(Writer’s note – In four decades in this business I have never experienced such an amazing interview as last week with Rhonda Wiser, the mother of 12-year-old Hallee Cartwright who died of flu complications. Rhonda’s faith and the peace it gave her to deal with what had to be such a crushing loss was nothing less than amazing. I ran the interview that appeared here online last week as my print column this week. The story Rhonda had to tell was the epitome of inspirational and an example for many in facing life’s toughest moments.)
Saturday was not the mid-October Saturday MTSU and probably just about everyone of the rest of us was looking for.
An anticipated sellout crowd at Floyd Stadium for the Mississippi State game, the first home appearance by an SEC team, didn’t happen although the Blue Raiders drew a good crowd of some 24,000.
The weather made a big difference.
Temperatures generally under 50, lots of cold moisture in the air and a really blustery, chilling wind most likely cost the Blue Raiders the difference in the crowd that showed up and the one expected.
If you were out there, or just out Saturday, you know it was uncomfortable, way uncomfortable.
In late November we might be acclimated to such weather.
But, Saturday’s cold, wet and wind all added to much worse weather than we had had any time to get used to.
Folks at the game were bundled up bigtime and a lot still left early, having nothing to do with what was happening on the field.
A number of other community events also saw much smaller crowds than expected because of the conditions outside.
What ya gonna do?
More often than not a mid-October Saturday is just a delight. Temps have dropped to a shirtsleeve or light jacket level with plenty of sunshine.
Not this weekend. Temps were supposed to fall close enough to freezing last night the missus made us move all her outside potted plants, and some are potted in darn big pots, inside or under cover.
Today isn’t going to exactly be a peach.
Finally, hurting Middle’s crowd Saturday was a shiny TV screen showing the game on ESPNU for the 80-plus percent of us with cable in the warm comfort of family dens.
You know a lot of folk made that decision.
Having a bit of work to get finished Saturday, I know I thought about it.
•••
On the field things didn’t go much better for the Blue Raiders than the weather.
Mississippi State played a Mississippi State game for the most part. The Bulldogs have been pretty tough on defense all year with their defensive front especially physical. Offensively the Dogs just keep pounding the ball on the ground, hoping to wear an opponent down, or as they did twice in the first half against the Raiders, break a runner loose.
The Raiders really struggled in the first half with quarterback Dwight Dasher on the bench, apparently being disciplined for being late to some team function. Dasher has been accounting for the vast majority of Middle’s offense and without him there wasn’t much offense.
When he came in, things started happening. He directed two good, long drives, but Middle’s lack of a strong runner with Phillip Tanner apparently out for the year with an injury proved critical when the Raiders got within punch-it-in range. They couldn’t.
As a result two field goals resulted from what should have been two touchdowns and likely a tie game or better.
In the second half Mississippi State played better pass defense and the Raiders had to throw.
Some of those throws didn’t work out so well. Dasher was intercepted three times, Will Burnett once.
At 20-6 Middle had a chance to get in it but an apparent touchdown pass was waved off with a highly questionable offensive pass interference call.
The dye was set.
•••
OK, so the Raiders was lost two in a row, getting roughed up in both, but a little perspective easily leads to a conclusion that 3-3 at this point with Middle’s schedule isn’t really too bad.
Those six games, three against BSC opponents plus the Sun Belt Conference pre-season favorite with only two at home, looked tough before the season started.
The Raiders sitting at 1-5 right now wasn’t an unreasonable assessment.
And, it doesn’t show up on the win-loss tally but, man, you gotta feel good about how Rick Stockstill manages this team overall.
In addition to seeing the program make just gigantic positive strides in academic performance, from penalty territory to award winning, Coach Stock continues to display praiseworthy integrity.
He knows darn well how important quarterback Dasher is to his offense. Just checks the season stats.
But, when Dasher made a mistake, he paid a penalty, even with a huge game coming up.
Young people like Dasher and a teammate are going to make mistakes, even gentle ones like being late for an important appointment.
Too often these days coaches and others look the other way, find an excuse or somehow wiggle about of doing what is right at the expense of winning at all costs. We see the result of that seemingly every day in sports news.
Coach Stock wants to win. He was still fretting about that opening Clemson loss a full month later.
But, he wants to win right.
I’d rather see the Raiders at 3-3 Stock’s way than 6-0 the other way.
•••
Please, please, please, Titans. Give us just a tiny hint of hope today.
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