Murfreesboro, TN – In a Conference USA meeting, new member Missouri State (3-3, 1-1) defeated the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders (1-5,0-2). With 4:19 left to play, Yousef Obeid’s 29-yard field goal grabbed the lead, and the Bears earned their first CUSA victory, 22-20. MTSU PK Jacob Hathaway attempted a 50-yarder on fourth down with 1:05 remaining, but it sailed wide left. The game finished evenly matched statistically. The teams remained close during its entirety, but critical penalties and miscues came from both squads throughout the evening.

Missouri State Kicker’s impact

Despite Obeid’s game-winner among his three field goals, he was erratic on other plays. His kick to open the game went out of bounds starting MTSU on the 35. The Blue Raider drive finished with Hathaway’s 45-yard FG to draw first blood. Neither team scored after that in the first. Heading into the second, Mo State got within FG range, but Obeid’s boot landed wide right. An errant snap from the shotgun went way over the head of MTSU QB Nick Vattiato. Missouri State recovered at the Raiders’ 24. Frosh QB Deuce Baliey ran to the left pylon for a five-yard TD to take a 6-3 lead. Obeid missed the point after.

Middle Tennessee took the lead back on its ensuing drive of 82 yards. Vattiato hauled a long 52-yard scoring pass to WR Cam’ron Lacy who beat the secondary badly to go ahead, 10-6. Missouri State came right back with a 79-yard scoring drive. Bailey connected with Ronnell Johnson on a spot pass to the right corner of the end zone for the TD. Obeid converted the PAT this time. Both kickers posted scores before the first half expired, but not without controversy.

Obeid booted a 40-yarder with 1:05 left. On that drive, however, the Bears seemingly scored on a 69-yard TD pass to Tristian Gardner. After turning on his wide-open reception, he lost his balance, and his knee touched the ground at the 27 of MTSU. Hathaway finished the first-half scoring with a 41-yard FG as time expired with Missouri State up, 16-13. Fun game to watch in person if not for all the 3:25 TV time-outs!

“Head Coach Obvious” and future Head Coach potential

On the videoboard at the end of halftime, the sideline reporter asked MTSU Coach what his team had to do better to turn things around in the second half. “We have to play better, that’s all,” is all HC Derek Mason had to say. Seemed pretty obvious from our perspective in the stands, but how did he intend to do that? Not very eloquent for a guy who coached at Vanderbilt and worked on the SEC Network. Was he going to scour the transfer portal to add 40 more players on his roster from other programs since last year? That doesn’t seem to be helping, having started this season with one win thus far. Have to say this though: give credit to his QB Nick Vattiato.

Since 2001 when we moved to Middle Tennessee, we’ve seen Vattiato play for MTSU every season. So rare that any QB has stayed at the same program for five years as he now plays as a graduate student in these volatile and tempting days of NILs and transfer portals. Always considered him a tough and resourceful quarterback in games under stressful conditions we’ve seen him play. In the past, he played more as a run-pass option style QB.

Tonight, he played the role more of a pocket passer. Good leadership skills witnessed, but standing in at 6′ and 212 lbs., we don’t see him as playing pro ball. Not that he couldn’t if someone gave him a chance. However, his positive attributes may send him on a successful coaching career somewhere. Surely, he’s learned a lot during his five years playing and leading the struggling Blue Raiders. He’s faced adversity and stands up to it well.

Missouri State starts to roll before…

On one play any way, the first of the second half. Bailey connected with Ramone Green Jr. for a 76-yard pass from the Mo State 12 to the MTSU 12. Once again though, they had to rely on Obeid’s foot for a 25-yard FG. The Bear defense stepped up halting the next Blue Raider drive on their 38 taking it back over on downs. Later in the period, Missouri State’s punter dropped the snap on a punt to turn the ball over on downs to MTSU on their 49. Once again, the Bear defense stiffened up to take over on downs on their 42. Mo State led 19-13 heading into Q4. MTSU started the period with a fitst and ten at the MSU 39.

Missouri State mistake

The Bears held tight until they literally held tight in the wrong place. The defense stopped the Raiders on several plays to halt the home team’s drive, but a face masks penalty gave MTSU new life at the 11 with a first and ten. Vattiato tossed a nine-yard TD pass to Cam’ron Lacy to put MTSU in the lead for the second time this evening, 20-19 with 9:12 to play. Missouri State started their next drive with a return to their 32.

A sack set them back for a third and 14 at the MTSU 39. CB De’Arre McDonald broke up a TD pass in the end zone to give the Bears a fourth down at the 12. Obeid trotted in and regained the lead 22-20 to give Missouri State the lead. The score stood as Hathaway’s kick from 50 went wide left. Adding our 135th FBS team (of 136) seen since 1979, the Bears won its first FBS conference game to go to 3-3, 1-1. Despite mistakes along the way, both teams persisted. This was a good, competitive game to attend. Better than 59-13 or 63-10 scores as witnessed previously this season. Glad to enjoy this one despite the records and non-rankings.

Next Up!

Both Conference USA squads resume play for TV on Wednesday, October 22. MTSU ventures to play at Delaware, soon to be our 136th and final FBS team “to see ’em all.” As a matter of fact, we will see UD play at Jacksonville State next Wednesday night. We “add” the Fighting Blue Hens to our goal to “see ’em all” despite seeing them play 21 times for a record of 14-7, both at home and on the road. One victory included a win over FBS Navy in Annapolis. Next week, we finalize our count of all 136 teams with Delaware. Eventually, we’ll go back to a game at Delaware Stadium to “add” to our list of FBS venues. Missouri State travels west to New Mexico State for another Conference USA battle.

For collegefootballfan.com: A weekend in New England for Football, not Fall Foliage

There are no FBS teams in the state of Vermont, but with goal to see a game in all 50 states (well, that includes D.C. not Alaska), on Saturday, we attend Vermont State – Castleton (2-2, 0-1) hosting Christpher Newport University (4-0, 1-0) of Newport News, Virginia in get this – a New Jersey Athletic Conference game. The CNU Captains rank No. 21 in D-III and average 44.2 points per game. They defeated previously ranked No. 13 Susquehanna, 41-27. We hope the Castleton State Spartans will throw up some kid of resistance like in that movie, Sparta 300.

With a noon kick-off to start, we will plan to attend a second game that evening in New England. Originally considering another D3 game, Bates at Tufts, we came up with a competitive D-2 game closer to Castleton. At 6 pm, we venture to Manchester, NH to see a Northeast 10 contest with the Franklin Pierce Ravens (3-2, 3-1) visiting the St. Anselm Hawks (3-2, 3-1). With this addition, we now see all four divisions of NCAA football play this season. FPU fell in a close game to D-2 power Slippery Rock to begin the 2025 season. Of three wins, St. Anselm beat the Pace Setters, a conference foe twice. Guess it’s difficult to get other teams to visit up in Rindge, NH.

Six games in a ten-day stretch

By the way, if you’re paying attention, we have a lot of games on our 2025 Schedule right now in mid-October. We saw Missouri State at MTSU last night. We have two games on Saturday in New England as mentioned. The following Tuesday, we will attend Arkansas State at South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. However, that’s not the only reason we want to visit Mobile.

We intend to pay tribute to our late, great friend and all-time San Diego State Aztec fan and Alum, Tom Ables. He served aboard the USS Alabama in the US Navy in WWII. Since his discharge after the war, starting in 1946, he attended 786 SDSU games up until the week before he passed away at the age of 91 in 2017. Have to go down and visit his old engine room on board that he visited at the Battleship Memorial he went to visit it again himself when his Aztecs played at South Alabama in 2016.

After Mobile, we travel north to add Delaware as team # 136 in Jacksonville. And on Saturday, we’ll be at Auburn for some SEC action when the AU Tigers host the Missouri Tigers currently ranked no. 14 in the nation. With our friends the Murrens and many of their still close college friends and family, we’ll be cheering for their Auburn Tigers to spring the upset.

Talk about 136 teams, there’s a lot of history to share on how this was done

Click on the title of my book about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Ugly on Amazon.com. Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today! If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. You’ll see we know what we’re talking about. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Based on our game story above, this fun, unique life-long Journey continues. Catch up on the last 45 years, and then please submit a review. We hope you will get a kick out of our great adventure having seen almost every FBS team play over the years!

Edited by and photos taken by Steve Koreivo – Member of Football Writers Association of America and Author of Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: the Good, the Fun and the Ugly