FCS Playoffs in Spring 2021

[AstroDin]

In the end, I guess it doesn't matter but after The Citadel laid an egg in their only home contest of the fall. I hope they enjoy that 1 MIL and the four losses they'll have after they get shellacked by Army.

As much as I enjoyed watched the Dogs get beat - I hate for the SoCon to again have a poor OOC showing.

[cavedweller2]

At least they played.

[FUBeAR]

In the end, I guess it doesn't matter but after The Citadel laid an egg in their only home contest of the fall. I hope they enjoy that 1 MIL and the four losses they'll have after they get shellacked by Army.

As much as I enjoyed watched the Dogs get beat - I hate for the SoCon to again have a poor OOC showing.

SoCon is down. Bellhops are especially down with Opt-outs & Transfers-out @ key positions on both sides of the ball. Sux for them. Not 1 tear for them will be shed by FUBeAR. But, back to SoCon...OOC & Playoffs last year were very eye-opening. With 0 Spring OOC games & only 1 SoCon Team in Playoffs (bet on it!), there will be no redemption opportunity from that until 2021 season. Doesn’t matter what Chatt, Mercer, WCU, and the bellhops do/did this Fall - win ‘em all or lose ‘em all - wasn’t going to change anyone’s impression of the SoCon.

If SoCon wants to stay relevant, actually “become relevant again” is more accurate, in FCS (as long as FCS exists), Teams must spend more on Assistant Coaches, must spend more to recruit, must have better cooperation from their Academics leaders, must spend more on facilities (some schools - VMI, CIT, Samford, and Wofford come to mind - all of their stadiums are pretty much crap...quaint, so FUBeAR appreciates them, but HS kids don’t), must schedule tougher FCS OOC games, and must look to expand by ATTRACTING other FCS programs who are serious about Football - JaxSt, Kennesaw, APSU, Campbell (private, btw), maybe Richmond (also private), shoulda got NC A&T...etc.

Don’t wanna do ALL of those things, be happy with 0 or 1 At-Large bid & QuarterFinals Playoff exits.

[The Jackal]

In the end, I guess it doesn't matter but after The Citadel laid an egg in their only home contest of the fall. I hope they enjoy that 1 MIL and the four losses they'll have after they get shellacked by Army.

As much as I enjoyed watched the Dogs get beat - I hate for the SoCon to again have a poor OOC showing.

SoCon is down. Bellhops are especially down with Opt-outs & Transfers-out @ key positions on both sides of the ball. Sux for them. Not 1 tear for them will be shed by FUBeAR. But, back to SoCon...OOC & Playoffs last year were very eye-opening. With 0 Spring OOC games & only 1 SoCon Team in Playoffs (bet on it!), there will be no redemption opportunity from that until 2021 season. Doesn’t matter what Chatt, Mercer, WCU, and the bellhops do/did this Fall - win ‘em all or lose ‘em all - wasn’t going to change anyone’s impression of the SoCon.

If SoCon wants to stay relevant, actually “become relevant again” is more accurate, in FCS (as long as FCS exists), Teams must spend more on Assistant Coaches, must spend more to recruit, must have better cooperation from their Academics leaders, must spend more on facilities (some schools - VMI, CIT, Samford, and Wofford come to mind - all of their stadiums are pretty much crap...quaint, so FUBeAR appreciates them, but HS kids don’t), must schedule tougher FCS OOC games, and must look to expand by ATTRACTING other FCS programs who are serious about Football - JaxSt, Kennesaw, APSU, Campbell (private, btw), maybe Richmond (also private), shoulda got NC A&T...etc.

Don’t wanna do ALL of those things, be happy with 0 or 1 At-Large bid & QuarterFinals Playoff exits.

I agree. The SoCon has to schedule better. They have to beat better teams. Someone needs to make a run in the post season.

Furman is going to have to share a bigger part of this - they are the favorite and need to start showing that the SoCon can play on the national stage again.

[The Jackal]

In the end, I guess it doesn't matter but after The Citadel laid an egg in their only home contest of the fall. I hope they enjoy that 1 MIL and the four losses they'll have after they get shellacked by Army.

As much as I enjoyed watched the Dogs get beat - I hate for the SoCon to again have a poor OOC showing.

The loss was certainly a tough loss for the Citadel. They were beat soundly on both sides of the ball. Their typically strong defense was mostly non-existent. The offense looks basically like they are still relying on the same two players (Rainey and Webb) to move the ball that they've relied on the last few seasons.

It was an ugly loss, and Coach Thompson was pretty candid about that (https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/c ... 8a3a7.html)

I hate the loss for the SoCon, but it's got to be demoralizing for the Citadel. They've been blown out 3 times and a 4th is likely all but a formality. They had one home game, sparsely attended, where they looked terrible. Reading Jeff Hartsell, their beat writer, I get the impression that Citadel may just play this fall and that's it.

[FUBeAR]

In the end, I guess it doesn't matter but after The Citadel laid an egg in their only home contest of the fall. I hope they enjoy that 1 MIL and the four losses they'll have after they get shellacked by Army.

As much as I enjoyed watched the Dogs get beat - I hate for the SoCon to again have a poor OOC showing.

The loss was certainly a tough loss for the Citadel. They were beat soundly on both sides of the ball. Their typically strong defense was mostly non-existent. The offense looks basically like they are still relying on the same two players (Rainey and Webb) to move the ball that they've relied on the last few seasons.

It was an ugly loss, and Coach Thompson was pretty candid about that (https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/c ... 8a3a7.html)

I hate the loss for the SoCon, but it's got to be demoralizing for the Citadel. They've been blown out 3 times and a 4th is likely all but a formality. They had one home game, sparsely attended, where they looked terrible. Reading Jeff Hartsell, their beat writer, I get the impression that Citadel may just play this fall and that's it.

Not getting the impression that the bellhops won’t play this Spring.

Are you getting that from this...

With a spring Southern Conference football season uncertain at best, it might have been the final home game for several Citadel seniors, including quarterback Brandon Rainey and receiver Raleigh Webb. The Citadel is playing only four games this fall because the SoCon pushed its conference season to the spring.

My impression is that Hartsell has doubts about the SoCon, as a whole, playing Football this Spring. If the SoCon plays, the luggage-toters will be playing. Their alums already have such mental complexes with their own delusions of grandeur & with their relative status compared to Woffy & Furman, there is no way they sit out while their betters in the upstate are playing. If they did sit out, I think their alums might turn those cannons on the battery about 180 degrees & commence firing.

[Roundball]

The Citadel is laughably terrible. They paid EKU $100,000 to make them look like chumps.

[AstroDin]

A few conferences (including MVFC) has released Spring 2021 schedules.
Big Sky will announce in October, CAA and I believe BIg South has not given schedule updates yet.

The SoCon I hope is trying to get it's $h!t together.

FUBear, you might have an answer… other than Furman any other SoCon coach on record saying they expect to play ball in the Spring?

Back to competing. Furman has NC A&T, Tenn Tech in 2021, and starts a series with W&M in 2024. That's a start.

Now to get better talent in the SoCon point. Pre CCH return, Furman was competing with Big South schools, our SoCon brothers, and some D-2 schools for players, we would occasionally snare a few higher recruited players… but you have to admit we were getting beat by UTC and Wofford and The CItadel on players. Before Huesman left Chatty we weren't beating Chatty head to head for players. The same goes for Wofford, they got several defensive guys that we wanted.

Since CCH return, the 2019 class was ranked 16th by Hero Sports, some ranking and names from that class.
51 - OL Evan Jumper - part-time starter first year
80 - DE Jack Barton - reshirted now a 6-4 250 DE
106 - LB Josh Agbenou- played a lot
156 - DT Devonte Jones - quit football
185 - S Austin Jones - injured took a redshirt
215 - LB/TE Bryce McCormick - injured, played a few games, redshirt
240 - OL Pearson Toomey - was going to play, injured, redshirted, gonna be a player

Who is not on that list? Wayne Anderson Jr, Cally Chizik, Hugh Ryan, Dominic Roberto, Jalen Miller.
Seven of the 2019 class lettered in 2019. Can we say that the 2019 class is worthy of a 16th rank? Not yet but we can see the potential. This class will play an even bigger role in 2020/21.

The 2020 class moved up to a No. 2 ranking by Hero Sports and was close to taking no 1 from JMU. Chatty had a No. 20 ranking. The key to the 2020 class was the depth. Furman had 10 players in the top 300. You can go ahead and put a highlight on who is missing from that list of ranked players. Kendal Thomas. and Caden Richards of Gaffney.
73. Evan Dimaggio
92. Dylan Davis
112. Bailor Hughes
118. EJ Wilson
130. Ivan Yates
178. Jack Rhodes
180. Blake Hundley
187. Jeremiah Jackson
200. Luke Clark
272. Ty Youngblood

In what has to be a strange recruiting process (no campus visits) Furman is again raising the bar with another recruiting class. So far Furman has 11 commitments - that might be it for this class.

Play on the field will show if Furman has closed the gap with player talent and skill. I have no doubt the Dins have the right assistant coaches in the stable.

[The Jackal]

In the end, I guess it doesn't matter but after The Citadel laid an egg in their only home contest of the fall. I hope they enjoy that 1 MIL and the four losses they'll have after they get shellacked by Army.

As much as I enjoyed watched the Dogs get beat - I hate for the SoCon to again have a poor OOC showing.

The loss was certainly a tough loss for the Citadel. They were beat soundly on both sides of the ball. Their typically strong defense was mostly non-existent. The offense looks basically like they are still relying on the same two players (Rainey and Webb) to move the ball that they've relied on the last few seasons.

It was an ugly loss, and Coach Thompson was pretty candid about that (https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/c ... 8a3a7.html)

I hate the loss for the SoCon, but it's got to be demoralizing for the Citadel. They've been blown out 3 times and a 4th is likely all but a formality. They had one home game, sparsely attended, where they looked terrible. Reading Jeff Hartsell, their beat writer, I get the impression that Citadel may just play this fall and that's it.

Not getting the impression that the bellhops won’t play this Spring.

Are you getting that from this...

With a spring Southern Conference football season uncertain at best, it might have been the final home game for several Citadel seniors, including quarterback Brandon Rainey and receiver Raleigh Webb. The Citadel is playing only four games this fall because the SoCon pushed its conference season to the spring.

My impression is that Hartsell has doubts about the SoCon, as a whole, playing Football this Spring. If the SoCon plays, the luggage-toters will be playing. Their alums already have such mental complexes with their own delusions of grandeur & with their relative status compared to Woffy & Furman, there is no way they sit out while their betters in the upstate are playing. If they did sit out, I think their alums might turn those cannons on the battery about 180 degrees & commence firing.

I am reading well between the lines here, but there were other mentions of how hard the Citadel worked just to get Eastern Kentucky at home.

If playing only money games was the goal, why not just pull a Campbell and schedule only road games against FBS schools? Why schedule the home game against a "who cares" opponent? Especially if you know it might cost you the ability to play a SoCon slate in the spring.

I'm inclined to think (without supporting evidence) that the Citadel was trying to schedule more than four games and isn't banking on spring football. With most of the FCS schools playing this year more centrally located nationally (Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, etc.) it might have just been hard for the Bulldogs to convince opponents to bus down to Charleston - an admittedly inconvenient place to get to from just about anywhere.

[The Jackal]

The Citadel is laughably terrible. They paid EKU $100,000 to make them look like chumps.

They are an enigma. They'll look like crap against bad teams and then beat good teams and go .500 every season.

[AstroDin]

several things gave The Citadel trouble playing EKU.

The EKU big back got stronger and stronger as the game went on and the DOGS had no answer in the fourth.
Furman has two 220+ backs, both can run between the tackles and catch.

The EKU quarterback had ok mobility - ended up with 57 rushing yards to go with 274 passing yards and four touchdowns. Also, Citadel got beat on two long throws over the top.
Grainger and Sisson IMO are far more effective runners, and Furman has the makings of a very good receiving corp, with a blend of speed and some size.


I'll put this on The Citadel - they put the ball on the ground a lot and EKU took away the big play-action plays.

The DINS did not show up well against the CItadel last season but I just don't see the same team. Furman has key parts back, has new pieces to blend in, and several key players got critical game experience. I hear rumors they won't play in the spring but I'd circle Chatty as the leading competition if they play. I say that not expecting a cakewalk at Mercer.

[The Jackal]

several things gave The Citadel trouble playing EKU.

The EKU big back got stronger and stronger as the game went on and the DOGS had no answer in the fourth.
Furman has two 220+ backs, both can run between the tackles and catch.

The EKU quarterback had ok mobility - ended up with 57 rushing yards to go with 274 passing yards and four touchdowns. Also, Citadel got beat on two long throws over the top.
Grainger and Sisson IMO are far more effective runners, and Furman has the makings of a very good receiving corp, with a blend of speed and some size.


I'll put this on The Citadel - they put the ball on the ground a lot and EKU took away the big play-action plays.

The DINS did not show up well against the CItadel last season but I just don't see the same team. Furman has key parts back, has new pieces to blend in, and several key players got critical game experience. I hear rumors they won't play in the spring but I'd circle Chatty as the leading competition if they play. I say that not expecting a cakewalk at Mercer.

I've said this before, but Furman is some consistent QB play away from being a holy terror on offense.

Our completion percentage in 2019 was around 52%. If that completion percentage jumps to over 60% (which isn't a big ask in this offense), I think we will be a title contender.

[The Jackal]

Furman returns to the practice field today to start their "spring" practice schedule in the fall. https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2020/10 ... field.aspx

According to Hendrix:

"We are beyond excited to finally be able to get back on the practice field," said Hendrix on Friday. "We made the choice to invest heavily in our strength and conditioning since August, and it has clearly paid off. We are a bigger, stronger and faster football team because of the hard work of everyone. Now it is time to see if we can carry that over to the field. I think we have more depth than we've had at anytime since our staff arrived. I am excited about the competition we will have at a bunch of positions."

I also thought this was interesting:

In the interim the Paladins have spent four days per week in the weight room and undertaken one day of pure conditioning each week.

It sounds like Furman made the decision not to play a few games, but instead opted to stack some plates and have a spring-like workout.

I know there's debate over playing a couple of games, but I think this approach will make us a better football team over the long term. If some of our conference mates want to put what they do on film, then more's the better.

[AstroDin]

Furman returns to the practice field today to start their "spring" practice schedule in the fall. https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2020/10 ... field.aspx

According to Hendrix:

"We are beyond excited to finally be able to get back on the practice field," said Hendrix on Friday. "We made the choice to invest heavily in our strength and conditioning since August, and it has clearly paid off. We are a bigger, stronger and faster football team because of the hard work of everyone. Now it is time to see if we can carry that over to the field. I think we have more depth than we've had at anytime since our staff arrived. I am excited about the competition we will have at a bunch of positions."

I also thought this was interesting:

In the interim the Paladins have spent four days per week in the weight room and undertaken one day of pure conditioning each week.

It sounds like Furman made the decision not to play a few games, but instead opted to stack some plates and have a spring-like workout.

I know there's debate over playing a couple of games, but I think this approach will make us a better football team over the long term. If some of our conference mates want to put what they do on film, then more's the better.

#55 is Jake Johanning - looks pretty ripped at 6-3 265 OG

[AstroDin]

This could deserve a separate thread - Furman's senior class how many play two seasons of football in 2021?

Furman has 15 senior year players on the roster, 9 of the 14 haven't taken a redshirt.

True Seniors
Wynn
DeLuca
McKoy
Kearse
Clay
Walker
Lawrence
Neeley
Stokes

Redshirt Seniors
Harris
Kroeber
Seabrook
Wells
Owens
Vann

During the lunch and learn CCH mentioned the senior group and he wasn't sure who would take advantage of the NCAA allowing players to play an extra year. CCH and staff have done an amazing job bringing in some young players with a ton of upside and we have the depth to handle the loss of a graduating class.

Still… who would you like to see come back and play in the fall of 2021?

Obviously, you have to circle Devin Wynn. To say Furman has offensive backfield depth is an understatement.
Watkins JR
Abrams RSSO
Anderson SO
Roberto SO
Thomas FR
Furman two big back commits for 2021; Ducille 5-11 220 and Hicks 5-11 215.
The big question Wynn has the talent to get signed as a free agent may be a late-round draft pick, does he test the waters and come back for what would be a very loaded Furman team in the fall?

The other two players I would like to see come back are DeLuca and Seabrook. DeLuca is a steady, possession receiver with great hands, he would be a great asset and Seabrook could allow our crop of big, athletic young DEs to get eased into action.

Note - I love Harris and Kroeber but Furman is stacked with young talent on the offensive line. Very few FCS programs have as much invested in full scholarship linemen. These young men need to play.