College Football News Preview 2021: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders season with what you need to know.
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– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Middle Tennessee Schedule Analysis
– Middle Tennessee Previews
2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
2020 Record: 3-6 overall, 2-4 in C-USA
Head Coach: Rick Stockstill, 16th year, 94-92
2020 CFN Final Ranking: 119
2020 CFN Preview Ranking: 102
2019 CFN Final Ranking: 107
Middle Tennessee College Football Preview 2021: Offense
– It’s not like the offense didn’t work. The Blue Raider passing game put up numbers – partly because the team was seemingly always behind – but scoring was tough, the running game didn’t do much, and it was a light year for a team that was supposed to be a whole lot more fun. Eight starters are coming back, but the big star is gone. However …
– The Middle Tennessee quarterback situation might be better. Asher O’Hara was the do-it-all guy, but he’s off to Sacramento State. Chase Cunningham is a decent veteran, and in comes Bailey Hockman from NC State to potentially add a whole lot more to the passing attack.
The receivers are there to rock. Seven of the top eight receivers are expected to return with 59-catch Jarrin Pierce the top veteran to work around. Now the offense has to find more explosion downfield.
– O’Hara led the team in rushing, but the Blue Raiders have the backs to start getting more out of the other guys. Chaton Mobley is a 6-1, 229-pound runner who led the team with 4.6 yards per carry with four rushing scores, and 221-pound Frank Peasant got the other rushing score from the backs.
The offensive line should get four starters back from a group that struggles in pass protection and didn’t do enough to get the ground game going when O’Hara wasn’t taking off. It’s not a huge group, but he’s experienced.
– What You Need To Know: Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Middle Tennessee Schedule Analysis
NEXT: Middle Tennessee College Football Preview 2021: Defense
4. Middle Tennessee College Football Preview 2021: Defense
– What the defense is missing in production from last year it makes up with experience – there’s a chance all 11 starters return on the defensive side. The D was among the worst in Conference USA overall – allowing 446 yards and 35 points per game – and it couldn’t generate a third down stop. Again, it’s an experienced group starting with …
– Reed Blankenship. There’s a shot he’s the first Group of Five defensive player selected in the 2022 NFL Draft. The veteran tackling machine safety is a superstar to work everything else around. With Blankenship combining with Greg Grate and two decent young corners, the secondary should be a plus. Now they need more of a pass rush to help the cause.
– The Blue Raiders also have a good one at linebacker in DQ Thomas, but the D needs more pressure from the line. The linebackers do the most damage, Thomas on the outside and Cody Smith and Jonathan Butler inside are small but can move – and now the ends need to do something. Jorden Starling and Jordan Ferguson are smallish linemen who need to use their quickness to get into the backfield.
There’s no thump on the interior – the rotation has to work to make up for the lack of any 300 pounders. That’s the theme for the D, though – undersized, but experienced and quick.
– What You Need To Know: Offense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Middle Tennessee Schedule Analysis
NEXT: Middle Tennessee College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Middle Tennessee College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Best Middle Tennessee Offensive Player
WR Jarrin Pierce, Sr.
The big plays down the field have to be there, but the experience is in place for a receiving corps with the upside to do a lot more if the passing game ramps up. The 5-11, 190-pound Pierce is the veteran to start with, following up a 42 catch 2019 with 59 grabs for 584 yards and three touchdowns. Again, though, more big plays have to happen.
2. RB Chaton Mobley, Jr.
3. QB Bailey Hockman, Jr.
4. WR CJ Windham, Sr.
5. C Jordan Palmer, Jr.
Best Middle Tennessee Defensive Player
S Reed Blankenship, Sr.
One of the best all-around safeties in college football over the last few years – at least among the most productive when he’s been healthy – Blankenship is back for a fifth year after generating 309 tackles with eight picks and 11 broken up passes so far. He can get behind the line, too, with two sacks and 16 tackles for loss.
2. S Greg Grate, Jr.
3. LB DQ Thomas, Sr.
4. DE Jordan Ferguson, Jr.
5. LB Johnathan Butler, Jr.
Top Incoming Middle Tennessee Transfer
QB Bailey Hockman, Jr.
A good recruit for NC State, he wasn’t all that bad last season with close to 2,100 yards and 13 touchdown passes, hitting 64% of his passes. However, he threw 11 interceptions and doesn’t do much for the ground game. With Asher O’Hara gone, he has to push through a crowded field to be the one who makes the downfield passing game work.
NEXT: Middle Tennessee College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Middle Tennessee College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Middle Tennessee Biggest Key: Offense
Get the downfield passing game going again. In general, the offensive line has to be better in pass protection, the running backs need to be more involved, and the offense just has to get things moving, but it all ties in to being able to stretch the field more. As good as Asher O’Hara was, he was more of an all-around playmaker than a bomber.
Whoever ends up under center has average more than seven yards per attempt. The Blue Raiders averaged just 6.7 yards per throw, but some of that has to come from the receivers cranking up more yards after the catch.
Middle Tennessee Biggest Key: Defense
Third down stops. It starts with a run defense that was hammered for 222 yards per game – it has to be stronger and can’t allow so many easy third down chances. It continues with a pass rush that wasn’t there from the front four and ended up being generated mostly from the linebacking corps.
Teams were able to convert on 54% of their third down tries, killing any and all momentum the team tried to have. By comparison, the D was under 40% from 2015 to 2017, and kept it to under 50% in 2018 and 2019.
Middle Tennessee Key Player To A Successful Season
RB Chaton Mobley, Jr.
Let’s throw the pressure on the offensive line to give the guy room to move. Former QB Asher O’Hara was the leading rusher over the last two seasons, and the offense struggled to find any positive consistency. Mobley led the team in rushing as a freshman in 2018 with 660 yards, but the ground attack struggled a bit too much.
If Mobley can get into a groove early on – again, the O line has a lot to do with this – the downfield passing game and the other parts should kick in, the pressure should be off the defense a bit, and the Blue Raiders should be able to do a better job of controlling games.
Middle Tennessee Key Game To The 2021 Season
at UTSA, Sept. 18
It was a 37-35 loss to the Roadrunners last year that seemed to mark a bad point early on. The team wasn’t ready for the blowout loss to Army, and it didn’t do anything against Troy, but it played well enough to win at UTSA and lost a close one. Another close loss to WKU the week after all but sealed the season.
It’s the Conference USA opener for the Blue Raiders, but it’s also a part of a brutal run of five road games in six dates. With a road date at Charlotte up next and Marshall to follow – and with a trip to Virginia Tech before this – a whole lot of pressure will be on the program with another loss.
– Middle Tennessee Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2020 Middle Tennessee Fun Stats
– 3rd Quarter Scoring: Opponents 110 – Middle Tennessee 44
– Average Yards Per Carry: Opponents 5.2 – Middle Tennessee 3.8
– Red Zone Scoring %: Opponents 94% – Middle Tennessee 81%
NEXT: Middle Tennessee College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
Middle Tennessee College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
There are way too many good parts in place for Middle Tennessee to continue to be so mediocre.
This was and should be a program that’s deep in the Conference USA title hunt every year under veteran head coach Rick Stockstill, but it appears to have lost its way.
The defense has been hit-or-miss over the years, but the offense almost always seemed to find a way. Now that O should be a bit stronger as long as the line is better, and just about everyone is back on D.
Set The Middle Tennessee Regular Season Win Total At … 6
The Blue Raiders have got to win the close games. Last year all three wins were by six points or fewer, and the difference between 3-6 and 5-4 was five points the other way in close losses.
Monmouth isn’t a layup of an opener, but that has to be a must win. At UConn, FIU, Old Dominion, and throw in at Charlotte and Southern Miss – those all need to be wins if this team is going to be any sort of a threat.
It should be good enough to get to six wins and a bowl game, but with six road games in an eight date run, and seven away games overall, it’s going to be a grind.
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– Middle Tennessee Schedule Analysis
