Know the Opponent | Middle Tennessee - BleedTechBlue: Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Football & Basketball Recruiting

The Blue Raiders are off to a 1-5 start in 2023. There's no doubt that the schedule has been difficult, but what have the biggest issues been to this point?

The cliche that best applies to MTSU halfway through the 2023 season is ‘consistently inconsistent.’ The Blue Raiders, on both sides of the ball, will put together drives, quarters, even halves where everything is firing on all cylinders, only to then put together equally as long stretches where nothing goes right.

While some of the early season boogeymen, namely a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot with penalties, seem to have been corrected at the halfway point, two main areas are consistent topics week-to-week: offensive line play, which has shown momentary flashes but has not been near consistent enough to establish a run game or a vertical passing game with any regularity, and defensively, the secondary has been prone to giving up chunk plays, initially over the top, but now often along the sidelines.

Having either of those units find consistency in the second half of the season would go a long way to helping MTSU get on track.

Nicholas Vattiato is in his first season as the starting quarterback and looks to have performed adequately. How would you describe his play thus far?

“Gutsy” is the word Rick Stockstill uses to describe Vattiato the most often and I think that’s probably the best descriptor for how the redshirt sophomore plays. Due to the aforementioned offensive line inconsistency, Vattiato is often making throws under intense pressure while anticipating contact, or even calling his own number on a scramble or QB draw. And despite taking all those hits, he pops right back up and goes back to work. When he has found time in the pocket, he’s shown good touch on his deep ball and good accuracy to the sidelines on intermediate routes as well.

He’s the type of player that teammates love to play alongside, coaches love to coach and fans want to root for. And selfishly as a writer, he’s an excellent quote as well, particularly when you ask about his teammates. There’s room for improvement in some facets, as is the case with any young quarterback. Namely, Vattiato can occasionally rush throws under pressure, which has resulted in turnovers at time this season. But both his steadiness and leadership right now, as well as his future ceiling, gives MTSU’s offense hope in a lot of situations.

Elijah Metcalf, Justin Olson, and Holden Willis have emerged as the three main threats at receiver. What makes the trio dangerous? Are there any other skill players to keep an eye on?

The three receivers you mentioned really are the ideal archetypes, in many ways, of the receivers offensive coordinator Mitch Stewart wants to use in his air raid base scheme. The very distinct ways each of them plays also gives each a niche for certain situations, which is why the stats look like a three-headed attack receiving so far.

Metcalf is the prototypical slot receiver: excellent speed and agility, of course, to win matchups against linebackers and safeties one-on-one, but also a savvy route runner that can find holes in zones.

Olson, a transfer from UNC, is a great outside receiver for what MTSU asks him to do: good size for CUSA and good jumping ability makes him a tremendous contested catch threat, particularly on the perimeter. And he’s physical enough to fight for extra yards in the screen game.

Willis, a transfer from South Florida, has found his role as ‘WR-H’, which is MTSU’s hybrid WR/TE/H-Back postion. Great size makes him tough to match up against in the slot and his ability to line up in myriad ways often creates opportunities for him to get the ball in his hands just from play design alone.

As for other skill guys, Frank Peasant and Jaiden Credle have formed a nice tandem in the Blue Raider backfield when the blocking has been there to let them cook. Credle is a bit more of a home run threat, while Peasant tends to thrive in short yardage situations, particularly around the goal line.

Scott Shafer is now in his 7th season in Murfreesboro as the defensive coordinator. How has the unit led by Tra Fluellen performed to this point?

Like the offense, the defense has done a lot of good things at times this season, particularly in the trenches, where TFLs and pressure rates from the defensive line game-to-game have been solid. But the defense’s calling card the past two years, generating turnovers, has not shown up near as often through six games. Scott Shafer is a defensive coordinator that likes to blitz, which is great when those blitzes are generating havoc either in the backfield or in turnovers. One half of that equation has been there, the other hasn’t so far.

One other interesting statistical thing to know: entering last week’s slate of games, MTSU was the 12th best team in the country by success rate on 1st and 2nd downs, but the worst team in the country in success rate on 3rd and 4th downs. In other words, MTSU has been able to put opposing offenses in a third-and-longs significantly more than average. But is also giving up more third and fourth down conversions than any one else.

Solving that dichotomy, to me, is the biggest task for the MTSU defense heading into the second half of the season.

For the Blue Raiders to win on Tuesday night, what are their keys to victory?

LA Tech enters Tuesday night’s game with the worst rushing defense in Conference USA. The Blue Raiders need to be able to find some consistency on the ground to take pressure off of the passing game and, more importantly, not allow the Bulldogs to pin their ears back and pass rush every down.

Defensively, MTSU has the challenging task of slowing down Tyre Shelton while also making sure Smoke Harris doesn’t beat you by himself. Harris, in my opinion, is the single biggest game breaker in Conference USA, as the Blue Raiders experienced a year ago in Ruston. But while Harris has had games where he’s disappeared on offense this season, the run game for the Bulldogs has been a bit more consistent, particularly with Shelton.

If MTSU can make Jack Turner or Hank Bachmeier have to win the game one their own without hitting home runs to Harris, the defense should be able to make enough stops to give the offense a chance.

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