CFB Week 7 Wednesday
- Kyle Kirms
- Oct 6
- 4 min read
MISSOURI STATE @ MIDDLE TENNESSEE - 7:30 PM
Well we should see a lot of passing. Now... those passes might go for interceptions... they might lead to explosive plays... who knows? But we should see a lot of passing here.
Here's the problem... Jacob Clark might not play in this game! He was seen on crutches. So although this is a perfect matchup against a terrible Middle Tennessee defense, I'm not sure what to expect from Missouri State's offense.
Deuce Bailey might be getting the start. He's a 6'0 Freshman... he took over midway through the Western Kentucky game. His passing numbers were bad... but he did have 8 carries for 61 yards on the ground. It puts MTSU in a tough situation because it looks like Missouri State's gonna have a completely different looking offense if Bailey's at QB... and we're not sure who's playing.
Now you might be thinking "Kyle, does it matter? Middle Tennessee's defense is so bad". You're right... they're terrible... but they have been considerably stronger against the run this year. In fact, defending the run has been the only aspect of the team that's been decent. If Deuce Bailey is playing QB, I think Middle Tennessee can actually play a decent defensive game.
On the other side, it's really tough to set a value on this Middle Tennessee offense.
Remember, coming into the season, there was some hype surrounding this Middle Tennessee offense. They brought Vattiato back at QB. He's a 5 year starter. He's been the starting QB here for 4 years. He might be the most experienced QB in College Football.
It hasn't been great this year... but we are seeing the offense come around a bit now that they're starting to see easier competition.
It's tough cuz I truly have no idea how good the Missouri State defense is. They've gotten lit up several times this year... but they've also seen some teams that are way better than Middle Tennessee.
It would only be Middle Tennessee for me here. You wanna tell me Missouri State's the stronger team? Ok... I won't fight you on that. But laying 2.5 points on the road? That means we're talking 3.5/4 on a neutral... with possibly the backup QB? Can't get there.
LIBERTY @ UTEP - 8 PM
If you told me that Liberty might have problems moving the ball on UTEP's defense 6 weeks ago, I woulda probably said you dk College Football. But here we are.
And it's not like UTEP's been racking up solid defensive numbers against really bad teams. They played Utah State and Texas.
They've been doing this missing both starting LBs. Joshua Randolph and Garrett Hawkins both suffered season ending injuries in the Texas game. Since then, they've seen LT and ULM and looked bad in both games.
Not only has this Liberty offense been broken recently, but they're also dealing with serious injuries on this side of the ball. QB Ethan Vasko got injured during the JMU game. Chadwell says he's "hopeful" that Vasko returns for this game but we're not sure. Also, their RB1 Evan Dickens left the ODU game and it looks like he's in concussion protocol. So I'm not sure if he plays. They're also missing their starting LT Trey Bedosky. He got injured in Week 2 and hasn't returned... from what I'm reading, he won't be back for this game.
It's tough to trust this Liberty offense right now. They were struggling against Maine. They were struggling against Jacksonville State. Just 13 points against Bowling Green. UTEP is not a good football team but at what point do we just start pricing Liberty out as the team we're seeing on the field? On the other side of the ball, this is where Liberty's been slightly better. And this should be a favorable matchup against a UTEP offense that just straight up doesn't work. More Liberty injury news though: Starting S and one of the team's leading tacklers, Bryan Green was carted off the field in the ODU game. He's gonna miss some time (although he avoided structural damage).
This UTEP offense really hasn't been good. We're not even 100% sure who's playing QB. I think it's gonna be Malachi Nelson... but he threw 4 INTs and got benched last week against LA Tech. Skyler Locklear came in and took over. I'm not sure if that was just for the rest of that game or if that was a permanent change.
I will say... Liberty doesn't have much of a pass rush and Malachi Nelson's been so bad handling pressure this season. Not that he's been great from a clean pocket... but he's been considerably better.
I guess you could say coming off the bye week, they could get the passing game going. WR1 Kenny Odon is back... he missed Week 4 and was a bit hobbled in their last game. Off the bye week, he should be back at full strength. There's also a chance they get their TE Judah Ezinwa back but that's not confirmed.
It's tough to trust anything about the UTEP offense... but this Liberty defense has gotten thrown on in back to back games and UTEP is a passing offense.
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