FOOTBALL Link to introducing Derek Mason as FB HC
- Thread starter OliverLBaltz
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Willy D looking OLD lol. I met him several times when he had hair back in the plaster days while I worked at Gaylord.
We all look older and feel older, the last 18 years have been hard on a lot of us.
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I’ve just been watching a bit of UTEP’s press conference introducing Scotty Walden. He’s bouncing off the walls so much that he appears to be a used car salesman. It’s over the top. Makes PJ Fleck look comatose. Not sure he would have been the right fit here, to be quite honest. We need enthusiasm to be sure, but what I just saw looked excessive.
There is a difference between extreme excitement and reality. Our coach displayed reality.
We can see through the BS.
I for one am glad we didn't hire Walden
His press conference was interesting. He didn't seem too over the top to me but he sure promised them the world. Said they were going to out recruit, out coach, out work everyone else in the country. Said they will go toe-to-toe with Texas and Texas A&M on the recruiting trail, won't back down from anyone, blah blah blah. Basically promised UTEP the world. Very curious to see how that shakes out.
I guess. I don't think calling out the flagship schools in the state is the way to go when you a bottom tier FBS team, but whatever floats his boat.
I will say this, I think Walden has the right idea and approach to winning. I watched his entire press conference today and he spent little to no time talking about himself. He talked a lot about culture and how to establish it and how important it is to winning at the CUSA level. And I could not agree more. A strong developed culture will sway those 50/50 games in your favor.
Contrast that with Mason's press conference today....and I feel like he talked about himself a little bit more than I'm comfortable with. I don't recall any discussions about the importance of culture and how he wants to establish it here. He talked a lot about himself, his journey, what he's learned etc.
I hope he is a disciplinarian and understands the importance of creating and instilling a winning culture. I did not get those vibes from him today unfortunately.
He did talk a bit about that in the media time after the presser. CM actually handled himself well in that one too. I think Space posted the kink. It's on their YouTube page if not.
But also said he isn’t someone that guarantees anything. Honestly he looked like he did some drugs right before going on stage. All over the place. I’m glad we got Derek.
I haven't been able to get much info on who all we talked to and whether there were any other primary targets. I would really like to see a timeline of who we talked to and when Mason entered the picture. They talked about 72 hrs which is interesting.
I didn't initially like this hire, because there were viable options out there that I felt like we could have gotten that would have really created momentum. This outcome seems like the least path of resistance. But (big but) that doesn't mean this can't work. His defenses at Vandy were generally pretty good. His offenses were atrocious. 14-10 games aren't going to sell here. There's a reason why non-power programs hire offensive experts.
That said, if I rate on a scale of how bad the hire is or how likely to fail this hire will be, it's not as high as the scale was when they hired McDevitt. On a scale of 1 to 10, I had CNM at a 9 that he was the wrong guy. Day one. Just felt it was a bad match. A bad decision. A bad hire. Not a bad coach. Just not the right hire here at that time.
Mason feels more like a 5, so coming off a career .500 coach a 50/50 flip of the coin sounds about right for us about whether this works out or not. But that's not the level of hope/excitement I was hoping to be walking away with after today. IF he hires a competent offensive staff, lets them do the job, is actually able to keep some mid-state talent close to home, and recruits GA and Fla better than we have been then maybe it works. I'm just not going to hold my breath. That's a lot of ifs.
I didn't initially like this hire, because there were viable options out there that I felt like we could have gotten that would have really created momentum. This outcome seems like the least path of resistance. But (big but) that doesn't mean this can't work. His defenses at Vandy were generally pretty good. His offenses were atrocious. 14-10 games aren't going to sell here. There's a reason why non-power programs hire offensive experts.
That said, if I rate on a scale of how bad the hire is or how likely to fail this hire will be, it's not as high as the scale was when they hired McDevitt. On a scale of 1 to 10, I had CNM at a 9 that he was the wrong guy. Day one. Just felt it was a bad match. A bad decision. A bad hire. Not a bad coach. Just not the right hire here at that time.
Mason feels more like a 5, so coming off a career .500 coach a 50/50 flip of the coin sounds about right for us about whether this works out or not. But that's not the level of hope/excitement I was hoping to be walking away with after today. IF he hires a competent offensive staff, lets them do the job, is actually able to keep some mid-state talent close to home, and recruits GA and Fla better than we have been then maybe it works. I'm just not going to hold my breath. That's a lot of ifs.
I agree. I also like how you said McDevitt is not a bad coach, just not the right fit for us at the time. Fit is so important and I think we just have to wait and see if it is. Mason is a very good defensive coach. All we can hope is he has taken what he learned with his time at Vandy and since then to be the best he can be. That may work out here or it may not, but I am cautiously optimistic that it will.
What MTSU's AD said about new football coach Derek Mason's 'bounce,' record at Vanderbilt
Derek Mason has a lot of qualities that Middle Tennessee State athletic director Chris Massaro and President Sidney McPhee want in a coach.
www.dnj.com
The 72 hour timeline matches up with what we’ve seen heard. I have reason to believe they were talking preliminary contract with coaches on Monday. Given ALL the smoke, at least surround Tennessee DC leads me to believe they at least talked some preliminary numbers with him & maybe Walden. There was A LOT of smoke around both.
Mason’s OC and his ability to keep up with Liberty / WKU / JSU on the scoreboard is going to make or break him. Mason can do some things schematically to slow down Liberty / WKU / JSU offense, but they won’t be able to win those games 14-10. That’s just not how football is played anymore.
He’ll need to be able to score points (probably 30-35 ppg on average) & recruit / retain guys along the offensive / defensive fronts to avoid being Stock 2.0 (6-6 every season).
That was an unfair assessmment. He did what he was supposed to do and he has energy. Doing different sh!t is a risk. Always is. Derek is more of the same and MT is clueless as always. However, it could work. I think Scotty is gonna recruit like crazy. He took our old QB who was a runner and made him a 3000 + passer. He is an upgrade.
Fair. Only challenge is good offensive minded coaches don’t like to work for defensive head coaches. This dynamic isn’t quite as reciprocated for defensive oriented coaches when the head ball coach came from the offensive tree. Frankly, OC and QB are going to be his most difficult first year task.
His comment about how he thought other opportunities would come this year but MTSU was his only one concerns me.
Scotty and I are roughly the same age so I can relate fairly well with where he is in his career. I stand by my statement. To me he came across as very immature and not ready for that level of job. I could be completely wrong. I was high on him and said multiple times he was my number 1 throughout the process. My point, similar to a lot of people here with Mason, is if we hired him I would not feel good about the hire. That’s my opinion and could be completely wrong down the road. I’ve always been a believer in trusting my first impressions and my first impression of Scotty is not good.
He may be an amazing football coach, but he is annoying as hell. So glad I don’t have to listen to that all the time.
Well, we got our wish. LOL. We'll see. I personally think UTEP will do better than we will but I could be wrong. We are gonna find out in 10 months. They are already getting donations since his press conference so he's doing his job.
Mason just doesn't feel aunthentic to me and the whole deal seems really forced. Even hearing him talk on the radio show was like it was just an open job where he didn't have to move. I don't know. I don't feel motivated to do anything different than I'm doing now. Defintely holding onto my money until I see something positive from it.
It was funny when Mason kept talking about McPhee's vision on all these shows and in the presser . Massaro must feel like sh!t and it seems that he had little to nothing to do with this hire other than do McPhee's bidding. I actually felt sorry for Massaro hearing him talk. Sheesh. Now we know why he's on a month to month contract. He's waiting to bail as soon as he can get another opportunity. So, he's hoping this works so he can look good enough to get another gig.
However, we are stuck with this and we gotta hope it's a good move so I hope it works.
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How was that press conference immature? I don't get that. What? You want the dude not to be excited? You want him to be a corpse with Stockstill energy or Mason saying the bones are delicous with no one hardly responding? Boom. You got your wish.
Walden has to build a program from nothing. He's literally going to be running up an Everest level mountain to get UTEP to even be a little blip on the RADAR and he knows it. He said it. He's young and not perfect but he will get results. Mason did a freaking dance for going 6-6 in 2018. He then followed that up by going 3 - 17 the next 2 seasons. Now, we have to be Mason apologists saying well, he was in a good league and ours is sh!tty so he should do ok here which is kinda saying he's a sh!tty coach but whatever. I'm here for it. I'm just not gonna sugarcoat it and say we won the lottery when we all know that this was a McPhee led hire. MT is UTEP. It's a dead program and we need an over the top energy guy to breathe life into it. I don't think Mason is that dude but what the hell? I can't change the hire anyway so let's ride.
I'm praying this will be a Jerry Kill situation and we flourish but it's a prayer and a long one at that.
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I picked up on some of those same things you did. I think sometimes younger guys like him feel like they have to make a name or image of themselves, and it doesn't always come across as genuine. It feels like an act or he is trying too hard. That extreme confidence might be covering for something. I do like energy, but he seemed unrealistic to me. Like the comment about out recruiting everyone else, working harder than everyone. Who wouldn't say that? Those comments don't mean much.
I didn't listen to his whole press conference, but it didn't seem in touch with the reality of UTEP. Texas is a good recruiting area, but UTEP is WAY down the list for athletes and even students. He said that the Sun Bowl is THE BEST group of 5 stadium. Huh? Has he visited it yet? El Paso and that stadium is more like the bottom half.
We have WAY more potential at MT (even with M&M) than UTEP will probably ever have.
Well, he was at Auburn and then Okie st. Doesn't mean he didn't still have an apartment or some other arrangement here. He said himself in the presser he's lived here for 10 years.
Dude, this is meant 100% in jest, but this obvious man-crush you seem to have on Walden is getting a little bit creepy 😎.
I don’t live in TN so no idea if he’s the real deal or not?
Truthfully, I doubt any of us know who the top 2-3 were. It’s possible what we were willing to pay, and the assistant’s pool $$$, narrowed who we could get.
What ALL of us asked for was a new HC that expected to compete for championships every 2-3 years and engage our fan base.
BTW, wish Walden much success except for when he plays MT.
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We really don't. We have the SEC in our literal backyard. Our perception is landlocked and if you think a failed SEC coach will change that? Buckle up. UTEP is 8 hours from Austin and 10 from College Station. A school that can be it's own thing has a lot of potential. UTEP has been successful before.
Saying Walden is not genuine but Mason is.... is hilarious to me. Walden already has a plan with coaches who are already moving to El Paso. Mason is taking time and may not hire people until January. Walden has already met with investors and donors. Mason met the BOT. Walden so far is moving the way you need to in order to get ready for the portal recruiting weekends. Mason is having rely on former staff and may hire more than a few of them. Sheesh. Like I said before, we shall see what really happens.
NMSU is 46 miles from UTEP and look what they did so it can totally be done. UTEP won 7 games 2 years ago and 5 in 22. It's not like they were 0-8 like our coach. LOL.
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None of us know how any of this will work out. No sense in arguing about it now.
It's not a man crush. It's based on facts. In this league, offensive minded coaches have been the ones that have been primarily successful. Walden can run an offense. Mason sure as hell can't. Walden got 9,000 people to fill a stadium that only seats 10k to watch FCS football. MT couldn't get 8k and had to lie about the seat stats. He won his conference. MT hasn't done that and who they hired didn't even get a winning season. Just saying. I think we f'd up this hire but...
Like I said many times, I'll be glad to be wrong and we are once again stuck and I'm not gonna sit here and say we got an exciting hire or even a good one. McPhee led this and you think he knows how to win? I mean come on. However, I hope it works out, I really do. We'll see how many butts in seats Mason gets. I hope he makes me eat every word. I'll be more than happy to admit I was dead wrong.
Agreed. But I'm not throwing a parade either. I'll say this though, if he can get some of our talented players that hit the portal back onto the team, that will say a lot more to me and I will start eating some of my words right then.
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