Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders College Football Pregame Quote, 09/27/2021

Opening statement and thoughts on this week’s opponent, Marshall:

We’re excited about this week, we’re looking forward to playing a really good Marshall team that’s 2-2 right now. They won their first two and now have lost their last two in two close ballgames. They’re a very talented team and have got a lot of guys back from last year’s team ‚Äì I think they’ve got 23 super seniors, so it’s a mature team, it’s an older team. They’ve got a really good quarterback and last year he was a freshman and had a really outstanding year. [Former head coach] Doc [Holliday] did a great job of building that roster. They’ve got good skill guys around him, good receivers, good running backs and their offensive line is really good. They lost a guy to the NFL and then a transfer, I think he went to Notre Dame, but they’ve got a good offensive line coming back as well, with three of the five starters from last year. There are some similarities from what they’ve done in the past, but they’ve also got a lot of similarities between what Alabama has done the last couple of years. Charles [Huff] has implemented that into their offense, so they’re an explosive team offensively. They’re going to take shots, they’re going to max-protect, they’re going to try to get it down the field on you, so it’s a really good offense.

Defensively, they’re like they always are ‚Äì athletic and they can run. Probably a little bit longer and a little bit bigger up front than they’ve been the last couple of years. They’re very athletic and their front seven is really good. Their back end is good also, they can run ‚Äì just a really talented team. They’re solid in special teams, ran a kickoff return back for a touchdown against App State, and they’ve always been really good in the kicking game, which hasn’t changed either. We’re their first conference game and like I said, looking forward to this weekend getting started with practice yesterday and get going here again tomorrow.

On getting to return home after a tough stretch of three consecutive road games:

We’re excited to be back home. We knew the schedule when it was, that it was going to be close to a month before you played back home again. We love playing at home, love playing in front of our fans, we love being out there. Physically, it takes a little bit off your body ‚Äì you don’t have to get on a bus, you don’t have to get on a plane, you don’t have to sleep in a different hotel, you know all the different things that go into a road game, so it will be great to be home in front of our fans and we’re excited to play it.

On Marshall RB Rasheen Ali:

He runs with power, he’s a strong back, but he’s also got great speed, got great change of direction and has great vision as a running back. He breaks tackles, so we’ve got to do a great job from that standpoint, but he’s just a really good back. He does a good job catching the ball out of the backfield, so he’s just a complete back. He can run with power, he can run with sped, he’s got some elusiveness to him and they don’t have to take him out of the game in third down situations.