MTSU Recruiting

[FHSrebel27]

Ahh, makes sense. I've always admired him, myself, and that's just from the brief encounters I had with him on my TV set when I was younger.

[fromthetop2]

BDD, great post after talking to Boots. Boots KNOWS Middle Tennessee football and everything he's saying is true. The part I'm glad you posted the most was how far behind the state is behind Georgia in facilities and coaching. When all you have to do is coach, you can get some great talent that doesn't have to be certified in a certain course. As an example, if Bill Parcells wanted to be the head coach at your high school, it would be very tough to get him if he wasn't certified to teach chemistry, which might be the only teaching position you have open. Plus, Georgia schools often dwarf similar Tennessee schools in size. Not to mention salaries and supplements. For MTSU, if they want to stay at D-1, they better get the type of players their opponents are fielding-you can't afford to take a chance on a kid 6-2 250 who plays hard-he better be 6-4 and 280 or better.

[Guest region4fan]

Chris Smith from Oakland is 6'4 and over 300 lbs. He garnered All-State honors on just about every poll. He played Offensive and Defensive Tackle. With OHS's small #'s, Smitty proved that he was in shape and a FORCE to be reckoned with. Your Lamar from Lincoln County said that Smitty was the best player that he faced all season. Lamar is going to Vandy. Oh did I mention he has a B average???The heart of a CHAMPION!!

 

So BOOTS if you are regularly reading CoachT...this is a kid who won't let you down. He won't balloon up like another tackle that you recruited last year! If you recruit a kid like this one, I will be at every game at MTSU. I will even bring about 5 more with me. You get Michael Edmiston on board, and you will see hundreds each week from Falcon Country.

[TDCman]

MTSU has an opportunity to make inroads in recruiting in-state. UT is notorious for passing on in-state talent or maybe just taking it for granted. MT needs to take advantage of this. Establishing a solid recruitng base in a 75 mile radius of the campus is very realistic. Obviously, they will need to go outside of that to get prospects but they should develop a home recruiting area.

 

Talent in that 75-mile radius has been down the last couple years. Riverdale has been to the last 3 state championship games and not one of those players has taken a Div I snap. I think they had one player the previous year? That trend is about to reverse itself with a lot of top-drawer talent coming up over the next couple years in the mid-state. If MT has not established the right relationships with these areas coaches, those players will be headed elsewhere.

 

Perhaps the original post is suggesting that MT has not made the investments that will pay off when the local talent pool recovers.

[Indian]

Donnelly has missed out on some too. He didn't think a certain high school player could play linebacker at the high 1-AA, small 1-A level (MTSU was just about to move up) even though one of his assistants thought so. The player went on to be 1-AA all-american twice, 2nd in career tackles at his college and led all of college football in tackles his last year with 200 or so. I think he could have done okay in the Sun Belt. MTSU missed out on two this year that went to UTC, Wilford Blowe and Levonte Barber, I am happy for that but wouldn't be if I was a MTSU fan. Both were top 25 state players in at least some lists, Barber was ranked one of the top 50 running backs nationally.

[Red81KPsmash]

MTSU has learned that you cannot be competitive at the DI level with TN athletes. I am sorry, but this is true. Vandy cannot compete in the SunBelt, much less the SEC. Like it or not, GA and FL athletes are better.

[Indian]

MTSU could compete for the Sun Belt every year and be a fringe top 25 type team if they could get the guys not wanted or offered by Tennessee, or guys without the grades or scores to get in Vanderbilt. Vandy could be a top 25 team year in year out if they got the top private school players from Nashville and Memphis, sometimes a few from Chattanooga, and built around them, along with public school players that made the grade. Look at the fullback from Brentwood Academy this year, lots of other examples like Luke Powell, Auburn lineman Mark Pera from Memphis, Adarious Bowman from Notre Dame. I don't know if he was a scholar but surely he had enough scores and grades to get into Vandy being from ND, North Carolina isn't chopped liver. Not every player on every college roster in Tennessee can be from instate but I think all high school coaches are asking, if players are virtually equal in talent and attitude, then go with the local/state player.

[Guest region4fan]

Maybe they could send tickets to all those GA and Fla players's families and let THEM fill the stands. I am more prone to go watch a kid that I already have seen play. Don't whine about attendance in state when our kids are not getting cut a break.

[ie3]

MTSU has learned that you cannot be competitive at the DI level with TN athletes. I am sorry, but this is true. Vandy cannot compete in the SunBelt, much less the SEC. Like it or not, GA and FL athletes are better.

Red,

Kids are kids, whether they are in GA or FL or TN. The difference is the coaching, support, and facilities. Not to mention perception. And before you ask, yes, I've seen them play in all 3 places as well as a few others.

[fromthetop2]

The factor we're all discounting is, do they want to go to school there or play there? Frankly, if an athlete is good and has the grades and it's between Notre Dame, Stanford, or Vandy, the 'Dores come in third on that list. Vandy has been "turning the corner" for generations, but the results don't prove it. Additionally if a kid is offered between UT, Georgia, or Middle, guess which team gets the short straw? Maybe all of these in-state studs just plain didn't want to be cannon fodder or play in front of crowds slightly larger than a Clinic Bowl, or go to a campus where everyone goes home on the weekend, or the vast majority are from out of state. A lot of these players want the big time, big crowds, big comptetition, big recognition that MT and Vandy don't offer.

[BigDogDaddy]

Boots made a point of talking about the number of kids, over the years, he had recruited in TN, who ever went on to the pros! I think he said three!

 

He said the facilities in GA were incredible compared to what you see in TN.

 

The county commission in Williamson Co (11th wealthiest in U.S.) have no idea the amount of booster $$ that is going toward supporting sports programs.

 

The taxpayer can thank the boosters for attracting new residents to the schools, to enjoy the sports programs that the boosters fund. Imagine how popular Williamson County schools would have been over the last 20 years with out them.

 

The point being that I don't know how much more the average parent can give.I look for corporate sponsorship to become HUGE in Middle TN HS Sports over the next five years.

[fromthetop2]

BDD, you and I are on the same side on this issue. We may have butted heads over our particular teams, but we both share the same problems with WillCo. You go to games in Rutherford County and see their facilities for comparably aged schools, and then look at ours. A county commissioner recently told me that the philosophy seems to be over there (Rutherford) start them off with the best and let parents add from that point, in Williamson it is give them the minimum and then let the parents do it from there. How in the world do you raise, in our case, $120,000 just to bring the football stadium up to code, and then ask the same parents to pay for other sports as well? It is unbelievable, for example, that Ravenwood was built without lights for their baseball and softball fields, nor adequate lockeroom access for football (you'd spend 1/2 of your halftime just getting everyone back and forth to the school's lockeroom). I know this is not the thread to discuss this, and it may be worthy of another thread, but if Williamson County doesn't have superior facilities, what hope do less affluent counties and boards have? How does Georgia find it a priority and we don't?