FB RECRUITING MT target down to 2…
- Thread starter Matt Dossett
- Start date
It's been said before, but it is soooo nice to be competing for players that have G6 offers.
I was going to post the same thing.
We do seem to be in play for a much higher caliber of player than in the last regime, especially in-state.
I remember an Athletic article that surveyed a some high school coaches in the state and the prevailing idea was that MT's prior staff just never bothered to put too much effort into recruiting. I think the quote was something like "they only want a specific kind of player and we never see them otherwise".
Found it ($$$$) https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/27...y-returns-on-new-staffs-at-ut-and-vanderbilt/
Here's some pertinent quotes:
How would you evaluate the Group of 5 schools in the state (Memphis and Middle Tennessee) and how they recruit your school?
Coach 2: The only school I don’t get a lot of love from is MTSU. They really don’t come here much. They have some good people on staff, but their process and how they do things is different. That’s on their head coach (Rick Stockstill). He’s a good guy, but he has his own way. They come in late a lot. They take their time. They don’t offer kids early. You have to fit right into the niche of their program to get an offer from their program. It’s not a bad thing, but other schools will jump in with you.
Coach 3: We hear from Memphis way more than we hear from MTSU. I think it’s philosophy, and I’m not in their staff meetings and could be speaking out of turn, but I don’t think MTSU even comes east to Knoxville at all. I think they just recruit Nashville and Murfreesboro because anybody the Power 5s don’t want, MTSU is a great Group of 5 option to stay home. They can simply stay in Nashville, get Memphis, Alabama and Georgia and be fine. I don’t think they’re worried about coming east. We don’t see them.
Coach 5: Middle, I think they can do a better job recruiting in-state.
Some quotes about Mason from his Vanderbilt days that I didn't pay attention to back when the article came out:
For as long as you’ve been dealing with Vanderbilt, what’s changed from staff to staff?
Coach 1: Derek (Mason) did a good job. We had a lot of players on his teams and he was always very kind, very polite, very good to our kids. And then Franklin, he did a good job, both very conscientious and good to our school.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6370765/2025/05/21/mlb-chart-haves-and-have-nots/
Coach 4: Mason did a pretty good job as well. Same thing: I wasn’t hurt or offended when we didn’t have SEC-level players and we didn’t hear much from them.
Here's some pertinent quotes:
How would you evaluate the Group of 5 schools in the state (Memphis and Middle Tennessee) and how they recruit your school?
Coach 2: The only school I don’t get a lot of love from is MTSU. They really don’t come here much. They have some good people on staff, but their process and how they do things is different. That’s on their head coach (Rick Stockstill). He’s a good guy, but he has his own way. They come in late a lot. They take their time. They don’t offer kids early. You have to fit right into the niche of their program to get an offer from their program. It’s not a bad thing, but other schools will jump in with you.
Coach 3: We hear from Memphis way more than we hear from MTSU. I think it’s philosophy, and I’m not in their staff meetings and could be speaking out of turn, but I don’t think MTSU even comes east to Knoxville at all. I think they just recruit Nashville and Murfreesboro because anybody the Power 5s don’t want, MTSU is a great Group of 5 option to stay home. They can simply stay in Nashville, get Memphis, Alabama and Georgia and be fine. I don’t think they’re worried about coming east. We don’t see them.
Coach 5: Middle, I think they can do a better job recruiting in-state.
Some quotes about Mason from his Vanderbilt days that I didn't pay attention to back when the article came out:
For as long as you’ve been dealing with Vanderbilt, what’s changed from staff to staff?
Coach 1: Derek (Mason) did a good job. We had a lot of players on his teams and he was always very kind, very polite, very good to our kids. And then Franklin, he did a good job, both very conscientious and good to our school.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6370765/2025/05/21/mlb-chart-haves-and-have-nots/
Coach 4: Mason did a pretty good job as well. Same thing: I wasn’t hurt or offended when we didn’t have SEC-level players and we didn’t hear much from them.
some of the quotes sound like they were excerpted from an old article when stockstill and his geriatric staff were still here.
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I spoke with him last week, and at this moment, MTSU and Arkansas State are neck-and-neck.
To my knowledge, MT has the last visit/camp appearance, as he’ll be on campus on June 8th.
I’ll continue to monitor this one.
