MTSU football wrapped up its first week of spring practice at Floyd Stadium on Saturday afternoon. 

Though Middle Tennessee is still five months away from kicking off its 2026 season, here are three storylines to watch from spring ball. 

New year, new offense 

After back-to-back 3-9 seasons to begin his MTSU tenure, head coach Derek Mason made a multitude of changes to his coaching staff. Most notably, he parted ways with offensive coordinator Bodie Reeder and hired Anthony Scelfo from Southeastern Louisiana University to take his place.

Through just one week of practice, Middle Tennessee obviously hasn’t had time to fully grasp the new offense. Starting quarterback Roman Gagliano said the team is still working through the “bumps and bruises” of the learning process, but is adjusting more with each rep and film session.

Under Scelfo, SLU’s offense differed from MTSU’s, leaning heavily on the ground game. The Lions finished third in rushing in the Southland Conference and 38th nationally in the Football Championship Subdivision last year.

While Middle Tennessee has a new play caller for 2026, don’t expect its offensive scheme to change drastically from previous seasons.

“As far as scheme-wise, everybody in college football runs the same plays,” Gagliano said. “You just get to it differently or have different people running it.”

A redshirt junior, Gagliano is in his first offseason as the Blue Raiders’ starting QB and has a host of new weapons surrounding him.

Middle Tennessee only returned receiving leader Cam’ron Lacy and three more of its top 10 pass catchers from a year ago, but the Blue Raiders hope to fill any gaps with young depth pieces and transfer newcomers.

One such newcomer is transfer portal journeyman Markus Allen. Allen began his career at the University of Wisconsin in 2021 and saw limited action, making 10 catches for 156 yards and a touchdown in two seasons with the Badgers.

Including Allen’s current stop at MTSU, he’s enrolled at five schools over six years —- most recently at Mississippi State University, where he hauled in one catch for seven yards.

His unconventional college career path has allowed him to self-reflect and continue to grow both on and off the field. Now in the backend of his career, he looks to develop a strong connection with the Blue Raiders’ young quarterback.

“It’s just good coming in, kind of picking his [Gagliano’s] mind, seeing how MTSU is, seeing how things are done here,” Allen said. “I feel like we’ve been building a good relationship and we’re going to continue to build that.”

Playing with a new front 

While Middle Tennessee retained some key offensive pieces such as Gagliano, Lacy, wide receiver AJ Jones and running back DJ Taylor, the same can’t be said on defense. 

The Blue Raider front served as a bright spot last season, finishing as Conference USA’s second-best rushing defense. Between graduation and the transfer portal, however, Middle Tennessee will only return three of its top 10 tacklers, including inside linebacker Korey Smith, cornerback Jackson Lowe and safety Kalen Woods.  

A pleasant surprise returning to MTSU this season is outside linebacker Reggie Johnson. Johnson entered his name in the transfer portal late last November to seek potential suitors and move up in competition level, but opted to stay at Middle Tennessee instead.  

“Reggie got a chance to see what the waters are and realized the grass isn’t always greener, it’s just green,” Mason said.  

As a redshirt junior, the Los Angeles native led the team in sacks last season with 3.5, while adding 34 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble. Now one of the lone returners on MTSU’s front, Johnson, along with defensive tackle Zeion Simpson-Smith, is helping get first-year Blue Raiders up to speed.   

To replace departures and graduates such as defensive tackles Shakai Woods and Damonte Smith, Mason’s staff attacked the portal and high school ranks. On the defensive line alone, Middle Tennessee added Justin Bodford from the University of Missouri and Trashun Griffin from Troy University. 

As part of their early national signing day class, the Blue Raiders also signed two three-star defensive tackle prospects in Jayden Arenas-Michel and Christien Moreau to mix with pre-existing depth pieces.  

Despite such heavy roster turnover, Mason said the defense’s few veterans are leading from the front and taking charge early on through spring camp. 

“They know the standard, they know the expectation,” Mason said. “Now what they’ve got to do is bring all of those other guys along so we can meet the standard of how we want to play.” 

All or nothing 

“All in.”

That’s the message spreading across the Blue Raiders’ promotional material and from Mason’s staff as he enters his third season at MTSU.

It might seem like a simple phrase, but to Mason – a coach whose team is a combined 6-18 through two years – it’s the line between winning and losing.

“We can’t get caught in the grey area,” Mason said. “We want to be on the other side of what success looks like, and that’s winning. Every day, everything we want to do, we want to be all in.”

Too often last season, the Blue Raiders found themselves on the wrong side of that line. Last year, Middle Tennessee once again failed to reach bowl eligibility but lost four straight conference games by an average of four points. Four critical games that could’ve reshaped the outlook of Mason’s tenure two years in.

As MTSU moved on from a season derailed due to marginal mistakes, the Blue Raiders pushed back the start date of their spring practices.

Mason said that he wanted to spend more time on fundamentals and weight training early in the offseason, so the team would be ready to put everything together when practices began.

With the change, Middle Tennessee is holding three less padded and helmet practices than in springs past but is doing so to create a more polished on-field product while avoiding injuries.

“I think we’re a little further ahead [this year],” Mason said. “That’s the true idea. A little less wear and tear, shrink it a little bit, and keep these guys hungry to play football.”

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