Editor’s note: This story is an opinion piece. It in no way reflects the thoughts or news values of Sidelines as a publication.
Maybe the real bowl game was the friends we made along the way
Brett Walker, co-sports editor
I rustled through my closet for something to wear to church on a warm Sunday morning in late August.
I laid out my khaki pants the night before, still damp from the cleansing wash of a high school football broadcast the Friday before. As I dug through the clothes, my eyes rested on a bright blue MTSU polo hanging near the back.
My parents bought it for me at the Phillips Bookstore when I started college, but working for the independent student newspaper, I hardly ever wore it. Plus, it was the last week before college football season, and I’d never be able to wear it to a game anyway. I grabbed it off the hanger.
After Sunday school, I walked out into the sanctuary before the service began. A church deacon and a family friend saw my shirt and stopped to talk to me.
“How’s ol’ MTSU gonna be this year, Brett?”
Out of optimism, or perhaps ignorance, I naively replied:
“Well, they can’t be much worse, I’ll say that much.”
I was wrong. It can always get worse.
Six days later, the Blue Raiders kicked off their 2025 season against the Austin Peay State University Governors, sending my work life into its annual autumn plunge. Still, through the losses, late nights and lightning delays, it’s my favorite time of the year.
When I became Sidelines’ sports editor just three short semesters ago, I was out of my depth. My co-editor, Jacob Burgess, and I barely had two dozen articles between us and hardly the editing experience necessary to run an entire section. Thankfully, we didn’t have many reporters in our sports section at all to start.
Over the last year and a half, our two-person sports crew has grown to become the largest section of the student newspaper. And while our ever-evolving staff continues to expand its coverage across all sports, Blue Raiders football has always held most of my attention.
To many people, it might seem crazy to spend so much time covering a team that, quite frankly, even more people don’t care about. Honestly, if I didn’t sit in the press box, I could probably start shaking hands with season ticket holders in the first quarter and be done by halftime. For whatever reason, whether it’s due to on-field performance or other prominent college teams in the area, Middle Tennessee’s fan base isn’t the largest.
As one of the worst teams in college football over the last two years, MTSU hasn’t gotten much media attention either, but covering the Blue Raiders has been the biggest blessing for this young reporter just trying to figure it all out.
Truthfully, this job has given me more opportunities than I ever could have imagined. I’ve interviewed NFL players, sat down with coaches and much more that might not have been possible for a student reporter covering a larger program.
In two seasons, I’ve seen more of the country than in the previous 19 years of my life. My crew and I have been all over the place, chasing that team down from the likes of Madison, Wisconsin, to just 100 miles up the road in Bowling Green, Kentucky, but calling them my crew doesn’t suffice.
Whether it was Willie Phaler pulling halftime stats, Jaeda Jackson fighting MTSU’s terrible Wi-Fi to post highlights, Ethan Williams recapping the latest loss, or Caitlyn Hajek and Ephraim Rodenbach taking photos in a half-empty stadium, each contributed to making this season a blast. They aren’t just my coworkers, they’re my friends, and I couldn’t do it without them.
Covering MTSU has given me a deeper understanding and appreciation for the game I love so dearly. To most, football is a series of highlight reel catches and backbreaking hits with some annoying commercials in between, but it’s so much more than that to me.
It’s a perfect mix of beauty and ugliness that generates some of the most jaw-dropping, head-scratching, hair-raising and head-banging moments in sports.
I’ve had the honor of covering it at the college level for two years now and hope to do more in the future, even as I transition into the managing editor role in the spring semester. I haven’t attended my last MTSU football game, and certainly haven’t written my last MTSU football story, but I wanted to write this as an appreciation for all of the work we’ve accomplished so far.
I’m not graduating just yet, just grateful.
“If you don’t throw, you don’t know, you don’t go”
Willie Phaler, lead sports reporter
During a hot late July day this past summer, I sat in the press box at my summer internship, eagerly watching a Zoom press conference for MTSU football’s media day.
I had recently gotten confirmation that I would be one-half of Sidelines’ football beat in my first semester as the lead sports reporter. I began studying up on the Blue Raiders in hopes of a strong campaign, and I was ready to hear what star players and the coaching staff had to say for the first time in 2025.
After hearing head coach Derek Mason speak, offensive coordinator Bodie Reeder was the next to the podium inside the new press room inside the athletic performance center. I had never listened to Reeder talk before, but was awaiting to hear from the Blue Raiders’ play caller, and the architect of one of the top passing offenses in Conference USA the year before.
A few questions in, one of the reporters in attendance asked Reeder about his goals for the offense.
Reeder’s response?
“If you don’t throw, you don’t know, you don’t go.”
Without thinking, in the middle of the silent press box with three of my co-workers, I belted out some combination of, “What in the world does that mean?”
This quote stuck with me throughout the season. Reeder added that he wanted to score 35 points a game, which made this even more questionable to me as the offense faltered through the first nine games of the year.
While watching and covering the Blue Raiders throughout the 2025 season didn’t lead to much content about wins, it gave our section the opportunity to find good stories, capture some amazing pictures and flood your timeline with Blue Raider football content.
There was always something with this team — even through its struggles — whether it was Nick Vattiato setting program records, Jekail Middlebrook running wild or freshmen and other unsung heroes stepping up for MTSU.
Even with game coverage every week, along with plenty of sidebars, game previews and even breaking news, one moment stood out from the rest.
On the Thursday night before this year’s edition of the 100 Miles of Hate, I woke up to a call saying that Vattiato would possibly be out that Saturday against WKU. He hadn’t missed a game in the last two seasons, and it felt like a huge lead no one else had.
Fast forward a few minutes, and I’m on the phone with Sidelines’ co-sports editor Brett Walker, brainstorming sources who could confirm this. We ultimately had it figured out and confirmed the rumor.
The story ran that night, and you’ll just have to ask Brett about what his call log looked like after our story ran, breaking the news.
That news turned out to be some of the best news all season. Roman Gagliano took over for the Blue Raiders and transformed a scuffling offense into a competitive one. The redshirt freshman set multiple single-game records against WKU, and Sidelines was there to cover it all (and the abundance of Big Red logos around Bowling Green, Kentucky).
The kid from Opelika, Alabama, continued to take over the reins of MTSU football in the final two weeks. Gagliano won the final two games, leading to the first winning streak of the Mason era and the start of what some are calling “The Roman Empire.”
I want to thank everyone involved in our football coverage this season. Whether it was the crew of photographers and social media maestros that followed Brett and I around all season, our fellow Sidelines editors who trusted us to pump out content each week or the readers, I’d like to say thank you.
You all made the early mornings, late nights and long car rides very worth it. For a football nerd who just wanted to have some fun figuring out how to cover his school’s struggling team, this season meant the world.
Although I graduate this spring, it’s not a goodbye to Blue Raider football, just a see you later.
To contact the sports editor, email [email protected].
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