2004 SCHEDULE

Sept. 4 at Florida
Sept. 11 at Akron
Sept. 18 FLORIDA ATLANTIC
Sept. 25 *at Louisiana-Lafayette
Oct. 2 *at North Texas
Oct. 9 *ARKANSAS STATE (Family Day)
Oct. 23 *IDAHO
Oct. 30 *UTAH STATE (Homecoming)
Nov. 6 *at New Mexico State
Nov. 13 *LOUISIANA-MONROE
Nov. 20 *at Troy State


All Times are Central
*Sun Belt Conference Game


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SCHEDULE NOTES: This will mark the fourth time in six years the Blue Raiders have opened a season against a team from the SEC ... MT is a perfect 4-0 in games played against Akron at the Rubber Bowl ... Middle Tennessee has never lost at home to league foes Arkansas State, Idaho, Utah State and Louisiana-Monroe. All four come to Murfreesboro in 2004 ... This will mark the third time in four years Middle Tennessee has opened league play on the road ... Utah State and New Mexico State will be playing their last SBC season, while Troy State will be competing in its first.

The game at Florida will be good exposure for MTSU. If you can play them close it should do wonders for recruiting.

I don't know a whole lot about Middle Tennessee, so forgive me if this is ignorant, but do you guys ever get to play Tennessee?

rocketfootball Wrote:The game at Florida will be good exposure for MTSU. If you can play them close it should do wonders for recruiting.

I don't know a whole lot about Middle Tennessee, so forgive me if this is ignorant, but do you guys ever get to play Tennessee?

No.

rocketfootball Wrote:I don't know a whole lot about Middle Tennessee, so forgive me if this is ignorant, but do you guys ever get to play Tennessee?

We played ut-knoxville back in 2002 and lost 26-3. We had our opportunities in that game but just didn't put points on the board.

I don't know if we'll play again, but given the opportunity I'm sure we would jump at it.

We've had a few close games with these type of schools. in 2002 right before the ut-k game we lost at Alabama in the last few minutes. In 2003 we took Missouri who was ranked n the top 25 at that time into overtime before losing or should I say Missouri took us into OT as we had an eight point lead in the last couple of minutes of regulation.

We beat Vanderbilt in 2001 and 2002, not that those were great wins or anything, but given we are about thirty miles apart, it was significant after toiling in 1aa until 1999. Now Vandy won't play us anymore.

The problem with Florida is their new Offensive Coordinator is our old OC from a couple of years ago. I don't think there is much chance that we will do anything to surpise the Gators.

Looks like I was wrong :D , I thought UT treated you guys much like Arkansas treats Arkansas State

SwampHound Wrote:Looks like I was wrong :D , I thought UT treated you guys much like Arkansas treats Arkansas State

Actually not too far off, but ut-k has more confidence in their football program (for the most part) than, say, an Arkansas does. The MT v. ut-k game was one of the top five attended games ever in Neyland.

They will not play us home and home in basketball. The last deal we had, the ut-k AD refused to agree to play us in Murphy Center (we beat them in Murphy in the 1988 NIT and the last three $ec teams we've play on our court have lost) and we had to settle on the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville.

ut-k's baseball team won't play us any more at MT since we beat them several years ago in front of a rabid Blue Raider SRO crowd.

SpaceRaider Wrote:We beat Vanderbilt in 2001 and 2002, not that those were great wins or anything, but given we are about thirty miles apart, it was significant after toiling in 1aa until 1999. Now Vandy won't play us anymore.

Any win over a BCS school is good for us Mid-Majors!


As a Toledo fan I would love to get another shot at Ohio State. We have only played them once, at OSU in 1998. They were ranked #1 in the country at the time and they blew us out 48-0. Our program has made a lot of strides since and I am sure we could give them a good game now.

Some of our BCS wins in the last few years:

1997
Toledo 36
Purdue 22
Toledo, OH

2000
Toledo 24
Penn State 6
Happy Valley

2001
Toledo 38
Minnesota 7
Toledo, OH

2001
Toledo 33
Temple 6
Philadephia, PA

2003
Toledo 35
Pittsburgh 31
Toledo, OH


We have been lucky to get a lot of good home games against BCS teams. This year we play 3 BCS schools, with one at home.

2004 OOC
9/4/04 @ Minnesota
9/11/04 @ Kansas
9/25/04 vs Temple

We played Temple in Murfreesboro last season. We lost to Temple. Our starter at QB got hurt early and we sent in our freshman QB who had us up 14-0 in the first quarter and had us playing well. Our head coach decides to put the starter(even though he was injured) back in and we don't see another first down for two whole quarters and find ourselves down 41-14. Finally the freshman is put back in and we find outselves making a hell of a comeback, still we lose by eight with our freshman driving the team down to about the nine yard line. We just ran out of time. If there was ever a time I wanted to go postal on our head coach, it was then. :mad:

I blame last season's record almost solely on our head coach sticking with an ineffective senior QB. :bang:

You guys should have no problem with Temple.

SpaceRaider Wrote:We played Temple in Murfreesboro last season. We lost to Temple. Our starter at QB got hurt early and we sent in our freshman QB who had us up 14-0 in the first quarter and had us playing well. Our head coach decides to put the starter(even though he was injured) back in and we don't see another first down for two whole quarters and find ourselves down 41-14. Finally the freshman is put back in and we find outselves making a hell of a comeback, still we lose by eight with our freshman driving the team down to about the nine yard line. We just ran out of time. If there was ever a time I wanted to go postal on our head coach, it was then. :mad:

I blame last season's record almost solely on our head coach sticking with an ineffective senior QB. :bang:

You guys should have no problem with Temple.

If I remember right that freshman QB had a hell of a game against us last season. Bet you guys look forward to seeing him have the starting job all to himself this year.

I am glad that Middle is playing Akron, a MAC team, on Sept. 11. As an alumnus of Middle Tennessee and Kent State, I have promoted the idea that Middle become a member of the Mid American Conference. I think it is a matter of time before MTSU gets into another conference because the geographic location of many of the Sun Belt members is way too far from Murfreesboro, TN which hurts attendance and makes it difficult to establish rivalries since many of the schools are in different regions of the country.

I am also an alumnus of Western Kentucky and would like for WKU to eventually become a member of the MAC. With MTSU and WKU as members of the MAC, both schools would have a natural rivalry and the MAC would benefit from Middle's rising football program and WKU's strong basketball program.

Below is my most recent post touting MTSU and WKU as new members of the MAC.

I agree that MTSU and WKU should be considered as new members of the MAC if the conference decides to expand. However, I don

nashvillegoldenflash Wrote:I am glad that Middle is playing Akron, a MAC team, on Sept. 11. As an alumnus of Middle Tennessee and Kent State, I have promoted the idea that Middle become a member of the Mid American Conference...

...I am also an alumnus of Western Kentucky and would like for WKU to eventually become a member of the MAC. With MTSU and WKU as members of the MAC, both schools would have a natural rivalry and the MAC would benefit from Middle's rising football program and WKU's strong basketball program.

I think probably the people in the know at MT are looking at their options (limited though they may be) and I would hope that scheduling Akron is the start of establishing realtionships within the MAC.

I think we also have Ball State on future schedules as well.

I think the Nashville market would be something attractive for the MAC.

All that said, I think folks at MT view themselves and their future as a southern school in a southern conference with their recruiting base in the south. I think the keys to Sun Belt viability is how quickly the Florida schools (FIU and FAU) establish their football programs and support and where latech ends up and what happens with the WAC.

I don't see a situation where the MAC invites MT (anyway MT has it's own issues to resolve to be attractive to other conferences) by itself and I don't picture MT wanting to be viewed as the program that destroy's the Sun Belt's 1A viability by being the first to jump conferences.

If the Sun Belt is unable to maintain viability in 1A football, I hope there would be some way to associate with the MAC and the idea of Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee as a package deal is attractive.

I think Middle Tennessee already has some good rivalries with North Texas, Louisiana, and Troy State. If Western Kentucky would step up to 1-A in football that rivalry would be even better. I do not see MT fans getting excited about playing Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, or Western Michigan. Nothing against those schools just that the average fan that far away knows little or nothing about the school.

SpaceRaider Wrote:All that said, I think folks at MT view themselves and their future as a southern school in a southern conference with their recruiting base in the south.  I think the keys to Sun Belt viability is how quickly the Florida schools (FIU and FAU) establish their football programs and support and where latech ends up and what happens with the WAC.

I don't see a situation where the MAC invites MT (anyway MT has it's own issues to resolve to be attractive to other conferences) by itself and I don't picture MT wanting to be viewed as the program that destroy's the Sun Belt's 1A viability by being the first to jump conferences.

If the Sun Belt is unable to maintain viability in 1A football, I hope there would be some way to associate with the MAC and the idea of Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee as a package deal is attractive.

I agree with all the points that you have made. I assume the major issue that Middle has to resolve to be attractive to other conferences is meeting the 15,000 average attendance requirement. My argument is that Middle will have a hard time averaging 15,000 as long as it is in the Sun Belt Conference. I agree that loyalty is a good attribute but not at the expense of Middle Tennessee losing its Division I-A status and limiting its long-term goals.

Although MT's recruiting base will always be in the South, I think you will agree that Murfreesboro, TN is considerably closer geographically to Southern Ohio (Ohio University and Miami University) than Idaho and Utah. I personally don

SpaceRaider Wrote:You guys should have no problem with Temple.

Last time we played Temple we beat them 33-6 in Philadelphia, PA. I expect to beat them by at least 30 this year! :D

I wouldn't mind seeing Middle Tennesse State in the MAC.