​Derek Mason and Middle Tennessee State football have shown both bounce-back ability and resiliency during the 2026 season.Consistency is the next step the Blue Raiders know they need to take in order to compete for a spot in the Conference USA championship game.The Blue Raiders (3-3, 1-1 CUSA) were able to both rebound from its worst loss in 20 years (55-0 to Kansas) and come from behind in the fourth quarter for a 33-30 victory against favored Delaware (2-4, 0-2) at Floyd Stadium on Oct. 13.”We talked about a couple of things that I thought came to fruition (against Delaware),” Mason said. “Details. And there were some details that we missed, whether it’s in the run game, pass game, defensively … just little things that are the difference in distancing yourself from opponents in ball games. And that’s a learning process. But it’s something that you have to work yourself through.”The second thing is playing Blue Raider football. You have to hit people. You can’t dive at people. We’ve got to tackle people. We tackled people better tonight. Don’t let the lights get too big for you. Practice harder and you play better. And those things are starting to come to fruition a little bit.”MTSU has already matched its win total from the previous two seasons under Mason. The Blue Raiders didn’t earn their first conference win until Week 11 last year.But the Blue Raiders don’t just want to marginally improve from the past two disappointing seasons. Sophomore quarterback Roman Gagliano said the talent is there.”Once you get (the first conference win), it just kind of just snowballs effect,” said Gagliano, who was 22 of 32 for 291 yards and three touchdowns and added 22 yards rushing and a TD. He threw a 14-yard touchdown to Neo Clifton with 3:06 remaining for the game winner. “That’s the goal going into it, hitting the week back preparation and doing what we did this week, and play even better.”MTSU, which has all CUSA games to finish the season, will travel to FIU (a 27-24 loser to Jacksonville State on Oct. 13) in another weekday game on Oct. 20 (6 p.m. CT, CBS Sports Network).MTSU defense has mixed results, but makes big plays at right timeMTSU allowed 321 passing yards to a backup quarterback and gave up two scoring plays of over 23 yards in the second half.However, after seeing its defense gashed by dual-threat quarterbacks the previous two weeks (a 23-13 loss to Jacksonville State and the blowout loss to Kansas in which they allowed 708 total yards), the Blue Raiders made some big plays.MTSU held Delaware dual-threat QB Tyler Bell, who was starting for an injured Nick Minicucci, to just 18 yards on 17 carries and also came up with a big Bryce Williams interception with 1:51 remaining to thwart an attempt at a game-winning drive by the Blue Hens.”We knew, since (Bell) was the one starting, that he was probably going to be the one to take off after he didn’t see what he liked,” said MTSU senior linebacker Ashton Taylor, who had seven tackles and 1.5 sack