filled with lots of new faces throughout the room, I'll be excited to see this group gel after a spring where they often only dressed six at practice due to roster turnover, injuries and spring class schedules.
It's true that MTSU will be replacing four regular starters on the offensive line, with center Jordan Palmer as the only holdover from a season ago. But after the struggles of the previous group in generating space for running backs in particular, and occasionally having quarterbacks under pressure too often on top of that, I'm very curious to see if this line construction idea bears fruit this August.
4) Life in the Back-7 post DQ Thomas and Reed Blankenship
The back seven of the defense is the other spot with the most turnover on MTSU's 2021 roster. Unlike the offensive line, however, this turnover is not in sheer numbers, but rather in who has moved on. Namely, All-conference linebacker DQ Thomas and all-conference safety Reed Blankenship, both who are currently in NFL camps, as well as the transfers of Quincy Riley, Greg Grate and Jurriente Davis, each of whom started most of last season for MT when healthy.
That final bit is key, however, as injuries in this group have given a plethora of Blue Raiders lots of experience even with the absence of two of the best defensive players in the Rick Stockstill era here at Middle.
At linebacker, Johnathan Butler is expected to lead that unit after a solid 2021 in which he battled through injuries. Devyn Curtis and Raquon Hartley both impressed at points during last year as well, while newcomers like Mississippi State transfer Timar Rogers will push for playing time as well.
In the secondary, safety is predictably deep, as it always has been since the days of Kevin Byard playing at Floyd Stadium. I'm looking forward to seeing Tra Fluellen step up into a full-time starting role at safety after being all over the field in a utility role last year.
Teldrick Ross is another versatile weapon for defensive coordinator Scott Shafer that could find themselves in a bigger role on Saturdays, capable of top-end coverage at nickel, outside corner or safety. And don't forget Decorian Patterson and Jalen Jackson, two corners with a lot of snaps under their belts that will get a chance to make their marks as well.
5) A defensive line that can feast
In complete contrast to the rest of the defense, the MTSU defensive line returns pretty much everyone from a unit that created a lot of havoc a season ago. All-conference defensive end Jordan Ferguson will get a lot of the headlines from the media and attention from opposing scouts, and rightfully so with his 16.5 tackles for loss and 9.0 sacks a season ago.
But as Ferguson noted at the C-USA Kickoff last week, this defensive line room is filled with a lot of "upper division learners" who have been in the system a long time. You know most of the names: Zaylin Wood, Ja'Kerrius Wyatt, Marley Cook, Richard Kinley, Jordan Branch, and Ralph Mency. That's a lot of guys that not only have played a lot of snaps in their time in Murfreesboro, but have gotten a lot of production as a unit.
So much of camp's competitive periods, particularly scrimmages, are defined by which units have gelled the most early on. The hope being that by the final scrimmage a week before the season opener you've got all of your units working at a high level, even if they didn't start out this way.
This group should start out at a high level from the very day they step out on the field with no pads. By the time we have stats to report from the scrimmages, I hope I'll be able to share how much this group is dominating early on, before the other units get up to speed with them.
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Monday, September 22
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Monday, September 22
