Search the Community

MURFREESBORO – Rick Stockstill figures once the stomach stops fluttering when early August rolls around, then it might be time to move on and do something else. But the churn of the gut the MTSU football coach is feeling this week in welcoming his 10th Blue Raiders squad for preseason drills that begin Thursday is just as strong as the pangs he felt when starting down this playing and coaching path way back when. That goes back to his high school playing days at Fernandina Beach High School in Florida for his father to being a standout quarterback at Florida State. An assistant college coach for nearly a quarter of a century, Stockstill finally got his head-coaching break at MTSU in 2006. “This will be my 34th year coaching in college,” Stockstill said Monday at the annual media kickoff luncheon for the upcoming season, “and that passion never ends. I still get butterflies and nervous like the first time I was a freshman and went out there. “We play a great game, and it is an opportunity to help young men reach all their goals on and off the field.” Those who think Stockstill hasn’t gotten the job done at MTSU are few and far between. Bowl eligible five of the last six seasons and posting an 11-5 record in the program’s first two seasons in Conference USA, not to mention going 43-26 overall in league play when counting the Sun Belt Conference, the Blue Raiders are annual contenders for the postseason still less than two decades into their conversion to the highest level of NCAA football. read more: http://www.dnj.com/story/sports/college/mtsu/2015/08/03/pogue-stockstill-hungry-usa-greatness/31089543/

DENTON, TEXAS — North Texas coach Dan McCarney gazed from his posh second-floor office window to an almost new $90-million stadium Wednesday afternoon and said, with a straight face, “We want to be like Middle Tennessee.” McCarney knows he has enviable facilities in Conference USA, but he thinks the Blue Raiders have something else – respect. The third-year UNT coach is trying to revive the Mean Green program to a point of consistency that MTSU is at. Whether or not McCarney is sandbagging to appease his upcoming opponent, his team will get a shot to knock off the Blue Raiders on Saturday and take a little of what they have. “(MTSU coach Rick Stockstill) has built a really good program. Middle Tennessee is respected by everybody. We want to be like Middle Tennessee,” McCarney said. “We want to be respected by everyone like that. Are you going to win them all? Probably not. But you want to be respected by everyone, and that’s where Middle Tennessee is at right now. Read more: http://www.dnj.com/article/20131010/BLUERAIDERS01/310100024/UNT-has-stadium-wants-respect-like-Blue-Raiders

So the story of the Stockstills will now be told simultaneously, probably for the next five years, and there lies some interesting twists and turns — especially for the fans that may judge the special circumstances of a father-son football pair and the media that covers them. Rick was at least slightly concerned about both until his son signed in February at Cincinnati, which recently granted Brent a full release from his scholarship. Father-son example Rick and Brent are both level-headed and ultra competitive, so the coach-player relationship between them will probably work itself out, but that’s another story for another day. The question here is about how fans and media see the unique situation. Brett Vito, the North Texas beat writer for the Denton Record-Chronicle, has first-hand insight into that. Vito covered former North Texas head coach Todd Dodge and his son Riley, the one-time Mean Green quarterback, when they were together from 2008-10. Vito has some words of wisdom for MTSU fans and especially yours truly. “We wrote about Riley being the coach’s son. We acknowledged it right off the bat, and everybody knew it,” Vito said. “But after that, he was mostly just the quarterback. “In newspapers, you often have to acknowledge something that everybody already knows. But eventually you’re just belaboring the point.” Read more: http://www.dnj.com/article/20130528/BLUERAIDERS01/305280028/A-new-chapter-begins-Stockstill-family

Tonight's loss really disgusts me just as much as any of you. I've been guilty of hyping this team up to my fellow students, friends, and family. Here is my "it's not that bad thread," which is honestly just as much for me as it is for you. During the first week of the football season the MUTS football team lost to FCS (D-1AA) Mcneese State, who hasn't even turned out to be a very good team even by FBS standards. Their fans were calling for their coach, Rick Stockstill's head on a platter. Since then they are 6-2 with a blowout win at Georgia Tech and are in position to make a bowl game and control their destiny to win the conference outright. I know a loss to a D-2 school is much more embarrassing than a loss to an FCS school, but there is no reason this year can't be a tale of two seasons for us either. I'm gonna try to wake up and find out this is a bad nightmare, but if that doesn't work I'm going to wake up in the morning with a sick feeling in my stomach but still root like hell for us on Wednesday against Lamar.

COACH RICK STOCKSTILL: We have North Texas coming up this Saturday, and they are coming off an emotional win last week over ULL. They will come in here with a lot of confidence. We are both 2-1 in the conference along with three others, so it is a critical game. We'll have to play extremely well. They are doing a great job of running the ball, and I think they are under-rated in passing the ball. They throw it 26 to 27 times a game, and have thrown it over 200 yards in five straight games. In the past couple of years, they had Lance Dunbar, who was their "bell cow" and he got the majority of the reps. Now they are pretty evenly balanced. They have two really good backs that can run, they are good in the screen game, and they have good speed. They'll use them more in the passing game than they did with Dunbar in the past. (On how MT running backs did last week without Benny Cunningham): I thought all of those guys did a nice job, Jordan (Parker) ran hard and had some explosive runs, a couple of them over ten yards. Reggie Whatley and Drayton Calhoun also had some nice runs. Drayton ran better than his stats and was the victim of a missed block and a holding penalty. Jeremiah (Bryson) had some nice runs as well. All four of those guys have also improved in pass protection than what they were in previous games, and they will only continue to get better. I was pleased with the production of the running backs. Even with the absence of Benny, we are still the same offense. Each game is going to be different, but we still want to be as balanced as we can in passing and throwing. Read more: http://www.goblueraiders.com/content.cfm/id/63594