“Playing well against North Texas will raise the confidence level of all of these young guys going into spring practice.”
The series between the two schools, which coincided with the beginning of the Sun Belt Conference ten years ago, has been a series of streaks. North Texas upset the unbeaten Blue Raiders in Denton 24-21 in 2001 to start a five game winning streak against MT. When Stockstill arrived in 2006, his teams reversed the trend and won four in a row, all of them by margins of at least two touchdowns. The Mean Green upset the Blue Raiders 23-17 last season in Murfreesboro to stop their streak and maintain a 6-4 edge in the series entering Saturday’s game.
Perhaps the most memorable game, at least for Blue Raider fans, was the game in Murfreesboro in 2008, when Dallas native Phillip Tanner scored six touchdowns in a 52-13 rout. Tanner now plays for the Dallas Cowboys.
Middle Tennessee, under Stockstill, has never lost in Denton, but the challenge presented by the Mean Green offense, and all-conference running back Lance Dunbar, will be huge. Dunbar needs 89 yards rushing in his final game to become only the sixth player in NCAA history to have 4,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in his career. He is the only player in Sun Belt Conference history on that list.
READ MORE: http://www.goblueraiders.com/content.cfm/id/56966
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