Story by Ian Wolfe
Middle Tennessee took home their seventh loss of the season to Liberty Saturday afternoon 37-17 and will miss out on bowl eligibility in back-to-back seasons.
Liberty turned the ball over early, leading to a touchdown for the Blue Raiders on the next drive with a six yard pass from quarterback Nicholas Vattiato to wide receiver Hayes Sutton. Liberty answered back four minutes later with a Kaidon Salter 41 yard touchdown run.
MTSU could not take advantage of a second turnover from Liberty, halting momentum for the Blue Raiders.
“For us, I thought we had some momentum early with some turnovers and had some opportunities.” MTSU head coach Derek Mason said. “The ability to capitalize slipped through our fingers.”
Sutton says “getting the ball moving on first down” is an area where the offense needs to improve going forward.
Liberty pulled away in the second quarter with 20 unanswered points to put them up 27-7. Both teams would go back-and-forth with a touchdown and a field goal each to close the win for Liberty.
“There were times where I thought we thwarted momentum but gave it right back through the penalties and then there were other times in this ball game where we couldn’t get off the field.” Mason said. “I think the important thing is defensively you gotta find a way to stop the run.”
This is the first time the Blue Raiders have missed consecutive bowl appearances since the 2019 and 2020 seasons, although many bowl games were cancelled or postponed in 2020-2021 due to COVID-19.
Failing to make a bowl game is a disappointing situation for any team, but the team sees this as an opportunity for growth heading into the next two games in Mason’s first year.
“Win the next two games and you never know what could happen but we continue to get better every week and just have to improve over all.” Sutton said.
MTSU defensive end Brandon Buckner says the team just needs to finish and compete.
“We know what we signed ourselves up for, we know it was going to be a tough season.” Buckner said. “We just gotta finish, gotta compete, gotta go out there and want it every single snap.”
MTSU will look to have a respectable finish in the conference to end the season.
The last two games for the Blue Raiders include a matchup at home against struggling New Mexico State and a trip down to Miami for their last game against Florida International.
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