football Mt. Rushmore:​

Frank Faulkinberry
Red Floyd
Horace Jones
Bubber Murphy
Boots Donnelly

blue rai said:

Joe Campbell and Mike Caldwell. The top 10 players of the Boot’s D2 era were probably better than the top 10 players of the D1 Stock era.

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Depends on how they're being compared. If we're taking how they performed in the NFL into consideration, Stock probably has the upper hand. One common trend is their best players were DB's (Oldham and Griffin for Boots, Bearden, Blankenship and Ward for Stock.

Dean Hayes

MTFAN61 said:

From reading much of the UL blog about van Lith many felt much of what was going on with her was pushed by her father. If true that's always a bad sign. No one understands her anger towards Louisville which appeared to embrace her the entire time she was there. And now she's moving on from LSU. Dad again? Sadly we've already experienced enough of interloper father's here in the past. Those guys can be a cancer to an entire team. May be best to let daddy pick another home for her outside of Murfreesboro.

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For 1 year, I trust the team culture is strong enough to handle 1 overzealous dad. Nobody can be worse than the Hayes

From reading much of the UL blog about van Lith many felt much of what was going on with her was pushed by her father. If true that's always a bad sign. No one understands her anger towards Louisville which appeared to embrace her the entire time she was there. And now she's moving on from LSU. Dad again? Sadly we've already experienced enough of interloper father's here in the past. Those guys can be a cancer to an entire team. May be best to let daddy pick another home for her outside of Murfreesboro.

MTOleBlue said:

Absolutely. It seems like we've got donors who could put together a pretty decent NIL deal for a superstar addition...

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If anything, Middle should acknowledge who they are and go all in on funding towards WBB. We're never gonna be a top 25 or better program with MBB, we just might with the girls, they're so close to being there

blue rai said:

Watched a lot of HVL and she looks great in warmups. Didn’t seem to show much in big games. Caitlyn Clark hung 41 on her last week. I know she is a former All American but if I was picking my team, I would pick Sav Wheeler over her every time,.

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Much as I love Wheeler, Clark is hanging 40+ on anybody she wants

I remember this particular thread on HVL on the UL meesage board and there was a lot discussion on her time at UL and since

Joe Campbell and Mike Caldwell. The top 10 players of the Boot’s D2 era were probably better than the top 10 players of the D1 Stock era.

Watched a lot of HVL and she looks great in warmups. Didn’t seem to show much in big games. Caitlyn Clark hung 41 on her last week. I know she is a former All American but if I was picking my team, I would pick Sav Wheeler over her every time,.

Dwight Stone

MidTennFootball said:

I wouldn't be surprised if it came out that Van Lith was just ring chasing and didn't get a ton of NIL money. I do think she's a good fit and I think her potential addition gives Middle a pretty good chance to host, which would make her a legend here

I'd be willing to bet if CRI absolutely needed her commitment, enough funds could be rounded up. Were giving a terrible MBB team the kind of money that could get an elite player for WBB

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Absolutely. It seems like we've got donors who could put together a pretty decent NIL deal for a superstar addition...

I wouldn't be surprised if it came out that Van Lith was just ring chasing and didn't get a ton of NIL money. I do think she's a good fit and I think her potential addition gives Middle a pretty good chance to host, which would make her a legend here

I'd be willing to bet if CRI absolutely needed her commitment, enough funds could be rounded up. Were giving a terrible MBB team the kind of money that could get an elite player for WBB

Maybe just the association with LSU players affected my opinion? She will go for the big bucks though. I would say it would be substantial. If it came down to it and Insell thought she would be a good fit, of course she is very talented. When she played at MTSU, I don't think I have seen any girl with a vertical like hers. She is hard nosed on defense. Insell would like that. She actually did as good a job as anyone has with Caitlin Clark.

crassyblue said:

I like to think that Insell doesn't look only at talent, but chemistry for the team. With the experience of previous transfers that were uber-talented but team poison, I think the coaches will be extra careful. Hailey will probably go for the big NIL bucks anyway.

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Hailey has been a consummate teammate on every team she's been on from all I've seen and heard - usually the loudest defender of her teammates, no matter what. That said, I agree she prob will go for big NIL bucks.

I like to think that Insell doesn't look only at talent, but chemistry for the team. With the experience of previous transfers that were uber-talented but team poison, I think the coaches will be extra careful. Hailey will probably go for the big NIL bucks anyway.

MTFAN61 said:

Will say this about Hailey. She is the one that openly gave MT the vote of confidence on Selection Sunday by proclaiming our victory over Louisville. So she certainly doesn't think of us as a lowly program. It would be stunning, but you never know.
The major factor has to be the $$$. Between Louisville & LSU the NIL earnings she's collected has to be sizable. Once you get a taste of an ample income it would be hard to imagine giving up an opportunity for for similar bucks one last time. The one thing in a school like MT's favor is she would be an absolute rock star here. Her star absolutely shined at Louisville, but I agree that her year at LSU didn't shine the way many expected probably including herself as well. She would have 2 pretty nice choices to select from though. A beloved Rock star & a smallish income at MT, or slightly tarnished former star & bigger money at another P4 program.

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At most other P4 programs you will run into the same issue you find at LSU - fading into the background and not fitting in - and, not to mention, most P4 programs don't have the same fan support and engagement as we do, which is rare to find in an allegedly non-power WBB program.

Coach Murphy
Coach Donnelly
Holcomb
Griffen Brothers

MidTennFootball said:

I think she's more than likely headed to a P4 or High Major, but MT is high enough in status that I dont think it's impossible . She went for the greener side and found it wasn't a good fit

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Will say this about Hailey. She is the one that openly gave MT the vote of confidence on Selection Sunday by proclaiming our victory over Louisville. So she certainly doesn't think of us as a lowly program. It would be stunning, but you never know.
The major factor has to be the $$$. Between Louisville & LSU the NIL earnings she's collected has to be sizable. Once you get a taste of an ample income it would be hard to imagine giving up an opportunity for for similar bucks one last time. The one thing in a school like MT's favor is she would be an absolute rock star here. Her star absolutely shined at Louisville, but I agree that her year at LSU didn't shine the way many expected probably including herself as well. She would have 2 pretty nice choices to select from though. A beloved Rock star & a smallish income at MT, or slightly tarnished former star & bigger money at another P4 program.

If you factor in NFL achievements it's pretty clear. Byard, Richie James, Erik Walden, and probably an older player I'm forgetting. Dwone Hicks ?

I still contend Kerry Wright was the best player I've seen wear blue. If he didn't pull a hammy and get overlooked afterwards with the Colts he would have had a big NFL career. Dude was unguardable and not utilized properly by our offensive coaches. Still, he put up good numbers despite these things.

Locks: Coach Murphy and Boots.

The other two spots are very arguable.
Old school, I would argue for Teddy Morris. Until recently, his number was the lone one retired and you hear some of our long time fans still rave about him.

My generation: Joe Campbell was the most electric Raider I ever saw. The late Bobby Bowden said "man that 21 could run" after Joe put up over 100 yards on his top ranked Seminoles.

You have to consider Kelly Holcomb who came in as freshman star and rode the wave to a long professional career.

Dwone Hicks? A beast.

KB? Has the Mayor of Murfreesboro done enough to be considered our best pro ever? Hard to say otherwise but if I had to put up a fight, Don Griffin has a lot of accolades.

Geeze, some great players would be left out. I mean seriously, if this were to happen and Coach Murphy and Boots have two spots locked we all truly know that there's only slot left because Sidney McPhee is putting himself in spot #1.

MidTennFootball said:

I have the same opinion of RS the HC as most people on here, but the Stockstills are A+ people IMO who put their own money back into trying to make the University better

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I believe that's what made it so hard to fire Rick. He was a good person, loved the kids, ran a clean program, and even put his own money up to help build things when he didn't have to. $500,000 towards Build Blue was a real shocker to me. I've never seen a coach give that kind of money back to a University. That is more than one year of his salary after taxes figured in. Crazy. 500k would be nothing for a Nick Saban type....but for Stockstill to donate that much is still a surprise to me.

I wish things would have ended on a better note. Either retirement, getting hired away, mutual parting of ways, etc. Having to straight up fire him and basically run him out of town was an awful ending to his up and down career at MT. It sucks it had to come to that but there was zero chance he was going to walk away. No other choice.

For Brent, I got nothing but respect and love for the guy even though I don't know him. He's given MTSU and Murfreesboro everything he's got for most of his life. I hope he feels like he's gotten back as much as he put in when he reflects back on his time here. I want to see good things happen with him, and would be totally ok with him coming back here one day to be a coordinator or head coach when he is ready.

MTOleBlue said:

100%. I expect her to end up at a Stanford, UConn, etc. but if we could convince her... would be a major coup

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I think she's more than likely headed to a P4 or High Major, but MT is high enough in status that I dont think it's impossible . She went for the greener side and found it wasn't a good fit