If you watch that mic'd up vid, Dearmon is talking a lot with the O line. He will be HEAVILY involved with the Oline. I'm excited about that. Plus, the communication will be a lot better.
FOOTBALL Way too early predictions for 2021...
- Thread starter Matt Dossett
- Start date
3-9, maybe 4-8 at best. The truth hurts, but we are bottom feeders.
I think it will be improved because he is putting an emphasis on communication. wTF didn't communicate at all. He was fighting everyone. He's done that his whole career. If Dearmon is talking with the staff and players and installing his system with a single language that everyone knows and can design plays from, then he's light years better than wTF.
Well hell, you saw him do it in the video so yeah, he's taking actions. LOL.
If I was Dearmon, and was stuck with Mallory as my OL coach, I would spend all my time with the OL and let my QBs learn the RPO watching YouTube videos. That would be more effective than leaving Mallory to coach’em up by himself. I would 100% rather have Jimmy Ray Stephens back over Mallory.
I like TF. His record as OC speaks for itself. But I also believe that conflict within the staff regarding COVID (and how to handle it) made TF a bit of an “energy vampire.”
Dearmon’s energy is infectious.
Dearmon’s energy is infectious.
Well, Monmouth just finished their abbreviated Big South Covid season at 3-0 averaging 42 points a game. It might be worth a drive over to see if Stock pulls another McNeese St.
This offense is so much better than last years. Passes are on target and WR's are in stride and making big plays. The RB situation is much improved. I don't put too much stock in freshman talent but Terry Wilkins is a burner, if the kid see's daylight on inside runs he's gone.
Dearmon's O is much improved over TF, O is running the ball with some authority now and passing is on target. This team should be closer to the 8-4 mark then the losing record we've seen in the past two years.
Coaches have an expiration date and I felt like TF worked past his expiration, players don't care for his attitude which he was able to get away with at Power 5 schools but guys weren't willing to play G5 and deal with his strangeness. He might of had a good record but honestly he couldn't recruit a real QB to make the offense work the way it was designed and it was due to his strangeness.
You are what your record says you are so it's hard to refute 3-9 or 4-8. HOWEVER MTSU dropped some cruft from last years team and picked up some solid talent and while most C-USA teams retained most of their players MTSU has been young (particularly on D-Line), MTSU has probably improved more than our competition over the last six month. I think we'll improve this year but MTSU will need to "show me" before I can really believe.
As someone pointed out in an earlier post, our size on defense is a major liability. Scoring a boatload of points is nice unless the other guys score more.
😂
Our two leading tacklers last season were the safeties. Let that sink in for a minute.
😂
Our two leading tacklers last season were the safeties. Let that sink in for a minute.
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So far, they have only been running it against OUR defense. Let’s see what his offense does against #2 Marshall, #7 UAB, #23 Rice, #24 FAU and #28 WKU in Total Defense, before we get all giddy.
That is all.
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To be fair, let's see if #2 Marshall can, #24 FAU, and #28 WKU can replace their DCs
To be equally fair, nothing has really changed with MT’s DC and defensive personnel except some of the starters didn’t participate in Spring practice.
There are plenty of big kids who can't and/or don't play at the next level, guys like Nate Woody (Army DC) has developed defensive systems around smaller more agile players but the fact is all the big athletic kids are picked over by the time the G5 gets to them. One thing you need to consider is out of ~8 DE's on roster 6 are RS Freshman or lower and we played ~4 of those during games in 2020. On the Interior Defensive Line 4 out of 9 are RS Freshman or lower and two of those played last year. MTSU is a really young team on the D-Line.
While most teams are probably bringing back all their kids (like MTSU) the upside for MTSU is that our younger kids are going to make a bigger leap in development and they are obviously were getting reps in 2020.
You are spot on, safeties shouldn't be your leading tacklers and I'll provide a stat to help illustrate, MTSU Rush Defense was 110th in the NCAA for Yards per Carry at 5.3 and 115th on Average number of 1st downs per game at 11.7. MTSU needs to improve on Rush Defense, we're actually decent (52nd) on pass defense yards per attempt.
Thank you!👍
I can speak from personal experience that when the free safety (Blankenship) is your leading tackler and his neighbor (Grate) is the 2nd leading tackler, it not only creates bigger space between the line of scrimmage (yds. per carry and rush defense) and the initial point of contact but also causes your safeties to “peek” making them more vulnerable to shots. They are human.
In 1978, the school to the west opened with @Ole Miss, Houston, Miss St, @Texas A&M. Two Wishbone teams and a Veer team. The only time I was beaten deep in 3 years, I got caught peeking in the backfield at Tulane that same year. I was the team’s 2nd leading tackler but.....we finished 4-7.
Hopefully Shafer and West can fix it. We’ll see.
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I was looking over our roster last night and honestly am pretty hopeful for the upcoming season. There's a ton of young players on the team that got experience last year that have good size , another year in the weight room, and hopefully a competent staff to guide them. Our defense should be substantially better. Offense is obviously a big question mark with a new OC, new QB, and transfer RB's who will finally play.
We should have the horses to push for the East this year. Now is that going to happen? I don't know. A lot will depend on Hockman and the offense moving the chains and establishing that ground game that Dearmon wants to do.
We should have the horses to push for the East this year. Now is that going to happen? I don't know. A lot will depend on Hockman and the offense moving the chains and establishing that ground game that Dearmon wants to do.
If our offense inproves by 20% alone, our defensive numbers will improve by a mile. The other team can't score when the O has the ball and protects it. If we can cut down on the turnovers, put together longer drives and run the ball better, it will be a night and day difference to what we've had with wTF. I'll take that all day.
I sincerely hope you guys are right. That said, it’s time for the Stockstill era to include a Conference title. Forgive me if I don’t jump in lockstep with everyone else because the angry threads and posts of disappointment at the end of every season are still in here if you go back and read them. Many of you are the authors. I’m not mad, I just don’t care until something happens to encourage me to care again. Three straight losing seasons in Basketball and two in Football kinda leave you numb.
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Dont blame you at all. To be fair I'm just looking at our roster and it's not a bad roster. We have good numbers across the board with a great mixture of talent, experience, and depth.
I believe we've always been fairly talented at the LB and defensive secondary units, but our DL has been so weak it's been hard on them. This year, we return a lot of experience on the DL and there's talent and depth there too. We shouldn't see a ton of drop off when the 2's are in. It's time for Zaylin Wood and JuJu to live up to the recruitment hype. I really believe our defense will be substantially improved this year if our defensive line can be more disruptive and stop the run. Our secondary is oozing with talent. Blankenship/Grate are the #1 safeties in the conference, and our DB's will be getting their respect when they show out this year. Quincy Riley is a man with NFL potential and Teldrick Ross should be able to lock it down on the other side if that's who they start (that's who I would start). There's excellent quality depth behind them and for the nickle as well with quite literally too many players to name vying for PT. I like Jalen Jackson & Myers-Glover personally. I'm really excited to see our defense this year.
Offense is going to be the big question mark with the most to prove. Outside of the WR position, there's a lot of unknown's. Hockman should be pretty good, but heaven forbid he gets hurt. There's nobody proven behind him though I do like the Vattiato kid but he needs time. Will be interesting to see who wins the #2 job. Have to think it's Cunningham with his experience but I've personally never been a fan. Maybe he will be better under Dearmon?
No idea what we'll get at the RB position. Rasul was a major big time recruit coming out of high school, rated the #1 RB in the state of Florida. Had offers to play for anyone and everyone. Now he's at MT. Hoping he shows out for us and can rotate 3-4 backs in per game and just wear opponents out. That will all depend on the OL though. We have traditionally had some of the worst OL play in conference and maybe the country as of late so we'll see. Hard to see how we have kept the same OL coaches on the staff with our literal inability to run the ball. If you take out the QB and focus on the RB, we've got to have some of the worst rushing numbers in the country as of late. We've just gotten little to no production from them last several years. That has to change and change big time if this team has any aspirations of goals of a championship. There's a ton of OL on the roster so we'll see what happens. Surely they can find 5 that can play with a few subs.
So it's gonna be a big make over. In a way that can benefit us because we are a big wild card. Teams, at least for the first few games, won't have too much of an idea of what to expect. We can game plan each week and continue to throw in wrinkles and play off tendencies that we've established and use that to our advantage. Great coaches can make all the difference guys. I still believe in Shafer who brings a winning game plan to 85%~ of the games he prepares for. Rarely see a dud game plan from Shafer but the players have to win at the line of scrimmage or it doesn't matter what the X & O's are.
As happy as I am with our roster, I havn't looked at other teams rosters. They've been able to benefit from the same things we have, holding players over for an extra year and bringing in transfers. In many cases, I would be of the belief that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Essentially, the better teams keep the better players and the $hitty teams continue to be what they are, $hitty.
With our transfers, new OC, and mixture of depth and experience with nearly every position group, I'm hopeful. I ain't holding my breath though.
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And that’s a good point as well...
One of my biggest concerns about MT FB continues to be the state of the DL. OL got addressed with P5 transfers (let’s see if that helps Mallory). To this point, there’s not a incoming DL that I trust to make an impact in 2021. And that’s not counting my lack of trust I. Tommy West
every time there is a coaching change at the coordinator, this is the same ole post and nothing really changes. Look at what Dearmon did at Kansas, with a better roster than here at MT. I'm like Franklin, I'll wait and see.
Tommy West fired 3 DC’s during his 9-year run at Memphis, Rick Whitt, Joe Lee Dunn and Rick Kravitz. Or 5 if you count firing himself after going 2-10 when he took over for Dunn after game 3 in 2006 and rookie DC Kenny Ingram who got fired along with West in 2009. His 6th, Tim Walton bailed on his own terms after 1 season in 2008.
Never won a CUSA title and had an NCAA record holding rusher in DeAngelo Williams for 4 years. His downfall was giving the keys to the recruiting board to Clay Helton who loaded his own offenses and padded his stats for his coaching resume. Sound familiar?????
West was compensated extremely well by RC Johnson to be quiet, not rock the boat and stay out of Calipari’s way. His infamous YouTube rant about the state of Tiger Football only happened because he got fired in 2009.
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Another ironic twist to that day in 2009 was the phone call I got on November 9th from a buddy of mine at FedEx after Memphis got blown out in Knoxville the Saturday before. Told me West had been terminated, would finish the season and they had already reached out to Stock (before asking permission from Massaro and McPhee.) Until then, I’d never even spoken to Stock. I hung up and sent him an email telling him what I had been told and would help him any way I could with former players and the Memphis HS coaches that Tommy West had pretty much alienated. He called me at my office in less than 5 minutes to tell me he wasn’t talking to any folks at Memphis. We still had to play LaLA, ASU and ULM and pray for Troy to lose. The next day I get a call from a buddy at BRAA wanting me to meet with him and Stock in the BRAA office. 😂😂
That was the first time I ever spoke with Stock face to face. I think he was redshirted in ‘77 when we played FSU in Tallahassee my Soph year and I blew out my knee early in the season against ULM in ‘79 so I never got to play against him.
Amazing how things come full circle. MTSU still has Stock, added West and Mallory from that 2-10 Memphis staff.....and still no Conference title.
That was the first time I ever spoke with Stock face to face. I think he was redshirted in ‘77 when we played FSU in Tallahassee my Soph year and I blew out my knee early in the season against ULM in ‘79 so I never got to play against him.
Amazing how things come full circle. MTSU still has Stock, added West and Mallory from that 2-10 Memphis staff.....and still no Conference title.
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