FOOTBALL So the spread is currently Louisiana Tech -4.....
- Thread starter Matt Dossett
- Start date
Take LaTech all day. Easy money. If we win this, I would be so happy but our D can't stop a parked car. I hope I'm dead wrong but we are bad. Really bad. They had a bye too I believe.
It was a tossup for me, but ultimately I picked MT. Both teams are not world beaters, on paper this is a close game.
I've been watching football for over 45 years now. MT at +4 was easy money just like Jax was with a 20.5 spread. WKU was also easy peasy. It's tendencies and matchups. Once I heard that LaTech's HC was letting his co OC call all the plays, I knew it was a wrap because now they are a different team and we were prepping defensively for the HC to call the games. We have the worst D in the country so it was gonna be a bad night and I knew that. I also had JMU crushing coastal. JMU is one hell of a program.
4-0 with money in the bank. Let's go.
4-0 with money in the bank. Let's go.
Yeah I think the honeymoon is over. I still think he needs another year to see what he can do but there’s no denying this year is going to be ugly.
Honeymoon is over
Divorce is imminent.
For me it is. I was calling for 5-7 to 6-6. I'm calling for 2-10 to 3-9 now. We'll pull out a win somewhere but don't ask me who.
Mason's tenure is either gonna wind up with one hell of a turnaround or go down as one hell of a salesman.
For what he has done off the field, I'll absolutely shake his hand. He's shown what a school like MT needs on that front with regards to fund raising, alumni and community engagement, etc. But on the field, freaking disaster. I've said this was the meat of our schedule. Well, so far we are doing nothing but getting ground up ourselves. Guess I had my blue goggles on in the dark and couldn't see it.
With the way the defense is playing, I don't see another win on our schedule. La Tech WRs were wide open all night long. No white jerseys even in the same area code. It was way too easy. Take Kennesaw money line on Tuesday if you are a betting man.
Honeymoon would have been over game one had Tenn. Tech. pulled out a victory and lost "Harvey" from the trophy case. Last second heroics preserved any semblance of a honeymoon period. At 0-2 in C-USA, with convincing losses to WKU and LA Tech, a cold dash of reality exists---Blue Raider Football is in for a prolonged rebuild. Might require 2-3 years, if plans take form. However, nothing suggests team is improving at the mid-season mark. That's a big concern in my eyes. Have to give Coach Mason credit for sparking community engagement and fund raising this spring/summer, but stakeholder pressure will mount if final record for 2024 is 2-10 or 3-9. Kennesaw looks like our best chance for our next win, but nothing is given based on what I've witnessed.
Focus should be on teaching and building skills so Blue Raiders do not defeat ourselves. Simply, we're deficient in nearly all phases of the game.
Perhaps hiring a failed Vandy coach that no one else wanted as a HC was not the right decision. No one could see this coming.**
I expected 4-8 or 5-7.
I did not expect to see the worst defense I’ve ever seen MT put on the field. I will be very curious who CDM does in the offseason. If CDM doesn’t make major staffing changes, then it is clear this was a completely failed hire with no chance of success.
The point you make about seeing absolutely zero improvement during the last few games is the salient point. Instead of getting even a tiny bit better, especially defensively, we have regressed into utter embarrassment. I have never seen a defense in FBS this bad.
I never got comfortable with this hire.
LT was the first game I was really disappointed. I really don't think any coach could have done much better against our early season slate - those programs are either very good (Duke, Memphis, Ole Miss) or way ahead of us (WKU). But the LT game, particularly the back 7 on defense, was just bad football.
I'm not of the opinion that you can just take any person with 2 arms and 2 legs and just "coach 'em up". There needs to be a minimum amount of skill/talent/measurables for a coach to work with, and I'm not sure we have that in the defensive back 7 particularly. I'm not saying the coaching staff is certainly maximizing what they have to work with, but they may not have a lot to work with to start.
G5 coaching changes are going to be rough. Like I said before, before the portal era, you could probably count on a few holdovers, but these days, they split instantly. It's going to make all year 1's harder. It's not hard to believe that a few of our outgoing portal guys would have made a few more plays Thursday particularly in the defensive backfield and DL.
At this point, all we can do is hope that roster help is on the way. No coach gets fired on year 1 of a major program rebuild and we can't afford it anyway. It does appear that we have a better recruiting class than normal, and I did like our portal adds before they all got hurt - 3 of 5 safety portal guys are hurt and not playing and it looks like all 3 of our portal Corner adds have been hurt and missed games (we need to see why this keeps happening - facilities?) - so if we are looking for a why instead of just complaining - i think we have something like 2 healthy of 8 portal defensive backs adds.
On to Kennesaw.
Yeah losing 2 projected starters right out of the gate really hinders that group. We do not have the depth and they are killing us because of it. We cannot cover in 1v1 and we’re not good enough up front to get pressure without blitzing. It’s a lose lose situation but even I didn’t expect the defense to be this bad. It’s by far the worst defensive team I can remember.
There are no words to describe how bad our defense is. If we don't improve there is no reason for Mason to retain Stewart at the end of this season. We have a lack of talent problem along with an inexperienced defense coordinator.
That's the thing. Stewart was DC for Houston with Sumlin and their 13-1 season. Same for NFL with the Cowboys and their 13-3 year. I would think he knows what to do. But regardless of talent, proper attach angles can be taught. Proper positioning. Etc. The tackle may still be missed, but not for not having proper technique. Thr same thing keeps biting us.
He’ll be 60 in December. Tommy West round 2. Young man’s game.
Exactly
Dude is clearly washed. I want a young guy that knows what it takes in a conference like ours. Brian Stewart's last few collegiate stops have been bad. There's a reason he's been at places for only 1 year recently. He doesn't have it anymore.
At his most recent college stop, at Maryland in 2021, his defense was horrendous allowing over 400 yards per/game and over 30 points per game.....
"Stewart served as Maryland’s defensive coordinator for the 2021 season. The Terrapins ranked 85th this past year in total defense, giving up 404.3 yards per game. They were 98th in scoring defense, surrendering 30.69 points per contest. Maryland head coach Mike Locksley made the decision to hire Steele as the new defensive coordinator in late January, with Stewart remaining on the defensive staff, but that did not last for long."
Dude sucks. Allowing numbers like that in the Big Ten is insane. I cannot believe Mason would bring him here. Bodie is a downgrade too. Mitch Stewart would have done a better job for us and his offensive style was more suited for what a school like MT needs and can win with. The only thing that has improved with Mason is high school recruiting, but that may not matter if they keep pulling duds from the portal.
Mason is over here learning on the job because he's never really coached at a G5 in the modern era. And we are suffering greatly for it....
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Vanderbilt has a really good group of coaches right now. It won't last long they will get hit hard next year by the portal and coach poaching.
It's a shame we couldn't have figured out a way to get Kill here.
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