Players, coaches, fans and band members took shelter on Saturday night as a pop-up thunderstorm suspended play early in MTSU’s homecoming game against Marshall University.
Marshall held momentum and a 7-0 lead at the time of the stoppage, with the MTSU offense off to yet another sluggish start.
After over two hours of lightning and heavy rain, the teams took the field once more. The lengthy delay didn’t hinder either offense as the Blue Raiders and Thundering Herd combined for three touchdowns in the first seven plays out of the break.
More impressively, MTSU surpassed its per-game scoring average within the first nine minutes of game time. The hot start catapulted the Blue Raiders’ offense to its best performance of the season, totaling 373 yards and scoring its most points of the year. However, Middle Tennessee ultimately didn’t do enough to win in the end, head coach Derek Mason said.
“There’s some small rays of light in this, but at the end of the day, not good enough,” Mason said following the 42-28 defeat.
Despite striking back after the lightning delay and outgaining the Herd 282-252, MTSU trailed 21-20 at halftime. The Blue Raiders took their first lead of the game with 8:23 to go in the third quarter as quarterback Nick Vattiato capped a five-play 67-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown scamper.
MTSU’s veteran QB brought the score to 28-21 after a successful two-point conversion, but the Blue Raiders failed to put the dagger in Marshall and never scored again.
“We never took the opportunity to put it out of reach … that’s on us,” Vattiato said. “There was plenty of opportunities in the rest of that third quarter, that fourth quarter for us to score, and we just didn’t do our job.”
After the Middle Tennessee score, the Thundering Herd rattled off 21 unanswered fourth-quarter points as penalties, miscues and fatigue halted MTSU’s hopes of a happy Homecoming.
Thus far, MTSU’s offense has yet to piece together a complete performance in 2025. The Blue Raider attack never jumpstarted against Austin Peay, played one solid half at Wisconsin and used a strong fourth quarter to squeak out a win against Nevada. In the end, Middle Tennessee played three quarters of good football on Saturday, but the team must play a full game to succeed, Mason said.
Despite the offense’s strong showing in week four, Vattiato shared the same desire for consistency as his head coach.
“We have to be able to have sustained success. … You have to have a hot start, a good middle [eight minutes] and then a strong finish, and that’s how you win games,” Vattiato said. “We haven’t done that yet this year.”
A sign of progress for the Raiders’ offense came from the team’s receiving core on Saturday. Wide receiver Nahzae Cox led the way once again for MTSU, hauling in six catches for 94 yards and a leaping touchdown grab over former Blue Raider-turned-Marshall corner Marvae Myers.
Through four games, Cox leads all Middle Tennessee pass catchers with 264 yards and four touchdowns, good for fifth and first in Conference USA, respectively. The last two weeks, however, saw Vattiato spread the ball around more effectively.
Michigan transfer Amorion Walker earned his first trip to the end zone as a Blue Raider, with a 41-yard touchdown for MTSU’s second score. Walker finished the Marshall game as Middle Tennessee’s second leading receiver, followed by running backs Jekail Middlebrook with 47 yards and Rickey Hunt Jr. with 39.
Vattiato connected with seven different targets on the way to a season high of 299 passing yards. Moving forward, the offense will place greater emphasis on taking what the defense gives them, Vattiato said.
“Our offense isn’t something where one guy is going to be the star of the show,” Vattiato said. “The ball is going to get dispersed out to whatever the defense deems. As a quarterback, you just try to be a point guard and get the ball out to your playmakers and dish it out.”
While MTSU had its best day through the air all season, the ground game continues to struggle. Despite Middlebrook breaking free for a 72-yard gain on the first play out of the weather delay, Middle Tennessee finished the night with only 74 total rushing yards.
With four games gone by, MTSU has totaled 256 yards on the ground, good for 11th in a 12-team Conference USA. The Blue Raiders deliberately took extra downfield shots and used more trick plays against Marshall, but the offense needs to be more balanced, Mason said.
“Our offensive line is getting better,” Mason said. “We’ve got to give them and [Middlebrook] and those backs some opportunities, just better balance. It got a little skewed tonight. I’m not going to get sideways about it getting skewed, I mean, we got behind and needed to score. The balance would help, that’s for sure.”
As teams move into full conference schedules next week, the Blue Raiders will continue to experiment with and perhaps unlock their offense. MTSU opens CUSA play on Saturday, Sept. 27, at Kennesaw State University. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. CDT at Fifth Third Stadium.
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