Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Coaches Check-In Episode 5: Rick Stockstill
7/10/2023 9:58:00 AM | Football, General
The Blue Raider football coach talks the summer recruiting trail, summer workouts and the new CUSA on the podcast
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — With summer workouts well underway in Dance Studio A, Head Football Coach Rick Stockstill joined GoBlueRaiders.com Staff Writer Sam Doughton for Episode 5 of the Coaches Check-In Podcast.
Stockstill discusses the summer recruiting scene and how it has changed over time, building off of 2022's prominent wins, the upcoming work on the Student Athlete Performance Center and dives into how his staff is planning for the new Conference USA schedule this fall, plus much more!
You can find excerpts of the podcast below, lightly edited for grammar, clarity and flow. The full episode is available for download or to stream at the link above, or by visiting the "Podcasts" tab under "Multimedia" on GoBlueRaiders.com.
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What are those big prospect camps in the summer like where so many schools come together to scout upcoming prospects in person?
At most of them, there's probably 30-plus (schools), maybe even 50. There's a ton down at Florida State. There's a lot of good players. There's a lot of kids that go. You've got to do a really good job from a homework standpoint of knowing who's there and being able to watch and evaluate. Because there's so many, by the time you find somebody that you like, the camp's over. I think they were down a little bit this year. With having official visits now in the summer, I think kids are changing a little bit. There's probably more underclassmen going to it than there are '24s going, but there's still a lot of good players there. And our camp numbers here on campus, the camps that we had, were really good. They were up from last year's numbers.
Due to NCAA rules, the coaches only get two hours of skill instruction each week during the summer prior to the start of fall camp. What's your staff's strategy for how to get the most out of that time to get the team ready for camp come August?
We really don't use all two hours, because you're allowed eight (total) hours all week and that includes lifting and running. If you take two hours for us out there, now you're taking two hours away from the weight room. We'll get an hour this week and that will leave us seven hours this week. We'll get another hour next week with them and then probably not pick up until the middle or end of July, we'll start getting a couple more hours. I'd rather have them in the weight room, conditioning, running and all of that so that they're ready to go in August.
But this is a great deal from the NCAA standpoint that football has never been able to do until last year. It's beneficial, especially for the young guys, the new guys that are just getting here this summer. It gives them a chance that we can show them, introduce our drills to them. How to go out there and work on their own on the weekends and what we expect. It's really good, but it's kind of a fine line. You don't want to take too much away from Coach Hickmann in the weight room.
Looking ahead to the 2023 schedule, what I'm most curious to hear about is your program's preparation for the October midweek games in CUSA play, all of which will be nationally televised. How have y'all started that preparation now?
It's scary to be honest with you. Because I've done (the math), I've got it written down if you'll give me a second here, I'll find it real quick. But we play two games in six days. You play three games in 12 days, you play four games in 18 days. You play five games in 25 days. That doesn't give your guys very much time to recover. How you're going to be able to practice, you're not going to be able to do a lot of hitting because it takes time to recover. NFL guys, you talk about how much they complain about having to play a Sunday to a Thursday. We're doing the same thing. Two games in six days, that's hard. It's going to be hard on them physically, it's going to be hard on us mentally.
Then you go 18 days before you play another game again. I understand the TV package, I understand the exposure and all of that. But I'm really concerned about our team. You get an ankle injury and sometimes you can get back in six or seven days. Well you're going to have three days to get back (now). If you get injured, there's a chance that you can miss two or three games, where last year you might've missed only one game or you might not miss any.
This is obviously uncharted waters for us. We've got to do a good job, I'm really confident in the plan we have on paper. But understanding the flexibility that we're going to have, I don't see us doing a lot of practicing in pads. You're not going to be able to have a big gameplan because you're not going to have enough time to add new stuff.
The MAC has been doing this awhile, albeit in November instead of October.
I've talked to all the MAC coaches and it's not an issue for them because it's the last four games of the year. So they know they're going either Tuesday-Tuesday or Wednesday-Tuesday, but it's the last four games of the year, so it's a lot easier to plan. They don't have an 18-day open date afterwards. They don't have it all crammed at the beginning of the year. You want to talk to the MAC people, but it's a different ballgame for them. Doing it the last four games is a heck of a lot easier than us having to do it for five games in September and October.
Listen to the full podcast
Stockstill discusses the summer recruiting scene and how it has changed over time, building off of 2022's prominent wins, the upcoming work on the Student Athlete Performance Center and dives into how his staff is planning for the new Conference USA schedule this fall, plus much more!
You can find excerpts of the podcast below, lightly edited for grammar, clarity and flow. The full episode is available for download or to stream at the link above, or by visiting the "Podcasts" tab under "Multimedia" on GoBlueRaiders.com.
--
What are those big prospect camps in the summer like where so many schools come together to scout upcoming prospects in person?
At most of them, there's probably 30-plus (schools), maybe even 50. There's a ton down at Florida State. There's a lot of good players. There's a lot of kids that go. You've got to do a really good job from a homework standpoint of knowing who's there and being able to watch and evaluate. Because there's so many, by the time you find somebody that you like, the camp's over. I think they were down a little bit this year. With having official visits now in the summer, I think kids are changing a little bit. There's probably more underclassmen going to it than there are '24s going, but there's still a lot of good players there. And our camp numbers here on campus, the camps that we had, were really good. They were up from last year's numbers.
Due to NCAA rules, the coaches only get two hours of skill instruction each week during the summer prior to the start of fall camp. What's your staff's strategy for how to get the most out of that time to get the team ready for camp come August?
We really don't use all two hours, because you're allowed eight (total) hours all week and that includes lifting and running. If you take two hours for us out there, now you're taking two hours away from the weight room. We'll get an hour this week and that will leave us seven hours this week. We'll get another hour next week with them and then probably not pick up until the middle or end of July, we'll start getting a couple more hours. I'd rather have them in the weight room, conditioning, running and all of that so that they're ready to go in August.
But this is a great deal from the NCAA standpoint that football has never been able to do until last year. It's beneficial, especially for the young guys, the new guys that are just getting here this summer. It gives them a chance that we can show them, introduce our drills to them. How to go out there and work on their own on the weekends and what we expect. It's really good, but it's kind of a fine line. You don't want to take too much away from Coach Hickmann in the weight room.
Looking ahead to the 2023 schedule, what I'm most curious to hear about is your program's preparation for the October midweek games in CUSA play, all of which will be nationally televised. How have y'all started that preparation now?
It's scary to be honest with you. Because I've done (the math), I've got it written down if you'll give me a second here, I'll find it real quick. But we play two games in six days. You play three games in 12 days, you play four games in 18 days. You play five games in 25 days. That doesn't give your guys very much time to recover. How you're going to be able to practice, you're not going to be able to do a lot of hitting because it takes time to recover. NFL guys, you talk about how much they complain about having to play a Sunday to a Thursday. We're doing the same thing. Two games in six days, that's hard. It's going to be hard on them physically, it's going to be hard on us mentally.
Then you go 18 days before you play another game again. I understand the TV package, I understand the exposure and all of that. But I'm really concerned about our team. You get an ankle injury and sometimes you can get back in six or seven days. Well you're going to have three days to get back (now). If you get injured, there's a chance that you can miss two or three games, where last year you might've missed only one game or you might not miss any.
This is obviously uncharted waters for us. We've got to do a good job, I'm really confident in the plan we have on paper. But understanding the flexibility that we're going to have, I don't see us doing a lot of practicing in pads. You're not going to be able to have a big gameplan because you're not going to have enough time to add new stuff.
The MAC has been doing this awhile, albeit in November instead of October.
I've talked to all the MAC coaches and it's not an issue for them because it's the last four games of the year. So they know they're going either Tuesday-Tuesday or Wednesday-Tuesday, but it's the last four games of the year, so it's a lot easier to plan. They don't have an 18-day open date afterwards. They don't have it all crammed at the beginning of the year. You want to talk to the MAC people, but it's a different ballgame for them. Doing it the last four games is a heck of a lot easier than us having to do it for five games in September and October.
Listen to the full podcast
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