The Blue Raiders travel to Starkville to face 3-4 Mississippi State. It was a cold and rainy Thursday night for the game. The Blue Raiders came into the game as the #1 ranked team and the #2 ranked rushing offense. the game would start out close, with both teams scoring a TD in the first quarter. MTSU's QB Lance Williams would throw his 2nd Int of the year on MTSU's 2nd drive, buyt would rebound with another TD drive in the 2nd quarter. Miss St could only managed a FG on their next drive. Lance Williams would hook up with Tyler Nelson for a 55 yard TD to take a 21-10 lead into the half.

The Blue Raiders would get on the board first in the 2nd half, HB Jarrett Denman on the run. Miss St would answer back with a TD of the own to make the score 28-17. MTSU would add a FG on the board to lead 31-17. Miss St would close it within one score with a TD. Lance Williams would answer back with a TD run of his own. MTSU would hang on to win 38-24 and will move on to 7-0(4-0). The Blue Raiders will host 5-3(3-2) Auburn next week.

Middle Tennessee State (6-0) at Mississippi State (3-4)
October 22, 2020 1 2 3 4 F #1 Middle Tennessee State 7 14 7 10 38 Mississippi State 7 3 7 7 24 TOP PERFORMERS Middle Tennessee State Tyler Nelson - 101 receive yards 2 TDs Jarrett Denman - 75 rush yards 2 TDs Mike Mansfield - 7 tackles 3 sacks Mississippi State Cody Bass - 21/27 298 yards 2 TDs, 1 rush TD Brennan Jones - 14 tackles 1 Int Brandon Bratton - 96 receive yards	TEAM STAT COMPARISON MTSU MSST First Downs 20 16 3rd Down Efficiency 7-8 5-8 4th Down Efficiency 0-0 0-0 Total Yards 498 470 Passing Yards 217 310 Rushing Yards 189 19 Penalties-Penalty Yards 3-25 1-13 Turnovers 2 1 Possession Time 19:08 12:08
SCORING SUMMARY FIRST QUARTER MTSU MSST MTSU 4:31 TD MTSU: T. Nelson, 9 Yd pass from L. Williams (M. Woods kick) 7 0 MSST 2:18 TD Miss St: A. Willis, 25 Yd pass from C. Bass (N. Cooper kick) 7 7 SECOND QUARTER MTSU MSST MTSU 6:21 TD MTSU: J. Denman, 1 Yd run (M. Woods kick) 14 7 MSST 3:35 FG Miss St: N. Cooper, 21 Yd FG 14 10 MTSU 2:32 TD MTSU: T. Nelson, 55 Yd pass from L. Williams (M. Woods kick) 21 10 THIRD QUARTER MTSU MSST MTSU 2:41 TD MTSU: J. Denman, 3 Yd run (M. Woods kick) 28 10 MSST 1:34 TD Miss St: J. Morris, 7 Yd pass from C. Bass (N. Cooper kick) 28 17 FOURTH QUARTER MTSU MSST MTSU 5:09 FG MTSU: M. Woods, 32 Yd FG 31 17 MSST 2:36 TD Miss St: C. Bass, 3 Yd run (N. Cooper kick) 31 24 MTSU 0:27 TD MTSU: L. Williams, 24 Yd run (M. Woods kick) 38 24
Middle Tennessee State Boxscore PASSING C/ATT YDS TD INT Lance Williams 16/24 217 2 2 RUSHING CAR YDS AVG TD Jarrett Denman 14 75 5.3 2 Lance Williams 9 67 7.4 1 Jerome Wade 9 42 4.6 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Tyler Nelson 6 101 16.8 2 Brandon Banks 5 60 12.0 0 Austin Joseph 3 33 11.0 0 Kevin Weldon 1 10 10.0 0 Richard Mason 1 13 13.0 0 DEFENSE TKL SCK INT TD Thomas Morris 10 0 0 0 Mike Mansfield 7 3 0 0 Tony Griffin 7 0 0 0 Mike Smith 6 0 0 0 Aaron Hines 5 0 0 0 Craig McCoy 5 0 0 0 Terrance Oliver 4 0 0 0 Kevin Weldon 3 0 0 0 Zach McBride 3 1 0 0 Matthew Ross 2 0 0 0 Joe Swain 2 0 0 0 KICK RETURNING NO. YDS TD LG Morris Allen 3 59 0 21 Tyler Nelson 2 29 0 15 PUNT RETURNING NO. YDS TD LG Morris Allen 1 4 0 4 KICKING FGM/A XPM/A PTS LG Matt Woods 1/1 5/5 8 32	Mississippi State Boxscore PASSING C/ATT YDS TD INT Cody Bass 21/27 298 2 0 Maurice McIntire 1/1 12 0 0 RUSHING CAR YDS AVG TD Adam Brothers 6 31 5.1 0 Brandon Bratton 2 8 4.0 0 Cody Bass 13 -20 -1.5 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Brandon Bratton 6 96 16.0 0 Michael Alford 4 38 9.5 0 Adam Brothers 3 22 7.3 0 Bryce Johnson 3 57 19.0 0 Anthony Willis 2 32 16.0 1 DEFENSE TKL SCK INT TD Brennan Jones 14 0 1 0 Gerald Lane 8 0 0 0 Larry Moore 7 1 0 0 Leonard Garcia 7 0 0 0 Kris Vickers 6 0 0 0 Cornelius Richardson 5 0 0 0 Tanner Wallace 4 0 0 0 Eddie Kelly 4 0 0 0 Jarod Johnson 3 0 1 0 Brandon Buchanan 2 0 0 0 Jacov Anderson 2 0 0 0 KICK RETURNING NO. YDS TD LG Anthony Willis 5 119 0 26 Michael Alford 1 22 0 22 KICKING FGM/A XPM/A PTS LG Nate Cooper 1/1 3/3 6 21 PUNTING TOT YDS AVG IN20 Johnny Covington 2 88 44.0 0

On the Recruiting front, MTSU picked up 2 more commitments. 5* WR Michael Winston from Adamsville, AL, and 4* CB Dan Hogan from Cape Coral, FL.

Florida State lost to Maryland 31-17, and would drop from #3 to #10 in the BCS standings. West Virginia also lost and would drop from the top 10. the new top 10 is now: MTSU, ND, Ohio St, Miami, Michigan, Clemson, Boise State, Iowa, USF, and Florida State. MTSU, ND, and UCF(11th in BCS) are now the only undefeated teams.