Head Coach: Derek Mason is entering his 2nd season as the head coach of the Blue Raiders with a 3-9 record. He also has previous experience as the head coach of Vanderbilt. Derek Mason’s first year wasn’t what they hoped, all 3 wins were by 9 or less points so it was tough sledding.
Program Outlook: Mid Tenn State is located just south of Nashville, it’s a growing area which means it’s continuing to become a greater area for recruiting. That helps, but it’s still been a challenge to get fans and alums more invested many didn’t think the program was doing enough to try to win for a while. There have been great moments for the program, even recently there was an exciting win over the Miami Hurricanes and really overall they tend to win more than lose. Now it’s about getting back to winning.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Mid Tenn State ranks 66th in the country returning 55.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Key players starts with QB Nick Vattiato, he’s a real gunslinger, can throw it everywhere and can run too. He really needs to cut down on the turnovers to continue growing. Jekail Middlebrook and Austin Clemons are solid backs for the Blue Raiders. The defense is led by defensive end Anthony Bynum who is the team’s best pass rusher, the line in general has good size. The linebackers look pretty good in Alex Mitchell and Brandon Buckner. The question marks for the defense will be improvement against the run, based on the size they have they should be better. The secondary is a huge question mark, they really struggled back there and they went to the portal for some new pieces to help there. The offensive line struggled last year and there’s hope that a couple portal adds could fix that, MTSU needs whatever combination they end up with to work so these backs have room to run. The Blue Raiders must also figure out their receivers, there’s returnee Myles Butler and UCF transfer Tyree Patterson but they need more help there.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: Mid Tenn State has one of the more favorable schedules this year. Their non-conference is manageable even if it may not have a true gimmie game. The schedule opens with in-state FCS foe Austin Peay, while the Governors went 4-8 last year they’re a program that’s typically a contender and merely took a step back after a coaching change, I won’t put it past them to give the Blue Raiders a run for their money. Wisconsin and Marshall are probably their toughest opponents, Wisconsin is coming off a rough year and Marshall is coming off a good one but losing a lot, it would still take a lot of improvement for MTSU to win those. Finally there’s Nevada, a program in a similar position to MTSU but it is on the road. Now here’s where things get really nice for the Blue Raiders, the conference schedule is very favorable they avoid Liberty, UTEP and La Tech, and the start it with the 3 newest FBS programs. They have a great on ramp to build momentum in conference play before the schedule picks up.
Final Thoughts: The first year was rough but MTSU may have the pieces for a big 2nd season under Derek Mason. The defense seems destined to improve and that is huge both of their FBS wins didn’t even require much output from the offense because the defense shut down their opponent. That’s not to say the offense doesn’t need to help, it really does, they must work on finishing drives last year they put up yards but did nothing with it. Getting the run game going to take pressure off Vattiato would go a long way, the other would be turnover margin where MTSU was a staggering -9 last year. If they improve upon those, the Blue Raiders can be in the thick of the championship race, and a bowl feels like the baseline for them.
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