Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
“Ugly Win” may be the spark needed to change the narrative of 2024’s “Bad News Bears”
10/16/2024 9:04:00 AM | Football
A stout defensive night has given MTSU confidence it has not had in the 2024 season
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — The scoreline almost spoke for itself on Tuesday night. It's not every day, after all, a team is held to just five points in a football game, the way Middle Tennessee held Kennesaw State to just a field goal and a safety under the lights in a 14-5 win that gave the Blue Raiders their first win in Conference USA under head coach Derek Mason.
It was a defensive performance that one dreams of when you hire a defensive coach like Mason to lead your program, winning the turnover battle by two, holding a team under 240 total yards, allowing the Owls to convert just four third down attempts all night in 16 tries. It's an active pass defense, holding the quarterback rotation KSU employed to just 10-for-27 on the night, with two interceptions in crucial spots — Marvae Myers snagging a toss into the endzone and De'Arre McDonald immediately getting the ball back after a failed fourth down conversion near the end of the first half around midfield.
"It's been rough the majority of the season," McDonald said of the defense's performance. "To go out and put a game like this together, it's going to really help us moving forward... This game is one of the games where you look after the season and say, 'That's what started it all.'"
Rough might be putting it lightly. Entering Tuesday's game, MTSU ranked last in Conference USA and in the bottom five in all of FBS in scoring defense, giving up, on average, 40.5 points per game. Chalk a little bit of that up to a tough schedule, sure, but last week's 48 points given up to LA Tech did not stem the narrative that had formed around the defense: it had a lot of problems.
The defensive line wasn't generating pressure or push against the run. The linebackers were out of position and missed tackles. And the secondary often looked lost in coverage. Seeming no one in the unit wasn't doing their "1/11th."
"We needed to boost our self-confidence," defensive lineman Anthony Bynum said. "We just needed to change the narrative about MT Football."
Kennesaw State, making their transition into FBS this season, provided the ideal chance to get things right. Winless on the year, the Owls came into Tuesday completing under 50 percent of their passes, with a run game that was still finding its identity as the program shifted away from the flexbone triple option that catapulted it onto the national radar so soon after the program's first season in 2015. They averaged just 14.6 points per game before MTSU held KSU to just five on Tuesday night.
"It was called a mind your business game," Mason said, referring to the need for the defense to be assignment sound against the option heavy Owl scheme. "Everybody had to mind their business and do their job. I thought they did a good job of doing that collectively."
Like most defensive wins, the game was certainly ugly. MTSU needed the heroics of Omari Kelly's 61-yard punt return touchdown, the program's first since the 2021 season opener, to even put a second touchdown on the board. With starting quarterback Nicholas Vattiato battling an illness that Mason said he expected to keep the veteran out of the game, one that woke the
Plantation, Fla. native up at 2 a.m. the morning of the game, the offense certainly had some bad luck against them on Tuesday. Even with Vattiato still completing 19 passes for 199 yards on Tuesday.
Mason acknowledges those facts, how the win was certainly an ugly one. It was the fewest combined points in a game for MTSU since the Blue Raiders defeated FIU 7-6 on August 31, 2006. But after snapping a five-game skid, he's not going to apologize for it.
"I think at the end of the day, this football team laid some foundation for itself tonight," Mason said. "Because, believe me, it's hard to stop some of the bleeding when you don't necessarily know what one fix is going to make it happen."
A combination of injuries and roster turnover that comes with a coaching change in the transfer portal era has made MTSU's lineup green, if not just young, through the team's first seven games. Mason compared this team to the "Bad News Bears", a ragtag group of players that is still learning how to win, how to go through the process that sets them up for success. Getting a win, even an ugly one, Mason said, will help create trust in that process.
"It's about performance," Mason said. "You can prepare all you want to. But when push comes to shove, you've got to do what your job tells you to do. And until we do that consistently, it's going to elude you."
De'Arre McDonald, one of those veteran players who are starting to come back from their early season injuries, thinks that mentality will help the team moving forward. And as more of those pieces come back and those who have stepped up in their absence continue to mature, McDonald knows that the defense Blue Raider fans saw on Tuesday can be standard.
"It's really a blessing to be able to be on such a good defense that nobody's been able to see, to see us really fully be what we are," McDonald said. "Today was what we can be moving forward. That was really our statement on what we had been working on to be."
It was a defensive performance that one dreams of when you hire a defensive coach like Mason to lead your program, winning the turnover battle by two, holding a team under 240 total yards, allowing the Owls to convert just four third down attempts all night in 16 tries. It's an active pass defense, holding the quarterback rotation KSU employed to just 10-for-27 on the night, with two interceptions in crucial spots — Marvae Myers snagging a toss into the endzone and De'Arre McDonald immediately getting the ball back after a failed fourth down conversion near the end of the first half around midfield.
"It's been rough the majority of the season," McDonald said of the defense's performance. "To go out and put a game like this together, it's going to really help us moving forward... This game is one of the games where you look after the season and say, 'That's what started it all.'"
Rough might be putting it lightly. Entering Tuesday's game, MTSU ranked last in Conference USA and in the bottom five in all of FBS in scoring defense, giving up, on average, 40.5 points per game. Chalk a little bit of that up to a tough schedule, sure, but last week's 48 points given up to LA Tech did not stem the narrative that had formed around the defense: it had a lot of problems.
The defensive line wasn't generating pressure or push against the run. The linebackers were out of position and missed tackles. And the secondary often looked lost in coverage. Seeming no one in the unit wasn't doing their "1/11th."
"We needed to boost our self-confidence," defensive lineman Anthony Bynum said. "We just needed to change the narrative about MT Football."
Kennesaw State, making their transition into FBS this season, provided the ideal chance to get things right. Winless on the year, the Owls came into Tuesday completing under 50 percent of their passes, with a run game that was still finding its identity as the program shifted away from the flexbone triple option that catapulted it onto the national radar so soon after the program's first season in 2015. They averaged just 14.6 points per game before MTSU held KSU to just five on Tuesday night.
"It was called a mind your business game," Mason said, referring to the need for the defense to be assignment sound against the option heavy Owl scheme. "Everybody had to mind their business and do their job. I thought they did a good job of doing that collectively."
Like most defensive wins, the game was certainly ugly. MTSU needed the heroics of Omari Kelly's 61-yard punt return touchdown, the program's first since the 2021 season opener, to even put a second touchdown on the board. With starting quarterback Nicholas Vattiato battling an illness that Mason said he expected to keep the veteran out of the game, one that woke the
Plantation, Fla. native up at 2 a.m. the morning of the game, the offense certainly had some bad luck against them on Tuesday. Even with Vattiato still completing 19 passes for 199 yards on Tuesday.
Mason acknowledges those facts, how the win was certainly an ugly one. It was the fewest combined points in a game for MTSU since the Blue Raiders defeated FIU 7-6 on August 31, 2006. But after snapping a five-game skid, he's not going to apologize for it.
"I think at the end of the day, this football team laid some foundation for itself tonight," Mason said. "Because, believe me, it's hard to stop some of the bleeding when you don't necessarily know what one fix is going to make it happen."
A combination of injuries and roster turnover that comes with a coaching change in the transfer portal era has made MTSU's lineup green, if not just young, through the team's first seven games. Mason compared this team to the "Bad News Bears", a ragtag group of players that is still learning how to win, how to go through the process that sets them up for success. Getting a win, even an ugly one, Mason said, will help create trust in that process.
"It's about performance," Mason said. "You can prepare all you want to. But when push comes to shove, you've got to do what your job tells you to do. And until we do that consistently, it's going to elude you."
De'Arre McDonald, one of those veteran players who are starting to come back from their early season injuries, thinks that mentality will help the team moving forward. And as more of those pieces come back and those who have stepped up in their absence continue to mature, McDonald knows that the defense Blue Raider fans saw on Tuesday can be standard.
"It's really a blessing to be able to be on such a good defense that nobody's been able to see, to see us really fully be what we are," McDonald said. "Today was what we can be moving forward. That was really our statement on what we had been working on to be."
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