Featured photo by Brett Walker
Story by Brett Walker
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MURFREESBORO, Tenn- On Tuesday the Middle Tennessee offense took the field to work on throws to the running back out of the backfield. They practiced simple concepts, like swing routes and checkdowns. Completions in stride received approval while balls dropped, out of reach, or out of sync resulted in do-overs and drew expletives from the coaching staff.
While seemingly a simple drill, its implementation by the Blue Raider coaching staff highlights a football truth; to be a good football team, you must be great at the simple things. For on-lookers, it is easy to scoff at the perfectionist attitude from coaches in such a drill, but it becomes much more understandable when that four yard dump off in practice, becomes a four yard dump off on third and four to move the chains in a game.
In just over three weeks, Middle Tennessee kicks off against Tennessee Tech, but working on details and being efficient will be a season long goal, as the team shoots for success in new head coach, Derek Mason’s first year.
“My voice is going to elevate, but I tell guys, listen to the message not the messenger,” said the first-year head coach. “Let’s make sure we’re focused on the details because I say, winning is about details and inches. Let’s focus on the details, let’s grab the inches, and you’ll see this football team getting better, and I think they understand that.”
Ironing out the offense has been a process for MTSU’s first year offensive coordinator Bodie Reeder. When new receivers arrived in the spring the passing game needed improvement, Reeder said. But like everything else for a new era Blue Raiders, clueing in on the details allows the aerial attack to reach new heights.
“We challenged the guys in the summer to gain trust, and then create that timing,” Reeder said. “It doesn’t even take a defense on the field; it’s throwing to spots, running the right steps, throwing the ball at the right trajectory. Maybe this one takes a little touch, maybe this one needs to be fired in there. Those are the kinks that they needed to work out throughout the course of the summer, and they get to bring them into fall camp.”
Fresh off a gig as the offensive coordinator at Northern Iowa, Reeder looks to carry over his efficiency from his 2023 campaign. Reeder’s Panther offense finished the season ranked ninth nationally in red zone efficiency, 15th in passing offense and 39th in total offense. While the statistics are a nice accolade, the keys to success in 2024 for the new OC lie in protecting the football and consistently moving the ball downfield.
“To me what that means is we are consistently moving the ball down the field,” Reeder said. “I’m not talking about big, long shot plays, I’m not talking about big explosive runs, but what will knock a defense out is consistently getting four yards or more, and then how good are we on third down.”
He continued, “That will determine the success of the quarterback and determine the success of our offense, so what I look forward to seeing is a team that protects the football, is consistently efficient on first and second down, and we stay on the field on third down. Everything else kind of takes care of itself.”
Players like starting quarterback Nick Vattiato noticed the energy flow and improved play at practice. The veteran signal caller knows the team must play at a high level consistently to win ballgames.
“I think the offense is clicking, the quarterbacks and receivers are completing balls in the pass game,” Vattiato said. Our Oline has been doing a great job opening up holes in the run game. We’ve done a lot of good things and now it’s more just about being consistent.”
While the offense spent the morning working on short completions and run blocking schemes, the defense spent the bulk of practice with assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Brian Stewart, practicing alignment and technique.
In 2024, Stewart wants his defense to be more concerned with executing as opposed to confusing an offense. He doesn’t want his defenders to disguise what defense they are in, if it comes at expense of the framework of what they are running, Stewart said.
“Most of the time when we do our 3-4 structure, we look like a 3-4, and they just have got to guess out of the 3-4, which linebackers are coming, is it the outside guys, is it the adjacent linebackers, so that’s kind of how we put forth our defense,” Stewart said.
Teaching his players what to do in each situation has been a point of emphasis for Stewart and the rest of the staff this offseason, now is the time to focus on how to properly execute it with the right technique
“I think that right now, as a defense, especially with outside guys, they know what to do,” Stewart said. “Right now, we’re trying to fine tune how to do it, how we want to do it.”
Fine tuning to be the best version of the Blue Raiders has been the message thus far in camp. From the head coach, down to the summer additions. Junior transfer out of El Camino College, Abdul Muhammad, once again echoed that message.
“We’re working,” Muhammad said. “We’re working to be the best at details and inches and everything we do. Everything is detailed, we’re trying to be the best.”
Brett Walker is the sports editor for MTSU Sidelines. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com. Also, follow us on Facebook and Instagram @mtsusidelines, or on X @MTSUSidelines. Also, sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
