Middle Tennessee’s Blue Raiders have a tough task ahead of them on the football field Saturday as they travel to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech.

The Yellow Jackets rank third in the nation in rushing with over 300 yards a game and if the Raiders want to compete they’ll have to slow down the option attack led by quarterback Josh Nesbitt and running back Anthony Allen.

“They present a lot of challenges offensively and they have great players,” Blue Raider head coach Rick Stockstill said.

“We have to do a good job of being fundamentally sound and try not to do more than we can do on a particular play. You have to be disciplined and go through your keys. You have to be gap sound and fundamentally sound.”

Coach Stockstill stressed the importance of protecting the ball, limiting big plays and tackling well as keys to upsetting this Georgia Tech team.

“If you get too aggressive with Georgia Tech, you will get beat,” MTSU defensive lineman Dwight Smith said. “We have to slow down and execute the game plan because this week tackling is very important.”

Middle Tennessee could also use some help from a defense that has not done a good job this season of creating takeaways.

“It is frustrating and disappointing to me, because we have not done a great job protecting the ball and we have not done a great job creating turnovers,” Stockstill said. “The one thing I know is you can prevent them, getting them is much harder. You have to get some help.”

Saturday, for the first time this season, Middle Tennessee will start the same quarterback in consecutive games and the Raiders hope the offense benefits somewhat from the consistency.

Stockstill has some familiarity with Tech coach Paul Johnson. When Stockstill was at Bethune-Cookman and Johnson was at Georgia Southern the two faced each other. The two also participate in the Jimmy Rayne Foundation Golf Tournament every spring.

“He is an excellent football coach and I am not surprised by the success they have had at Georgia Tech because he does it the right way,” Stockstill said.

Another familiar matchup is that between the two quarterbacks. MTSU’s Dwight Dasher and Tech’s Nesbitt faced each other in the 2005 Georgia high school state semifinals.

In the Blue Raiders’ last game they were routed by Troy, but the team is not dwelling on that game. Rather, the Raiders are turning all of their attention to the task at hand.

“After you watch the film you see what you did and go practice and work on your mistakes,”
 Raider offensive lineman Mark Fisher said. “After that day, we put Troy in the past and moved on to Georgia Tech.”