Conference USA play starts this Saturday for MTSU and the Blue Raiders are coming into the weekend with some momentum, after dispatching the Wolfpack of Nevada, 27-20. Now the Blue Raiders pack their bags for Alabama as they will face the Gamecocks of Jacksonville State this Saturday. The Gamecocks are favored by seven at this point of publication. ESPN gives MTSU a 31.6 percent chance to garner the win.<\/p>\n
Now is the time for the staff picks for Saturday evening\u2019s game:<\/p>\n
Matt Dossett: 3-0 on the season<\/p>\n
I think if you told fans of Middle Tennessee State prior to the season that MTSU would start out 2-1 out of the gates, I think most fans would take that. After all, a lot of fans speculated that the Blue Raiders would win in the ballpark of three total games this season.<\/p>\n
In this road game, what scares me the most is JSU QB Caden Creel. Caden is the definition of a dual threat quarterback, and can do major damage with his arm and his legs. When it comes to the aerial attack, Creel has completed 68 of 99 passes and has eight touchdown throws against two interceptions. Creel has already thrown for 871 total yards. He has also ran for 256 yards and two additional touchdowns. <\/p>\n
Outside of Creel, JSU\u2019s biggest rushing threat is Jalen Likely, the diminutive 5\u20198, 190 pound running back, who is averaging six yards a pop. <\/p>\n
I do think MT can capitalize when it comes to exploiting the Gamecocks defense. The Gamecocks have a stiff, bend but don\u2019t break defense, but look for MTSU to have some success against that unit.<\/p>\n
I said prior to the season, MT would win some games they are not favored in. I think this week is another one of those games. I\u2019m going to ride with the Blue Raiders Saturday. Jacksonville State does have an opportunistic defense that has seven sacks and four interceptions at this juncture. <\/p>\n
Linebacker Walker O\u2019Steen is the leader in clubhouse for tackles with 29 total tackles. Last week JSU allowed Georgia Southern to rush for 182 yards on 23 attempts, amounting to 8.1 yards a carry. Look for MT\u2019s running backs to see some success on the ground.<\/p>\n
This will be a tightly contested game, one that will go down to the wire. I said last week that a Nevada win would be the biggest victory of the Mason era. If MT wins this weekend, it would surpass last week\u2019s win.<\/p>\n
Again, I have MT winning this game. <\/p>\n
MTSU 34<\/p>\n
Jacksonville State 30<\/p>\n
Rhett Glenn: 2-1 on the season<\/p>\n
MTSU heads into its first Conference USA game of the season Saturday against Jacksonville State.<\/p>\n
The Blue Raiders are 2-1 on the season. Surprisingly, MTSU is 3-0 against the spread so far after beating Nevada 27-20 last week. Vegas still hasn\u2019t learned its lesson, with the Gamecocks opening as an 8.5-point favorite.<\/p>\n
I think MTSU keeps this one close, but Jacksonville State\u2019s home-field advantage gives the Gamecocks the edge. If this game were in Murfreesboro, I would feel differently. The Blue Raiders cover but fall short on the road.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville State 31<\/p>\n
MTSU 24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conference USA play starts this Saturday for MTSU and the Blue Raiders are coming into the weekend with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-407970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}