MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Coach Rick Stockstill, wideout CJ Windham and safety Reed Blankenship spent Wednesday on the podium at Conference USA Media Days, taking questions from reporters throughout the conference on the upcoming season.
With plenty of insight into the precamp preparation, and some interesting comments on some of the more relevant national topics in the sports media zeitgeist at the moment, here are the highlights from the preseason press conference.
ON THE FIELD
With two new position coaches on staff, and a plethora of transfers added to the eligible roster, there stands a chance of plenty of new faces playing key roles for the Blue Raiders this season, despite MT returning 20 total starters between offense, defense and special teams.
"You can't base your opinion of a Conference-USA team off of last year, because you don't know what improvements they've made," Stockstill said. "All I know is that I'm excited about our team and the improvements that we've made."
Stockstill spent a lot of time highlighting the need to improve the Blue Raiders' running game, particularly letting the team's running backs earn more of the team's rushing yards after the departure of quarterback Asher O'Hara, who led the team in rushing a year ago.
MT averaged just 135.4 yards per game on the ground a season ago, with O'Hara accounting for just under half of those yards, 66.8 yards per game, himself.
"Our previous quarterback was a really special runner," Stockstill said. "He had a special skillset as a runner that we took advantage of that. Last year, Amir Rasul and Martell Pettaway, both of those guys opted out. Brad Anderson was basically at receiver, we had an injury at running back. So we didn't have as much depth there.
"We'll still get some quarterback runs, but not near what we had these last couple of years. We've got to get balanced with our running backs getting the majority of the rushing yards and then we've got to improve our passing game."
On the passing game side, Windham broke down the benefits to practicing as a wide receiver when there's a quarterback competition on the horizon: you get more reps.
"It's kind of like getting double the work, you get to work not just with one quarterback, but two and three out here in summer," Windham said. "I think it only makes for a better rapport with all of them, and the receivers are also getting all the work. It's only helping us."
MOVING PAST COVID
Both Stockstill and Blankenship expressed optimism about MT and C-USA's ability to handle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the vaccines players and coaches have been able to take.
"We're trying to do everything, and I'm sure every school in the conference is trying to do the same thing, trying to educate your players the best you can about the importance of vaccinations," Stockstill said.
Blankenship noted that the vaccine, besides helping protect the player from the virus, also has advantages with alleviating the burden of contact tracing protocols.
"It gives us the opportunity to make that choice, more of a business decision, where if you want to play, that vaccine could actually help you in the contact tracing, because that's really what affected me last year," Blankenship said.
Stockstill noted, however, that things always could throw you for a loop with the pandemic, and his team would just have to stay ready and adapt.
"There's so many unknowns out there that like last year, you've got to be ready to adjust and handle what's dealt to you that day," Stockstill said. "We're getting closer to normal, but we're still not there."
COMING BACK TO PLAY
Blankenship is one of a plethora of student athletes around the country taking advantage of an extra year of eligibility to continue their collegiate career. After a disjointed rehab process from a season-ending injury in 2019 led to a 2020 season he wasn't 100 percent, Blankenship is hungry to show he can play at the next level.
"I came back because I knew I wasn't ready for the next level, and I've wanted to play at the next level since I was born," Blankenship said. "So I knew coming back was the right decision. Last year, coming off the injury and not being able to rehab, it really affected the way I played, mentally and physically."
EXPANDING THE PLAYOFFS
The prospect of the College Football Playoff's proposed expansion to 12-teams had players all across the conference excited at the prospect of their school having a better chance to qualify in the future, including Windham.
"I feel like the expanded playoff will be a big thing for exposure for Conference-USA, and all the players that play in this league that wish we had a little more exposure, like the Alabamas, the LSUs, the bigger schools," Windham said. "We actually get to compete with them and show them what we're about. Because I think it's only fair that we get the chance to compete and show that we can hang with the big dogs."
NEW NIL RIGHTS
Finally, both Blankenship and Windham said that they had a few teammates taking advantage of new NCAA rules allowing athletes to profit off of the use of their name, image and likeness, but neither had personally signed any deals.
Not for the want of trying, in Windham's case.
"I like smoothies, I drink a lot of smoothies, so I go to Smoothie King every Friday, I've reached out to them and have been talking to some of their execs to try to get that squared away for me," Windham said. "And I definitely want to go see about a few local Murfreesboro restaurants."
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July 23, 2021 at 06:10AM
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