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Smith and McPhee definitely main problems. Stock also a problem not making needed coaching changes and not recruiting local guys. Love him or hate him, Massaro has been in the worst position of any if them. Can’t push back against Smith and McPhee being without a contract and couldn’t force Stock’s hand on staff without McPhee. Almost has to be a yes man or be looking for work. Tough situation. Some of the blame falls on him too, but I wouldn’t want to be in his situation.I'm sure he has very conflicting feelings regarding the whole thing. Some of them justified, others maybe not so much. With regards to addressing the fans, he honestly probably just asks himself "What fans?" - There's nobody left to address. And the reasons for that are very complex.
It was his time to go, he definitely overstayed his welcome, HOWEVER; McPhee and Massaro are making him the fall guy for their failures too. I would have much rather seen McPhee, Steve Smith, and Massaro fired. Especially McPhee and Steve Smith. Those are the 2 who have failed this University miserably over the last 2 decades and they want to blame and fire everyone else but themselves.
McPhee has already proven to be unfire-able anyway. Even with bizarre behavior, sexual harassment, poor job performance, and so on and so forth....he perseveres. Ruining a D1 athletics department is small potatoes and doesn't matter in the least bit. Might be part of his plan/mandate in fact.
Thanks for the money, peace out B_t__hes!!!!
"It wasn't broke, just needed time to fix it" - haven't fixed squat in years.TigerIllustrated - Former Clemson coach Rick Stockstill again appears on The Clemson Dubcast
You'll love our interview with former Clemson assistant coach Rick Stockstill who recently left Middle Tennessee ...clemson.rivals.com
I didn't even listen. I fully know I'll just get ticked over stuff like that. I wish him the best I really truly do. CDM doesn't have a disaster to clean up. There is a foundation. But the cracks he is fixing are the same cracks that have been there for years (OL, local recruits, community engagement, etc)."It wasn't broke, just needed time to fix it" - haven't fixed squat in years.
Great success for CRS was another year added to his contract. Great success for us fans were championships and bowl wins. He wasn’t successful in that.I still have and will always have an immense amount of respect for Stockstill. We can't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but there is a lack of alignment with how he viewed this situation vs. how every other institution's administration, alumni, and fan base assesses success.
He said the previous two years were great seasons. That encompasses the entirety of the problem and disconnect. He genuinely seems to think a 6-6 season and a 7-5 season are great seasons so long as you got to a bowl game and won it. Never mind how rapidly you eliminated yourself from being a champion or how badly you lost to your most important peers/rivals. It's not the 4-8 season that is the reason why he had to go, it's that he thinks a game above .500 are "great seasons."
No matter the profession, activity, or whatever, striving for excellence is honorable - believing in or only striving for something around or slighly above average isn't.
I still have and will always have an immense amount of respect for Stockstill. We can't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but there is a lack of alignment with how he viewed this situation vs. how every other institution's administration, alumni, and fan base assesses success.
He said the previous two years were great seasons. That encompasses the entirety of the problem and disconnect. He genuinely seems to think a 6-6 season and a 7-5 season are great seasons so long as you got to a bowl game and won it. Never mind how rapidly you eliminated yourself from being a champion or how badly you lost to your most important peers/rivals. It's not the 4-8 season that is the reason why he had to go, it's that he thinks a game above .500 are "great seasons."
No matter the profession, activity, or whatever, striving for excellence is honorable - believing in or only striving for something around or slighly above average isn't.
I agree. 7-5 or even 8-4 is mostly normal for G5s. I mean a bulk of teams are playing at least two Powers giving most two loses there. I think our issue was it didn't feel like our admin was at least trying for more. I'm ok with losing seasons if we make changes to improve. I feel we just weren't on and off the field.Indeed. People got tired of 6-6 or 7-5 and getting beat by rivals every year. But let me tell you something, it's hard to go 7-5 and win your bowl game. Especially at a place like MT with trash facilities, poor fan support, broke athletic department, no NIL money, etc.
People need to understand that Rick fielded some pretty good teams here at MT. And like Massaro said, it became difficult because he was competing against his own standards (6-6) and that got hard. Stockstill wasn't good enough to win championships, consistently beat rivals, or sniff a top 25 ranking. But he fielded fairly decent teams that would surprise at times. Still, it wasn't good enough after 18 years. It was time to move on and try something different, even if the new coach does worse.
Going forward, I hope people are aware that it's not easy to win in college football. It's very hard actually. Very hard. The conference additions also appear to be ready to play football and clearly better than us at this point so CUSA is going to be anything but easy. It's very possible Derek Mason comes in here and completely bombs and we don't even sniff 6-6 with him. I'd say it might even be likely for that to happen. Betting odds will HEAVILY favor 5 wins or less next year, I can absolutely guarantee that. And probably the year after that too.
Derek Mason has a huge task and challenge in front of him. Not only does he have to compete against Stockstill's standards (6-6 or better), but he's got a shit ton of holes to fill on our roster with little time to recruit and no NIL money. That's going to be hard folks. Very hard. Our entire defense and half the 2 deep graduated or entered the portal. There probably isn't a head coach in the business envious of Derek Mason's position right now. I hope he can do it, but I'm very skeptical and pessimistic until proven otherwise. I still maintain that Stockstill wasn't the biggest problem for us. McPhee, Steve Smith, and Massaro were bigger problems IMO. Stockstill was 4th on the totem poll at best.
I hope people are not getting their hopes up for next year. Fresh blood is nice, but this team and program is a long way away from fielding a championship caliber team or even a decent team at this point.
I don’t disagree, winning is hard. He did have some decent teams. Our problem is we could never start strong to keep our fans invested to when they started beating up the bad teams in conference. Honestly our team needs a major influx in talent. Our guys are not very good but they would do anything for Rick and I think that’s why he won some games. Change was needed. I don’t view losing the 2 deep as a massive hurdle because those guys are replaceable. I highly doubt anyone of us expects much next year. Now year 2 or 3 we should be steadily improving. Hit the portal hard and get some better players. Liberty has good coaching but it’s more on the fact they just have better players.Indeed. People got tired of 6-6 or 7-5 and getting beat by rivals every year. But let me tell you something, it's hard to go 7-5 and win your bowl game. Especially at a place like MT with trash facilities, poor fan support, broke athletic department, no NIL money, etc.
People need to understand that Rick fielded some pretty good teams here at MT. And like Massaro said, it became difficult because he was competing against his own standards (6-6) and that got hard. Stockstill wasn't good enough to win championships, consistently beat rivals, or sniff a top 25 ranking. But he fielded fairly decent teams that would surprise at times. Still, it wasn't good enough after 18 years. It was time to move on and try something different, even if the new coach does worse.
Going forward, I hope people are aware that it's not easy to win in college football. It's very hard actually. Very hard. The conference additions also appear to be ready to play football and clearly better than us at this point so CUSA is going to be anything but easy. It's very possible Derek Mason comes in here and completely bombs and we don't even sniff 6-6 with him. I'd say it might even be likely for that to happen. Betting odds will HEAVILY favor 5 wins or less next year, I can absolutely guarantee that. And probably the year after that too.
Derek Mason has a huge task and challenge in front of him. Not only does he have to compete against Stockstill's standards (6-6 or better), but he's got a shit ton of holes to fill on our roster with little time to recruit and no NIL money. That's going to be hard folks. Very hard. Our entire defense and half the 2 deep graduated or entered the portal. There probably isn't a head coach in the business envious of Derek Mason's position right now. I hope he can do it, but I'm very skeptical and pessimistic until proven otherwise. I still maintain that Stockstill wasn't the biggest problem for us. McPhee, Steve Smith, and Massaro were bigger problems IMO. Stockstill was 4th on the totem poll at best.
I hope people are not getting their hopes up for next year. Fresh blood is nice, but this team and program is a long way away from fielding a championship caliber team or even a decent team at this point. Next year is going to be pretty ugly in my opinion.
This to me has been the biggest difference and it probably has brought a lot of the maybes on board too.Stock can say what he wants but he never made the commmunity and fan efforts Mason has made in the first week of his employment.
This is it. Stock was what he was, but he was not willing to adapt. Murfreesboro is blowing up like crazy and you HAVE to capitalize on the growth and engage in and with it. I think Stock was here so long he still had that little middle mindset.This to me has been the biggest difference and it probably has brought a lot of the maybes on board too.
The social media posts, the parade, the video showing his interactions at his intro, players meeting, basketball game, etc. Whoever is running the socials now is doing great and I hope they keep it up. Some of the players have said Stock did community service type projects with them but they never were out in general public like Mason has been.
And most importantly Mason seems to be enjoying it. Never in a million years could I have imagined Stock at a parade willingly walking around shaking and hugging and stopping for pics back and forth across the road. Dude got a workout.
I wish CDM nothing but the best. But after 18 years of what we’ve had, I’ve already made the decision to move on and focus on others things that matter at this stage of my life. Go Blue!I think fans have reacted so positively to Mason's approach is like somebody getting out of an abusive and toxic relationship and reacting to a show of kindness and respect from someone new.
Not just Murfreesboro, all of Middle Tennessee. TN is now top 10 in the country when it comes to producing fbs-level talent, to not have a recruiting strategy that acknowledges this would be gross incompetence. It will never be like WBB where you can field a successful team made up entirely of girls from TN, but having 15-20 scholarship kids on your roster at any time isn't a big askThis is it. Stock was what he was, but he was not willing to adapt. Murfreesboro is blowing up like crazy and you HAVE to capitalize on the growth and engage in and with it. I think Stock was here so long he still had that little middle mindset.
At the end of the day, coaches have to rely on kids to do their part in a game, so coaches have to do their part in engagement and planning. I dont envy the pressure or responsibility, but there are enough hungry coaches out there willing to do it that you let go the ones that arent and get the ones that are.
Hopeful CDM is it. Seems to be so far that he is. Kids still have to do their part on the field.
It was his time to go, he definitely overstayed his welcome, HOWEVER; McPhee and Massaro are making him the fall guy for their failures too. I would have much rather seen McPhee, Steve Smith, and Massaro fired. Especially McPhee and Steve Smith.