Fall is in the air, friends, so you know what that means - it’s homecoming week for Middle Tennessee.

Ah, yes – homecoming. It’s a time of year when alumni come back to their beloved university and reminisce on the great times they had in college whilst mixing it up with the new generation of students.

It’s also a time for football.

For most programs, homecoming is about one thing - winning. You see a lot of schools schedule “cupcake” opponents to ensure a great weekend for all involved. So what do the Blue Raiders do? Well, they schedule their arch rival, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

I’ll give athletic director Chris Massaro this - MT won't play any chumps for homecoming.

Aside from what I listed, this game represents so much more to Middle Tennessee.

I’ve had two weeks to think about my season prediction for the Blue Raiders and the more I think about it, the more the whole season seems to rest on WKU. If MT beats the Hilltoppers, it could contribute to a run that could last the rest of the season. 5-1 with four straight wins, it’d the best start for Blue Raider football in a long, long time. Fans could be looking at a historically great football team. What a time to be alive!

Or…

The Blue Raiders could lose. Lose the Homecoming game…again. And by doing that, they could send their promising season into a world of questions…again.

Last week I talked about perseverance and how this team was the literal embodiment of that. Losing to WKU, however, is not a test MT wants.

Let’s say MT does lose. Okay, it happens. Now you’re 4-2. But, wait – then they have this weird OOC game smack dab in the middle of the season, on the road, against an SEC foe in Missouri. Now, if they lose next week to Missouri, now you’re 4-3 and in a world of hurt.

To be honest, I’m not sure MT would know how to stop the bleeding. They may bounce back against FIU the following week, but then they take on a Texas-San Antonio team that just dominated the favorites in the West.

Uh-oh.

If you lose that one, well, now Marshall smells blood. If you lose to Marshall, well, now the last two games of the season against Charlotte and Florida Atlantic, games that appear to be wins on paper, well, now those become a coin flip.

It’s very easy to overcome adversity when a team is winning against the odds. If the team starts losing, though, then you can start to see certain bits being chipped away from the core of the team. This is a younger team than what fans have seen in the past. You can’t bank on them having the experience and know-how to dodge a spiral like that, should they lose the next two games.

7-5 looks likely at that point, and I’ll have to spend all offseason double-guessing my crystal ball and doubting very seriously that I have any idea what I am talking about when it comes to football.

But, there’s a simple answer to these possible problems.

Just win.

If you beat the Hilltoppers and come out victorious on homecoming, this is a non-issue. If you’re MT, from there you go riding high into the Missouri game. I’m not about to predict a win there, but now MT knows that no one in the conference can touch them. As they begin their home stretch down the schedule, MT would have already beaten the best in Conference USA. The rest would be theirs for the taking. They’d just have to reach out and grab it.

Just as it’s dangerous for a young team to be playing on a losing streak, a young team that’s playing full of confidence is equally as dangerous, for the rest of the conference at least.

Let’s say MT runs the table after Missouri. Can you imagine? Fans will be looking at a season to remember, my 10-2 prediction is intact, I remain a genius, and all the haters will be happy to be wrong.

The rest of the season, both literally and figuratively speaking, starts Saturday. Everyone is coming home to see it, too, so…

Just win, baby.