FOOTBALL Mason's Staff
- Thread starter SpaceRaider
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Looks like Royston has been officially retained as well. Unfortunately, no longer a position coach, but at least still on staff. Director of Player Personnel, which might be great for him. He's a great recruiter.
I actually love that for Royston. He has a real passion for recruiting.
Would like to see I'Tavius Mathers given an opportunity as RB Coach. He coached 4 years as high school RB Coach here locally. Plus we know how great he was at MT his senior year. His local contacts as a high school recruiter alone would be excellent. Hope CDM will give him an interview anyway.
He would likely be a graduate assistant coach not a position coach if he was a high school position coach. I wouldn’t be against him coming as a GA. We will need a few of them as well and they tend to be future position coaches in waiting.
Funny you mentioned that. He was an offensive assistant GA for Stock during 2022-23 season. Is a masters degree needed to be a full fledged assistant these days?
RB Coach.....have we ever had this many coaches with NFL coaching or playing experience?
Unrelated to MT but, Memphis just hired two former players (both are defense assistants, Co-DC/DL and a CBs Position coach) but they’ve been practicing their craft at other colleges and NFL teams for 20+ years. Not rookie or semi-retiree hires like Stock was doing.
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Mason’s staff seems to be pretty young and hungry. Guys with experience but also balanced with guys who are getting a crack at running their unit
Young and hungry. Polar opposite of what we’ve had.
I think that has impressed me most with what he has assembled. All skew younger but that experience is impressive. I mean the OL guys. Gotta be a great recruting tool to say come play for Coach Simmons, a SEC lineman who is a two-time SB champ and blocked for Ben Roethlisberger.
Lowery has NFL experience, we have a former B12 QB in Ganz (he was there before they joined the B1G), and even Williams over WRs understands MT due to his time at Troy and he was at Bama for a year. And Stewart was the DC on a freaking 13-3 Dallas Cowboys team.
Again, who knows if all this will translate to the field, but so far Mason has done everything right.
Indeed. He must have found a better gig somewhere else. He was definitely retained and moved to Director of Player Personnel. It explicitly stated this in his profile.
most of the football staff was at the women’s game tonight meeting with the fans and talking football. not sure I have ever seen that at Middle before!
Mason brings Paschall back home to coach special teams - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee head football coach Derek Mason announced today the hiring of former Blue Raider Luke Paschall as the program's special teams
goblueraiders.com
Great get! Good to have him homeMason brings Paschall back home to coach special teams - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee head football coach Derek Mason announced today the hiring of former Blue Raider Luke Paschall as the program's special teams
Loved me some Luke Paschall back in the day.
Fantastic hire! He really made the most out of his talent when he was playing for us.
Mason adds veteran Hargreaves as defensive line coach - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee head football coach Derek Mason announced today the hiring of Vernon Hargreaves as the program's new defensive line coach.
goblueraiders.com
Time will tell, but based on what I've read this may be the most accomplished group of assistant coaches ever assembled at Middle Tennessee.
What I like best about these staff hires? Each one appears based on merit not the buddy system.
The age range of this group appears to be good and not ready for the good ole boys rest home like a sizeable number of the previous regime's staff. These guys will be putting the effort in like they had plans for the future.
"These guys now have the opportunity, along with us, to write our own story” - Q&A with Secondary Coach Bryce Lewis - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Bryce Lewis doesn't take long to recall back to when he first met Derek Mason, the man that would become his head coach as a football player,
goblueraiders.com
That’s what we needed. S&C might have been one of our weakest areas imo.
"We’ve got to bridge that gap” - Q&A with Special Teams Coordinator Luke Paschall - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Luke Paschall hadn't been back on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University since 2007 when he decided to return to his alma mater on
goblueraiders.com
“There's going be an emphasis on physicality” - Q&A with Offensive Coordinator Bodie Reeder - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — It took no convincing from Derek Mason to get Bodie Reeder on staff at MTSU as his offensive coordinator. Even with all the success the former
goblueraiders.com
“There's going be an emphasis on physicality” - Q&A with Offensive Coordinator Bodie Reeder - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — It took no convincing from Derek Mason to get Bodie Reeder on staff at MTSU as his offensive coordinator. Even with all the success the former
This was my concern about the offensive philosophy with Mason. What he's describing requires elite offensive line play. We haven't even had good offensive line play here in a decade. But let's say they recruit that group better than the prior regime. You still have to be two to three orders better than the opponents front seven. Defenses figured out about two decades ago how to defend 11 and 12 personnel groupings (unless you're doing it at an elite level - like Alabama or Boise). And that was true for bigger more physical defenses to smaller faster defenses. Didn't matter. It was figured out. That's why so many teams veered to a different philosophy to get athletes in space.
This offense isn't going to work unless you're much, much better than your opposition. Simply because defenses know how to defend it. We're going to be in a bunch of 17 to 13 games - where we make one mistake in a game and it's the difference in losing. As much as I love DM's energy and community engagement, I have a bad feeling about this.
I think to have a successful team in general you have to be good in the trenches
The old adage still holds true. Games are won at the line of scrimmage.
And we haven't had even sized guys to our peers, much less skill and talent, on the full OL in YEARS. Between Blatnick as S&C and an NFL vet in Simmons as OL, I'm willing to give it all a chance.
Think some of you are missing the point. Yeah, games can be won or lost by line play, but that's not what I'm referring to. Over the course of a game, to win with this style and with this philosophy your OL play has to be exceptional to elite. And most G5 programs can't recruit an elite OL. Defenses can blow this up now which I'm restating since it didn't seem to sink in with my initial post.
Are you trying to say that you feel his philosophy using these personnel groupings require elite OL play or are you trying to say G5 schools can’t win with these personnel package as their primary groupings unless they have elite OL?
He's saying both.
The concern here is that teams that rely on power don't tend to do well at the G5 level. A lot of them even at the Power 5 level struggle. There are exceptions of course (Tulane and Troy have been very impressive with their power game even though they mostly operate out of shotgun)
Spread offenses allow for more smoke and mirror type of stuff, where you can better isolate favorable match ups. Think of our game @ Missouri when Stockstill and Richie James went off. Or go look at the old classic of App St. beating Michigan. App St. had far inferior athletes across the board but because they spread Michigan out and had a few dogs at WR they got it done.
It is much harder to do those things in a power style offense. Plays typically develop slower and it can be more challenging to abuse a match up because the offense isn't as spread out. Best example of a successful power style offense, in my opinion, is the L.A Rams and Michigan's team last year. Power offenses always look great on paper and the dry erase board but rarely work out when translated over to the field.
For a power style offense to have a chance to work you have to at least break even at the line of scrimmage and you better have a stable of good to great RB's. I worry greatly because MT has never had consistently good OL play. Ever. And I'm pretty sure if we ever did, they'd just transfer to a Power 5 anyway. (Whole OL transferred 2 years ago and they weren't even THAT good)
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Your post is about philosophy, not personnel.
I get having reservations about scheme.
However, the idea that having a TE on the field has been figured out is asinine. You can spread the field with TE just like a 4th receiver. You can go under center, pistol or shotgun. You can pass or run. A TE can flex to the Y, be a traditional TE, or be an H back to lead block.
You have to remember in 2023 that 3 of the top 4 CUSA teams, 4 of the top 5 SB teams and the top 3 MAC schools all ran the ball more than they passed it. Every one of those G5 schools used 11 personnel. You don’t have to be an air raid , pass first offense in G5 to be successful. Matter of fact, most of the best G5 schools were 11 personnel last year. There’s a reason 11 and 12 personnel are the most common used in the NFL by every team. Having a good TE is such an advantage.
So I get it…concerns about scheme, sure.
Saying 11 personnel can’t work or that a G5 team has to be in 10 personnel to be successful is a stretch.
