ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Army West Point Black Knights (-) over Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, Saturday at 1:30 PM ET: Game #242

This is a tough spot for Middle Tennessee. This will be the first time that coach Rick Stockstill's team has faced an option attack in 7 years. That was a bowl game loss to Navy by a margin of 18 points. Making the situation even more troublesome for the Blue Raiders here is that they were originally game planning for two other opponents before finally becoming aware in mid-August that their first game would be against the Black Knights. In other words, why worry about preparing for an option attack if you're not expecting to face one? But now just a few weeks before the season opener you find out your team is opening the season at West Point and facing the option attack of Army! This is unlikely to go well for Stockstill's team. Middle Tennessee allowed 459 yards per game last year and that ranked them 114th out of about 130 in the nation. Now that sub-par defense has to contend with an offensive attack they are not familiar with facing. On the other side of the ball, the Blue Raiders are solid offensively but some running back transfers and on offensive linemen opted out of the season. So Middle Tennessee has been impacted (scheduling and opt outs) significantly in more ways than one heading into this season. The Blue Raiders will be facing an Army defense that returns the majority of its starters and which allowed 23 points and only 178.9 passing yards per game last season the latter of which ranked the Black Knights 5th in the nation! One final note about Army's offense is that though they have a new QB this season it is a senior, Christian Anderson. He did play in 6 games last season and started 1 and ran for over 400 yards. Anderson is a perfect fit for the Black Knights option attack. Lay the points with Army as a small home favorite in early afternoon action Saturday.