By Devlopmentl Football USA
The Middle Tennessee Bulldawgs do not know what it feels like to lose, because they never have. They’ve never even gotten anywhere near defeat. In their young, 10-month history, they have quickly become the most feared team on their opponents’ schedules, outscoring opponents 443-49 on their way to a 15-0 all-time record.
Once the Bulldawgs rolled through the Middle Tennessee Football League undefeated and won the trophy, they carried over their war path to the Mid-States Football Alliance summer league, where they’re still annihilating people.
“We’ve only given up two touchdowns on defense, a one-yard touchdown run on a quarterback sneak and at the end of a game we gave up a tipped pass that resulted in six,” Bulldawgs owner Ricky Prochaska told Developmental Football USA. “That’s the only points our starting defense has given up, total. The rest of those points have come against offense or special teams.”
Within the developmental community, we at Developmental Football USA have been in the process of assembling a running list of the nation’s best active winning streaks. With the community witnessing the step by step assembling of this list, it quickly got the attention of some of the proud owners of powerhouse teams around the country, eager to take down a fellow heavyweight.
The Capital City Fury sit atop the unofficial list with a 24-game winning streak, with the WPA Wildcatz string of 23 runs right on their tails. The still-growing list of close to 20 teams with at least an 11-game active streak features some teams the nation is already familiar with – like the Oklahoma Thunder (17 wins) and the Colorado Greyhawks (22 wins) – as well as some teams like the Bulldawgs, who are new to the national stage.
There’s really only one way to know if one team on the list is better than another: play a game.
“I’m going to be honest, I don’t think those teams can compete with us,” Prochaska said of the Bulldawgs. “I know that may sound crazy, but I think we would really kick some of those teams’ ass. I really do. I like my team’s chances against any of them. Whether we have to go there, they come here or we meet half way. I know we haven’t been around very long, but I don’t see any of those teams being able to beat us.
“The Oklahoma Thunder, the Puyallup Nation Kings, the Greyhawks, the WPA Wildcatz. All those big name teams, this is an open challenge. I’m really about it. I want to play them, my team wants to play them. From the owners, to the managers, to the players, the general manager and the coaches, we’re the best organization out there right now, really. That’s not to discredit them, but we’re ready to ball. We’re ready to play the big teams. You come to us or we’ll come to you. It doesn’t matter.”
Doing the math, of the 49 points allowed – with only two touchdowns being against the defense – the Bulldawgs have given up less than one point per game in their history, while the offense has handled their side – averaging just a hair under 30 points per game. A look over their schedule and you’ll see it’s not unheard of for the Bulldawgs to drop 70 or even 80 points on an opponent, either.
“We’ve had some close games, for a while, but once everything settles down the talent will kick in,” Prochaska said. “We’ve got some guys that played some college ball, we’ve got a few guys that played arena. We’ve got a little bit of everything. It’s kind of diverse, it’s not your normal cast, but it’s pretty cool. Some of these guys want to go further in their career and some of them are just content with being on the team.”
The Bulldawgs began operations in September as a group of friends’ excitement from playing in an alumni football game needed an outlet to carry the fire. Also around that time, the once all-powerful Nashville Storm folded and some top talent coincidentally fell into the Bulldawgs’ lap.
“We’re kind of in their shadow right this second, that’s why I want to play a lot of the top-notch teams,” Prochaska said. “I don’t have a problem being in the shadow of the Nashville Storm. You can ask them now, it’s not the brand. It’s the players. I can put a lot of money into promoting it, but it’s not the brand, it’s the players that make it. We hear people say we’re good because we got those guys from the Storm, but it is what it is.”
The Middle Tennessee has no shortage of players. Their defensive line, which has been named “Sack City,” features two former collegiate defensive ends in Romeo Gilbert and Fred Sparkman, and defensive tackles Twan Armstrong and A.J. Hill.
“Those two dudes are just nasty,” Prochaska said. “They beat you up the whole game. We’re five games into our summer season and they’re at 25 or 26 sacks on the year between them all. They’re nuts. Those defensive ends look like receivers. They will run right past you.”
Fans have grown accustomed to seeing special teams touchdowns in every game, thanks to the Bulldawgs’ electric third-phase-of-the-game unit.
“We’ve got the best return game in the nation, I would say,” Prochaska said. “We’ve got Randall Smith – “Bay Bay” – and Chris Perkins, they call him “Cali.” Both of those guys should be playing on Sundays. They are insane.”
Those two also make Middle Tennessee’s secondary one of the best.
“Twin Johnson, he went to the Chicago Bears camp and has played for several arena teams,” Prochaska said. “He played D-1 and went a Bears camp. We’ve got Bay Bay and Cali, they both play back there. DeQuinn Watford is leading the team in interceptions. He played at St. Ambrose University.”
At quarterback, the Bulldawgs have Cass Barnes, who played at Tennessee Tech.
“He’s really good, he’s going to be our leader on offense,” Prochaska said. “Keon Bohannon our running back, he’s really good. We’ve got several big-time players. Our offense is just as stacked as the defense is. Everybody on our line, we average about 320 up front, we’ve got some monsters up front.”
Don’t expect to see the Bulldawgs lose any regular season games this year. However, stay tuned to see if the open challenge finds any takers from other national powers.
“We plan on winning,” Prochaska said. “Hopefully, if everything goes right, we’ll end the year around 25-0 and we plan on joining the GDFL next year, win the GDFL. We might go independent. It doesn’t really matter about the league to me, I just want to travel around and play the top teams. To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best and that’s what we’re ready to do.”