ewglenn said:

They can’t keep the money if the join the MWC. The entire reason you don’t see conferences merging or dissolving is because the money is owed to the conference not the schools. The PAC is owed A LOT of money so helping buy those teams out of the MWC will still benefit OSU and WSU because they are having major money coming still. Plus they trim the deadweight in the process.

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That makes sense, thanks for clarifying.

Understand both sides opinion. Saying to myself I'm willing to give this coach & staff support this year. Even during this tough transition period. But if we end up 1-11 or 2-10 at end of year I honestly can't say I'll feel the same. I know a lot of you fellows are in your 20's to 40's & can hang in there a while. I'm not, seen mediocrity for a long time & ready to start seeing some improvement. Hopefully it will start developing by the 2nd half of the year.

I feel like the coaches may be trying to force their system when we don't have the players for it. Our offense is terrible but we start out trying to run the ball. By the time they figure out that doesn't work we are down three touchdowns. Why not start out opening up the run with the pass first. In goal line situations, why not roll Vattiato out and give him the option to run it in or pass, like Westen did to us? Instead we tried to run it in four times in a row and couldn't gain a yard.

Defense is much harder to figure out.

They may need to wait untill they get the players that fit their system instead of trying to force it now. If that's what are they doing.

The season has progressed about like I expected (expected a win against TTU, but I expected margin to be wider).

Expected to get blown out by Ole Miss and WKU. It's just where MT is right now. Expect another L against Duke & Memphis. .

As others have said, the season will be judged once you get into mid-October.

I'm not giving Mason a pass & believe some hard questions need to be asked :

1) Why did we not look explosive against TTU?
2) Why does MT have so many injuries?
3) How can we get playmakers the ball?
4) What needs to be done to stop teams on defense?

Ok. Now that I've slept on it, here are my thoughts.

I'm very much a knee jersey reaction guy, which is why I could never be an AD. I'm not patient by any means. Ask my wife how I drive and she will tell you.

But in reality, this will take time. Did I think we could win, yes, mostly. My blue goggles think we should've beat Ole Miss. But this really was the first true chance to see how we are vs our peers, our conference. And Lord there is work to do. But I'm willing to give CDM a chance. I predicted 5-7, so we will see. Like said before, let's see if there is improvement over the season (open field tackling doesn't need a new recruit to get fixed). I'm not gonna abandon ship on a first year head coach. Did I think we'd be more competitive, yes. I was hoping for 2-3 going into the bye. I don't know if that will happen now.

One thing I do know is when a game turns like last night, I'm no longer putting my 45yr old high blood pressure self through the stress and I'm changing the channel. Sometimes I wonder if i should avoid the board and Twitter too. 🤣

Went to Knoxville to see the youngest on Parents Weekend. Too bad we don't have Kent St on our schedule this year......

If Rick Stockstill were still here they would have only lost this game 27-41.

ewglenn said:

Name a coach who has beaten arguably the best team in their conference for years in a new coaches third game? I get the point of quick turnarounds but expecting to see a ton out of these first 5 games is really putting CDM in a tough spot. I would have expected the game to be more competitive but I am not shocked with where we are.

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Huh? I’m learning you’re one of those. Just the facts here…

1) Western hasn’t won this league in seven years. 2) In spite of DM doing and saying all the right things in the offseason this program is in shambles.

For those of us who have been around this thing since the beginning it’s a pretty tough pill to swallow while you watch your one rival keep taking your lunch and making us say thank you for the privilege. Whether DM is the person to resurrect this program or not I do not know. And frankly there may not be any saving this program. Under our university’s leadership we’ve become ULM or an Idaho (or maybe even Pacific). I would say there is better than a 50% chance MT ends up dropping down or dropping football altogether. These clowns have destroyed our athletics dept that significantly.

The Good: We ran up some yards - offense looks like it needs a tune up (learn how to punch it in) rather than an overhaul. Still looks like a FBS team from a size/speed perspective. I never felt like we had bad body language or there was any real quit in the guys.

Bad: Defense. You would need to study the film to see whether or not it was a scheme issue or a talent/athlete issue. I kind of feel like guys were in the area, or covering the right guy, but just a step behind/slow. But that could be anything from a recognition issue, to WKU just has more and better horses, - hopefully Mason figures it out.

Ugly: This is the reality of a rebuild. Like I said before, teams that change coaching staffs and come out flying are the exception, not the rule (only 3 of 16 G5 new staffs started 2-0).

With Duke and Memphis up next, it's going to get harder - In the immortal words of the legendary warrior poet Rodney Atkins - when you're going through hell, keep on going.

TrueBlue147 said:

Really? You thought it would take us a last minute come from behind drive to beat Tennessee Tech and a beatdown at home like we just witnessed against Western?

I didn't think we would win CUSA this year but I thought we would e more competitive in these two games.

I'm not giving up on Mason this early, but I can't say I'm not disappointed thus far.

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I wouldn't have predicted 49-21, but I didn't think we'd win. And if you told me the score line would have been 38-24, I wouldn't have batted an eye.

There was never, ever going to be a quick turnaround. There was 17 years of non-competitive rot to clean out - it doesn't change in a few months. There's no winning culture here. There's no veteran older players to mentor younger players. There's not many dudes who stuck around to help in the transition with a bunch of them leaving in the portal.

I have said that I will judge Mason on the totality of the season, and whether or not I can see progress being made and that judgment requires a 12 game sample.

sWiley said:

Plenty of teams out there that are young with lots of turnover and new faces that are playing well. That excuse doesn't fly anymore

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Name a coach who has beaten arguably the best team in their conference for years in a new coaches third game? I get the point of quick turnarounds but expecting to see a ton out of these first 5 games is really putting CDM in a tough spot. I would have expected the game to be more competitive but I am not shocked with where we are.

TrueBlue147 said:

Really? You thought it would take us a last minute come from behind drive to beat Tennessee Tech and a beatdown at home like we just witnessed against Western?

I didn't think we would win CUSA this year but I thought we would e more competitive in these two games.

I'm not giving up on Mason this early, but I can't say I'm not disappointed thus far.

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I was hoping for more in the WKU game but I’m not shocked either. They are one a good program that is consistent. I made my pick that we would win but that was totally a heart and not a head pick. I expected to be 1-4 after the first five games with a few beat downs along the way. We match up much better against Duke. Memphis will be ugly. The offense was moving the ball but we need to figure out how to punch it into the end zone. We could/should have easily had 35 points tonight.

DisgruntledAlum said:

Did I hear correctly that OSU and Wazzu are using their money to pay exit fees?

Why not just join the MWC and keep the money? A lot of wasted money to just keep the name.

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They can’t keep the money if the join the MWC. The entire reason you don’t see conferences merging or dissolving is because the money is owed to the conference not the schools. The PAC is owed A LOT of money so helping buy those teams out of the MWC will still benefit OSU and WSU because they are having major money coming still. Plus they trim the deadweight in the process.

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Nothing went right for the MTSU today and part of that was the internet being out in the pressbox for the whole game for us so that is why there was no board postings from us tonight. Offense was alright but they ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO start finishing drives. Defense ABSOLUTELY HAS TO tackle in space. A LOT of things to be cleaned up. They are knocking themselves out of games with not doing the little things right

FranklinRaider315 said:

Staying home. Grandkids and rain.

Maybe later in the season

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Definitely have a (hopefully) good game later in the year with Liberty

If anyone read Phil Steele’s magazine this summer he predicted us to be second to last in our conference. I kind of figured we would end up being 3-9 or 4-8 this year. WKU was going to be a hard game to win. Even though they have a lot of new players they probably still had a good core that had chemistry and experience. It’s pretty evident we don’t have either. It’s just going to take time.

Men’s revenue sports has been in shambles for over 5 years.

Expect same results in basketball.

Starts at the t o p

This was my first game since the UTSA game two years ago and only my second game the last four years. This is as bad as I’ve ever seen our defense play. geez, Louise. Western ran through us like we were Swiss cheese. Totally embarrassing. After the second touchdown, we were screaming “on sidekick“ and many people were agreeing with us.