You better find a way to be physical...

[sWiley]

Some nice things I'm hearing from new coach DM, he wants to be physical....paraphrased below....

---If you're playing finesse offense, you're gonna have a finesse defense.

---Quarterbacks and line of scrimmage play. Those are the two things that effect football more than anything. Every conference is a line of scrimmage conference. Conference USA is a line of scrimmage conference. If you can do that and you have a QB you got an opportunity to get that thing done.

---The team has to be successful up front on both sides of the ball to be successful

Probably a no brainer to anyone with a brain cell that follows football, but games are won and lost in the trenches. Very rarely did we ever win games when we got dominated up front with Stockstill (SDSU comes to mind...) We certainly won't be winning any championships without some war daddies up front. I feel like that is what was always lacking in terms of a championship squad with Stockstill. We could just never field an OL that could get it done for us against the best teams in the league.

Also FYI, our entire starting defense including the DL and half the 2 deep is in the portal or graduated. He's got some major work to do on the defensive side of the ball if we are going to have any chance next year.

 

[Sommy]

We definitely need an upgrade on the OL. I hope we can find some new talent, but it seems like every college team is looking for OL help. It sure would be nice to see a solid running game again.

 

[mtfblue]

We definitely need an upgrade on the OL. I hope we can find some new talent, but it seems like every college team is looking for OL help. It sure would be nice to see a solid running game again.

get some of those big Ivy league kids in the portal...most are in because the IVY only gives you 4 years to play

 

[AustinLewis]

one of my biggest concerns for Mason / MT is his ability to recruit / retain big, physical guys in the trenches
6’5 330 pound guys that are physical and athletic don’t grow on trees. Hard for P5 to find, much less MT

 

[mtfblue]

offensive trenches much easier, just look around everyone else has guys we just didn't recruit any. Now the defensive front you may get a 6'1.5" to 6'3" and around 295 to 305 but these guys must have long arms and extra strong. MT's problem was there just wasn't any development, they have guys.

 

[Riyah]

There’s guys in the 6’1.5” to 6’3” range that are P5 guys they just have to be war daddys up front can’t have average measurements and not be a fighter.

 

[blueraiderJT]

If you have a good OL and DL coach, you'll have a good line. We need good coaches. He better not keep Mallory or Polly.

 

[RaiderDoug]

What coaches do we want to keep?

Generally, despite being a bit maligned, Tommy West had mostly put out some good DL units. The WR, and QB have been the drivers of the team.

OL got to go. Secondary has been bad as well.

 

[MT01]

DL has been better since Shafer arrived. I would correlate about 0% of that improvement of that unit to West.

 

[sWiley]

DL has been good because we've had some serious talent at the position. Royston helped recruit a lot of those guys.

I really want to see Royston retained

 

[AustinLewis]

from a recruiting standpoint, Royston, Stock, Polly, Suber, and Tucker do make the most sense to retain. I don’t think all of them will be retained.

 

[blueraiderJT]

Suber won't. The secondary was the weakest point of the D and the OL was the weakest point of the O. Now we have a different problem. We need a whole new Defense now.