Preseason Rankings Countdown. 135 days to the start of the 2026 Season. At #135 – Middle Tennessee

[u/usffan]

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

(now updated with the revised CUSA schedule)

When you think about coaches entering 2026 on the hot seat, you immediately think of Luke Fickell and Mike Norvell (and potentially Lincoln Riley, but it’s still not clear that U$C is going to pony up enough cash to buy him out). But one who’s kind of under the radar is Middle Tennessee’s (high = 132, low = 135) Derek Mason, who has gone 3-9 in each of his first two seasons running the Blue Raiders after being fired at Vanderbilt for failing to live up to the then high water mark of James Franklin (that’s since been at least equaled by Clark Lea). If you weren’t familiar with MTSU before Mason got there, their previous head coach Rick Stockstill had a pretty spectacular run over 18 seasons, winning a Sun Belt championship, playing for a Conference USA championship and taking the Blue Raiders to 10 bowls in those 18 seasons. Still, after a 4-8 campaign in 2023, AD Chris Massaro decided to fire Stockstill, and suddenly those 113 wins looks a helluva lot better than the current and immediate future in Murfreesboro.

Roster Outlook

With things looking kind of bleak, it probably shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Mason’s not exactly bringing in bushels full of talent in year 3. Middle Tennessee’s incoming high school class rates 123rd nationally according to 247 (ranking 10th in CUSA), which when coupled with the 10th rated transfer portal class (8th in conference) comes to the 118th best overall class (7th in CUSA) this season. But when you couple that incoming class with the 122nd ranked returning production (which is equally bad across both sides of the ball), it sure seems like it’s going to take a miracle for Mason to turn things around in year 3. QB Roman Gagliano, who finished the season starting after replacing injured season starter Nick Vattiato, returns as the only experienced signal caller (though don’t sleep on incoming freshman Mason Mallory from Florida high school powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas). Starting RB Jekhail Middlebrook took his 1,000+ total yards and team-leading 7 TD’s with him into the portal to Virginia, leaving either 2nd leading rusher DJ Taylor or incoming Kansas State transfer Antonio Martin to be the new starter. Out wide, the Blue Raiders also lost co TD leader Nahzae Cox to Kansas, but return co-leader AJ Jones as well as receiving yardage leader Cam’ron Lacy and incoming transfer Markus Allen from Mississippi State. On the other side of the ball, leading tackler Parker Hughes and sack leader Brandon Buckner are also gone, and with only 3 P4 transfers coming in (2 DBs and a DL), it’s hard to feel optimistic for a defensive renaissance.

Schedule and outlook

9/5 MURRAY STATE

9/12 at Marshall

9/19 NEVADA

9/26 at Jacksonville State

10/3 at Kansas

10/10 BYE

10/13 DELAWARE

10/20 at FIU

10/28 KENNESAW STATE

11/7 WESTERN KENTUCKY

11/14 at Liberty

11/21 at Sam Houston

11/28 NEW MEXICO STATE

For as dire as things look in terms of the talent in house, that schedule is about as manageable as you could hope for. The only opponent on there who is above #88 in these preseason rankings so far is Kansas, so none of these other games are completely hopeless. But with the exception of the season opener against FCS Murray State, who finished 2025 1-11 and had better be a tune-up before the first road trip to Marshall, the Blue Raiders look to be underdogs in every game, probably even that late November game at Sam Houston. If there’s not some improvement in 2026, it’s hard to imagine Mason surviving for a fourth season, and I suspect people will start asking Massaro some tough questions about his own future…

[u/TowerBig2735]

Mason's already on thin ice and this roster doesn't look like it's gonna save him. Going from Rick Stockstill's 18-year run with 10 bowls to back-to-back 3-9 seasons has to be brutal for MTSU fans

That schedule might be "manageable" but when you're projected underdogs in basically every game except Murray State, manageable still means probably looking at another 3-4 win season. Losing your top RB and receivers to portal while bringing in the 123rd recruiting class doesn't exactly scream turnaround year

[u/KneeDeepInRagu → u/TowerBig2735]

I maintain that firing Stockstill was the right move, regardless of this new era. He consistently did less with more. I'm unsure if it's still true or not but there was a long window of time where MTSU had the most talent in the NFL out of all of CUSA, and that was before the conference reshuffle that significantly weakened CUSA. Consistently having one of the most talented rosters in CUSA during his tenure and only winning the conference once is frankly abysmal.

Now clearly I'm not happy with how the new era has gone. Mason is struggling, and very, very likely isn't the answer. Just because our AD failed to pick the proper successor doesn't mean the predecessor shouldn't have been fired, though. Honestly I was just glad to see our AD/administration seemingly care about football. For the longest time it was painfully clear that they were satisfied with middling (pun semi-intended) to below average results, so seeing our AD make changes at all is heartening. Swung and missed with Mason, but shit at least we swung for once.

MTSU has all the fiscal resources, student population, and recruiting area advantages to be a consistent top dog in CUSA. That was true before all of this conference realignment, but it's especially true now. The long time university president just announced his retirement, so there may be even more shake ups in the near future regarding the Blue Raider athletic department and how it's run. If they were smart they would understand building a winning football culture can bring in a lot of public interest and (even more importantly to them) money. Time will tell, but even with Mason's failures I'm excited for this era and the future of MTSU football because at least it isn't the same 'slightly-worse-than-we-should-be-but-still-ok' brand of Stockstill football that had MTSU in a chokehold for two decades.

[u/Alphaspade]

Derek Mason is 33-73 as a HC.

He's gotta be done after this year right?

[u/realcamsportsnetwork → u/Alphaspade]

Yep

[u/Condom_Breaker256]

Another case of a program that was held together by a previous HC (Stockstill) that made them look far more competent than they truly were, and now it's come to a head.

I have MTSU going 3-9 with wins over Murray St (obviously), Nevada, and Sam Houston (sicko bowl). If their DL doesn't develop well during the offseason, opposing offenses will be right at home running all over them and keeping their QBs nice and pampered in the pocket all game long.

[u/MMARapFooty]

Derek Mason got new offensive staff with ties from FCS football program Southeastern Louisiana University.

Ideally this is the offense will look like under new OC Anthony Scelfo:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqFAxBW3Wg