MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Like many experienced Blue Raiders, De’Arre McDonald will wear a new number for the Blue Raiders in 2024. As older players graduate, the single-digit numbers will become available and those following MTSU will have to relearn who is who on the field.
McDonald, now No. 2 instead of No. 28, has made that process easy during fall camp. It would be hard to overlook how No. 2 intercepted all passes in one-on-one situations, pulled the strings in zone coverage and generally made his presence felt as an outside cornerback from the start of the fall until before MTSU’s season opener against Tennessee Tech this Saturday at 6 p.m. at Floyd Stadium.
“The pairings started to gain the upper hand,” said head coach Derek Mason commented after a practice game in which McDonald had to defend several passes. “I saw De’Arre make some plays. It was nice to see him again, doing what he does.”
His position coach praised the Murfreesboro native even more effusively.
“I always tell De’Arre that he probably has the greatest God-given talent of a kid I’ve seen in a long time,” said the cornerbacks coach Bryce Lewis said. “The most important thing I want to teach him is that he has the body and composition of the league. He has to have the mentality and mindset of the league as far as our process, repeatability.”
As he has grown into his starting position in 2024, McDonald couldn’t help but take some time after practice to reflect on his path to where he is now, holding one side of the field in coverage for the Blue Raiders.
“It’s nice to look back and say, ‘Wow, I’ve come a long way. A very long way,'” McDonald said. “I’m blessed every day.”
The performance McDonald is showing on the field probably doesn’t surprise many in ‘Boro, who watched McDonald on many fall nights as a star for coach Kevin Creasy at Oakland High School, which is down the road from MTSU, and who became a three-star talent as a prep player. According to 247 Sports, teams around college football took notice of the defensive back’s talent, and McDonald had offers from a variety of power conference schools, including South Carolina, Virginia Tech and Ole Miss, where McDonald ultimately committed.
However, a coaching change at Oxford led McDonald to withdraw his commitment and head to Cincinnati. He appeared in just one game for the Bearcats before returning home to MTSU for the 2022 season. Since then, he has been a constant presence on the field for the Blue Raiders, playing on special teams and earning plenty of snaps as a nickel cornerback last season. He finished the 2023 season with 18 tackles (including one sack and 3.5 TFLs) and six pass breakups.
Given his success in that role and the talent and experience he brought, it might have been easy for Mason and his staff to keep McDonald at the nickelback position, but he was quickly identified as one of the team’s best options to start at the outside position and was given a chance to stay there early in training camp.
“It wasn’t a shock moment because I played (outside corner) in high school when I was much smaller and much younger,” McDonald said. “It took me about two or three days to adjust and slow down.”
“Now I just feel like a player who can play,” the corner continued. “Now I’m on an island, and I love it. The secondary loves having the load on our shoulders because we always show up and make plays.”
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Off the field, McDonald has led the Blue Raiders’ efforts with a key part of the Blue Collar Project, Mason’s internal initiative to bring the team into the Middle Tennessee community through community service. McDonald has notably volunteered for the Boys and Girls Club of Rutherford Country, an organization he became a part of as a young boy in Murfreesboro after first playing in their flag football program.
McDonald remembers growing up looking up to the teenagers and college students who volunteered at the club, especially those who were successful athletes.
“It was just like, ‘Wow, I can’t wait to be like her,'” McDonald said. “And now to be in the same situation as her, it’s incredible, to see kids, to make kids smile, to be there for kids and give them what I was looking for when I was younger.”
Making such connections was exactly what Mason wanted from his players when he started the Blue Collar project.
“Once (De’Arre got involved), he couldn’t turn a blind eye to the fact that young people looked up to him,” Mason said. “When he was young, he looked up to older people, and that meant something to him… We as a team just wanted to recapture those feelings. We wanted to make our guys realize that the opportunity is bigger than just the game we play. The things we can do for our community can make a difference.”
For McDonald, who learned that Mason grew up attending his area’s Boys and Girls Club, reconnecting with a place he grew up in was just another reason he clicked with the head coach who is now willing to rely on him in the Blue Raiders’ defense.
“He preaches to us every day that he’s just like us,” McDonald said. “Hearing that is like, ‘he’s human.’ It’s nice that we can talk about situations like this and his growing up.”