Congrats to MTSU

One of my pet teams for the year, the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders made it to the New Orleans Bowl and stormed past Southern Mississippi. Or I should say, Dwight Dasher stormed past Southern Mississippi, throwing a pair of touchdowns and running for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns. Not bad, and a good way to showcase themselves to America (if the game weren't on Sunday night).

Arkansas State-Middle Tennessee State... a recap

After what should have been a little over a 13 hour drive that was driven closer to 14 thanks to a missed exit in Bloomington, Illinois and another in Murfreesboro, I finally arrived at Middle Tennessee States campus. I got to the stadium about 2 hours early, because I really didn't know what else there was to do in Murfreesboro.
The seat was at about the 35 yard line, three rows up. I don't think I have ever been this close to a football game, including when I was in high school. There were plenty of good seats available, as the Floyd Stadium paid attendence was 19000, though at least half of them didn't show up. It's almost Thanksgiving and they were playing a mediocre opponent, so I couldn't blame them. It appeared most of the fans were locals from Murfreesboro, however, and they were rabid for their home town team.
The game itself was over pretty quick. The tone was set when Dwight Dasher found speedy running back DD Kyles on a swing pass, and Kyles ran the rest of the way for the touchdown. The Blue Raiders were up 17-0 by the end of the quarter, and the Red Wolves simply couldn't recover. They were renowned as a defensive team coming into the game, but the Blue Raiders speed ended up being too much.
With the score 17-0, the Red Wolves finally put a drive together and were going for a field goal, which was partially blocked by Middle Tennessee State. The one good chance to make this a game was gone after that play.
Near the end of the second quarter, Arkansas State quarterback Corey Leonard went down with what looked like a leg injury. If they had looked lost before that, they looked hopeless after the injury. With Arkansas State struggling to score points or even hold onto the ball, MTSU had the ball for the majority of the game. Dasher took advantage and postes some gaudy statistics, including throwing for 4 touchdowns. The 5th came on a fumble return.
Rather than going through a recap of the whole game, which you can find online, here's a few thoughts and observations.
- Dwight Dasher may be a prospect in next years draft, given the stats he posts, but the real prospects should be the wide receivers and Kyles, who are incredibly fast.
- Speaking of receivers, I have never seen so many white receivers in my life. It's not a demographic thing, either, because the Dasher is black. All my stereotypes have been shattered!
- Everyone on the Blue Raiders' sideline came and sat in their assigned spot on the bench. I sat behind the receivers. One guy, one of the rare African American wide-outs, had his own bench away from everyone else and right in front of me. His name was Sancho McDonald, and that is now one of my favorite names.
- Kelly Holcomb does color for Middle Tennessee radio.
- There is no net behind the uprights. I haven't seen that since high school.
- Speaking of high school, given the fans, who were polite and very into the game, and the proximity to the field, it did feel more like I was at a college game than a high school game.
- It was a very sloppy game, with a lot of penalties. Any time Arkansas State would have a big play, there was always a flag. It's not a small conference thing either. Everyone around me seemed disgusted.
- Players involved in this game included someone named Jamal Lewis, Jeff Blake and Craig Heyward.
- The
- On the way home, driving through Illinois it was made abundantly clear that it was the deer opener. I'm not sure southern Illinois has any deer left.

All in all, it was a good time. I am in the midst of buying a townhouse, so I'm not sure the second road trip of the year, to Akron right before Christmas, is going to happen. I will certainly will try, and if I can't I will at least keep an eye on the game online.

So here I go

Last night, I honestly fell asleep on the couch as I was trying to think of something to say. I have stopped drinking pop when I am not at Real Job Inc, and I am tired all the time. Today though, I am writing a post about the first of my trips. I will be leaving a week from Thursday or Friday (depending) headed for Murfreesboro, Tennessee to take a look at the Arkansas State Red Wolves and the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders play some football.

The Red Wolves were the team I picked for this little adventure, so I will start there first. The Red Wolves are having an unfortunate season. They were tabbed to finish at the top of the division this year, but instead are 2-6 and 1-3 in conference. they have games remaining against Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee State, North Texas and Western Kentucky. Three of those games are very winnable, and a win in all four would make the team bowl eligible. The toughest test will come against Middle Tennessee State, the game I will be at. The only game they have really struggled was an early season matchup versus Nebraska, so they very well could be much better than their record indicates.

In Murfreesboro, the Blue Raiders have shown themselves to have an explosive offense. The Red Wolves have been stout defensively, but MTSU has scored 27 points or more in all of their wins, and sputtered to 14 or less in their losses. Things depend on Dwight Dasher, who leads the team in passing and rushing, having scored 22 total touchdowns. Like Arkansas State, the Blue Raiders' record may be somewhat misleading, simply because they have played the dregs of the conference so far, leaving the third and fourth place teams in the conference, as well as Arkansas State left on their schedule. They are already bowl eligible, but need to win out to have a shot at the conference championship.

One more team, I would like to check out is North Texas. As I mentioned a while back, I am actually going to the wrong game. The addition of Louisville to the schedule jimmied the times around for the Arkansas State schedule, so I ended up taking time off of work for what was supposed to be the 11th game of the season, and it turned into the 10th. Since I should be watching their game, I will preview them and give a recap of their game in a few weeks as well. The Mean Green of Texas are having a tough season. They are playing at the bottom of the Sun Belt, thanks in large part to atrocious defense. Even when they beat Western Kentucky, they allowed 49 points. Ever since their opening week win against Ball State, the lowest points allowed total that they have had has been 33 against Louisiana-Monroe. One highlight is running back Lance Dunbar, who has 13 touchdowns on the season.
So yeah, I'm all ready to head down to Tennessee. It will be a good trip, I think, and my first college football game in my plan for random road trips. I'm not sure how I am going to get there, or what my exact plan is quite yet. Perhaps I will leave on Thursday before the game so I can just leave the site to Beth that day. Not for a week though.

One last travel related update

Arkansas State, man, I tell you what. Here's the chronology:
First, I drew the Red Wolves football team and their 11th game of the season for my annual trip thingy last year.
Next, I waited for the schedule to come out, and then it did. The 11th game was to be on November 21st at Western Kentucky, so I was all ready to go to Bowling Green, Kentucky.
A few months later, Louisville was added to Arkansas State's schedule, and the whole thing had to be jostled. Now, the 11th game of the season was to be a home game against North Texas. I took the necessary time off, my buddy took his time off and we were all about ready to go down to Arkansas in a month.
Just Friday, I looked at the team schedule for the game times and realized something horrible. I didn't realize it earlier, but the games after the Louisville game had been pushed back a week, meaning the game against North Texas was actually scheduled for the 28th now. This wouldn't be a problem, typically, because I'm willing to go anytime, but my buddy and I already had the time off. Oh no! So the game selected is actually Arkansas State-North Texas, but due to these extenuating circumstances, I will instead be going to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to watch Arkansas State take on Middle Tennessee State on the weekend I actually have off, on the 21st. I can't believe so many mistakes have been made with this. But yeah, I'm going to Tennessee instead. Back to your regularly scheduled Sunday.