2008 Woodie Awards
MT takes on Louisville
Richard Lowe
Issue date: 9/6/07 Section: Sports
Tonight, Middle Tennessee travels to Papa Johns Stadium to take on the eighth ranked University of Louisville in their second game in five days. UL enters the game at 1-0 overall following last week's win over Murray State, while Middle Tennessee enters the week at 0-1 following a season-opening 27-14 loss at Florida Atlantic University.
These two teams met for the first time last year in a game that saw Damon Nickson return the first kickoff to him for a touchdown to give MT an early lead but eventually turned into a deficit when Hunter Cantwell threw a 68-yard touchdown pass to Mario Urrutia. A field goal from Art Carmody put UL in the lead in the second quarter and MT never saw the lead again. The 44-17 loss put MT's record last season at 3-3 but put confidence in players that they could compete with almost anyone.
Last year's game was held at LP Field in Nashville on a Friday night on ESPN2. Tonight's game will, once again, be on ESPN2 and MT head coach Rick Stockstill knows the benefits of the national exposure. "[Tonight] everyone in the country will have a chance to see Middle Tennessee," says Stockstill. "It helps in a lot of ways from a national scope. It also helps our players get to play against some of the best players in the country. If we can play against those people then it helps you down the road in conference play. This is a great opportunity for our football team and our university."
Although it was a short week for MT, UL will be playing their second game in a row on a Thursday, which proves to be beneficial according to UL head coach Steve Kragthorpe. "It's a normal week of work for us," said Kragthorpe. We started back on Saturday, which was Monday for us, and continued with our normal progression."
Even though Kragthorpe was not in attendance for last year's game against the Blue Raiders, he acknowledges that he is not looking past MT. "We know they are a very good football team in terms of the talent they have. They gave us everything we wanted down in Nashville last year…we got another challenge on our hands."
Another person who was not apart of the MT/UL match up last year was senior quarterback and Heisman Trophy hopeful Brian Brohm. Brohm missed last year's game because of a leg injury that sidelined him for a good portion of the season. Stockstill thinks, "He is as good as there is. He is a legitimate Heisman candidate. He is tall, he can make all the throws and they are throwing the ball all over the place."
T senior defensive end Tavares Jones notes that a strategy has been put in place to control Brohm. "We have to create a good pass rush. He is a great quarterback and we have to get pressure on him. There is motivation there but not a lot. He has great receivers around him. We just have to work hard in order to make him make decisions under pressure."
UL's defense held Murray State's offense to 271 yards, which may prove to be advantageous to a MT offense that only gained 15 yards rushing to go along with 199 yards passing against Florida Atlantic University.
These two teams met for the first time last year in a game that saw Damon Nickson return the first kickoff to him for a touchdown to give MT an early lead but eventually turned into a deficit when Hunter Cantwell threw a 68-yard touchdown pass to Mario Urrutia. A field goal from Art Carmody put UL in the lead in the second quarter and MT never saw the lead again. The 44-17 loss put MT's record last season at 3-3 but put confidence in players that they could compete with almost anyone.
Last year's game was held at LP Field in Nashville on a Friday night on ESPN2. Tonight's game will, once again, be on ESPN2 and MT head coach Rick Stockstill knows the benefits of the national exposure. "[Tonight] everyone in the country will have a chance to see Middle Tennessee," says Stockstill. "It helps in a lot of ways from a national scope. It also helps our players get to play against some of the best players in the country. If we can play against those people then it helps you down the road in conference play. This is a great opportunity for our football team and our university."
Although it was a short week for MT, UL will be playing their second game in a row on a Thursday, which proves to be beneficial according to UL head coach Steve Kragthorpe. "It's a normal week of work for us," said Kragthorpe. We started back on Saturday, which was Monday for us, and continued with our normal progression."
Even though Kragthorpe was not in attendance for last year's game against the Blue Raiders, he acknowledges that he is not looking past MT. "We know they are a very good football team in terms of the talent they have. They gave us everything we wanted down in Nashville last year…we got another challenge on our hands."
Another person who was not apart of the MT/UL match up last year was senior quarterback and Heisman Trophy hopeful Brian Brohm. Brohm missed last year's game because of a leg injury that sidelined him for a good portion of the season. Stockstill thinks, "He is as good as there is. He is a legitimate Heisman candidate. He is tall, he can make all the throws and they are throwing the ball all over the place."
T senior defensive end Tavares Jones notes that a strategy has been put in place to control Brohm. "We have to create a good pass rush. He is a great quarterback and we have to get pressure on him. There is motivation there but not a lot. He has great receivers around him. We just have to work hard in order to make him make decisions under pressure."
UL's defense held Murray State's offense to 271 yards, which may prove to be advantageous to a MT offense that only gained 15 yards rushing to go along with 199 yards passing against Florida Atlantic University.
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