The Liberty Flames (4-1) return home to take on Middle Tennessee State (2-3). Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EST on ESPN3 as the Blue Raiders try to spoil Liberty’s homecoming.

These two teams have met once previously, but that meeting took place 39 years ago when MTSU defeating Liberty, 27-7, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on Sept. 18, 1982. The Flames were an NAIA Division I member at the time and the Blue Raiders were a member of the Ohio Valley Conference in the FCS.

Both teams have obviously made the move to the FBS since that meeting. Middle Tennessee made the move up in 2000, and they won two Sun Belt Conference championships in 2001 and 2006 before moving to Conference USA in 2013. MTSU is currently led by head coach Rick Stockstill who is one of the longest tenured FBS head coaches in the country. He joined the Blue Raiders prior to the 2006 season and has a 96-96 career record at Middle Tennessee.

Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze and Stockstill have met as head coaches once previously, when Freeze was at Arkansas State. Freeze and the Red Wolves defeated Stockstill and MTSU, 45-19, on Nov. 19, 2011.

“They’ve changed some with his hiring of different coordinators throughout the years, but one thing is consistent with Rick’s teams, I mean the guy is just a tough, hard-nosed football coach and they are going to play that way,” Freeze said. “They are well coached and they are going to play the game the right way. You are going to have to out-execute and have better effort in order to beat his teams on given days. He is a heck of a coach.”

MTSU is 2-3 this season and have posted a 1-2 mark in CUSA play. The Blue Raiders began the year with a 50-15 win at home over Monmouth before dropping three straight on the road to Virginia Tech (35-14), UTSA (27-13), and Charlotte (42-39). Middle Tennessee was able to halt their losing skid and picked up a win over Marshall, 34-28, thanks, in part, to six forced turnovers.

“I think Middle is playing with an enormous amount of confidence right now,” said Freeze. “They’ve got a veteran staff. Coach Stock, I’ve known him for a long time, have great respect for him. He’s got a veteran staff. They are just playing with a lot of confidence.”

MTSU has averaged 30.0 points per game through their first five games this season. They are averaging 100.6 yards rushing and 241.2 yards passing so far this year. NC State transfer Bailey Hockman started the first three games at quarterback for the Blue Raiders before he elected to end his college football career.

Chase Cunningham has played in all five games and taken over as the starting quarterback the last two. He has completed 59 of 91 passes for 743 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 1 interception while also rushing 27 times for 93 yards.

“They are an RPO based offense, they do it well,” Liberty defensive coordinator Scott Symons said of MTSU. “Cunningham gives them a different element with the plus one run game that they didn’t have. So, now the ability to run the quarterback, to run the RPOs, to get him outside the pocket, then they do a great job trying to get vertical shots on you.”

Running back Chaton Mobley is leading the team with 44 yards rushing per game to go along with his two rushing touchdowns. Amir Rasul leads the team with 42 rushing attempts to go along with his 108 yards rushing.

The Blue Raiders have several weapons in the receiving game as six different players have caught a touchdown pass. Jarrin Pierce has 21 reception for 195 yards and three scores while Jimmy Marshall leads the team with 252 receiving yards on his 18 receptions and two touchdowns. Jaylin Lane has 13 receptions for 199 yards and three touchdowns.

“I think the quarterback is a good player,” Symons said. “I think he’s efficient. He’s a really good runner, but I think the strength of their team when I watch them on film is they are really fast. Their skill is really good. I would say comparable to our wideouts with the speed in the slot that you’re going to see. They pose a big time challenge.”

MTSU has been very opportunistic on defense and they rank No. 3 nationally in turnover margin and forced turnovers. The Blue Raiders have 10 fumble recoveries and 5 interceptions through the first five game, and they forced six turnovers in last week’s win over Marshall. Liberty has been very good at protecting the ball so far this season, as the Flames are tied for 2nd nationally with just two turnovers so far this year, both fumbles.

“The ball is always the most important thing to us, offensively,” said Freeze. “We have to take care of the ball. If you lose the turnover battle your chances of losing, the percentages go way, way up. We’ve taken care of it pretty decently here. We’ll continue to preach that, for sure.”

NOTABLES

  • Liberty is facing its third of four Conference USA opponents this season. The Flames have won five straight games against CUSA teams, including earlier this season against Old Dominion and UAB. Liberty is 6-1 all-time against CUSA opponents.
  • This will be Liberty’s first ever homecoming game played against an FBS opponent.
  • The Flames’ are currently riding a 13 game home winning streak, the longest in school history. Liberty is tied with BYU and Army for the fourth longest active home winning streak in FBS. LU only trails Clemson (31), Cincinnati (22), and Oregon (15).
  • Liberty’s defense ranks No. 6 nationally in total defense, allowing 266.4 yards per game. The Flames are currently no. 9 in the country in scoring defense, giving up 14.6 points per game..
  • The Flames rank No. 12 in the country with 3.4 sacks per game, having recorded 5 or more sacks in three of the last four games.

QUOTABLES

Hugh Freeze – “My memories of playing (MTSU) when we were at Arkansas State, I remember vividly the year I was the head coach playing at their place and winning that game because there was a bowl rep there and he came into the locker room after to give us our invitation to a bowl which was big for Arkansas State at that point in their growth into FBS football. I remember that vividly. That was a very exciting day.”

DC Scott Symons on MTSU – “They just beat a team that played for the CUSA Championship last season. Marshall is a solid, solid football team. They’ve scored points on the large majority of teams they’ve played. It’s going to be another challenge for us to play sound fundamental football.”

Javon Scruggs on MTSU – “It’s going to be a game that we have to have good eyes and good focus. The quarterback he has a decent arm. Receivers have speed. You can’t just lock in on the receivers or take your eyes off the receivers to lock in on the quarterback because that’s when big plays happen.”

Malik Willis on MTSU – “They do a great job, especially when they bring pressure. They play off, so they can break easily. We’ve just got to be careful to know they are trying to come get the ball. We need to take care of it, make the right reads, hold onto it when we’re running, focus on not turning it over. I think they had six against Marshall, that’s really impressive. We’ve got to focus on that all week.”

Chris Boti on facing a mobile QB – “You’ve got to contain him, but you still got to get a pass rush off. We’ve got to do both and try to stop him.”

CJ Daniels on MTSU – “They definitely have some speed on their team, but we can’t focus on what Middle Tennessee is going to do. We’ve just got to go out and execute our game plan and do the right things. We can’t focus on what Middle Tennessee is going to do because they could do something different.”

Elijah James on MTSU QB Chase Cunningham – “He kind of reminds me of the Syracuse quarterback. I don’t think he’s nothing to be feared. As long as we play the way we’re supposed to be, we can keep him contained. He’s a little bit faster, little bit quicker (than the Syracuse QB).”

PREDICTION

Liberty 36, MTSU 20

Rain has been in the forecast all week, and it still looks like it could impact the game Saturday afternoon at Williams Stadium. The Blue Raiders will try to force some turnovers, and with their new quarterback they have the potential to move the ball. The Flames are heavy favorites and have a chance to to put this game out of reach if their playmakers aren’t hampered by the weather.