Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
COLUMN: On Culture, Leadership, and No. 9
11/27/2022 11:39:00 AM | Football
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Jakobe Thomas, rightfully, was the star of the post-game press availability last night, as Middle Tennessee football won its final game of the regular season in dramatic fashion thanks to the safety's two interceptions late in the fourth quarter. That made my job writing the sidebar late into the night in the Eastern Time Zone quite easy, which I'm sure many of you saw earlier today on GoBlueRaiders.com.
But what stuck with me as I wrote that sidebar was an anecdote that made for a nice moment in Thomas' journey this season, but also one that reinforced my belief that what makes this MTSU team go is its leadership. Particularly, the leadership of one individual.
"The beginning of the season, I know I wasn't playing a lot," Thomas said. "Sometimes I thought about putting my head down. After we played Miami, I was like 'Man, I'm not going to play this season.' I talked to Ferg, and he just told me to stay down and stay ready, my name was going to be called."
Jordan Ferguson, MTSU's veteran captain, recalled that conversation he had with Thomas when the safety was feeling down on himself.
"Just seeing so many safeties come through here, we've had a lot of DBs who are playing in the league now," Ferguson said. "And I know Jakobe has the size, has got the intangibles to be a really good player. He's still young. I just try to do the most I can right now to keep him under my wing, help him make plays. And you never know when your time is going to come."
I've devoted a lot of column inches to Ferguson across my two seasons covering this program. With his production on the field the last two years, as well as his charity work off the field, he's an easy guy to root for and an even easier guy to write about.
But the character trait that I've discovered the most about this season is his leadership, as well as the leadership of not only his four fellow team captains, but also a plethora of student athlete leaders all over the Blue Raider roster.
There have been so many players, sometimes in very explicit terms, other times in more subtexual ways, that have turned their biggest moments of the season back on Ferguson. From Ja'Kerrius Wyatt getting named a captain alongside him this season, to Frank Peasant talking about the amount of respect he had for "Big Ferg" and how much he wants to send him out with a bowl victory after a win over Charlotte to Thomas' anecdote last night, the impact Ferguson has had on his teammates is apparent.
I always sort of roll my eyes when coaches talk about "culture" to others outside of the locker room, because I've always thought it a pretty useless platitude.
Some of that cynicism is my own personal experience, to be sure. The baseball team I played on in high school had a great culture the year we made it to the state quarterfinals. The next year, with almost entirely the same core, the team lost in the first round of the state playoffs, but the vibes were off most of the year. Was that a product of the seniors we lost from that team in 2014? Probably to some extent! We had a lot of great players leave. But I think us just losing more games had more to do with the vibe shift than anything.
To me, at best, "good culture" correlates strongly with winning. At worst, good culture only happens because you are winning (for another example, see how LSU's "culture" during their national title season quickly tanked in the two years after. Was that a result of a change in culture? Or just a change in win-loss record?).
But I have far less cynicism around "leadership" as a platitude, because I've seen that in action. Even just having quiet leaders that go about their work the right way can have a rising-tide effect on the whole team, to say nothing of vocal guys like Ferguson, who build people up and motivate them through not just their actions, but their words.
This team has had a lot of ups and downs this season, there's no denying that. But through the fresh faces, the tough losses, the injuries, the team has stayed levelheaded, kept their heads down, and gotten back to work. That's a credit to coaching, for sure, but also to the student-athlete leadership. Folks like Ferguson, like Yusuf Ali, like Chase Cunningham have gotten respect from the team because they put in some of the hardest work on the team. The stories of their career prove it.
Can MTSU sustain that level of leadership after those guys move on? Time will tell. But so much of what I've enjoyed about covering this team is how together they are. And I don't see that changing any time soon.
But what stuck with me as I wrote that sidebar was an anecdote that made for a nice moment in Thomas' journey this season, but also one that reinforced my belief that what makes this MTSU team go is its leadership. Particularly, the leadership of one individual.
"The beginning of the season, I know I wasn't playing a lot," Thomas said. "Sometimes I thought about putting my head down. After we played Miami, I was like 'Man, I'm not going to play this season.' I talked to Ferg, and he just told me to stay down and stay ready, my name was going to be called."
Jordan Ferguson, MTSU's veteran captain, recalled that conversation he had with Thomas when the safety was feeling down on himself.
"Just seeing so many safeties come through here, we've had a lot of DBs who are playing in the league now," Ferguson said. "And I know Jakobe has the size, has got the intangibles to be a really good player. He's still young. I just try to do the most I can right now to keep him under my wing, help him make plays. And you never know when your time is going to come."
I've devoted a lot of column inches to Ferguson across my two seasons covering this program. With his production on the field the last two years, as well as his charity work off the field, he's an easy guy to root for and an even easier guy to write about.
But the character trait that I've discovered the most about this season is his leadership, as well as the leadership of not only his four fellow team captains, but also a plethora of student athlete leaders all over the Blue Raider roster.
There have been so many players, sometimes in very explicit terms, other times in more subtexual ways, that have turned their biggest moments of the season back on Ferguson. From Ja'Kerrius Wyatt getting named a captain alongside him this season, to Frank Peasant talking about the amount of respect he had for "Big Ferg" and how much he wants to send him out with a bowl victory after a win over Charlotte to Thomas' anecdote last night, the impact Ferguson has had on his teammates is apparent.
I always sort of roll my eyes when coaches talk about "culture" to others outside of the locker room, because I've always thought it a pretty useless platitude.
It turns out running a program is actually very simple: pic.twitter.com/XV9qKGyRcq
— Jordan Sperber (@hoopvision68) April 22, 2019
Some of that cynicism is my own personal experience, to be sure. The baseball team I played on in high school had a great culture the year we made it to the state quarterfinals. The next year, with almost entirely the same core, the team lost in the first round of the state playoffs, but the vibes were off most of the year. Was that a product of the seniors we lost from that team in 2014? Probably to some extent! We had a lot of great players leave. But I think us just losing more games had more to do with the vibe shift than anything.
To me, at best, "good culture" correlates strongly with winning. At worst, good culture only happens because you are winning (for another example, see how LSU's "culture" during their national title season quickly tanked in the two years after. Was that a result of a change in culture? Or just a change in win-loss record?).
But I have far less cynicism around "leadership" as a platitude, because I've seen that in action. Even just having quiet leaders that go about their work the right way can have a rising-tide effect on the whole team, to say nothing of vocal guys like Ferguson, who build people up and motivate them through not just their actions, but their words.
This team has had a lot of ups and downs this season, there's no denying that. But through the fresh faces, the tough losses, the injuries, the team has stayed levelheaded, kept their heads down, and gotten back to work. That's a credit to coaching, for sure, but also to the student-athlete leadership. Folks like Ferguson, like Yusuf Ali, like Chase Cunningham have gotten respect from the team because they put in some of the hardest work on the team. The stories of their career prove it.
Can MTSU sustain that level of leadership after those guys move on? Time will tell. But so much of what I've enjoyed about covering this team is how together they are. And I don't see that changing any time soon.
Players Mentioned
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