Preseason '24

[AstroDin]

We will see soon if this is true…
I and several others here, such as Paul, Wolf, Jackal, and a few others, follow Furman's recruiting closely. During Clay's tenure, on paper, Furman's recruiting classes seem to raise the bar year after year.

Gone are the days when we signed a player only recruited by Furman and a couple of Big South schools. The OL recruiting, the way I see it, is a rung above the rest of the SoCon. Steven O'Dell is a great example. O'Dell had close to 30 offers, including FBS schools, JMU and UAB. More importantly, we beat out schools like Richmond, W&M, and Towson, as well as our SoCon competitors.

First. I truly appreciate y’all giving the recruiting information !

I REALLY hope you all are right about our talent level increasing in general

The only piece I would add is I hope we can redshirt most of these guys by having three great recruits at each position. - Senior, Sophomore, Freshman at each position or what have you. So that these Fr can sit out this year or use 4 game rule (I assume that 4 gsme rule is still in place)….

In any case do y’all think each of the past 4 years have been great recruiting?

And, without naming anyone .. do you think the last two years have been better than the prior 2 years recruiting ? As in a steady climb?

I think you're looking at this from a past perspective—play the guys who will help you now!
GoFU - concerning recruiting, you must put some skin in the game.
What I mean is you need to do some hunting for info - YOURSELF!
I can tell you stuff, but I've learned over the years. What I say doesn't matter to some on this board.
They see it as purple glasses, BS!
Maybe!

Concerning the question, is the last two years' recruiting better than the previous years?
Again, subjective.
But I believe the play of Hinton, Burrell, and Chappell proves our coaches know what they're doing.

[The Jackal]

Those are interesting comments about Harris. I think Furman already used him in unique ways the last two seasons.

Harris is terrifying in the open field. I suspect that Furman is going to do everything they can to get him the ball in open space.

I'm just spitballing here, but I wonder if the idea isn't to line Harris up in the backfield. NFL teams have started doing this with more regularity as they try to gain matchup leverage in the box.

This is an interesting article discussing the philosophy https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/301241 ... n-the-nfl/

I suspect Furman could do something similar with Colton Hinton. Those two are going to be tough for any defense to deal with.

I thought a little more about this.

If Furman feels like Ethan Harris, Ja'Keith Hamilton, Jon Holbrook, etc. are ready for an expanded role, there are a lot of dangerous combinations with Joshua Harris or Colton Hinton lined up in the slot and the other lined up in the backfield on the opposite side of the field.

Furman has a lot of depth and talent at the WR position. I suspect Coach Roper is going to keep defensive coordinators guessing with a lot of personnel packages and moving guys around the field probing for matchups.

Harris is sort of the big name of the group, but near the end of last season it became pretty apparent that Colton Hinton was going to be a real problem for defenses.

Note: With Harris, Harris, Hamilton, Hinton, Holbrook, Hester, Hicks, and Hedden, Furman is really cornering the "H" market in the offensive backfield.

[AllTimeFU]

You are forgetting Ben Ferguson. He made some real clutch catches. We are set to have a dynamic offense. I also suspect that with the number of targets we have that we will put defenses in a real coverage bind.

[apaladin]

No doubt the receiving corps is a positive. The question is who will be throwing to them and will he have time to make those throws?

[gofurman]

We will see soon if this is true…
I and several others here, such as Paul, Wolf, Jackal, and a few others, follow Furman's recruiting closely. During Clay's tenure, on paper, Furman's recruiting classes seem to raise the bar year after year.

Gone are the days when we signed a player only recruited by Furman and a couple of Big South schools. The OL recruiting, the way I see it, is a rung above the rest of the SoCon. Steven O'Dell is a great example. O'Dell had close to 30 offers, including FBS schools, JMU and UAB. More importantly, we beat out schools like Richmond, W&M, and Towson, as well as our SoCon competitors.

First. I truly appreciate y’all giving the recruiting information !

I REALLY hope you all are right about our talent level increasing in general

The only piece I would add is I hope we can redshirt most of these guys by having three great recruits at each position. - Senior, Sophomore, Freshman at each position or what have you. So that these Fr can sit out this year or use 4 game rule (I assume that 4 gsme rule is still in place)….

In any case do y’all think each of the past 4 years have been great recruiting?

And, without naming anyone .. do you think the last two years have been better than the prior 2 years recruiting ? As in a steady climb?

I think you're looking at this from a past perspective—play the guys who will help you now!
GoFU - concerning recruiting, you must put some skin in the game.
What I mean is you need to do some hunting for info - YOURSELF!
I can tell you stuff, but I've learned over the years. What I say doesn't matter to some on this board.
They see it as purple glasses, BS!
Maybe!

Concerning the question, is the last two years' recruiting better than the previous years?
Again, subjective.
But I believe the play of Hinton, Burrell, and Chappell proves our coaches know what they're doing.

I hear you about skin in the game, but I do have a defense. I am very thankful for what you all do..

First, I stay in my lane - Injuris and the sort. Some do mojo, I do injuris (literally tracking every one from the start of the year to the end) - I do a deeper dive on them injuris than almost anyone on other teams boards.. And it matters SO MUCH - literally cost us the Wofford game last year, easily.

Second, I thank you all a lot. I don't know if anyone really thanks me for tracking injuries?

Also, I don't have a social media presence - not sure I want to be a Twit - so it wouldn't be easy for me to do. I will leave the twit/Insta etc. to those who like twerking and 7-second middle school dance routines ... good grief, I have seen some of the instagram stuff and I don't want to be associated w it. LOL

[The Jackal]

In my opinion, injuries didn't cost us the Wofford game. Playing crappy football against a motivated opponent cost us the Wofford game.

If you really want to drill down, Evan Dimaggio's constant motor may have been the difference in that game. He blitzes, sacks the QB, strips the ball, and then dives on it without realizing Brayden Gilby could walk the ball into the end zone. An absolute insane effort play that probably cost us the game.

[gman84]

I was sitting next to Gilby’s father and we both cringed after that play. We agreed the football gods were not on our side that day!

[apaladin]

I was sitting next to Gilby’s father and we both cringed after that play. We agreed the football gods were not on our side that day!

Yep we all cringed on that play. Should have negated their fumble return.

[AstroDin]

Speaking of DiMaggio.
His talent and grit shined against Montana.
15 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and 1 sack.

Against the hands-down number two team in the country, DiMaggio was dominant. I've always thought of him as athletic, but when he chased down the Montana QB to the sideline where I was sitting, there was a collective damn that number 39 is fast. We forget the tape — Evan is not a small linebacker 6-3 234.

[FUBeAR]

Speaking of DiMaggio.
His talent and grit shined against Montana.
15 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and 1 sack.

Against the hands-down number two team in the country, DiMaggio was dominant. I've always thought of him as athletic, but when he chased down the Montana QB to the sideline where I was sitting, there was a collective damn that number 39 is fast. We forget the tape — Evan is not a small linebacker 6-3 234.

Just to quibble and because FUBeAR will never “let go” of all of those uncalled penalties on the 2 returns TD’s, FUBeAR would certainly never allow that Montana was the “hands-down number two team in the country.”

FUBeAR’s final rankings for 2023 would have looked like this at the top…

1) South Dakota State
2a) Montana
2bi) Furman
2bii) North Dakota State

…and screw Albany (the other semi-finalist). They didn’t do as well against SDSU as Mercer did.

[Davemeister]

In my opinion, injuries didn't cost us the Wofford game. Playing crappy football against a motivated opponent cost us the Wofford game.

Let's hear a Big Amen!

[tim]

Got to the scrimmage from 9:30 on. Hinton is dynamite, purple 33 looked good at RB. Red 8 looked decent at QB but they all struggled. Sorry don't know who has what number. Defense looked great as we should expect this early. I really think the new DBs will be a strength. No injuries that I could see

[Afurmanfan]

I trust our coach’s evaluation above all. Clay said his best offensive lineman he ever coached here had only our offer- Johanning. But the talent level is obviously much higher than we have had in a long time.

[Afurmanfan]

Whoops- wrong thread

[AstroDin]

I was also at the scrimmage today - I got there early and watched the positional drills.
Several things stood out.

The offensive line group is big, long, and on the lean side - no bellies; during the running warmups, I was surprised at how quick this group is.
I thought all three quarterbacks looked good during the throw and catch drills. Very few balls were dropped. A few receivers stood out… #17 Jackson Pryor (6-5 210), #19 Devin Hester (5-10 168), and Ja'Keith Hamilton (6-3 198). Holbrook caught a slant over the middle thrown by Jones and took it all the way for a touchdown. By the way, Hinton (now wearing #1) and Joshua Harris looked fantastic. Harris made some nice catches thrown by all three of the leading QBs.

As Tim mentioned, Gavin Hall is the real deal. He took an inside handoff, juked to his right, hit the corner, and was gone down the sideline untouched. He's got way more getty-up than I think we expected. I think he plays. I also liked what I saw about Everheart. We again have a deep bench at running back with Hicks, Robinson, Hughes, Croasdale (looks solid, too)… then Hall and Everheart. I'm not sure where J Smith stands injury-wise.

Right now, I would rate the quarterback battle a toss-up between Hedden and Jones and then Garcia; it looks like Issac Ward is #4.

I'll give the defense credit for sometimes making the offense struggle. That might be a young corps of DBs, but they have talent and a lot of hands on the ball. Sorry, I was having difficulty keeping up with who's who… I' think I'm sure the standouts were Holmes, Moson, Ingram, Miller, and Jones. Furman played a ton of players.

A few others stand out. Namely, Max Eubanks #31 had a great open-field tackle. He's got some pop. I have no idea how much he will play, but #11 Billy Lewis made a bunch of plays, including an interception that he took to the house (I think he was a first-team AJC DB for AAA).

Lastly Ian Williams was kicking the sh!# out of the ball.

I'll end with a lot of energy - the defense as usual were very vocal.