Love, love, love beating WKU baby!!!! I am now happy.
Very thankful to be 6-3.
- Thread starter MTsumner92
- Start date
I feel the same way. We can argue many things and we do but this season, we have done a few things we haven't done in years or ever like beating Marshall at Marshall, taking out WKU, and leading the east late in the season. If we would have beaten FIU, we would have the east locked up now but all in all, it's been a good year with a very tough schedule. We still have Kentucky and UAB left. Sheesh.
As I write this, will say it’s a promising season. We are in good shape for down the stretch and we have a couple of notable wins as accomplishments. However, solid play these next three weeks are imperative to finish the job. A 2-1 record would be a good finish; anything less not so much. I Want 9-3 and a victory over the Kentucky Wildcats, but that may be expecting too much. Who knows, never forget we accomplished that in basketball back in 1982—just may be possible on any given Saturday. Don’t worry about FIU Golden Panthers, they will take care of themselves. We have business at hand!
Im with you. Two of those losses were completely expected (not wanted, but expected).
If we can roll in Lexington at 7-3 and SOMEHOW win that game...man what a year.
If we can roll in Lexington at 7-3 and SOMEHOW win that game...man what a year.
Crazy scenario options: Finish 10-3, 2nd in East (lose tiebreaker with FIU) with a win over Kentucky & a bowl game win
OR
8-6, 7-5 in regular season winning East in Tiebreaker, win C-USA championship, but lose the bowl game.
What would be your or everyone’s choice?
Would rather go 8-6 and win the conference. I think...tough choice. If we did go 10-3; everyone would be whining but we never win the conference, were average...etc.
10-3 with a win over a ranked(top15 no less) team? yes please. would make recruiting alot easier.
Conference Championship...They don't put up a banner for beating Kentucky.
I’m totally in on 10-3 and beating out first ranked opponent. That would be remembered by many. Add another bowl win and I’m right as rain
We finish 10-3 and the I'll happily eat the crow on the 1-4 start to the season I was afraid would derail before we even got halfway done!
You guys have missed the most plausible scenario. We lose 2 of the last three in the the games we will be underdogs in and finish 7-5. We don’t beat Ky or win a title. We do what Rick always does and finish right around 500 or as close as we can get to it. So probably means a bowl loss and 7-6 finish. But don’t underestimate the chance that we lose all three and just do 500 just because and go 6-6.
If everyone is like me, I’ve totally thought of that scenario.
I just didn’t want to be the one to say it.
You are right MTO1 but I am going to enjoy where we are for a little bit.
This is a tough season. Winning is winning to me. Getting 7-8 wins when you're OOC had 3 SEC teams on it is not bad at all. UAB has 1 P5 on theirs. Of course they look unstoppable now.
Winning is not winning. It 100% matters who you beat, especially at the G5 level. Beating the tarnation out of UTEP and Rice impresses nobody. NOBODY.
So your not impressed with UAB then, either?
Look, on one hand I agree with you. But on the other hand, this whole thing cannot be about impressing the P5s and their fans and the media that fawns all over them. Because when it does, it ruins the experience of being a fan and supporter of our program. Do I want more, of course I do, but I am not going to quit going to games because we are not top 25 and beating SEC teams.
Ask WKU if winning ain't winning. We've beaten P5's before. Who did we impress and even if we did, it was for a week. I just want us to play to what we are capable of no matter who we play. I get way more upset when we call stupid plays or we're not prepared to play an opponent than I do about how we are perceived. I couldn't care less about what people think about us.
I measure successes in championships. That is a standard of excellence that should be our goal. Granted, we will not win one every year and plenty of roadblocks and variables exist to winning one. But, when team culture has been 12 or 26 years (co-or-outright) since the team has earned one, questions should be asked to if we are on the right pathway to excellence. Getting P5 wins are nice. Unless it’s a win over a top 25 team, it is basically a footnote highlight, not a program defining win (GA Tech being a good example that is now long in the tooth). In year 20 of FBS/1A, institutional expectations should be more than what they presently are.
I am certain that Dr. Walker and Lee Fowler envisioned different successes for this program. Costs keep rising, stadium keeps draining, and we still don't have an outright championship. If you would have told them this in the mid 90s while they were contemplating the move, would they have pursued it? Have we really gained anything by leaving the OVC.
I remember an interview with Walker or it might been Fowler or even Boots, early on in the transition process, where they said could be that success at the D1A level might come when MT had gone through several coaches and ADs.
Championships would be great no doubt but realistically there is a 1-8 or 1-9 chance of that happening every season. To get it once would be great. However, I refuse to have the mentality that if we don't get it, everything is a complete failure. Sheesh, if that's the case, I would never be a fan of any team in the state of TN because none of them win outright championships anymore. How many has VU won? Since 1998, how many has UT won? Zero. Even with Peyton Manning, the greatest QB they ever had, they played for the SEC title once and won it. It's been 20 years for them since. Memphis? Don't get me started on how abysmal they've been. They had one really good year in like 50 years. So the odds are always stacked against you as far as championships go. Marshall won 1 CUSA championship with Cato, the best QB they've had since Leftwich which is a long long time. There are very few dynasties in this game and even fewer in G5 conferences.
WKU had 2 in a row. What's their record now? 2 seasons of losing. Was it worth it? Maybe, but read their fan boards. No one is using the past to coat the present in a positive way.
Having 7 straight seasons non-losing (bowl eligible) seasons is not sexy to most people on here but name me another team in CUSA who has done it. There isn't one. Name me more than 5 G5's who have done it. You can't. It's Us, Boise St., Ohio, San Diego St, and Arky St. (Appy st. hasn't been FBS for 7 seasons.) Therefore, if it was so easy, there would be more than 5 teams in G5 who have done it. Not even UCF, South Florida or Houston has done it.
I'm not saying we can't be or shouldn't be better. I'm saying that if we don't play for or win the Championship this year, it doesn't mean this season was or is a failure. I know I'm in the minority on this and that's fine.
With that being said, I want Charlotte and Marshall to unleash the beast and destroy FIU so we get the shot.
WKU had 2 in a row. What's their record now? 2 seasons of losing. Was it worth it? Maybe, but read their fan boards. No one is using the past to coat the present in a positive way.
Having 7 straight seasons non-losing (bowl eligible) seasons is not sexy to most people on here but name me another team in CUSA who has done it. There isn't one. Name me more than 5 G5's who have done it. You can't. It's Us, Boise St., Ohio, San Diego St, and Arky St. (Appy st. hasn't been FBS for 7 seasons.) Therefore, if it was so easy, there would be more than 5 teams in G5 who have done it. Not even UCF, South Florida or Houston has done it.
I'm not saying we can't be or shouldn't be better. I'm saying that if we don't play for or win the Championship this year, it doesn't mean this season was or is a failure. I know I'm in the minority on this and that's fine.
With that being said, I want Charlotte and Marshall to unleash the beast and destroy FIU so we get the shot.
To be fair we aren't playing LSU's, Alabama's, and GA's of the world. We are playing FIU, Western, Charlotte. Our ceiling is winning a Conference Championship. It's fair to demand it from Stockstill since hes been here forever (or 13 football years). Hell yes it was worth it for Western. Compare it to our basketball seasons where we won conference twice in a row and those memories you had of the tournament victories and conference championship. If we are terrible for the next 20 years we can still point to that Michigan State victory and point to those back-to-back NCAA victories.
Being .500 is an arbitrary number to me. Since you play 2-3 games against the worst teams in college football I don't find 6 wins that impressive. Being middle of the pack in C-USA (which in some seasons is the worst conference in football) doesn't cut it for me. You give a guy that much time and that much of a contract I would like some accountability. But this is our school and I am still rooting for it to happen, even though Rick will get the credit and praise. He backed into the worst this conference has been in the past 5 years, and still we will likely share a title because that's the Middle way.
What is bothersome to me is the acceptance, that borders on fan resignation, of being middling (pardon the unintentional pun) or being satisfied with status quo: which is go 6-6 or 7-5, maybe 8-4 if we are fortunate or get a easy schedule. Why don’t we see more “town and gown” engagement regarding MTSU sports? Think it’s we are just here, taking space and checking boxes instead of being inspired and expecting excellence as our culture. I don’t want to be Iowa State or Vanderbilt, and we shouldn’t have to wait another 12 or 26 years to be champions of this conference much less from 1912. This is not the SEC, B1G, or ACC. We are at the lowest tier of FBS football with the Sun Belt. One can see respect C-USA gets when a 13-1 record only yields a #22/23 ranking (forget the playoffs for playing for NC)—Marshall achieves that distinction in 2014 with Cato at QB. UAB is the conference best hope right now to being ranked should they win out (they have Texas A&M and MT as roadblocks). They are about half point between #25 and the team with one vote, so they must win out to get there.
We have been major college football for 20 years now without an outright title or even a Top 25 signature win. Our best signature wins are Georgia Tech and Syracuse (last year). Maybe the stars align and Kentucky can join the list (takes care of top 25 too), but that’s far from certain. It comes down to leadership, talent development, recruitment, and smart marketing. We’ve fallen short of that for several years for various reasons.
A football championship this year validates our work as a football program and as an athletic department. I for one sure hope Coach Stockstill, Brent, and everyone involved can finish the job along with another FIU Golden Panther loss to help our cause. Our fans need it and our university needs it for better attendance next year.
We have been major college football for 20 years now without an outright title or even a Top 25 signature win. Our best signature wins are Georgia Tech and Syracuse (last year). Maybe the stars align and Kentucky can join the list (takes care of top 25 too), but that’s far from certain. It comes down to leadership, talent development, recruitment, and smart marketing. We’ve fallen short of that for several years for various reasons.
A football championship this year validates our work as a football program and as an athletic department. I for one sure hope Coach Stockstill, Brent, and everyone involved can finish the job along with another FIU Golden Panther loss to help our cause. Our fans need it and our university needs it for better attendance next year.
You can realize that it is not easy to win 6-8 games per year given that we play 2-3 games against P5 opponents per year and still not be happy without having a conference title. We do not have to be on one team or the other. I am on both sides seeing that it is an achievement to win consistently, but I am also frustrated for the lack of conference titles. The Iowa State comment was partially a joke, but it is true. There are a lot of teams much worse off than we are. I think being close a lot of years takes a larger toll than being bottom feeders every year.
Winning a championship will not do anything significant for attendance next year. All it will do is make the 5K true blue fans who care feel better. We have a ton of headwinds, including some of our own fans and many of our own graduates.
This doesn't mean I don't want a championship...lets face it, what really drives people crazy is an empty stadium and realizing we are not growing our program - I feel it, I get pissed when I show up each home game and we are half full. While wins would help I don't think it's enough at this point. Its going to take several years of something different to get where we might have 7-8K season ticket holders and average 20K per game.
I would rather have WKU’s last 4 years over Stocks tenure so far. Without question give me an awful 1 win season if it happens after 2 championships.
Mark Richt was fired at UGA for winning 9 games a year w/o conference championship for 10 years. They hired an unproven HC to replace Richt. It was the right move to fire Mark whether Kirby was as successful as he has been or whether he won 3 games in 3 years and was fired.
I’m thankful for 6-3 and I hope we find a way to win the CUSA championship. However, IMO if we finish 9-3 and don’t win the championship game, then I still believe we should do exactly to Stock what UGA did to Richt.
Mark Richt was fired at UGA for winning 9 games a year w/o conference championship for 10 years. They hired an unproven HC to replace Richt. It was the right move to fire Mark whether Kirby was as successful as he has been or whether he won 3 games in 3 years and was fired.
I’m thankful for 6-3 and I hope we find a way to win the CUSA championship. However, IMO if we finish 9-3 and don’t win the championship game, then I still believe we should do exactly to Stock what UGA did to Richt.
And Saban criticized firing a coach that wins 9 games per year because of how hard it is. What does everyone think our record would be vs. UAB's schedule right now?
It is an unfortunate fact that winning a conference championship will not increase attendance that much. UCF averaged more fans their 0-12 season than we did our 10-3 season and there is a lot more to do in Orlando than Murfreesboro. The problem is we are not growing our fanbase and many of our "fans" get upset if we do not beat Vandy and threaten to stop going to games. I wonder how much more inspired out team would be if they played 5 or 6 games in front of sold out stadiums. Chicken or the egg question, but I would bet they could go 13-0 and we would not sell out a game all that season.
I know you wouldn’t. Not saying there’s anything wrong with your opinion - we just disagree. And I know you would be apprehensive with us letting Stock go knowing we get 7 or so wins because we don’t honestly know what the next coach would do. Could do better, worse or the same.
Maybe it won’t matter after this year. Maybe we finish 8-4, host the championship game, and we are both celebrating a CUSA championship in Floyd in a few weeks. Lord knows Stock is due
