This is funny to read about MTSU in the Washington Post because this is the first time I've seen anyone spend this much time on anything MT athletics related in YEARS. Link
Basically, it doesn't sound like much, in the end, but it sound like the athletic department didn't do much either.
Highlights include:
"Massaro reminded Franklin that the school’s policies were changing by the day and encouraged him not to do anything rash. He also cautioned Franklin “to not be insubordinate” and that the athletic department “will not tolerate opposite messaging.”
Franklin reminded Massaro that, as much as calling plays on game day, he believed it was his job to protect the impressionable young men in his charge. Stockstill eventually called off the meeting, and Franklin stood down. Then 3,839 deaths in March became nearly 60,000 deaths in April. During in-person meetings, Franklin sat alone at a desk away from the rest of the staff, and he and his wife decided to spend the coming months apart: her near other family in Raleigh, N.C., and him in a small apartment near campus...
Franklin says Stockstill frequently handed out papers and held conversations without a face covering and sometimes got inches from players’ uncovered faces to yell instructions during practice. Lower-level staffers and players, in a sport that still too often values shows of toughness and machismo, seemed to follow the head coach’s lead, Franklin says.
Stockstill claims he wore his mask “100 percent of the time.”
When Franklin told him how the team’s weight room had become a hive for irresponsible behavior, Massaro seemed surprised. The guidelines allow for a maximum of 10 people in the weight room, the AD said.
“When is the last time you walked in there and saw 10 people?” Franklin said.
“I kind of trusted that, so I don’t know,” Massaro said."
Though administrators intervened, Franklin says Stockstill and other staffers resumed their bad habits after a few days. Discouraged, he says, he spent $2,000 on masks and handed them out to players and their relatives. A player’s mother texted Franklin to tell him her son “is not the boy I know prior to COVID.” Another player reported that Stockstill and head athletic trainer Keith Bunch had ridiculed him for missing practices when he was feeling ill. The university declined to make Bunch available but acknowledged Stockstill had questioned whether the player was being truthful.
“Maybe to y’all eyes it’s bulls--- but it’s not,” the player told Franklin in a text.
The 25th Blue Raider tested positive, then the 30th and 40th. Three members of the coaching staff also tested positive, Massaro says, as did five members of the team’s strength and conditioning unit.
A few days after Middle Tennessee officials learned this article was in the works, they released the results of an internal investigation that found that “everything was not perfect but there was no evidence presented that supports the allegation that Coach Stockstill willfully disregarded” protocol. In a phone interview, team physician Utpal Patel said he was comfortable with the consistency of face coverings and social distancing during the season, though he added that he rarely entered the locker room or weight room.
In an interview The Post conducted independently, though, a Blue Raiders player shared Franklin’s view that, by and large, the coaching staff refused to take the virus seriously. He called this season one of the most anxious periods of his life."
Basically, it doesn't sound like much, in the end, but it sound like the athletic department didn't do much either.
Highlights include:
"Massaro reminded Franklin that the school’s policies were changing by the day and encouraged him not to do anything rash. He also cautioned Franklin “to not be insubordinate” and that the athletic department “will not tolerate opposite messaging.”
Franklin reminded Massaro that, as much as calling plays on game day, he believed it was his job to protect the impressionable young men in his charge. Stockstill eventually called off the meeting, and Franklin stood down. Then 3,839 deaths in March became nearly 60,000 deaths in April. During in-person meetings, Franklin sat alone at a desk away from the rest of the staff, and he and his wife decided to spend the coming months apart: her near other family in Raleigh, N.C., and him in a small apartment near campus...
Franklin says Stockstill frequently handed out papers and held conversations without a face covering and sometimes got inches from players’ uncovered faces to yell instructions during practice. Lower-level staffers and players, in a sport that still too often values shows of toughness and machismo, seemed to follow the head coach’s lead, Franklin says.
Stockstill claims he wore his mask “100 percent of the time.”
When Franklin told him how the team’s weight room had become a hive for irresponsible behavior, Massaro seemed surprised. The guidelines allow for a maximum of 10 people in the weight room, the AD said.
“When is the last time you walked in there and saw 10 people?” Franklin said.
“I kind of trusted that, so I don’t know,” Massaro said."
Though administrators intervened, Franklin says Stockstill and other staffers resumed their bad habits after a few days. Discouraged, he says, he spent $2,000 on masks and handed them out to players and their relatives. A player’s mother texted Franklin to tell him her son “is not the boy I know prior to COVID.” Another player reported that Stockstill and head athletic trainer Keith Bunch had ridiculed him for missing practices when he was feeling ill. The university declined to make Bunch available but acknowledged Stockstill had questioned whether the player was being truthful.
“Maybe to y’all eyes it’s bulls--- but it’s not,” the player told Franklin in a text.
The 25th Blue Raider tested positive, then the 30th and 40th. Three members of the coaching staff also tested positive, Massaro says, as did five members of the team’s strength and conditioning unit.
A few days after Middle Tennessee officials learned this article was in the works, they released the results of an internal investigation that found that “everything was not perfect but there was no evidence presented that supports the allegation that Coach Stockstill willfully disregarded” protocol. In a phone interview, team physician Utpal Patel said he was comfortable with the consistency of face coverings and social distancing during the season, though he added that he rarely entered the locker room or weight room.
In an interview The Post conducted independently, though, a Blue Raiders player shared Franklin’s view that, by and large, the coaching staff refused to take the virus seriously. He called this season one of the most anxious periods of his life."
