Getting Mentors out of Comfort zone

[Advice]

I have just completed my second year as the School Sponsor for a 10+ year FRC team. We have mentors and engineers that have been with the team since its inception, long after their own kids have graduated and moved on. They are simply great people.

I need advice on getting our mentors out of a rut without alienating them. Instead of designing a robot based on the game, we design a robot around the drive train design we have been using for years.

I think it boils down to the engineers know we can build a solid 70-80 percentile robot, and they have little interest in taking a risk that could fail. The students really pressed the engineers hard this year to try new things, but with very limited success.

I thought spending the money and making an off season robot to try new things and give my underclassmen a chance for more hands on before next year would be a good thing, but my engineers simply can't/won't commit.

Is this a case of the mentors just being burnt-out? Please advise.