Mixed feelings about all this. The Stockstill 500k donation is.....interesting. I think Stockstill is a great man and a great person. I believe he wants to win just as much as anyone, but maybe also realizes he isn't the best coach on the block. Donating half a million dollars is an eye popping thing to me for many reasons.
First and foremost, that's damn near a whole year's worth of salary after you factor in taxes and such. $500,000 is a lot of money for Rick to donate. Would any of you consider donating damn year one year's worth of your take home pay, especially when you know said pay may end this year or only last a few more????? It's a lot of money to donate guys, even for Stockstill. Yes we all know he makes $900,000 a year BUT how long has he made that much, and how much longer will he make that much? It's not like he will be making 900k a year for the rest of his life. He has decided to give up a substantial portion of his personal and families future wealth to Blue Raider Athletics (not just football). Do we know of any other coaches in the country who have donated such an amount?
It's very conflicting. I've always liked Stockstill as a person. I was a student in one of his classes which he only showed up and talked to us a few times, mostly taught by his Director of Operations Danny Lewis at the time. He called me one time when I helped Hutton run this site over some drama that was going on that I don't even remember what the drama was about it was so damn, but we squashed it and BS'd on the phone for a while. He is a super down to earth and likeable guy.
I have always believed, even going back to 2006 when he first came on board, that we were at a disadvantage in recruiting. And that disadvantage has grown year after year as others schools have poured millions into their facilities/coaching staffs. But even going back to when he first got here, Troy routinely was beating us on the recruiting trail (and subsequently on the football field) almost every time we came up against recruits that both schools wanted. I know because I talked to these kids. Troy had very nice facilities circa 2007 for a Sun Belt program and almost had their pick of the litter when it came to SBC recruits, and the results followed. These issues have magnified since we joined CUSA and others have built new stadiums, new IPF's, new athletic complexes, spent more money on coaches, etc. while here at MT we build new softball fields and tennis courts. I have always believed we have sent Rick to a gun fight with a knife in his hand when it comes to recruiting.
But you have to look at the results despite the poor facilities. There are other schools that don't have great facilities that have had good results. So you cannot always blame the facilities. And at some point, if we are not going to invest in new facilities, doesn't the administration need to try something different? The answer is yes they do. Stockstill has obviously not delivered the results we have all wanted, however; the lack of results and the failure is above him. It's Massaro, and by extension it's McPhee. They are ultimately the problem here. They are ultimately the ones who kept him around and said it was good enough. So I don't have any ill will or anger towards Stockstill. He's just doing his job and his bosses are keeping him around for said job, regardless of the results. We have rehashed the past a million times over, and we all know it's been a massive failure by our administration so I'll leave it at that.
Moving forward, we have two excellent coordinators in my opinion, maybe a little early to say that about Dearmon, but Shafer is the real deal and Dearmon's play calling has been on point this year. Then you move on down to assistant coaches and position coaches and I think that's where we all get a little upset. We have routinely been beaten at the lines of scrimmage for a while now, both on defense and at the OL. Why wasn't a change made? Special teams has been terrible until this year. Shouldn't we have tried something different? I think there's some stubbornness there and the nepotism regarding his friends/family being on staff that really bother us, and rightly so. If we were winning championships then it's not a problem, but we're not. We're getting our asses kicked 90% of the time we play a team with a pulse.
No idea what happens next with Stockstill. I can't see us firing him. He might retire? I really don't believe it means a whole lot. Until we get better facilities and until we get better leaders/administrators, it won't matter who the coaches are.
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