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FOOTBALL CRS: "I’ve still got a lot of years left in me."

key excerpt:

...Last season was the first time Stockstill didn't meet one of those benchmarks with a losing record and only three conference victories.

Stockstill's contract runs through 2026 and he has one of the highest buyouts among group of five coaches at $5.8 million.

Stockstill said that he hasn't lost his love for the game of football and the thought of retiring or leaving at any time soon has never crossed his mind.....
 
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Hey coach, good for you. There’s probably a wonderful opportunity to be a position coach at a P5 school out there you would be perfect for to finish out your career. That said no one questions your love for the game or your players. That’s not the problem at this time. The problem is you’ve done all you can here. Do the right thing and give somebody else the opportunity. The fact that you believe, as you stated after you lucked into victory against a terrible team that hadn’t played a game yet, that this team “is close” let’s everyone know that you really don’t have the grasp on where this program is, how far it’s fallen, and where it stands in the ranking order of the worst conference in college football. Coach, you need to take a long hard look in the mirror and realize the right thing to do might not be retirement, but it’s damn sure not running this program into the ground in your final years either. Do the right thing coach.

Respectfully,
What’s left of the fan base
 
Ironically, I received a fundraising letter in the mail today from a ‘99 MTSU grad expounding on the dire financial straits of the University. It came complete with a slick insert and giving card. I was momentarily tempted to call and rant about our $875,000 a year Head Football Coach (et al) but instead, simply pitched it in the trash. These folks are absolutely delusional.

Stock ain’t going anywhere unless he’s forcibly kicked out the door. Neither are his enablers, the AD and the President.

Signed,
“Used to Be True Blue”
 
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Ironically, I received a fundraising letter in the mail today from a ‘99 MTSU grad expounding on the dire financial straits of the University. It came complete with a slick insert and giving card. I was momentarily tempted to call and rant about our $875,000 a year ahead Football Coach (et al) but instead, simply pitched it in the trash. These folks are absolutely delusional.

Stock ain’t going anywhere unless he’s forcibly kicked out the door. Neither are his enablers, the AD and the President.

Signed,
“Used to Be True Blue”


Received the same fundraising letter. Have great respect for the guy who wrote the letter, but sadly felt the same way and it went directly into the garbage.
 
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People that are still donating and supporting the program are part of the problem. Please, do not be an enabler.
 
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Received the same fundraising letter. Have great respect for the guy who wrote the letter, but sadly felt the same way and it went directly into the garbage.

I got the same letter. Also trashed it as part of a continuing protest of mine over the university continuing to mail me a bill for a student parking ticket that somehow got attached to my student account FIVE years after I graduated. They’ve spent more money on postage mailing me billing statements than the parking ticket is worth. The letter always threatens to withhold my degree, which continues to hang on my office wall. They can come try to seize it if they want.
 
I got the same letter. Also trashed it as part of a continuing protest of mine over the university continuing to mail me a bill for a student parking ticket that somehow got attached to my student account FIVE years after I graduated.
I've gotten a few parking tickets over the years. I have taken them to the ticket office whenever I renewed my season tickets in person. Problem solved.
 
Hey coach, good for you. There’s probably a wonderful opportunity to be a position coach at a P5 school out there you would be perfect for to finish out your career. That said no one questions your love for the game or your players. That’s not the problem at this time. The problem is you’ve done all you can here. Do the right thing and give somebody else the opportunity. The fact that you believe, as you stated after you lucked into victory against a terrible team that hadn’t played a game yet, that this team “is close” let’s everyone know that you really don’t have the grasp on where this program is, how far it’s fallen, and where it stands in the ranking order of the worst conference in college football. Coach, you need to take a long hard look in the mirror and realize the right thing to do might not be retirement, but it’s damn sure not running this program into the ground in your final years either. Do the right thing coach.

Respectfully,
What’s left of the fan base

Look no farther than our current D-line Coach. Someone out there in the coaching fraternity will give Stock a job. TW was still cashing Memphis checks while also on the payroll at UAB as their DC. He lasted a year. Then another pal from Clemson (Ellis Johnson) hires him at Southern Miss in the same capacity. Again, he lasted a year before USM ended up going 0-12. Anyone still wondering why we have no pass rush? Horrible recruiting??
The same results can be applied to our O-line. Another rotting branch from the West coaching tree.
 
key excerpt:

...Last season was the first time Stockstill didn't meet one of those benchmarks with a losing record and only three conference victories.

Stockstill's contract runs through 2026 and he has one of the highest buyouts among group of five coaches at $5.8 million.

Stockstill said that he hasn't lost his love for the game of football and the thought of retiring or leaving at any time soon has never crossed his mind.....
A couple of quick thoughts this morning :

1) This is obviously a PR move by MT AD. That's their job. It's an attempt to show that Stockstill has historically met the "benchmarks" for the program.

2) IF (big if) Stockstill retires anytime soon, MT will release a statement and follow it with a press conference. So the whole "the thought of retiring hasn't crossed his mind" is (quite possibly) nothing more than a spin to address the hopes / dreams of the fanbase and to help recruiting IF he does return for the 2021 season.

3) Almost every fan / booster I've encountered stopped purchasing tickets and donating to the program because of Stockstill. This includes boosters who have served on BRAA boards and worked at companies that paid $$$ to run video ads at the stadium. I know of one former season ticket holder that hasn't attended a game since 2016 and won't attend a game until Stock leaves.

At some point, the MT will be forced to confront the harsh reality the MT FB program is heading in the wrong direction. The fans are speaking. The community is speaking.
 
What a stubborn man.

I stopped purchasing season tix in 2015. I don't give to the BRAA anymore. I have been to three games the last five years.

All because of the contract. I know many of the people I used to tailgate with are the same. We may never return.
 
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A couple of quick thoughts this morning :

1) This is obviously a PR move by MT AD. That's their job. It's an attempt to show that Stockstill has historically met the "benchmarks" for the program.

I can’t read this article, but this reminds me of CM last year using Stock’s conference record as a talking point. Basically spin that he beats up on garbage teams and ignore the fact he is atrocious versus any team with a pulse and always choked when he does have a chance at any success.

I get the PR side, but to basically ignore your fan base and not acknowledge their growing concerns over the past few years further demonstrates that our leadership is negligent and needs to go as well.
 
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They're trying to shine a turd because they have no other choice. Because of the albatross contract Stockstill has, he literally cannot be judged or fired for his performance. He could go 0-12 or 12-0 and he gets to remain our head coach if he wants to for the foreseeable future. On what planet is it acceptable to allow this to happen? And for such an extended period of time? This has effectively destroyed our football program and fan base and guess who could not care less? The 3 stooges.

The administration that allowed this contract to exist in the first place deserves automatic termination. I'm looking at you Chris "The Clown" Massaro, and Sidney "7wood" McPhee. How do these jokers still have their jobs?

Unfortunately, we all know that the 3 stooges are not going anywhere because they are protected by government bureaucracy and affirmative action bull$hit.

Heaven forbid we actually judge someone based on the job they are doing. Stockstill, Massaro, and McPhee all deserve to be fired. Everyone knows it. I suspect they even know it. But for some reason or another they are all protected from being judged on their job performances due to the pathetic world that we live in nowadays.

Mediocrity & laziness is becoming more and more accepted in our society. Almost encouraged to a point. So I suppose it's only fitting that our administrators @ MT embody it.
 
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It’s almost like Stock’s comments are saying he’s not going anywhere so fire me. He knows the circumstances and that he is riding it into the ground. He wants his buyout and his comments are a clear signal he’s not going to do the right thing and walk away by retiring. He wants his money.
 
key excerpt:

...Last season was the first time Stockstill didn't meet one of those benchmarks with a losing record and only three conference victories.

Stockstill's contract runs through 2026 and he has one of the highest buyouts among group of five coaches at $5.8 million.

Stockstill said that he hasn't lost his love for the game of football and the thought of retiring or leaving at any time soon has never crossed his mind.....
I think my soul was just crushed.
 
I call BS. It's a PR stunt.

If he really had fight left in him, and still loved the game, he wouldn't settle for mediocrity at 6-6. Wouldn't be happy with even 8-4. He wouldn't keep his buddies around even though they aren't doing a good job. He would do whatever it took to get the program at its best.

Someone told me years ago when I first started retail that managers are only has good as the employees they surround themselves with. Same goes for a coach.

If he is happy with the current state, but still has fight left in him, then it is obviously time for that fight to go somewhere else. That type of fight isn't what our program needs.
 
Meanwhile Marshal is now #15 in the coaches poll (and 16th in AP). Also, Coastal Carolina which has a College World Series national title in baseball has a football program that’s only been playing FBS for two and a half years ranked in the other 15/16 spots in the polls opposite Marshall.

Rick Stockstill in his 15 years has never spent a single day ranked in either poll’s top 25. What the hell are we doing here?
 
Meanwhile Marshal is now #15 in the coaches poll (and 16th in AP). Also, Coastal Carolina which has a College World Series national title in baseball has a football program that’s only been playing FBS for two and a half years ranked in the other 15/16 spots in the polls opposite Marshall.

Rick Stockstill in his 15 years has never spent a single day ranked in either poll’s top 25. What the hell are we doing here?
After reading that article and his comments, I’m actually gonna be rooting for Healy to hang a 100 on Stock this week. The house needs to be cleared out from top to bottom.
 
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After reading that article and his comments, I’m actually gonna be rooting for Healy to hang a 100 on Stock this week. The house needs to be cleared out from top to bottom.
MT gets blown out, 7 wood kills the program and THEC rewards him with raise.
 
I'll tell you what's sad. I really don't think it would take monumental tweaks to get this program headed in the right direction. Recruiting class was really good last year and looking great so far this year. Some of the assistant coaches we have like Dustin Royston and Austin Silvoy appear to be doing really good jobs. Dustin has been an amazing recruiter for us and Silvoy in his short time here has amassed a great group of WR's full of upper classmen and very talented younger guys too. The WR position looks really bright for the future and we've got even more highly talented WR's committed to us right now. I can't say enough about the job Silvoy and Royston are doing. Kudos to them.

On the other hand, there is some serious fat to trim. How Mike Polly is still gainfully employed here I will never know. Must have some dirt on Massaro and/or Stockstill. Same goes for Rick Mallory and Tommy West. I don't even need to elaborate on why these guys need to be let go. It's time for these guys to go to an FCS school or retire. They have no business coaching at the FBS level any longer. Brent Brock needs to go as well. I don't care if he's only Director Of Operations. He's just another yes man feeding into the groupthink issues that I'm certain are plaguing this program.

With regards to our coordinators, it's tough because you have to ask yourself who is better than we can bring in ? I still believe in Tony Franklin. I think people are quick to forget the success we had when we had a good QB like Stockstill. Remember going into Missouri and scoring TD after TD? The UAB game plans were good enough to win. I think Tony Franklin is about as good as we will get at a school like MT. He's kind of perfect for us also in the sense that I don't see him accepting a "bigger" offer if we were to ever have some success. So let's keep him and get some better OL and QB's in here so he can do his thing. Also, Stockstill needs to keep his lips shut and stay out of the offensive meetings. I can just tell he thinks he is some offensive minded whatever but the reality is he was terrible as an O Coordinator. Let Tony Franklin do his job and focus on getting him some better players and better position coaches, aye?

On the expansion front, don't we supposedly have $30 or $40 million for expansion projects but Massaro is being stubborn and doesn't want to start until he has all the money? This is the most idiotic approach I've ever heard of. Something stinks about this, and stinks bad. Me think we don't have anywhere near that amount of money on stand by. These clowns have got to figure out a way to start moving some dirt ASAP.

Either be an FBS program and take yourselves seriously and try to build a championship program, or shut it down and move to FCS or just axe it alltogether and focus on basketball. Nobody cares about a middling, fledgling program that finishes 6-6 every year and .500 over the last decade.

With all that being said, I'm sure absolutely nothing will change. I think Stockstill and his staff have taken on a "us against the world" mentality and Stockstill is going to be as stubborn as stubborn can be when it comes to making changes, aka, nothing's gonna happen. And there's not a damn thing Massaro can or will do about it.
 
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I suspect Massaro brought with him the South Carolina culture of little to no success for years on end. The difference, they are in the $EC and the fans still mostly filled the stadium. With that culture, it was/is ok to keep losing. Apparently, no fans and losing money here seem like little reason to change the culture.

Before these clowns are done, there will be no fans left to salvage at MT.
 
I'll tell you what's sad. I really don't think it would take monumental tweaks to get this program headed in the right direction. Recruiting class was really good last year and looking great so far this year. Some of the assistant coaches we have like Dustin Royston and Austin Silvoy appear to be doing really good jobs. Dustin has been an amazing recruiter for us and Silvoy in his short time here has amassed a great group of WR's full of upper classmen and very talented younger guys too. The WR position looks really bright for the future and we've got even more highly talented WR's committed to us right now. I can't say enough about the job Silvoy and Royston are doing. Kudos to them.

On the other hand, there is some serious fat to trim. How Mike Polly is still gainfully employed here I will never know. Must have some dirt on Massaro and/or Stockstill. Same goes for Rick Mallory and Tommy West. I don't even need to elaborate on why these guys need to be let go. It's time for these guys to go to an FCS school or retire. They have no business coaching at the FBS level any longer. Brent Brock needs to go as well. I don't care if he's only Director Of Operations. He's just another yes man feeding into the groupthink issues that I'm certain are plaguing this program.

With regards to our coordinators, it's tough because you have to ask yourself who is better than we can bring in ? I still believe in Tony Franklin. I think people are quick to forget the success we had when we had a good QB like Stockstill. Remember going into Missouri and scoring TD after TD? The UAB game plans were good enough to win. I think Tony Franklin is about as good as we will get at a school like MT. He's kind of perfect for us also in the sense that I don't see him accepting a "bigger" offer if we were to ever have some success. So let's keep him and get some better OL and QB's in here so he can do his thing. Also, Stockstill needs to keep his lips shut and stay out of the offensive meetings. I can just tell he thinks he is some offensive minded whatever but the reality is he was terrible as an O Coordinator. Let Tony Franklin do his job and focus on getting him some better players and better position coaches, aye?

On the expansion front, don't we supposedly have $30 or $40 million for expansion projects but Massaro is being stubborn and doesn't want to start until he has all the money? This is the most idiotic approach I've ever heard of. Something stinks about this, and stinks bad. Me think we don't have anywhere near that amount of money on stand by. These clowns have got to figure out a way to start moving some dirt ASAP.

Either be an FBS program and take yourselves seriously and try to build a championship program, or shut it down and move to FCS or just axe it alltogether and focus on basketball. Nobody cares about a middling, fledgling program that finishes 6-6 every year and .500 over the last decade.

With all that being said, I'm sure absolutely nothing will change. I think Stockstill and his staff have taken on a "us against the world" mentality and Stockstill is going to be as stubborn as stubborn can be when it comes to making changes...
That's what is so frustrating. IMO, the bones are good. Even with Stock, the Blue Raiders could make substantial improvements in 2021.

But it'd require new OL coach, new DL coach, changes at S&C, and , like you, it's probably time for Brock to move on. It's not a good look for a current staffer to be publicly promoting the head coach for a position at another school.
 
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I think it is time to register a domain name. If there is no problem to address, noone cares or knows. There are so many Stockstill defenders on social sites because they are ignorant of the stats or have a personal relationship. This message board is a echo chamber for those on the outside.

Also, it is up to the fanbase to keep the seat hot. Whether it be twitter, call ins, posts, letters..etc.

It isn't going to come from the inside where they are highly insulated.
 
For Stockstill's seat to be hot, someone is gonna have to make him feel that it is. Obviously, the two guys who could do that are his two biggest enablers. We're stuck with this for the long haul so you better get used to it. I've already moved on.
 
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For Stockstill's seat to be hot, someone is gonna have to make him feel that it is. Obviously, the two guys who could do that are his two biggest enablers. We're stuck with this for the long haul so you better get used to it. I've already moved on.
Sad but true Dave. I came to the same conclusion when Massaro did not respond to my email a few weeks (and losses) ago.
I’m jumping in the last lifeboat before this thing sinks to the bottom as the Band of Blue plays the fight song.
 
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Sad but true Dave. I came to the same conclusion when Massaro did not respond to my email a few weeks (and losses) ago.
I’m jumping in the last lifeboat before this thing sinks to the bottom as the Band of Blue plays the fight song.

I think it will take this year plus 2 more losing seasons for Massaro to make a move. If stock hits .500 in 21 or 22, Massaro will extend Stock again.

99% of the country would fire Stock at the end of this season.. We happen to have the single AD that sees a good man that hits all expectations, had 1 little blip in 2019 and 2020 doesn’t count since COVID. Massaro is a cancer on our program.
 
It will be interesting to see how many coaches get fired this season. I bet the number will be way low. Covid is gonna give a lot of coaches free passes.
 
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I think it will take this year plus 2 more losing seasons for Massaro to make a move..
Agreed. Stock is at MT for the foreseeable future (unless, of course, he willingly leaves). MT can't afford the buyout until it drops below $2 million...(roughly 2023/2024 or so, assuming Stock doesn't meet benchmarks).
 
It will be interesting to see how many coaches get fired this season. I bet the number will be way low. Covid is gonna give a lot of coaches free passes.
Agreed. The PR nightmare of paying a multimillion dollar buyout while simultaneously cutting the budget (and sports) means the coaching carousel this offseason.
 
After reading that article and his comments, I’m actually gonna be rooting for Healy to hang a 100 on Stock this week. The house needs to be cleared out from top to bottom.
You know they ain't gonna do anything. Covid pass is already being applied. We are 3-4 years out form making a change. Stock, Franklin and West will earn a lifelong state pension the way Pat Sunnit did.
 
You know they ain't gonna do anything. Covid pass is already being applied. We are 3-4 years out form making a change. Stock, Franklin and West will earn a lifelong state pension the way Pat Sunnit did.
I assume you mean Pat Summit and she certainly earned her pension, meanwhile the other yahoos should be paying me to even watch these games.
 
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