Murfreesboro, TN – It was a tough game for the MTSU Blue Raiders when arch-rival Western Kentucky came to town. Coach Mason felt his team was prepared and ready to compete, but that didn’t happen, as Middle was dominated 49-21.

Following the game, he met with the media and answered several questions. Here’s the list of those and his answers.

Mason’s opening statement

“Hats off to Western Kentucky; they were opportunistic, played hard, and were a good football team. You can’t spot a good football team with 21 points. You look at the start of the game, and we had some miscues on special teams, which was unfortunate. We moved the ball offensively but turned it over on downs, and they scored.”

“We’ve got to start fast, make sure positive things happen early for us, and fight through this. I take full responsibility for how we come into games, I thought we were prepared and ready to go. With the momentum changes in some of the early plays, we’re not mature enough to handle those things. So, we as a staff need to continue to put this team in a position to be better, I look at some things, we were 1-for-3 in the red zone, we were 0-for-4 on fourth down, not very good.”

“As I look at this football team, we may be down, but we’re not out of the fight; we’ve just got to move forward.”

Mason on the defensive struggles

“There’s a combination of things, but I’ll go down the laundry list; we’re solid inside, but the edges are soft and vulnerable. For us, if you want to be a defense that gets off the field, you have to build a wall inside and set an edge, and the setting an edge part has been missing for a while. Then you have the pass rush; we never really hit or got after the quarterback enough. We hit TJ [Finley] early, but their backup came in and did a phenomenal job, we’ve got to give him credit.”

“He found 1-on-1 matchups, and we didn’t win enough of those. We didn’t tackle well and had trouble in the red zone, which is a recipe for not playing good defense. I’m going to sit back with Coach Stewart and look over the tape during our meetings, and we will make adjustments.”

“He’s a good coach and coordinator, but sometimes when you’re calling plays and trying to grasp something for guys to hang on to, you’re just trying to move the stress around. We moved the stress around, but we just aren’t making plays.”

Mason on red zone issues and what guys need to work on

“This is how practice performance affects game-time execution. You can walk through this stuff all you want to, but it’s when you put the body on body and get physical and competitive; I know we’re a little dinged up, but everyone is. It has to be a mentality; you have to smell it and find a way to put the ball in the endzone by hook or crook. You’ve got to get it in, and we’re not there.”

Mason on how the team is compared to where he wants it to be

“You get what you earn, you really do. I want to think that we’re further along, but the tape tells otherwise. There could be a sense of frustration, but you can’t do that; you’ve got to get to work; I’ve got to roll up my sleeves with the players. Again, I think it starts with me. I’m hard on our guys in practice, but you can’t talk them through stuff; they’ve got to play.”

“I’ve seen some stuff work itself out, but we’ve got to continue to challenge each other because the only people who can fix this are us.”

Mason on the next two games against Memphis and Duke

“One day at a time, the way we practice has to be intentional, the work we do has to be able to give us a chance, and it’s got to show up and move our progress forward as a team. Nobody is staying the same, but for us, it looks stagnant; we’ve got to find a way to shake it up. It may be structure or who we do it with, but we’ll find it.”

“Like I said, I don’t blame players; I blame me; my shoulders are big enough. We’ll make sure we hold each other accountable as a staff and a team. Because that’s where the winning is done.”

Mason on WKU quarterback Caden Veltkamp

“I think what we saw was what they did, they played some matchup ball. What I felt was happening was we didn’t disrupt rhythm, we didn’t get enough pressure, and the quarterback could stand in the pocket and make plays. It looks like he [Caden Veltkamp] and TJ [Finley] are very similar in how they do things, but he operated the offense well and did a good job. We have to play better, and in the end, Western Kentucky got the win.”

Mason on Omari Kelly’s career game

“Omari is who we thought he was coming into this. I know what Omari is capable of, but we must have other guys make plays. You look at Holden Willis, and he’s playing good football, but other guys have to step up and make plays. But Omari is on fire, and I don’t think that’s stopping anytime soon. He and Nick [Vattiato] have a good connection, but also, Coach Reeder does a good job with them, but if we get other guys to step up and help, then we’ll be good offensively.”

Mason on the late offensive success

“I wish I could tell you there were adjustments made, but there weren’t, we were just able to take advantage of some stuff and make some plays. What we’re lacking right now is that we’re giving up a lot of explosive plays and not hitting enough consistently on explosive plays. That’s something that we have to remedy because we should and can be an explosive offense. Now we’ve got to slow guys down on defense.”