Season 2, Episode 22 feat. Jacob Burgess and Austin Lewis

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[00:00:41] Welcome back to the Blue Raider Podcast. I'm your host, Jake Bolden. Today's episode, we're bringing back some guests of the past. We've got Jacob Burgess, one of the writers for MTSU Sidelines, a student-run newspaper at the university. We're going to be talking all the hoops recap from this last week. And then we'll have Austin Lewis, our friend over at Go Middle, football analyst to talk about the last bit of National Signing Day that happened this last week. We're going to do all the roster breakdown for you.

[00:01:07] I know a lot of you want a comprehensive breakdown on where football stands going into spring practice and where these new signings and all these transfer players that have left. So obviously, we're going to answer all those questions for you and more when Austin comes on later at the end of the episode. So make sure you stick around for that. And then lastly, we did have our giveaway this last week. So if you missed out on our giveaway on our social media accounts, you have to make sure that you're following us so you don't miss on those.

[00:01:31] So I have selected our winner for our baseball season tickets. So if you did enter into that drawing, make sure that you're tuning into your social media channels to check in so you don't miss your prize and claim it. Because again, season starts this Friday. So I don't want you to miss out on your season tickets. Now, before we get into our episode today, I want to take just a second to thank our sponsors of today's episode and beginning with Mighty Dog Roofing of Nashville East.

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[00:03:12] Now, it is time to bring on our first guest of the day, beginning with Jacob Burgess, again, writer over at MTSU Sidelines. Jacob, thanks for joining us again. Thank you for having me on today, Jake. I'm excited to talk hoops with you. I know you were there in the building on Saturday when the Lady Raiders kind of did their thing, as we all kind of expected. That was a classic Lady Raiders basketball that we saw on Saturday. It definitely was. It's what you expect from MTSU most games.

[00:03:40] And then against an injured Kennesaw State team that only had 10 dress players, it's something you were expecting to see. You saw Jaden Gregory. She shot the three ball really well. To me, Scott had a good game. From top to bottom, everybody performed the way you expected. Absolutely. And let's go ahead and dive into kind of the state of the union, if you will, with the Lady Raiders. You know, they had the sweep over the weekend, as we touched on with the Kennesaw State game.

[00:04:06] The defense is everything that we expected it to be, as you touched on, with the kind of injury-laden Kennesaw State team. On Thursday, though, they got the week kicked off. 63-46 win against Jacksonville State. The slow start, I think a lot of us were kind of rolling our eyes with how things went that first half. The defense wasn't there. Rick Insull said himself that wasn't the defense that he kind of anticipated them having. But the positive light is our Conference USA Player of the Week. Tamiya Scott had 30 points that night, 14 rebounds to go along with it.

[00:04:36] And then she backed that up on Saturday. Kennesaw led the team again in points, 24 points, and led the team in rebounds, 8 rebounds. So a fantastic week for Tamiya. From a scoring perspective, this is kind of who we all thought she would be. And for her to score in bunches, like we saw these last two games, is, again, who we know that she is. And you're excited to see that kind of player development this late in the year because you're only a month removed from the Conference USA tournament.

[00:05:03] So Tamiya, I mean, gosh, she was everything you wanted to be and then some. She was literally an unstoppable force on Thursday night against Jack State. And even again on Saturday, it was just in bunches. And she didn't even get to play the whole game. I'm really impressed, and I'm glad that she was honored with Player of the Week honors. But I want to take it back to what we were talking about with the defense. Four quarters, the last two against Jack State, the first two against Kennesaw State,

[00:05:29] 27 total points in those two halves alone. And, you know, you were there in the press conference with Coach Ensel. His feedback on where he thinks this defense is and where it needs to be. You know, Jacob, this defense, it's hard to think that this defense could get any better than what we saw. Granted, competition could be better, but that was a pretty unstoppable defense that we witnessed in the Murphy Center this weekend. It definitely was.

[00:05:55] That definitely was an unstoppable defense, and that's something he prides his teams on the most. Right? You always hear defense wins championships, and you kind of feel that Rick Ensel, my bad there. I was going to get upset about that one. Rick Ensel, he takes that to heart and runs with it the entire way. And so he's going to have those good defenses. Now, like you said, competition could be better. Right?

[00:06:20] That's the biggest question is MTSU is expected to make it through the tournament into the NCAA tournament. And so it's whether or not that defense is going to hold up come mid-March, late March, is the biggest question. Because for him, it's almost already in his mind, we're going to win this tournament in conference down in Huntsville, and then we're going to go to the NCAA tournament. And it's whether or not they can get past that round of 32. I talked to him before the season started.

[00:06:49] That's what their goal is, is to make the Sweet 16. Once they make the Sweet 16, just keep going from there. But it's whether or not that defense is going to hold up against tougher competition. Yeah, and I also had this noted too. You know, 11 times this season, the magic number is 47. They've held teams to under 47 points 11 different times this season. And that's a mark that, at least for my short, quick research, at least in the Rick Insull era, has never been achieved before. So that's one.

[00:07:19] I did say going into the year that this is probably the most talented team he's ever had. I definitely think that has stood the test of time in regards to how defensively strong this team is. And yeah, to your point, that is something he definitely prides himself on. I know when he talks about these younger players like Savannah Davis, Jada Harrison, Emily Monson, who we've seen more uptick in minutes as of late. But the key to them getting more minutes has been their defensive play. Like he doesn't, he's not putting them in the game to score more points.

[00:07:47] He's putting them in the game so they can provide some level of value on the defensive end. And he sees that value definitely into Savannah Davis. We saw this last week. He was really impressed with her play. And Emily Monson, who's kind of stepping in for Alina when she gets into foul trouble, is probably also limiting some minutes, as we were told that she may experience this year with the amount of minutes she's played over her entire career. So all things considered, for me, it's the offense.

[00:08:14] And we saw kind of a glimpse of that in that first half with Jacksonville State. If this team really wants to go to the next level and guarantee them that spot into, as you're saying, the round of 32, the Sweet 16, the offense has got to be there. And that was their concern. They went cold there in that first half. And if we're going to even jump ahead of schedule here, talk about Western Kentucky, that's exactly what happened in Bowling Green earlier this year. They had no problem scoring the ball up by nine points at halftime. And then they couldn't score in the second half.

[00:08:42] Things just kind of fell off the boat for them. So the offense, I mean, defense will win championships. And when you hold teams under 47, you're not going to lose very many games, no matter how bad your shooting is. So I would agree that defense is probably the biggest focus. And if you want to put all your eggs into one basket, this defense is good. They could hold just about anybody under 15 points. But if you want to draw to the competition that you're going to see in the NCAA tournaments, I think back to the Iowa State game, the Tennessee game, the Kansas State game,

[00:09:11] were all three of those teams who are likely going to be second weekend teams, if not at a minimum around the 32 teams, that scored 70 plus points against a really good defense. So and inconsequentially, your offense wasn't very good in the Kansas State, Iowa State game. Tennessee, your offense was great, scored 75 points, but you allowed 80 plus against Tennessee.

[00:09:34] So get back to where we're at now, talking about moving ahead to Western Kentucky and that increased competition that you're alluding to. You've got Western this week who's sitting in third place. You've got Liberty, who's not to the very last game of the season. But I would love to see kind of more offensive continuity. Like I talked about Tamiya. Tamiya has kind of been the steady horse. And Estasia has kind of been that steady horse. Jalen's been up and down. She's always been a leader, whether she's putting the ball in the hoop or not. She's a great on-ball defender, the best we have.

[00:10:03] But I would challenge a little bit to say the offense, if they can continue this level of momentum they had, 42 points in the first half against Kennesaw, this team really could take off in these last couple weeks. I think you're exactly right there. Coming into the season, the big thing was how are they going to replace Savannah Wheeler and Courtney Whitson. And you saw that this past weekend. Tamiya Scott scored almost 30. She scored 30 in the game against Jack State. Had a really good game against Kennesaw.

[00:10:33] That has to come every day, though, now. They've got to have somebody who can do that. And you look at Jalen Greger against Kennesaw. She shot the ball really well. She hit, what, five or six threes throughout the whole game? Right? If she's able to do that every single game, that's where you're looking to build off of. Where, when you get to those tougher competition games in the first, second round of the tournament, those are the types of offensive performances that will help them move on to the second or third round. Yeah.

[00:11:02] The offensive product. And you said it. You kind of have to, like, as much as we like to think that with Savannah Wheeler leaving, Courtney Whitson leaving, it could kind of be like this balancing act of scoring, right? Not ever, not, you don't have to have an 18-point game score. You can now have five that average nine or ten. Well, we've kind of discovered that maybe that's not the recipe. At least my takeaway, that that may not be the recipe. But to me, a scoring 20 points, yeah, that kind of solves your issue. Same with Jalen, as you're saying.

[00:11:27] If she continues to be the three-point, I want to say that the three-point assassin that she is, hit, you know, three or four a game, you know, that's 12 points right there. So, yeah, I think that is the recipe. Courtney Blakely, great assist numbers. You know, just kind of be who she is. Same with Alina. Alina hasn't been the score that we necessarily thought she would be. But if she's doing her part on the defensive end, which she does a pretty good job of guarding opposing teams' fours without getting in too much foul trouble, I think she kind of holds up her end

[00:11:56] where she may fall off offensively. She definitely picks up on the defensive end. So, yeah. Lastly here, Western Kentucky this Saturday. You know, I don't want to harp too much. It's the last only loss they have this year. Hopefully, it'll be the only loss they do have this year. That's 38-24 in the second half there in Bowling Green. You shot 15% from three. You only made three three-pointers that entire game. If you have a couple there down the stretch, the game changes entirely. They're coming to Murphy Center.

[00:12:26] You like to think you're going to have some level of atmosphere. You're going to have this unstoppable force that is the Murphy Magic with the 4,000-plus that I'm sure will be here on Saturday. You know, what are kind of some keys, Jacob, that you see they need to execute to really, you know, I guess kind of prove who they are to this Bowling Green team? I think what Western Kentucky did so good last game was the third quarter, especially defensively. Right? First half, that first quarter they came out and played mainly man on the Blue Raiders.

[00:12:55] And then they switched to, they started switching more and more to a zone defense into the second quarter. Saw that neither of those plans were really working for them. And so that third quarter, they changed them up every single attempt the Blue Raiders had on the offensive side. Right? So one drive they would play man defense. They would play zone the next. They would run a hybrid of some sort. Just giving the Blue Raiders different looks. Obviously, they're going to see that in the scouting report this week.

[00:13:23] So it's finding the solutions offensively for that. And then staying out of foul trouble. Right? They're going to play the second half as well, which really does, really sets them up to have a tough time in that four. Because Alina Avike is kind of that like hybrid four or five spot. She can play the center if need be. But then you go from Alina Avike to Emily Monson.

[00:13:50] There's definitely a difference in size and just overall like play style you see between the two. And so if they have to serve Emily Monson or Savannah Davis in for a long period of time, they're sacrificing that size in the four down low. Where you see Rick, he likes to play those man defenses. And that's where it hurts them the most. Yeah, that's a great analysis on it.

[00:14:15] I think that Alina is kind of, I know we talk about her scoring, but she's kind of the cog, at least on the defensive side. She's the cog that kind of keeps that machine moving. So hopefully, yeah, the foul trouble came up huge there late for him, especially when they talked about spreading the floor, hit a lot of big threes. Players that don't typically hit threes for Western really kind of spread that game out, made it really difficult to guard them. So let's move over to men. Men basketball, they split this weekend. Really kind of a tough weekend.

[00:14:41] But anytime you're on the road and you can get one game on the road, doesn't matter who it is, in this conference, that's proved to be extremely valuable. So, recapping on Thursday, 77-63 loss at Jacksonville State. They did allow Jaron Pierre to score 36 points. Five of six from three for him. If you didn't already know him from a scout earlier this year that we did on him, he's one of the most talented scorers in all of college basketball. He's bound to have great basketball games. We held him at bay here in Murfreesboro, just 14 points.

[00:15:11] But nearly tripled that production in Jacksonville this Thursday night. But collectively, Jacksonville State hit 16 threes. And I made the note, I did a little digging myself, because that's a lot of three-pointers. When was the last time that MTSU had given up 16 three-pointers? Well, it'd go all the way back to the Myrtle Beach Invitational back in 2019. So we're looking at, what, six years? Almost, if you go all the way to November. So five and a half years, all the way back into the Myrtle Beach Invitational against the 17th-ranked Villanova team,

[00:15:39] who made 18 threes there in Conway, South Carolina, in that 98-69 loss. So it's been some time since the Raiders have allowed that many three-pointers in a single game. So kind of out of the norm, something that MTSU constantly gets praised for on ESPN Plus is, or I say ESPN Plus, but anywhere that broadcasts, one of the things I always bring up is how good this team is on three-point defense. And to be fair, they are very good three-point defenders. They're one of the best collectively in the conference at three-point defending.

[00:16:06] But if you pull back a little bit and you look at it from a conference perspective and just the conference games, MTSU is actually eighth in Conference USA in three-point defense. So something that hasn't really carried over from the non-conference schedule over to the conference schedule that has really hurt them is particularly in this Thursday night game if you defend the three a little bit better. And I'd even draw it back to, I believe it was a Louisiana Tech game where the threes got a little out of control. So you think if you can defend the three a little bit better, you give yourself a better opportunity, especially in these road games.

[00:16:35] But albeit, they get the win on Saturday in Cannesaw State, 76-75. Adrian Woolley, the shoe-in for Conference USA freshman of the year, 29 points. Simeon Cottle, 16 points. Another All-CUSA selection more than likely. Yeah, so 29 from Woolley, 16 from Cottle. You led by 16 in the first half, but you hang on. You win the game by one in the end. Free throws, free throws, free throws.

[00:17:01] You miss three down the stretch that make the game a lot more interesting than they probably should be. And you have the guys at the line who you really want shooting them. You got Justin Porter, Mr. Front End. You got Cam Weston, Mr. Front End. So it's kind of, it's maddening that free throws, we're still talking about that this late into the season. But there seemed to be some sort of conservative effort on Thursday. I think the number was 15 for 16 of the free throw line. So a lot better, but it wasn't crunch time. But Saturday, you needed them and you didn't have them.

[00:17:29] So at least those are kind of my takeaways from this last weekend. A win is a win. Doesn't matter. It doesn't go in the record book as a barely win. You won. You're still sitting in the top of the conference. You're third place right now by way of a tiebreaker with Liberty. But I think you just got to be happy and you live to fight another day. I think that's exactly true. Against Jacksonville State, I mean, they had two players.

[00:17:56] It was Pierre Jr. and Cotton who hit 15 of their 16 threes, right? Pierre Jr. hit, he went 10 for 16 and then Cotton was the 5 for 6. I mean, at that point, you try to stick somebody on him the best you can. Try and double team them when you see them outside the three-point line. But if a player's that hot, they're that hot, right? Obviously, he's not doing that every day. He's not dropping 10 threes on everybody all the time.

[00:18:23] It's just it wasn't it was his day from the three-point line. And then from Kennesaw, yeah, a win is a win. You won on the road in a tough environment. I got to watch the replay of that game. Kennesaw has a good crowd. They are able to provide some electricity back the home team. And yes, you want him to hit those free throws late. But Jaden Counter hit two free throws with about a minute left. That ultimately was enough for them, right?

[00:18:53] And so as long as you're getting them in crunch time when they matter most, you want Porter and Cam to hit those first, get an opportunity for a second one. But they did just enough to get by. Yeah, and like I said, sometimes it's all that it takes. Jacksonville State, Kennesaw, I know when you looked at the preseason, neither one of these two teams were really in the discussion. Kennesaw has kind of cooled off a little bit. Jack State has really been the surprise of the conference. I think preseason they were seventh or eighth.

[00:19:23] And now they're sitting two games with a comfortable lead in Conference USA. But this road swing in particular, they are 19-2 at home, those two programs. So the fact that you are now one of those now three losses for Kennesaw State, I mean, that's a win. I mean, like I said, you got to take that because you have to assume that anyone that goes to Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State is going to lose those games. So you take them when you get them. The Kennesaw State sweep is always a big deal.

[00:19:51] Sweeping anyone in regards to a tiebreaker is a big deal. Jack State, unfortunately, you now are split. You're going to have the mercies of tiebreaker rules to see how you kind of devolve there when the season comes to an end on a seeding basis. But it's just, I think a lot of us, myself, a little upset with the way Jacksonville State went. But you got to win regardless against Kennesaw State. So you can't complain too much. Now, this one on Saturday in Bowling Green is a big one. I mean, it should be circled regardless.

[00:20:20] If you have to be explained to why this is a big deal, I can't help you. But the number one scoring offense in Bowling Green, a lot on the line really for Western more so than MTSU considering they're right now in eighth place. So Western is in a win now situation to improve that seeding because in the eighth spot, they're going to have to win their play-in game and then they're going to turn around and play the number one seed. So they're in a really sticky spot. Granted, four weeks left. But this is kind of, if they win on a projected basis, they would jump up to sixth. If we win, we stay in third. We lose.

[00:20:50] We fall back to fourth. So there's still a lot of things to happen there. But bigger game for them more so than us. But they are significantly better. They score 13 more points per game at home than they do on the road. So I look for a really energized Western Kentucky fan base on their homecoming to beat their biggest rival. Oh, for sure. I mean, you talk to Western fans and MTSU fans. The 100 miles of hate game is always the biggest turnout for either score. Right.

[00:21:17] When they played it on the men's side here a couple of weeks ago, we had four and a half, 5,000 people inside the Murphy Center. It's not a number you see day in and day out. Any other game, if you're the athletic department, two and a half, great day for them. Right. And then Western Kentucky comes to town and four and a half thousand, 5,000 fans show up just because they were raised on this idea of hating this other school.

[00:21:44] Whether or not they win or lose, they still show up. I mean, it's a big city event. Same thing up in Western Kentucky for any sport too. And so they're going to have a crowd behind them. It's whether or not MTSU can turn it around, right? Jack State, look at them. They're a team that always has a good crowd at their home events. Western's going to be the same way. Can MTSU though, keep Western from not having a hot streak, whether it's from the

[00:22:13] three point line inside the paint, run their offense, run their man defense and hold them. Excuse me. And hold them to something below 70 points. Hopefully. Do you see that happening? I mean, realistically between you and I, is this something that you see, like you think MTSU has what it takes to kind of win in that environment? I think they can win in that environment, especially this year. Right.

[00:22:39] As long as they're going to have the starting five and their role players have been really good so far. Right. The only concern, the only big game that was a concern was the New Mexico game when Mustafa was out, right? When Mustafa's out and you have to start Chris Loof and you have to play Christian Fussell, there's a concern there, right? That game wasn't their best inside the paint. They gave up a lot of offensive boards. They gave up a lot of defensive boards. Yeah.

[00:23:08] They gave up a lot of offensive boards there. And so you have to be able to have all the people in place to win and they're going to have that. So they definitely have a chance. Yeah. And that's all you have to have, right? Just got to have at least a chance and show up and give yourself an opportunity to win. But one other side piece on this, I know a lot of people are on the boards anyways, concerned about Kamari Lanz. Is he going to come back? What's the status on him? I don't know. That's the answer I can honestly always give you is I don't know where Kamari Lanz is.

[00:23:36] But at this point, you played a lot of basketball without him and this team is still sitting in third place in Conference USA. So, I mean, obviously I wish him well and I wish him to come back because of where he provides that floor spacing. Obviously, the scoring you need in the event that Western does score in the high 70s, low 80s that you need to be competitive with them. So maybe this is the week he returns. I don't know. It's been bounced back and forth at any second now he could return. But I'm excited. That game is at 7 p.m. in Bowling Green. The girls are at 2 p.m. I don't know if I said that earlier.

[00:24:06] Five hours difference. But someone that did the Bowling Green to Murfreesboro trip earlier this year is very doable. So, Blue Raider fans, go to the girls game at 2 o'clock. There's enough time to leave MTSU. They've flexed it because it's going to be on CBS Sports Network to make that trip up to Bowling Green. So, I encourage Blue Raider fans to do it. Let's get as many blue butts there as we can in Bowling Green. Pull for the Raiders because, of course, any little advantage we can have there is all the better doing.

[00:24:31] So, Jacob, I appreciate you doing this again for us talking a little basketball. Real quickly, I know you've got to go. Tell me about some things you're doing there at MTSU Sideline, some things that people should be looking forward to coming from you. So, we have grown our department greatly this last semester in this one. We now are up to almost a dozen riders. So, we're covering all MTSU athletics. Our guy Willie Fahler is going to be on baseball. Aaron Douglas is going to be on softball.

[00:25:00] We're going to continue with the basketball coverage all the way into the tournament, hopefully into late March if either team can get there. So, just stay updated at mtsusidelines.com. And our website actually just went through a massive upgrade over the Christmas break. The user-friendliness went up a whole ton. You can search for all your favorite riders for sidelines now. It's just an amazing site now. I was going to compliment that. It does. It's a lot more user-friendly than the previous websites.

[00:25:29] So, good stuff as always from Jacob. I'll be sitting on the sidelines. Thanks for stopping by again, Jacob. Thank you. The BRP is proudly partnered with Rivals Network affiliate GoMiddle.com. Subscribe for premium content for all the inside scoop on MTSU athletics, recruiting, or join our free forums to discuss today's episode and all things Blue Raiders. The BRP is also partnered with the College Huddle, a nationwide collaborative effort with over 80 Division I programs represented.

[00:25:59] Check out the website at TheCollegeHuddle.com to catch up on all college football content with daily articles and episodes provided by the largest college podcast community on the internet. Joining the Blue Raider podcast once again, it is the football analyst for us over at GoMiddle.com. It is Austin Lewis. Austin, thanks for joining us. Thank you, man. Thanks for having me again. Absolutely. A lot to talk about. But first, I think, I mean, Super Bowl was just two days ago.

[00:26:27] I mean, did you see that playing out the way that it did? And of course, big congrats to tie everything back to MTSU, Reed Blankenship, getting himself a Super Bowl ring. But let's talk about that game a little bit. You know, 40-22, I don't think the world saw that happening. But I'll have to say, as a chief, I'm a little fatigued on my home. So I was pretty happy with the outcome. Yourself? I was shocked. I was absolutely shocked.

[00:26:53] We had a small Super Bowl party last night, and the end result, especially how the Eagles dominated the game, came to me as a bit of a shock. Excited for Reed. Even found the old Rivals.com GoMiddle article that Casey Bowman wrote after he committed to Middle Tennessee several years ago after the Super Bowl win last night. But I was just completely shocked.

[00:27:16] And running around the house, singing Fly Eagles Fly, because the Kansas City fighting Taylor Swift weren't going to win the Super Bowl this year. That's right. Yeah, I hate it for her. Really, I do. But I'm happy for Reed for a lot of reasons. One thing, too, I think I'm not too privy to the details, but I think he's in a contract year. And I think he had one heck of a season. I imagine if he's not back in Philadelphia, he's going to be somewhere. So big congrats once again to him.

[00:27:45] But let's get into the meat and potatoes. Talking about football this week. National Signing Day came and went on the 5th of last week. I think it's funny. National Signing Day, the way it was prior to COVID and really prior to early signing day period, was a big deal. But now, all the big heavy lifting, really, in the high school ranks is taken care of in December. And this is just kind of the leftovers. In MTSU's world, we just signed two guys. So, really, it's not necessarily as big hoopla as it has been in years past.

[00:28:13] But you get the JUCO guys kind of recognize this go-around as signing and all that kind of good stuff. But, yeah, it came and went. But the roster is where it stands. And a lot of opinions to be shared. But I'll turn it over to you first, Austin, give you the first take here. You know, where do you see that roster now that signing day is gone? And we know the roster, for the most part, is what it's going to look like this fall. The roster's in a better shape.

[00:28:39] You know, when Middle Tennessee, when they lost something like 30 or 40 players at the end of the season to the portal or graduation, there was the question in my mind, that's not good. Who's going to fill the shoes? How is Derek Mason going to deal with the logistics of filling 30 to 40 roster spots at the scholarship position? And they went out and they landed several really talented players from the portal, several talented JUCO guys,

[00:29:08] and then a couple of high school guys that came out of the middle of nowhere that we at Go Middle didn't see coming until really the last minute or so. I think about the Barker kid, the Barker running back out of Arkansas, who is a really talented running back. I am excited to see him at Middle Tennessee, and he was a guy that, to be honest, I didn't see coming until really, really late in the process. And excited to see what he can do in a Blue Raider uniform this fall.

[00:29:39] Yeah, if you missed our national early signing day special that I did with Austin Lewis, as well as Connor Smith and Shane Pickering earlier in December, I highly encourage you to go back if you really want to get an in-depth analysis on all the high school guys. But Keiondre Barker, the man you just mentioned, was a Penn State commit. I guess they got two log jammed at running back, so he fell off and then somehow landed here in Murfreesboro. So now the running back room is loaded, especially with his freshman class.

[00:30:04] You talk about Rocky Chandler, DJ Taylor from Riverdale, and now you've got Keiondre Barker. And I believe there's another running back that's a preferred walk-on. But all things considered, you're very healthy in the freshman of it all when it comes to running backs. And this guy in particular has a lot of talent. I mean, you don't end up at a top 10, big 10 school on complete accident. And of course, he fell off because of depth. But this kid's exciting for a lot of good reasons. There's a lot of talent.

[00:30:30] There's a lot of reasons why Middle Tennessee, the signing class was so high on Rivals.com. I mean, there's talent top to bottom. There's good guys in the trenches on the offensive line. There's three really solid running backs, too, that I am just really excited to see. The receivers, you've got a good slot receiver. You've got a good outside guy. And then on the defensive line, you've got several guys coming in.

[00:30:58] And then, you know, Micah Smith from Innsworth. I really can't wait to see what he looks like as a linebacker at Middle Tennessee. And then Elijah Hunter, which was a fairly late commitment and signee just in the last couple of weeks, made his commitment known and signed not too long ago to Middle Tennessee. And another late signee, too, was the Garrett Austin flip from Western Carolina. I believe he was a tackle there at Topsell High School in North Carolina.

[00:31:27] And now adds you to four offensive linemen, along with Bo Bryan from Rockville High School, Otto Van Rinsburg from Sevier County, and then Kyle Larkin from Ravenwood, who actually was just awarded All-State this last year. And he's kind of a guy that we've discussed that may be sliding in because of the depth that tackle is a little up in the air. I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves here, but he's a guy that could certainly be vying for some playing time this first year, much like we saw with Zach Clayton as a true freshman this last year.

[00:31:57] So, yeah, in total, you have 19 high school signees, 11 on offense. You've got seven on defense. Elijah Hunter, as you just touched on, from South Carolina High School in Georgia, was one to sign this last week, one of the late additions. And then one special team in Bailey Woodman, the place kicker slash punter from Janesville Craig High School in Wisconsin. So that's 19 high school signees. And then let's turn it over to the transfer portal.

[00:32:22] You've got 20 new transfer portal additions and 11 on offense, 8 on defense, and you've got a punter from Oklahoma. Real quick, again, I don't want to necessarily list every single guy on here, but there's a lot of guys that I really, really like. In particular, I talk about guys that have experience, guys that stood out in previous stops. On the offensive side, you have EJ Harris, who is a massive human being at 6'5", 340, more than likely going to play the interior line for us. Jacob Otts, who is a tackle from Rhode Island.

[00:32:52] He's 6'7", 307 pounds for a Rhode Island team that made it to the second round of the FCS. So not just a slouch of an FCS program either. Naze Cox, the junior college transfer from Fresno City Community College in South California. 24 yards per catch. I had to point that out. Over 500 yards. The receptions weren't there, but this clearly is a guy. And if you look at the game film, he is a go-route. He's a lightning in a bottle. Go-route. Go down there.

[00:33:21] Naze Cox is down there. He's got to catch it. That's kind of his game plan. And then Tavion Galloway, the redshirt freshman from Purdue, was a four-star signing on to the Boilermakers. Didn't get the playing time, and then he's kind of fallen into our laps. And the question to me, I'm sure that's going to be asked all offseason, is who is the Holden Willis, or who is going to be the Omari Kelly, if you will. I don't know that this class of portal and high school signees have it, but I do feel confident that there are guys either returning,

[00:33:51] and maybe some of these guys, like the Naze Cox, the A.J. Jones from Arizona, they may fit that bill. But I feel that we've upgraded in all these positions if we're talking explicitly on the offensive side. I think this is going to be one of those situations where the potential is there for, as a whole, the offense may perform better. As a whole, there's more offensive depth.

[00:34:14] Between Cox, you know, I think being the deep threat, as you pointed out, A.J. Jones and Patterson playing receiver, and how do they fit in with Butler and Carter on the other side? I think there's a possibility at the offensive skill positions that they're better as a whole and get better production across the board,

[00:34:36] even if they don't have that Omari Kelly, you know, definitive X, number one receiver who's putting up great fantasy football numbers. I think maybe as a whole, they're going to be tremendously better heading into 2025. Absolutely. Well, you talk about Butler. I think he's going to be the guy that is inserted as the number one receiver, I guess, as we sit right now in the middle of February, just based on sheer numbers.

[00:35:01] A guy that played every single game last year had the most returning receptions by a long shot outside of Holden and Omari Kelly. I mean, really was kind of the bright spot early on in the year when Kelly was relatively silent. Another guy that I have spoken highly of since the spring game of last year was Cameron Lacey. Guy is super quick. He reminds me so much of Richie James. I really do think that him sticking around is going to pay dividends for him as a slot receiver.

[00:35:26] I look forward to seeing where he can take it this year, especially now that I assume he's going to be getting a lot more snaps. Then let's go defense. You got eight transfer portal additions there. Some key guys that I really like. Local talent, Alex Mitchell from Riverdale High School. He's a transfer from Chattanooga. 101 tackles last year for the Mocs. Again, a highly competitive FCS program as well. Jaden Thompson from Ittawamba Community College.

[00:35:51] He was an all-region 23 selection in junior college, which doesn't mean anything to the average listener, but that's the Mississippi Junior College League. If you remember anything about the East Mississippi Community College documentary on Last Chance U on Netflix, that is the conference that they are referring to there. Being an all-region selection there is kind of a big deal, even to note he had an 18-game tackle against East Mississippi in particular. I think that's an insane number to pull from a linebacker position.

[00:36:21] Juwan Gaston, a redshirt senior from Houston, played 10 games for the Cougars two years ago. Then Kaylin Woods, the San Mateo Community College safety, 39 tackles, four interceptions, made all state California junior college numbers. There's guys here that, again, have to contribute, and I didn't mention any of these cornerbacks because there's such a shuffle. You've got Diari McDonald, who's already announced that he's coming back for another year,

[00:36:45] which is huge for the depth there because you lose Raby, and you lose – it's blanking on me right now – you're losing Marve Myers at cornerback as well. So you've got to make some production there. So any of these guys could really fill in at corner, and you really need them. Yeah, for me, the big guys who jump out – this is the size. The big thing that jumps out, excuse me, that jumps out to me about the secondary is the size of the cornerbacks. Devin is 6'3", 193.

[00:37:14] Jordan Chestnut is 6'4", 196. DeAndre McDonald is 6'0", 205. These are some big corners. And so this afternoon, as I was thinking about Derek Mason and his past experience and where he's been before, one of the names that caught my eye was a guy named Richard Sherman. Maybe you guys have heard of him. Went on to have a really long NFL career. Richard Sherman's a pretty big corner, 6'3", 195, if memory serves correct.

[00:37:44] So I think we're starting to see Derek Mason get guys who fit his system and what he's looking for. Those pieces are starting to kind of fill in between Carlisle and Chestnut. And even if you look at the linebackers in Mitchell and Thompson, Mitchell is 6'1", 235. Thompson is like 6'1", 6'2", 250. He's a thumper. He likes to hit. And so you see a guy maybe who's a dropper in terms of dropping into coverage like Mitchell.

[00:38:14] And then you have Jaden Thompson who may be a little more of a blitzer in the defense. And so you're starting to see these pieces come together that Mason may not be playing, trying to fit a square into a round hole, that he may be slowly working toward being able to fit a square into a square hole going into 2025 and 2026.

[00:38:36] And to add, this whole topic of discussion really is about the improvement of the team and the roster as a whole. You talk about the size of the cornerback. If we want to just put it apples to apples, the guys that left, back to Rabian Myers and James Mond, who is a nickelback that also left. James Mond, 5'11". Tyrell Rabie, 5'11". Marve Myers, 6'0". Everyone you just listed was 6'3". If cornerback was based on height alone,

[00:39:06] that's a great number to have. That's stuff that you can't train. Now, granted, I think these guys have similar skills, which obviously is just going to go along complementary. But I want to parlay that into the topic of discussion about defensive coordinator Brian Stewart. One thing about this roster in particular, and we had a lot of defensive linemen leave, but we had a lot of these bigger guys that wanted to stay like the Felix Hicksons that I'm super excited about them staying, because those are guys that I thought, as good as they played this last year,

[00:39:35] albeit on a relatively rough defense, they still performed at a very high level. So when we put that in, and I want to bring them all up here, Felix Hickson, Demonte Smith, James Gillespie, Sha'Kai Woods, these are all guys that got Anthony Bynum as well. These are guys that got a high percentage of snaps. The D-Lotin seems pretty set in its ways. We've seen an uptick in a lot of these linebacker signings. You talked about Micah Smith from Insworth, who I anticipate getting some more time. A Marion Bailey, another freshman that saw a lot of minutes last year.

[00:40:05] That's going to be an uptick in minutes. Parker Hughes, we already know who he is. But all these guys that he's signing, especially these outside linebackers, Flex, Edge is what I would call them. There's a lot of terms you can use for these guys. But it seems to be more conducive to what Coach Stewart wants to run on the defensive side of the ball. It seems to be a roster that is wanting to shift more to the 3-4, less the 4-3 that we saw last year. Which, again, when you have a coach coaching in a system and has a roster that fits that system,

[00:40:33] you can only hope that things move up from here. You know, outside looking in, it seemed like Schaefer, the old defensive coordinator, liked guys to be a little faster. Maybe a little smaller, but a little faster and a little quicker. Perhaps. And the roster reflected that. Mason wants guys to be bigger, stronger, and more physical. And now you're starting to see the roster reflect that. And hopefully, the roster that fits the system

[00:41:01] leads to better on-field performance. Hopefully, the back end, the secondary, the defense can stay healthy next year. There were a lot of injuries on that back end of the defense last year. Hopefully, they can stay healthy. Hopefully, some of these, these portal guys, these Juco transfers can come in and slide in just like Mason is hoping they will and perform at a level where that, that defense performs at the level that we all kind of expected it to be last year

[00:41:30] with Brian Stewart and Derek Mason kind of controlling things because both of those guys have a reputation for great defenses. Both of those guys have, have coached at the highest level of football in the NFL. And so, I think we were all kind of expecting a little bit more from that defense. And maybe now that they're starting to get those pieces in place, that defense can take the next step in 2025 and beyond. Yeah. Unfortunately, the injury bug really bit the secondary early on

[00:41:59] and you didn't really get to experience that. And something that I think will always go and myself included that may, I know I'm an apologist when it comes to this topic in particular, but Mason came on campus sight unseen with a lot of these guys. He'd been out of the recruiting game for a whole year. And even on the topic of defense, Brian Stewart, same thing. He was in the XFL. So he's not on the phone with college or high school kids for that matter on recruiting. So it literally was a sight unseen for these kids. A last second scrambling, trying to fill the roster

[00:42:29] and you felt really good about your ones. But as we saw, the twos just weren't, they just weren't it. That's not what necessarily needed to happen. And now you feel that this depth has been created for that. You can, there's a little bit more sustainability in this car than what we saw last year. So I think the defense is in better shape, especially as a roster construction standpoint. And realistically, I hate to be that this negative, but it can't get much worse, right? Allowing over 30 points a game. I couldn't imagine

[00:42:58] with this roster getting any worse. And that's, and I think as negative as that sounds, that should be a positive because on the flip side, the offense kind of the same boat. I don't know that they could get much worse. And the biggest thing to shore up was the offensive line. And that's where I kind of want to turn the attention to. There's so many guys that you can plug and play. And when me and Shane went down to fall camp last year, we thought we knew who the starting line was going to be. And it was entirely different. And we can draw something up right now in February, but I fully expect that when I go back

[00:43:28] to campus in the fall before the season for the same interview set up, then I'm going to be stunned because that's the depth that we have created via this transfer portal and this signing class. Yeah, the struggle, the roster construction struggle has gotten infinitely harder over the last five to six years with NIL, with the portal, unlimited transfers. And so guys who come in and after spring practice realize they're not going to play, they're going to

[00:43:58] transfer out. On the flip side, if you're in spring practice and you realize our offensive line is not good, we need an extra piece or two. Guess what? There's going to be a lot of guys in the portal who are feeling the exact same way about their current situation and entering the portal. So the portal is creating this opportunity for roster turnover from spring to fall that maybe five, ten years ago you didn't see on the widespread level

[00:44:27] that you see right now. But yeah, as you look ahead with the offensive line in particular, guys like EJ Harris and Jacob Otts, I would be shocked if they're not really in the rotation for something significant come fall, come August, come September. Those guys, if those guys aren't starting, either there's an entry bug or there's a really bad eval. Those are the two guys I'm really eyeing to make a significant contribution

[00:44:57] on the offensive line come fall. A couple others I think will compete but those are the two that I think if you're Mason, I think if you're the Blue Raider offensive staff, you're hoping and you're pleading and you're begging those two guys to step up and protect Nick Vadiato so the offense can perform at the level you need it to perform because 17 points a game ain't going to cut it next year for the Blue Raiders. You're going to need if you want

[00:45:26] to have a winning program in 2025 college football you've got to be able to score 30 points a game and last year they were 13 points away from it and so they need that offensive line to protect Nick so he can get the ball to AJ so he can get the ball to Butler so he can get the ball to Carter and Cox and Galloway and Tipton and all those offensive pieces they worked so hard to recruit in the last year or two they need that offensive

[00:45:56] line to come through and kind of execute the vertical philosophy that I know Coach Reader likes to run less than we've seen in years past with Stocks still so again it all kind of ties itself in together last little step here and I want to get to the schedule so we'll try to be as quick as we possibly can do a little armchair general managing if we will talk about where this roster is again I do my best to be as comprehensive with so many guys on this roster but on the offensive side Nick Vadiato returned

[00:46:25] with all the speculation that he wouldn't return he's back great news for the Raiders Roman Gagliano his backup is there then you got Stanley Anderson Lofton who's the early enrollee from Florida high school signee big deal I don't expect minutes to be played there this year but it is a big deal that your quarterback even if he's going to be the third string is on campus we'll go to the running back position you get flip cradle back you're going to get Jaquil Middlebrooks who I think are going to be a great one-two punch they both offer kind of

[00:46:55] I would say complimentary styles Austin Clemens is another guy who we talked about last year that didn't see the field but they were very happy with his development and we've already touched on how deep this running back room continues with these high school freshmen signees that who knows who could slide in their offensive line Matteo Guevara it was an all all CUSA freshman two years ago Isaac Rue returns with a few minutes played last year Marcus Miller another guy that saw a lot of time in the interior and Zach Clayton who started at left tackle near the end of the season due to injury

[00:47:25] so those four guys on top of your sign out the group as far as where that goes I don't know I'll do the best I can I think Otz is at left tackle you're going to have probably Miller or Harris or Tui Ono Guy Vera all

[00:48:07] as far as your skill positions go at tight in Galloway that's the guy you've been looking at Slade Alexander and Potash are two guys that come back from last year's roster tight in and Hunter tempted I forgot about him the Louisiana tech transfer but I still think Galloway is going to be the guy for them as far as minutes go and wide receivers I've already touched on Miles Butler Cameron Lacey all guys that played significant snaps

[00:48:37] last year I'm sure we'll see some sort of mixture with Cox AJ Jones the UCF transfer Tyree Patterson may Jake sees it Austin I'll turn to you as far as we know we just touched on what this offense needs to do but I do feel that we have continuity in the skill position areas which is vital

[00:49:19] in I agree the one name I don't think you mentioned is Josh Evans three star prospect signed last year he redshirted last year he's a guy that I'm really excited to see develop and I think he could play into the rotation you know so you have you know a multitude of athletes out at receiver and that's where my mind always goes when it comes to the

[00:49:48] offensive side of ball top to bottom this offensive skill position they are top to bottom much better than they were last year when you looked outside out wide you had Holden you had Kelly and Butler and Carter rotated in and out in terms of their

[00:50:18] effectiveness I think they have another year in the system hopefully they can take a next step forward in their development but then you have AJ Jones you have Patterson and then you have Josh Evans hopefully Josh can take the next step forward and so you have let's just throw out there Butler and Carter at the X let's say AJ Jones and Josh Evans play the Z or whatever however they figure

[00:50:48] there's a lot more talent top to bottom I'm looking at the roster right now and there are easily I think six or seven receivers eight receivers who could see positive playing time significant playing time in a rotation last year I don't feel like that was the case that I would feel comfortable trotting out some of the guys that they were trotting out so we'll see if that helps Bodie as he's calling plays with the offensive line that maybe improves 10 to

[00:51:18] 20% strength and conditioning another year in the strength and conditioning program they're going to be stronger they're going to be a little faster better skill positions hopefully the offense can improve and get closer and nudge closer to that 30 points again that you need to have in 2025 college football on the flip side defense a lot of your front seven I'm going to talk about explicitly the line here if and again I'm assuming they're going to try to shift their attention to

[00:51:48] a 3-4 up front your starter at tackle was going to be Hickson you got DeMonte Smith Anthony Bynum on the edge again I could see Sha'Kai Woods James Gillespie getting some time there when you look again at the signings you only have one Matias Malachi Donaldson the Mount Sack CC transfer that I do think is actually going to get some pretty quality time on the edge he is more of a swing in my

[00:52:29] about a Marion Bailey Micah Smith the freshman could be getting some time there Alex Mitchell the Chattanooga transfer Jaden Thompson talked about those guys so your front seven they didn't really recruit much and I

[00:52:59] versatile guys that can play the linebacker position I do think you're still going to have your Alex Mitchell Parker Hughes are going to be your middle guys and then your depth pieces file in and they're interchangeable I

[00:53:29] Xavier Williams he did a great job filling in but a quarterback playing a free safety can only do so much for a struggling defense already so I'm excited to see Brendan Harris come back Ricky Smith is

[00:54:00] cornerbacks were remotely quiet this offseason we lost a ton as we touched on but we already talked on the size that these guys added this last minute here in January which is huge even

[00:54:30] an iota better than they were last year you know I think what you said about Brandon Harris if he can stay healthy along with Jawan Gaston coming in from Houston I think the safety spot will perform a lot better than it did last year but that's a big if for Brandon Harris Brandon Harris has been things

[00:55:00] as a college football player and if he can stay healthy with Gaston and those two guys can walk down the safety the middle of the field maybe the corners aren't on an island quite as much may allow Stewart and Mason to do some more blitzing some more rushing and some things to make the defense a little more aggressive I do think if you have a chance in the off

[00:55:29] if need and if you can get a corner from the portal a guy with a year or two experience a guy who's 20 years old a year two

[00:55:59] can move a little more burst to play with some of the faster receivers that we're seeing in college football today college football has kind of changed in the last five or 10 years you're seeing a lot of the smaller Devontae Smith type receivers as

[00:56:30] absolutely lots of reasons to be excited I'll

[00:56:59] signee has the leg to really do both if you really wanted them to but you do sign the punter from Oklahoma Ashton Logan didn't get any time at Oklahoma so I'm not sure what we have there don't have any film on him at Oklahoma for that reason and then you are returning Zach Benedict the transfer from New Mexico who has a boot but didn't necessarily have the consistency that they were looking for to play this last year so that kind of wraps it up last thing I know we're giving the

[00:57:29] people way more than they're asking for Austin which is good stuff as always I'm glad we can workshop a lot of this stuff in February for it all to be dismantled when we get back in on September but let's talk about the schedule the season starts August 30th they're schedule was released this last week I know you have some tidbits about what you're excited about with this schedule in particular

[00:57:59] so I'll give you the Memphis was a really good team their group of five team but they were very good group of five teams so you had

[00:58:29] three fairly difficult out-of-conference games last year I think those four out-of-conference games this year are not necessarily all winnable but they're a lot easier not as challenging Wisconsin is going to be a difficult game up there at Camp Randall but the other three are winnable games they may not go Blue Raiders way but they're winnable they're a lot more winnable than last year and then you turn to the conference

[00:58:59] schedule six of the eight conference games this year involve a new face in some regard Kennesaw State is breaking in a new head coach Missouri State is new to Conference USA Delaware is new from a schematic standpoint from a coaching standpoint the ability to play six teams this

[00:59:29] year that are breaking in a new head coach in your conference schedule is a lot more favorable than having to play Liberty and some of the other conference teams I think this sets Derek Mason and the team up potentially if people can stay healthy and they can perform potentially sets the Blue Raiders up for a season where they could sneak into bowl eligibility maybe even a little better for me

[00:59:59] again this is February 10th there's a lot of weapons to take the next step can Bryce coach that secondary and turn that secondary into the secondary that Derek Mason

[01:00:29] and Brian Stewart needed to be and how do these new head coaches perform in Conference USA several of them are new head coaches first time head coaches and how do they make that adjustment to being a head coach for the first time what things do they have to learn that Derek Mason has already figured out as a veteran head coach and so that makes this season I think for a lot of reasons a lot more favorable than last year for Derek Mason and

[01:00:58] company the big thing for me and I agree with everything you're saying especially in regards to Southern Miss so that's a seventh team on your schedule that's going to have a brand new coach this year but as far as the quips that is the conference USA midweek schedule the one thing I didn't love is you go from Kennesaw State your fifth straight weekend of playing then you have a semi week and a half break when you're going

[01:01:28] to State and then you're off for another two and a half weeks and you're playing Delaware Jacksonville State another week and a half off FIU so you're playing one game over practically a month in that midweek break between Kennesaw and

[01:02:01] extra rest but as we've seen with teams in the past that rust doesn't always work in your favor either I'm more of

[01:02:31] if you can with what he's doing at UTEP doing an excellent job with that roster there in El Paso you avoid them in their final year in Conference USA so in my opinion called me scared I'm okay with it like because he's the biggest question mark but UTEP could also be they could probably have one of the historic turnaround this year that's how good that roster he's done over there so you avoid him and you're never going to play him ever again because they're gone they're out of Conference USA this year and then lastly Louisiana Tech

[01:03:22] brings to the conference this year because this conference is nearly as bad as it was last year again you've got to have this momentum building for Mason in year two with all these new head coaches coming in so I think this this is more conducive to a winning season I'll be honest I

[01:03:52] say it and I know I said it last year and maybe this is the boy who cried wolf but I just have to think that you avoid the big monsters of the conference besides Western and Sam Houston that you get to six and get to a bowl game for me

[01:04:22] imperative that that offense take the next step there is absolutely no way that middle Tennessee can get to the next level of six wins seven wins eight wins without significant improvement on that offense the talent is there the pieces are there can Bodie get more out of Nick can he get more out of the receivers can he get more out

[01:04:52] struggled against Tennessee Tech last year and so if middle Tennessee is going to get to the magic number of six wins in year two and build some momentum for Derrick Mason they've got Bodie reader has to take the next step or else and I hate to be this guy at this point the seat is going to get really really hot for Derrick Mason if the offense is scoring 18 points a game next year

[01:05:22] with Bodie reader that seat is likely going to be very hot for Derrick Mason heading into 2026 I think the talent's there I think the ability is there I think the coaching staff for the most part is there I think there are guys on the staff they're doing a phenomenal job recruiting the pieces are starting to come together Derrick Mason put out a video today talking about some of the things they're working on as a staff and as a team and the

[01:05:52] progress they've made this is exciting to hear but those words have to become action those words have to become meaningful real tangential progress where you can look at the scoreboard at the end of the game and go they won this game they wouldn't have won this game last year and if they can't make that progress in 2025

[01:06:22] it's going to be a frustrating offseason for Derrick Mason and there I think the pieces are there there's a lot of talent on that offensive side of the ball can Bodie reader do something can he take the next step and can they score 25 30 points a game especially in conference schedule next year we'll see that we

[01:06:52] will Austin of course great conversation as always lots of great insight from Austin Austin does tons of stuff over at Go Middle very interactive over there of Go Middle and subscribe make sure you're in there on our premium boards as well as we do have free forums as well we want to hear from you Blue Raider fans your input on this episode will obviously be posted on there so if you got any questions about this in-depth analysis on football Austin is going to be the guy answer and I'll be there as much as I can but Austin I

[01:07:22] appreciate you taking the time to be here with us and I look forward to this football I'm looking forward to the 2025 season and enjoy just talking Blue Raider football in February I'd rather do that than talk baseball but I'm a football guy at heart so thanks for the opportunity man enjoyed it

[01:07:52] That was Austin Lewis with GoMiddle.com I appreciate him again taking the time to join us if you're not already make sure you're following us on all of our social media accounts Twitter, X TikTok, Instagram Facebook of course if you're not already listening to us on YouTube if you've made it this far make sure you're subscribed and make sure you're following us again because we just did a giveaway for baseball season tickets and I don't want you guys to miss out on that opportunity when football rolls around and we do another season ticket giveaway so take the time make sure you're following us stay tuned in get the notifications

[01:08:22] turned on for all of our Tuesday uploads again thanks for tuning into today's episode and until next time Go Blue