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New staff, portal, & recruiting

bluefutcpa said:
I’m seeing all these twitter offers get announced from mid state area kids. What in the hell has the old staff been doing? How does the staff all of a sudden decide these kids can play now. It pisses me off that the old guard had no love for TN kids. Or is it more like the high school coaches didn’t like the old guard?
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Middle had made no effort to recruit these kids so why should the HS coaches go out of their way for a program that doesn't value their players. Just about every coach in the midstate wants to Middle to do well, good chance alot of them went there, but MT has to make the effort, to earn the name Middle Tennessee

Oakland is the perfect example of this, they have 5-6 guys with P5 or G5 offers and not a single freaking offer from MT. As a Oakland grad and a middle fan, it's enough to make my blood boil
 
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bluefutcpa said:
I’m seeing all these twitter offers get announced from mid state area kids. What in the hell has the old staff been doing? How does the staff all of a sudden decide these kids can play now. It pisses me off that the old guard had no love for TN kids. Or is it more like the high school coaches didn’t like the old guard?
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Trying to save their jobs. Too little too late.
 
Unless he gets the chance to be the HC, I would bring him home. It was a very similar situation there. Sumrall is/was a good defensive coach. Craddock was 68th in scoring offense his first year. Upped that to 43rd this year. With what DM will likely do on defense, a top 50 scoring offense would mean we can feasibly replicate what Troy has done. They are 23-4 over the last two years with back to back conf titles while Craddock has been OC.

So, pre-condition met that he's been at a place and won.
 
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Not going to lie, I would be concerned with hiring Craddock as OC. He was pretty bad prior to arriving at Troy.

He's done pretty good at Troy but I'm not sure how much of it is him versus having really good players and a crazy good defense. When you have Troy's OL and Kimani Vidal on your team just about anyone can call plays and it'll work.

He's probably learned a lot since the SMU and Arkansas days....and he would probably do okay here....but I don't think it's as big a slam dunk hire as others might for the OC position. Sumrall might take him to Tulane anyway, guess we'll see.
 
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sWiley said:
Not going to lie, I would be concerned with hiring Craddock as OC. He was pretty bad prior to arriving at Troy.

He's done pretty good at Troy but I'm not sure how much of it is him versus having really good players and a crazy good defense. When you have Troy's OL and Kimani Vidal on your team just about anyone can call plays and it'll work.

He's probably learned a lot since the SMU and Arkansas days....and he would probably do okay here....but I don't think it's as big a slam dunk hire as others might for the OC position. Sumrall might take him to Tulane anyway, guess we'll see.
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That's my thought. One would think he's learned from the Chad Morris fiasco, but who knows. I haven't heard any names mentioned so I figured I'd throw it out there.
 
bluefutcpa said:
I’m seeing all these twitter offers get announced from mid state area kids. What in the hell has the old staff been doing? How does the staff all of a sudden decide these kids can play now. It pisses me off that the old guard had no love for TN kids. Or is it more like the high school coaches didn’t like the old guard?
Click to expand...
**some small intel**

I asked a former MT FB staffer about this. They said that CRS didn't believe there was talent in Middle Tennessee so coaches were assigned other states to build classes.

Kinda insane for him to say. If boots were on the ground making connections with local HS HBC's, or hell, even looking recruiting services you can see there's viable talent. Kudos to DM for getting active in-state.
 
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DoubleRRaider said:
**some small intel**

I asked a former MT FB staffer about this. They said that CRS didn't believe there was talent in Middle Tennessee so coaches were assigned other states to build classes.

Kinda insane for him to say. If boots were on the ground making connections with local HS HBC's, or hell, even looking recruiting services you can see there's viable talent. Kudos to DM for getting active in-state.
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Another aspect that I don’t think many think about is how this will help with PWO players. Walk on players are important and having an affordable FBS option in their backyard that gives them an opportunity is huge. We could end up with some FCS talent making their way as a PWO to play FBS ball. There’s so many reasons to recruit the state heavily. Clemson is a great example of this. Hunter Renfrow did that and ended up winning them a national title.
 
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Love the MT Football twitter post showing Friday Dec 8th as Mid State high school BLITZ Day.
All MT coaches contacted 59 high schools in Rutherford, Williamson, Davidson, & Wilson counties to start building needed relationships with all the local school systems. Yes!
 
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bluefutcpa said:
I’m seeing all these twitter offers get announced from mid state area kids. What in the hell has the old staff been doing? How does the staff all of a sudden decide these kids can play now. It pisses me off that the old guard had no love for TN kids. Or is it more like the high school coaches didn’t like the old guard?
Click to expand...

The mid state is a fertile area. Lots of schools recruit here - every player you go after, you’re probably going to have to butt heads and put in the work to land him.

That was not the old staff. They put in no effort or work. That’s why you saw the far bulk of all our recruiting classes were JUCO kids with no other legit offers and lightly recruited FCS kids from nowheresville Georgia and Florida.
 
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ewglenn said:
Another aspect that I don’t think many think about is how this will help with PWO players. Walk on players are important and having an affordable FBS option in their backyard that gives them an opportunity is huge. We could end up with some FCS talent making their way as a PWO to play FBS ball. There’s so many reasons to recruit the state heavily. Clemson is a great example of this. Hunter Renfrow did that and ended up winning them a national title.
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That's where a really good S&C and nutrition program come in. I don't think we've ever had a nutrition program really. I've watched several videos on how schools that do benefit and many actually have a nutritionist in staff for recovery. Having the athlete dining area in the new SAPC will certainly help with that. It's another reason I wanted someone with Power experience as those programs have that type of system in place.

CDM has mentioned nutrition and recovery several times. A good S&C program is key to build bulk on those outlier guys as well as the ones we have to develop in to linemen.
 
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Reading from his Vandy bio Lewis was a former Vandy defensive back from 2015-17. Joined staff in 2018 as grad assistant working in conjunction with the defense, & moving up from there.
 
AustinLewis said:
Brian Stewart, former NFL, Big10, & Big12 assist will be the next DC / Safeties coach
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Stewart's last role was as the DC for XFL's Houston Roughnecks last year who went 12-3. He has been literally everywhere. Major experience level. He's had ups and downs but he was Houston's DC in 2011 when they went 13-1 and beat Penn St. in their bowl game. He also had success at Maryland the year after that as well.
 
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blueraiderJT said:
Stewart's last role was as the DC for XFL's Houston Roughnecks last year who went 12-3. He has been literally everywhere. Major experience level. He's had ups and downs but he was Houston's DC in 2011 when they went 13-1 and beat Penn St. in their bowl game. He also had success at Maryland the year after that as well.
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Being everywhere is an understatement. Geez, this guy changed jobs every 1-2 years tops. for the past 30 year years! Hey, he's bringing that experience here so that's a positive thing for MT.
 
Sommy said:
Being everywhere is an understatement. Geez, this guy changed jobs every 1-2 years tops. for the past 30 year years! Hey, he's bringing that experience here so that's a positive thing for MT.
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Yeah, in the NFL, you learn to definitely not get attached. LOL. Maybe that was part of the appeal of this job for him, It's a place he can stay for a while if he wants to.
 
Hop45 said:
Per transfer portal database, Q Dunnigan withdrew from the portal 11/30. Looks like that's 1 DL coming back.
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If true that’s big. Q might have been our best DL last year. Very underrated imo. Last I saw Michigan state offered him. Hope it’s true that he’s staying. We need good DE badly. At tackle position we should be okay with Shakai woods and Damonte Smith. I actually think these two have all conference potential.
 
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Q would be a big piece of a good defense. I hope he is one of the ones staying.
 
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