Nothing will change if you don't change what you're doing

[sWiley]

Stop going to the games.

Massaro can crow all day about how he can't fire Stockstill (which is his fault for giving him such a contract to begin with) but if Floyd is a ghost town on game-days, Massaro will have NO choice.

 

[Raiderblue17]

11 years with the same coach and he has not built a program.

What’s our identity? Why come to Middle Tennessee?

Have we taken any steps forward since 2007?

 

[MTOleBlue]

11 years with the same coach and he has not built a program.

What’s our identity? Why come to Middle Tennessee?

Have we taken any steps forward since 2007?

Our identity is mediocrity. Sometimes we make it to a bowl. So if you want to be mediocre, this is your place to come play.

 

[sWiley]

11 years with the same coach and he has not built a program.

What’s our identity? Why come to Middle Tennessee?

Have we taken any steps forward since 2007?

It's closer to 15 years. I've honestly lost count at this point, but I know he's been here longer than 11 years.

It has become impossible to be a fan of this school and program. I'm literally too tired and sick to verbalize it/type it all out. But to lose the way we did tonight against a bad Vanderbilt team, it's just unacceptable. Hell, at least we used to beat Vanderbilt back when McCollum was here. Now ~15 years or so later and literally not a damn thing has changed other than having Nike jerseys now.

 

[Stonesraider]

I was a huge football fan but honestly I don't care anymore. It took many years to get here. It's not just Stock. It's seeing Vanderbilt, Auburn, and Georgia shirts on Campus Friday. It's watching our fellow conference mates getting beat week after week like 15 years ago. If a team on our level happens to beat a "pop culture" team the media will squash them.

We're one of the fastest growing city's in the country but unfortunately just about everyone who comes here already has a team they root. The younger generation doesn't care as much about sports. As much as I hate it, the odds are stacked against us.

That being said, there's no excuse for last night after last year.

 

[Sommy]

Such great potential for this program, but we are led by a very weak AD. He is the problem.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Yeah, the odds are stacked against us and pretty much any G5, and it's not getting any better, but even among our peers, MT is not keeping up, and you have a geriatric coaching staff that seems more intent on setting up their retirement funds than championship and career ambitions. This status quo mindset is killing the fanbase.

I am anxious to see how this year plays out. Yeah, one game doesn't necessarily mean the season is done for the players, but in the minds of the casual fans as well as the long suffering hardcore fans, we've seen this before, year after year after year, and most of us are out of patience and are extremely unhappy with where the program is.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

Yeah, the odds are stacked against us and pretty much any G5, and it's not getting any better, but even among our peers, MT is not keeping up, and you have a geriatric coaching staff that seems more intent on setting up their retirement funds than championship and career ambitions. This status quo mindset is killing the fanbase.

I am anxious to see how this year plays out. Yeah, one game doesn't necessarily mean the season is done for the players, but in the minds of the casual fans as well as the long suffering hardcore fans, we've seen this before, year after year after year, and most of us are out of patience and are extremely unhappy with where the program is.

I think you explained where we all are. Its as if both the AD and the HC are a bit tired. I believe they are doing what they think is best but don't have a new way to approach it all so they do the same each year hoping for different results.

My hope is that this can be a great year, but its hard to see how it will be. And even if it is a great year I don't think fans will show up, I am in for all the home games, but would be surprised to see more than 16-17k in the stands for the FAU game even with a win and a well played game against UGA. Our windows to grab new fans is so small.

 

[Stonesraider]

This game will fade as the weeks pass but man I hate losing to Vanderbilt. It means so much in perception. To them, they just reinforced their status against "the local teams." It's time our football program reflects our university's status in the state as the number one choice. Either that or we put our money in a program that has proven it compete on national stage.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Not so sure this game will fade. CRS is 0-4 against vandy with no chance to change that. He's on a three game loss streak against wku and the toppers replaced their whole damn OL and looked better against Wisconsin than our experienced OL did against a rebuilding vandy DL. Their QB didn't look all that bad either. Right now I am calling the wku game another loss. What D1 program goes 0-4 against their two closest D1 competitors and doesn't make a coaching change? CRS has dug himself a hole pretty deep with the fan base and as long as he is here, the fan base is not coming back.

 

[Stonesraider]

As it's been said over and over, we don't have the size. When linemen are willing to sit the bench in the SEC not much we can do to match up with small lines.

 

[RaiderDoug]

The whole program lacks effort. Effort on the recruiting trail, effort on game day, effort on player development,effort in sales, marketing and the community.

The worst problem is, i don't think Massaro and the MT AD understand the disconnect. It's almost like they can't comprehend why the fan base isn't excited about the the same flat, mediocre product over and over and over and over.......and over and over again.

Vandy was a 4.5 favorite - we lost by 28. We didn't even compete.

 

[MTFNBY5]

Not so sure this game will fade. CRS is 0-4 against vandy with no chance to change that. He's on a three game loss streak against wku and the toppers replaced their whole damn OL and looked better against Wisconsin than our experienced OL did against a rebuilding vandy DL. Their QB didn't look all that bad either. Right now I am calling the wku game another loss. What D1 program goes 0-4 against their two closest D1 competitors and doesn't make a coaching change? CRS has dug himself a hole pretty deep with the fan base and as long as he is here, the fan base is not coming back.

Agree: When this 4 game series was announced a half-dozen years ago I commented that even with James Franklin's success at VU (at the time) MT really needed to split the series to maintain any sort of respectability among casual fans. Just before this last game with all the positives (polls showing MT rated higher than VU, positives coming out of camp, lack of injuries, comments from our HC and coordinators, healthy Stockstill, VU losing key players from last year, etc) I began to believe we would win this last game and gain some measure of a positive image.

There is no way to measure the long-term effect losing this series (along with HOW we lost the last two) will negatively impact MT and not just the FB program. There is virtually nothing to erase the "little Middle" stigma from Sat. night. We can go undefeated in conference, win the championship game, and beat a fair to middling team in a bowl and it won't change what happened on West End Saturday night. Perhaps wins over both UGA and UK and VU losing to both but chances of that are slim and none and slim left the building. Ain't gonna happen. To VU fans, $EC fans, and followers of all things "Big Time" we just lost something we can't get back.

G5 is the new 1-AA and IMHO the gap today between the haves and have-nots is larger than ever and growing. I'm more pessimistic than I've been since the announcement to go D-1. I have, and I'm sure I'm not alone, invested too much time, emotional energy, and financial resources to see this all go away but it is what it is.

It hurts

 

[MT Glenn]

We recruit players with only FCS offers, that need to be coached up, then they don't get coached up. I guess this should have been expected.

 

[SpaceRaider]

As far as Massaro negotiating another series with Vandy right now, he ought to shut that down, until he has made a change in head coaches. CRS' failures in season opening D1 games, failures against vandy and wku, have put Massaro in a box, and Massaro is largely responsible for being put in that box himself.

To move forward, a change is going to be required and it's going to be expensive, require shifting priorities in budget perhaps and getting monies from resources that may be difficult to access and may require McPhee and BOT agreement. Since that might be difficult to explain since the costs are higher than they really needed to be, Massaro, McPhee, and the BOT probably will resist making a change but kicking this can down the road another season will do even more damage.

Meanwhile, you can be guaranteed that announced attendance from the SID will be about double actual butts in seats, if not more.

 

[MTOleBlue]

The whole program lacks effort. Effort on the recruiting trail, effort on game day, effort on player development,effort in sales, marketing and the community.

The worst problem is, i don't think Massaro and the MT AD understand the disconnect. It's almost like they can't comprehend why the fan base isn't excited about the the same flat, mediocre product over and over and over and over.......and over and over again.

Vandy was a 4.5 favorite - we lost by 28. We didn't even compete.

The Vandy fans sitting by us commented that every year they're favored by 2-5 points and they blow us out every time... "Easy money" they said. And they're damn right.

 

[mtfblue]

As it's been said over and over, we don't have the size. When linemen are willing to sit the bench in the SEC not much we can do to match up with small lines.

we have the size not the skill

 

[FranklinRaider315]

we have the size not the skill

I got there early to watch what was left of pregame warmups as soon as they cleared the lightning delay and told my wife it was gonna be a long night for the Blue Raiders. Men against boys.