Stockstill hungry for C-USA greatness

[Harry]

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/