The MTSU Blue Raider football team enters the month of November, and a Friday night showdown with Western Kentucky, with a record of 5–3.
The Blue Raiders opened October with a victory at Marshall, but fell the following week in Miami to Florida International, 21–24.
MTSU followed that with a homecoming victory on Saturday, Oct. 20, over Charlotte 21–13.
With that win the Blue Raiders moved to 4–3 on the season.
“That was a great win,” Blue Raider Head Coach Rick Stockstill said following the Charlotte game. “Really, really happy and proud of our team . . . we knew it was going to be a four-quarter game coming in here. That’s what we got.”
Middle Tennessee’s offense struggled for most of the game to find consistency; the Blue Raiders managed just 144 total yards (33 rushing).
Luckily, the blue and white defense played a quality game.
The 49ers scored on their first drive via a 57-yard rush by Benny LeMay, but that’s all MT would allow until a garbage-time touchdown with just over a minute left in the contest.
Charlotte was forced to punt six times, turned the ball over on downs three times, missed two field goals and gifted Middle Tennessee with two turnovers on 13 drives between the TDs. The Blue Raiders finished with four sacks and nine tackles for loss.
Khalil Brooks and Malik Manciel
“We take pride in everything we do,” MTSU linebacker Khalil Brooks said, adding that the team believes “in running to the ball to lead to gang tackles. We were pretty good at that today.”
MTSU didn’t score until the 6:23 mark of the second quarter, when senior quarterback Brent Stockstill hit junior Ty Lee for a 29-yard touchdown to give MT a 7–6 advantage.
In the subsequent Charlotte possession, quarterback Evan Shirreffs was picked off by MT senior safety Wesley Bush. Bush returned the interception to the 49er 15-yard line, and five plays later, Stockstill hit Lee for 5 yards for the duo’s second TD of the game.
“There were some big plays that helped us out a lot and really changed the momentum of the game,” Bush said. “I wish we could’ve capitalized as a defense by scoring on them, but we gave it to our offense and they did a good job with it.”
The Blue Raiders would take advantage of another interception, this time by O.J. Johnson, in the fourth quarter, pushing the lead to 21–6 after a short, 22-yard drive.
Brad Anderson vs. FAU
After that win in Murfreesboro, the team prepared for a trip to eastern Virginia to take on Old Dominion on Oct. 27.
Everything came together perfectly for MTSU in that game, leading to a big win. The defense put up another great performance, coming away with five turnovers, and the offense found its rhythm, as the Blue Raiders rolled to a 51–17 win.
It was all Middle Tennessee from the start in that one; the team jumped to a 17–0 lead.
Brent Stockstill would later find the end zone with a 1-yard rushing touchdown to cap 75-yard drive. And as time expired in the second quarter, sophomore safety Reed Blankenship put an exclamation point on the half, picking off a pass in the end zone and returning it for a 100-yard pick six, bringing the halftime score to 31–10.
A couple of long Stockstill TD passes, one for 70 yards to Gatlin Casey and another for 39 yards to Ty Lee, pushed the lead further out of reach to 45–10 in the third quarter.
Darius Harris at home
MTSU finished with 488 total yards, 208 on the ground. Junior Terelle West led the rushing attack with 120 yards and a TD.
Wesley Bush also had a pick-six of 37 yards late in the game.
___
Following the big victory MTSU will head into a rivalry match-up with a struggling Western Kentucky. The Friday night, Nov. 2, showdown at Floyd Stadium will kickoff at 7 p.m.
The Blue Raiders will then have road trips to the University of Texas at El Paso on Nov. 10, and then to the University of Kentucky on Nov. 17, which will be MTSU’s third SEC road game of the 2018 season.
MT will close the regular season at home at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, against the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
For tickets and more information, visit goblueraiders.com.
