FOOTBALL Middle Tennessee (3-4, 1-2) vs Marshall (5-1, 2-0) (ESPN2), 6PM, Friday, October 20, 2017
- Thread starter SpaceRaider
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I've been saying for years Darius Harris and DJ Sanders are two of the best LB's in the conference. You'd have never known that with Nix as our D Coordinator, but it was plainly obvious they were super talented. The problem with Nix is he let offenses dictate the defenses he called. He had no interest in imposing his will or making offenses uncomfortable. We've had good players on defense all along (Our DL was admittedly bad last year) and this year with addition of Collins and our young DT's stepping up, I predicted a top 50 defense. Such a shame too. We could have easily taken CUSA this year if we had last years offense with this years defense. We'd be just like Marshall, only with a slightly better offense and better FG kicker.
With regards to our defense finishing in the top 50, what I didn't account for was how piss poor our offense would be. I didn't realize we would be like 117th in scoring offense in the country. We won't reach that top 50 mark now because our offense has put our defense in such bad spots game after game and time after time, but if we just had an average offense and not one of the worst offenses in the country, we'd have a top 50 defense right alongside Marshall. Schafer is for real and so is our defense.
Of course, now our offense is just total piss poor trash. 15 WR's on scholarship and only 2 of them can reliably catch the ball and not fumble it. 14 OL on scholarship and not a single one beyond Chandler Brewer grades out well when playing competition with a pulse. 4 QB's on scholarship and they still collectively have more INT's than TD's on the year. I have no words...... I don't know how you can sign 33 offensive players to scholarship and only be able to rely on maybe 5 of them. Stockstill, James, Lee, Brewer, Anderson, and MAYBE a few others. The rest are fringe FCS players.
There is a severe lack of talent on the offensive side of the ball right now, specifically at OL and QB. I have a hard time blaming Franklin because almost all of these players were recruited before he arrived. The few players that Franklin has hand picked since he arrived have actually been pretty decent (See Brad Anderson). There's plenty of blame to go around here with the offensive coaches, and I suspect there WILL be changes in the off-season.
Unfortunately, I don't see the OL problems getting better any time soon. Another year is not going to help these players, they are just bad players, period. They are too slow, too unathletic, and just don't function well as a group. Time and experience is going to do very little to change that. Going forward, we need to sign 5 or 6 OL in this class and the next and start looking for the next star QB. It doesn't matter how good the rest of our offensive players are if we can't run block and pass block, and our inability to do that against teams with a pulse isn't changing any time soon. You could quite literally put Tom Brady back there and it wouldn't matter. Dark days ahead for MT, that's for sure.
With regards to our defense finishing in the top 50, what I didn't account for was how piss poor our offense would be. I didn't realize we would be like 117th in scoring offense in the country. We won't reach that top 50 mark now because our offense has put our defense in such bad spots game after game and time after time, but if we just had an average offense and not one of the worst offenses in the country, we'd have a top 50 defense right alongside Marshall. Schafer is for real and so is our defense.
Of course, now our offense is just total piss poor trash. 15 WR's on scholarship and only 2 of them can reliably catch the ball and not fumble it. 14 OL on scholarship and not a single one beyond Chandler Brewer grades out well when playing competition with a pulse. 4 QB's on scholarship and they still collectively have more INT's than TD's on the year. I have no words...... I don't know how you can sign 33 offensive players to scholarship and only be able to rely on maybe 5 of them. Stockstill, James, Lee, Brewer, Anderson, and MAYBE a few others. The rest are fringe FCS players.
There is a severe lack of talent on the offensive side of the ball right now, specifically at OL and QB. I have a hard time blaming Franklin because almost all of these players were recruited before he arrived. The few players that Franklin has hand picked since he arrived have actually been pretty decent (See Brad Anderson). There's plenty of blame to go around here with the offensive coaches, and I suspect there WILL be changes in the off-season.
Unfortunately, I don't see the OL problems getting better any time soon. Another year is not going to help these players, they are just bad players, period. They are too slow, too unathletic, and just don't function well as a group. Time and experience is going to do very little to change that. Going forward, we need to sign 5 or 6 OL in this class and the next and start looking for the next star QB. It doesn't matter how good the rest of our offensive players are if we can't run block and pass block, and our inability to do that against teams with a pulse isn't changing any time soon. You could quite literally put Tom Brady back there and it wouldn't matter. Dark days ahead for MT, that's for sure.
I agree with this. Absolutely. And it is absolutely dangerous for Brent to try to come back this season. He needs to be fully healthy next spring and next season if he is going to play here. And I fear he may suffer more serious injury next season no matter, because the OL and depth is so bad. I don't trust this staff to recruit any OL that could be of help next season, either from high school or juco. It may be time for Brent to jump at a graduate transfer to a school of his own choosing. I would not blame him at all.
...and I might add, to think that if Brent comes back healthy, that he'll stay that way next season with our line's inability to protect him borders on delusion. Trying to compare MT's program with Marshall's turn around from last year is wishful thinking. MT is not going to challenge for a championship next season given what I see on the roster. We need a change at HC unless we want to become the UL Monroe of CUSA.
They can be disappointed all they want about how we are not playing well but they can look no further than the mirror.
Coach Stockstill should have known it would be impossible to get another good QB here once he cemented his son as the starter. And with his son being injured so much, and the inability of our staff to recruit good OL players, you could see this coming a mile away. There was never a back up plan with this staff, it was Brent or bust. Even with Brent we are still sitting with 2 losses in the conference to Marshall and FAU because they're just better teams than we are across the board.
Injuries happen to every single team in college football, but the good ones still find a way to get it done. We are simply not a good team. Even when fully healthy, we are not the best team in the East, not even 2nd, and maybe not even 3rd best.
I feel like I make this post every single damn year too. Always something preventing us from taking that next step. At some point, you've got to pivot and do something radical. What we are doing isn't working and hasn't worked for a long time. Can't believe Massaro can't see this and won't do anything. Even if we can't get rid of Stockstill, clean out all the assistants or something. Stop settling. Dare to be great. At least make an attempt. Our staff as constructed is not a championship staff.
MT has already switched places with FAU. I thought it would take 2 or 3 years, not the first season. Irregardless, MT seems to be the FAU of old.
Also, it's been pretty obvious that this was coming since other C-USA teams have been upgrading at coach. Coach Stock no longer has a couple of cupcakes vs a couple of the worst teams in FCS in FxU.
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