Sitting here with nothing much to do, I started to think about why MT football has failed in so many eyes.
We all like Stock, right? He's by all accounts a good man. He's loyal to MT. He does right by his players. His players generally stay out of trouble, the APR is something we call all be proud of. There's a lot to like about the way he runs our program.
But we're failing miserably in the most important part of the game - winning on the field.
Now, we've seen us with some big upsets. GT, Mizzou. We're generally good enough to not crater, but I can't remember the last time we actually played for anything other than bowl eligibility.
So, to me, I'm not sure it's an X's and O's problem. If he was a bad gameday coach - well, "bad" coaches don't accomplish some of the things we've been able to do.
Here's the problem - it's the Jimmy's and the Joe's.
The players entering the program are simply not good enough to do anything more than compete at the CUSA level.
Using the TOS composite recruiting ranking's score, our average class in the CUSA era is 7th among our peers.
Our average finish in CUSA is 4th (actually like 4.5, we'll call it 4th as there's lots of weird tie breakers).
The systems (X's and O's) are actually coaching these players up (the on field finish is higher than the recruiting ranking), but they're simply not good enough, even fully developed, to do anything more than simply finish in the middle of the pack.
And here's the evidence that proves it - over the course of the entire Stock regime - 12 years - we've had 5 players drafted in total. That's FCS territory. For comparison's sake WKU has 9. Appy State has 11. Arkansas State has 8. It's almost unheard of for a program as steady as ours.
The simple fact is that large #'s of the players on these rosters are not good enough to play and win at this level. Yes, there's a Byard or Brent Stockstill or Richie James that comes through every so often - exceptional players that would be successful anywhere. But by and large, these guys aren't good enough as recruits, they don't develop into high level CUSA players, and the NFL wants no part of them.
Sadly, there's doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.
The 2017 class finished 7th per 247 composite. The 2018 class was 10th. 10th in a 14 team league. The upcoming 2019 class is ranked 8th right now - and every class ranked below us has less commits - there's no one with a similar # of verbal commits in CUSA that is doing as poorly as MT is. The fact is - all these games aren't lost in the fall on the field - they're lost in February.
All the competing on the field in the fall is undone by the failure to compete on the recruiting trail.
We all like Stock, right? He's by all accounts a good man. He's loyal to MT. He does right by his players. His players generally stay out of trouble, the APR is something we call all be proud of. There's a lot to like about the way he runs our program.
But we're failing miserably in the most important part of the game - winning on the field.
Now, we've seen us with some big upsets. GT, Mizzou. We're generally good enough to not crater, but I can't remember the last time we actually played for anything other than bowl eligibility.
So, to me, I'm not sure it's an X's and O's problem. If he was a bad gameday coach - well, "bad" coaches don't accomplish some of the things we've been able to do.
Here's the problem - it's the Jimmy's and the Joe's.
The players entering the program are simply not good enough to do anything more than compete at the CUSA level.
Using the TOS composite recruiting ranking's score, our average class in the CUSA era is 7th among our peers.
Our average finish in CUSA is 4th (actually like 4.5, we'll call it 4th as there's lots of weird tie breakers).
The systems (X's and O's) are actually coaching these players up (the on field finish is higher than the recruiting ranking), but they're simply not good enough, even fully developed, to do anything more than simply finish in the middle of the pack.
And here's the evidence that proves it - over the course of the entire Stock regime - 12 years - we've had 5 players drafted in total. That's FCS territory. For comparison's sake WKU has 9. Appy State has 11. Arkansas State has 8. It's almost unheard of for a program as steady as ours.
The simple fact is that large #'s of the players on these rosters are not good enough to play and win at this level. Yes, there's a Byard or Brent Stockstill or Richie James that comes through every so often - exceptional players that would be successful anywhere. But by and large, these guys aren't good enough as recruits, they don't develop into high level CUSA players, and the NFL wants no part of them.
Sadly, there's doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.
The 2017 class finished 7th per 247 composite. The 2018 class was 10th. 10th in a 14 team league. The upcoming 2019 class is ranked 8th right now - and every class ranked below us has less commits - there's no one with a similar # of verbal commits in CUSA that is doing as poorly as MT is. The fact is - all these games aren't lost in the fall on the field - they're lost in February.
All the competing on the field in the fall is undone by the failure to compete on the recruiting trail.
