MTSU staff writer Sam Doughton describes how the Blue Raiders could give the Tide some trouble
MTSU staff writer Sam Doughton describes how the Blue Raiders could give the Tide some trouble
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00:00 You know, I think, you know, I listened to Nick Saban's press conference yesterday as well.
00:03 And I thought his scouting report of what Middle Tennessee does well was very accurate, right?
00:09 You know, obviously, like you said, he likes to hype up the good stuff and maybe ignore the flaws that some teams might have.
00:16 Sometimes that's his prerogative, right? He wants his guys to be focused on what the other team does well.
00:20 But, you know, the things he said about how it's an offense that looks challenging because it's a four wide almost all the time,
00:26 spread you out, where you have to win one on one matchups. That's very true of what Blue Raiders try to do offensively.
00:32 And then it's a very aggressive defense that's going to throw a lot at you, throw a lot of weird schematic stuff at you
00:38 that can be challenging for opposing quarterbacks to understand and break down and identify.
00:43 And that often, you know, Middle Tennessee's defense historically is one of the best in havoc plays, you know,
00:49 tackles by tackles for loss, sacks, turnovers in the country every single year.
00:54 Now, if you look at the overall yards and points per game, you know, that doesn't always translate that way.
00:59 But when it's going well, it's going well. And they've shown that ceiling as far as expectations.
01:05 They're going to come in and try to win. There's no question about that.
01:08 They're not just going to roll over. But I think that, you know, they want to see progress on a lot of fronts that they've made in camp.
01:15 And if they can show progress on those fronts against a team like Alabama, that's number three in the country.
01:20 You know, people will be pretty, you know, feeling pretty good about where the Blue Raiders are win or lose at the end of the day Saturday.
01:25 But, you know, this is a team that went into Coral Gables last year and, you know, 26 point dog and ended up winning by 14.
01:33 So if you swing that cover, then this is a tie game this year. So who knows what might happen?
01:39 I've seen stranger things happen since I've been here.
01:42 But I certainly understand the perspective of Crimson Tide fans and Blue Raider fans who maybe aren't expecting a win on Middle Tennessee side this week.
01:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]