• Rebuild or Reload?

 #83473  by Jasper
 Sat Dec 23, 2023 4:39 pm
Obviously Furman is losing a lot of players to graduation, etc. Many of them have been key to the success of the past 2 seasons. Now what? Did CCH build a good team to compete on a national level for that time or did he build a program that has sustainable excellence year after year? From what I see, I think the latter. Recruiting for the last two years appears much better than in the past - Iikely as a result of that national success in part. We had several true and RS freshman contribute significantly this past season. We also were able to redshirt a lot because of the depth of the team. CCH has said we have a lot of talent we haven’t seen yet. I think that is very likely. I will be very surprised if this years incoming class does not immediately contribute as well. And since success breeds success, I would think we will do very well in selective transfers during this period as well. I don’t know if next years team will be able to compete with the cowboy conferences but I think the Dins will be very competitive in the SoCon and will get better as the year goes on. I look for a shift to a more pass oriented offense next season with the receiving personnel we now have and the time it will take for a mostly new O line to gel for the run game. We will see what time brings but I am guardedly optimistic.
 #83479  by Afurmanfan
 Sat Dec 23, 2023 8:43 pm
I agree that the recent recruiting classes look good. But obviously the recruiting classes 4-6 years were very good- as the number of seniors and red shirt seniors on this year’s team make evident.
 #83481  by gofurman
 Sun Dec 24, 2023 2:49 am
Jasper wrote:
Sat Dec 23, 2023 4:39 pm
Obviously Furman is losing a lot of players to graduation, etc. Many of them have been key to the success of the past 2 seasons. Now what? Did CCH build a good team to compete on a national level for that time or did he build a program that has sustainable excellence year after year? From what I see, I think the latter. Recruiting for the last two years appears much better than in the past - Iikely as a result of that national success in part. We had several true and RS freshman contribute significantly this past season. We also were able to redshirt a lot because of the depth of the team. CCH has said we have a lot of talent we haven’t seen yet. I think that is very likely. I will be very surprised if this years incoming class does not immediately contribute as well. And since success breeds success, I would think we will do very well in selective transfers during this period as well. I don’t know if next years team will be able to compete with the cowboy conferences but I think the Dins will be very competitive in the SoCon and will get better as the year goes on. I look for a shift to a more pass oriented offense next season with the receiving personnel we now have and the time it will take for a mostly new O line to gel for the run game. We will see what time brings but I am guardedly optimistic.
I said I would be elated with 9-3. Happy with 8-4?

On the one hand we recruited Sochovka, Blackshear, Huff, Roberto Gilby etc without being able to sell playoff success. So that bodes well. Because a large portion next years players who see the actual field will not be from the past two recruiting classes where we could say “we make the playoffs and get to the second round or quarterfinals”. Those last two classes true Fr and R-Fr and true Soph (Hinton) probably have five-7 guys on the field next year. Maybe. They are our future but only maybe 10% of our present.

So I hope the last two recruiting classes are bolstered by our recent success! I do.

But it’s mostly the 2019 and 2020 and 2021 classes that matter for next year. We need to keep up the recruiting success! I hope those years were strong recruiting years