MT can’t stop VU's Shurmur, drop season opener

Stinging loss overshadows record breaking night for WR Richie James

Christopher Hanewinckel - USA TODAY Sports

MTSU quarterback Brent Stockstill perfectly summed up how most Blue Raider fans and players felt after Saturday’s 28-6 loss to Vanderbilt.

“We played terrible. For lack of a better term, that was embarrassing,” Stockstill said following the defeat. “That was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever been a part of. It’s just unacceptable. We can’t take anything from that. We just have to get back to work tomorrow.”

A visibly disappointed Stockstill had one of his worst games as a college quarterback, completing 18 of his 31 passes for 166 yards, a touchdown and an interception. However, the loss does not fall solely on the shoulders junior quarterback, who was seemingly running for his life all night long.

The MTSU offensive line had a poor showing in front of the 26,717 fans at Floyd Stadium, allowing five sacks and numerous quarterback pressures.

“They (Vanderbilt) have a really good defense,” Stockstill said. “We played terrible and made them look really good, but they are a good defense. They make life hard; that’s what they do. They were just better than us tonight.”

“When you’ve got three new guys up there, there’s going to be some growing pains,” MTSU coach Rick Stockstill added. “We don’t have time to wait, we’ve got to get it fixed now. We’ve got enough to work on this week to get better.”

The offensive line was not the only problem for MTSU, as the defense struggled to stop Vanderbilt quarterback Kyle Shurmur. The 6-foot-4 junior was 20-of-28 for 296 yards and three touchdowns – including a 73-yard pass to Ralph Webb that gave the Commodores a four-touchdown lead.

“My biggest fears going into the game were what happened in the game,” coach Stockstill said. “I was worried how we would hold up on the offensive line, obviously not very well. It was a rather embarrassing performance.

“We gave up some big plays. I guarantee you when we look at it, it’ll be because of mistakes – other than just them beating us. We missed a couple of tackles early. But I’m encouraged by what we put out there defensively.”

"“That was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever been a part of. It’s just unacceptable. We can’t take anything from that. We just have to get back to work tomorrow.”"

All the pre-game talk centered around Vanderbilt’s do-it-all running back Ralph Webb. The 5-foot-10 senior torched the Blue Raiders in last year’s matchup to the tune of 212 yards and two touchdowns. However, new defensive coordinator Scott Shafer’s emphasis on containing Webb worked -- in the run game at least – as Webb was held to just 49 rushing yards.

“We were doing a pretty good job of stopping the run, but we couldn’t get any pressure on (Shurmur) in the first quarter,” Stockstill said.

“The thing we were good at was on first down stopping the run. Teams aren’t just going to come in and run the ball on every play, they’re going to throw it some.”

The overwhelming consensus after the game seemed to be to scrap this game and start fresh in Week 2. Stockstill -- both coach and quarterback -- echoed the same sentiments of improving and fielding a more competitive team against Syracuse.

“There’s not a whole lot of positive film about this game,” coach Stockstill said. “It all starts up front. You can only do offensively what your offensive line allows. We’ve got to get better up front. They’re good men, they’re good players and they will play better this week.”

“It’s good experience for us being the only team in the conference that’s played three in a row (Power 5 teams),” Brent Stockstill said. It’s not what we’d like I guess, but we’re going to go out here and give everybody our best shot and compete with everyone. We expect to win every game when we step on the field. We’ll put a better product on the field and give them a run for their money.”

Seemingly lost in the shuffle of the Week 1 disappointment was junior receiver Richie James breaking the MTSU record for most career receiving yards, previously held by Kendall Newsome.

“I’d rather get a win than have a record,” James said. “I try to do as much as I can to help this team and at the end of the day, we have to get better. At the end of the season, when we win our bowl game, that’s when it’ll mean something to me.”