2001: The Middle Tennessee Game
The Trojans weathered the Nebraskan storm, but how would they fare against a foe on their own level?
This was the question before Coach Larry Blakeney and his staff as Troy prepared for Middle Tennessee State. The Blue Raiders and the Trojans had faced off nine other times before this, and MTSU won the first eight meetings between 1936-1953.
Troy finally notched their first win in 1999. Things certainly looked up for the Trojans in the series as they headed across the state line.
While Troy had made a valiant showing against the Huskers, MTSU had just capped off their greatest win in school history, a 37-28 win over SEC’s Vanderbilt, a foe just 35 miles away. The Blue Raiders racked up over 600 yards of offense in the contest and won the Sun Belt’s first-ever Conference Players of the Week honors, which went to running back Dwone Hicks and defensive back Jykine Bradley.
They would bring all that and more to the Trojans. Unfortunately, the “more” would be revenge.
After that 1999 win over the Blue Raiders, then-MTSU coach Andy McCollum said the Trojans were dancing on their field and he didn’t want that again. I couldn’t find any actual evidence of Trojans dancing on the field in the postgame reporting, but he obviously felt strongly about making Troy pay.
The Blue Raiders came out firing on all cylinders and from the first whistle outplayed the Trojans in every phase of the game. The Middle Tennessee attack overwhelmed the stunned Trojans, making the score 19-0 midway through the second quarter.
Troy finally got on the board with a Drew Boteler field goal 35 yards out. These would prove to be the only Trojan points of the first half. MTSU added two more touchdowns and a 2 point conversion to extend their halftime lead to 33-3.
The second half was unfortunately more of the same. By the end of the day, the Blue Raiders would add three more touchdowns.
Drew Boteler got to tack on two more points, as Troy scored touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters. Heyward Skipper caught both scores. In the third quarter, Brock Nutter hit him for a 29-yard pass with 6:30 left in the quarter. Skipper followed it up in garbage time with a 13-yard catch from backup Hansell Bearden.
Unfortunately, the stats tell the story in even more excruciating detail. While first downs were fairly even (MTSU-29, Troy-22), the rest were not so kind. Troy only mustered 61 yards rushing on 27 carries. Demontray Carter led the Trojans with 10 carries for 55 yards.
MTSU rushed 55 times—once for every yard Carter picked up—and gained 313 yards, all without a single back going over 100 yards. The Blue Raiders also scored 6 touchdowns on the ground.
Troy’s passing attack, split between Nutter and Bearden, went 25-for-42 for 268 yard, two interceptions and two touchdowns. Heyward Skipper caught 10 passes for 133 yards along with his two scores.
Senior MTSU quarterback Wes Counts put on a clinic against the Trojans. He lit the typically stout Trojan defense on fire, throwing the ball with surgical accuracy. Counts was 20-for-28 with two touchdowns on 220 yards. The lone Blue Raider interception came from his backup.
After such a good game against Nebraska, the Trojans were throttled by the overwhelming Blue Raider game plan. Middle Tennessee would go on to finish the season 8-3, co-champions in the first year of Sun Belt football. They missed out on a bowl, however, as co-champion North Texas beat them in the regular season and would go into the first New Orleans Bowl with a 5-7 record.
The 54-17 game is still the biggest win for the Blue Raiders over Troy and is the second biggest win in series history, following only Troy’s 45-7 win in 2007.
To add to the pain of the defeat, early that Saturday morning Trojan walk-on Logan Markham was killed in a single-vehicle accident. Markham had been injured the previous year and by all accounts was a good teammate and well-regarded guy.
One report I read stated that Coach Blakeney found out about Markham’s passing that morning, but no confirmation on when exactly the team found out. One account tells us the team found out at halftime, but we couldn’t verify that.
From the lows in Murfreesboro, Troy would come away from the game with lessons learned and focus their attention on an Appalachian State team who would be coming to The Vet September 15. However, much bigger events than football would change those plans.