Former Clemson assistant coach hopes someone ‘takes a chance’ on him after firing
Former Clemson football assistant Rick Stockstill is still figuring out his next move after being fired for the first time in his professional life in November.
One thing’s certain, though: After 18 seasons as Middle Tennessee State’s head coach and 41 total in the business, he’s not ready to leave college football just yet.
“I still want to coach because I know I can add value and I can still impact these players,” Stockstill said on a Dec. 14 episode of the “Clemson Dubcast with Larry Williams”, one of his first extended interviews since MTSU fired him Nov. 27.
Stockstill, 66, acknowledged his age might play a factor as he seeks a new coaching job for the first time since 2005. Before his firing at Middle Tennessee State, he was the fourth-longest tenured head coach among FBS programs.
“If somebody out there’s going to take a chance on me as a position coach, I don’t know,” he said. “I’m hopeful somebody will take a chance on me as an analyst, because all these Power Five schools now have got 100 analysts.”
Stockstill was 113-111 in his career at MTSU, which competes at the FBS Group of Five level in Conference USA, before being let go on the heels of a third losing season in five years. The Blue Raiders were 4-8 and 3-5 in CUSA play in 2023.
Middle Tennessee State has since hired former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason to succeed Stockstill, who led the program to 10 bowl game appearances, six seasons of eight or more wins and a handful of memorable Power Five upsets (including No. 25 Miami in 2022).
Stockstill said it was “disappointing” and “hard” that he couldn’t leave MTSU on his own terms but that he understood the results-driven reality of the business. The longtime coach was under contract through 2029 and will receive a buyout of roughly $5 million set to be paid out through that period, according to the Daily News Journal.
“We lost to two top 10 teams the first two games of the season, Alabama and Missouri, and we had five one-score losses,” he said. “So we didn’t have a great year. We were coming off two great years the previous two years, and it wasn’t broke. I just needed to fix a couple things. And, obviously, I didn’t get the time to fix it.”
Before he was hired at MTSU, Stockstill spent 23 years as an assistant coach, including 14 at Clemson from 1989-2002. During over a decade with the Tigers, he primarily worked as a quarterbacks coach and wide receivers coach and helped the program set over 100 school records on offense from 1998-2002.
Stockstill worked under four different Clemson head coaches, and his 2002 departure to become East Carolina’s offensive coordinator opened up a spot on Tommy Bowden’s staff that went to Dabo Swinney, who’s gone on to win two national championships and become the winningest coach in school history.
“He just needed an opportunity,” Stockstill said of Swinney. “And he got his opportunity and has done a marvelous job. … I’ve still got a handful of friends on that staff and in the community there, so I’m just happy for him. I’m happy for Dabo and I’m happy for the Clemson people.”
A return to Clemson?
So, given his extensive ties to the program, a natural follow-up question: Would Stockstill be interested in a return to the Tigers’ coaching staff?
Clemson, in recent years, has welcomed back a handful of veteran coaches into off-field roles. Ted Roof, a longtime defensive coordinator in the sport, spent the 2021 season on Swinney’s staff as a defensive analyst before accepting a job at Oklahoma.
And former Tigers offensive coordinator Chad Morris was on staff this season in a volunteer offensive consulting role after head coaching stints at SMU and Arkansas.
Stockstill, who also spent two seasons at South Carolina before accepting the MTSU job, did not directly address a potential return to Clemson in the podcast interview. But he said he’d be reaching out to his various contacts in college football after the early signing period (which ran Dec. 20-22) and was optimistic about his chances of finding a new job soon.
“I’m realistic about my age,” Stockstill said. “But I’m still young. I still have the fire. I still run. I still chase them kids on the field. I’m still enthusiastic about it. I’m still passionate about it. So I know I can add value. And I’m just hopeful that somebody will give me an opportunity to be an analyst on their staff, if not a position coach.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2024 at 7:04 AM.
