Florida Atlantic vs. Middle Tennessee St.
College football kicks off this week on Tuesday night with two teams I never thought I would preview: Florida Atlantic at Middle Tennessee State in a Sun Belt Conference game between 1-3 teams.
For what it’s worth, the Owls are 3-2 all-time against MTSU and won 27-14 last year but are 2.5-point road underdogs tonight on WagerWeb.com.
Neither team has played since Sept. 20 and both looked bad that day, with Florida Atlantic getting routed by Minnesota 37-3, while MTSU lost to Arkansas State, 31-14. However, the Blue Raiders do have a signature win this year, having upset Maryland.
FAU expected to have a high-powered offense this season behind 2007 Sun Belt Player of the Year Rusty Smith, but he threw four picks against the Gophers and has completed just 45.9 percent of his passes for 874 yards. Smith has just four TD passes on the year to go along with five interceptions.
Smith and coach Howard Schnellenberger say there is nothing physically wrong with the QB, and that he has made some bad decisions, faced a lot of pressure that has lessened his accuracy, and been victimized by a lot of drops by his receivers.
“It’s a multiplier. When you have receivers dropping balls and a quarterback that is inaccurate, you can go from pretty good to pretty terrible in a hurry,” Schnellenberger said.
The FAU ground game hasn’t been much better, as the Owls average just 104.0 yards per game. No wonder the Owls only average 15.5 points per game and have more turnovers (9) than TDs (8) this season. This from a unit that averaged 31.2 points per game last season and brought nearly everyone back.
“I thought we were going to put up more points; everybody did,” said senior right tackle John Rizzo. “If anyone would have said we would score three points in two games, you would have said they were crazy and that’s it’s not going to happen. I mean we scored 30 points a game last year. Of course we’re surprised, but it can be fixed.”
Expect a defensive game, as the Blue Raiders are averaging just 17.2 ppg on offense. QB Joe Craddock is completing 65.3 percent of his throws for 1,076 yards but has three INTs to go with five TDs. MTSU has not ground game to speak of, averaging only 69.2 ypg.
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