Scrimmage Thoughts!

[The Jackal]

It's a good thing we have each other, LOL. Not a word from channel 4, the Greenville News or even the official site. This is the only place you can fin any info on the scrimmage.

And no write up on the Furman site either. Maybe less said the better about this particular scrimmage. It's been a day and I still can't figure out what they were trying to accomplish in the live scrimmage portion. I thought the main best thing Coach Hendricks did was to re-establish an identity. This is who we are as an offense. We're going to lineup and run right at you, stop that; were going outside, contain that; we're going to beat you down field; not a deep hand-off to a single back out of the frigging shotgun and hope he finds a hole, pass happy junk I saw yesterday.

I wasn't there, but a couple of thoughts.

1. Our likely starting QB didn't play.

2. Coach Hendrix said that they held some guys out. That is, don't subject some of your best players to game-like conditions when the only thing you may gain from that is an injury. I don't know who was held out, but he did something similar last season.

3. He noted that a lot of the offense was "situational." That is going to heavily change the playbook. In a two-minute offense, the team is trying to score, but maybe only runs a handful of base plays that don't require a lot of sophisticated formations, motions, and personnel groups. Most of the time, the team will be passing to increase the likelihood of stopping the clock.

In a four-minute offense (something Furman was extremely good at last year), the offense is by design trying to slow things down. They aren't going to be running a lot of risky plays or throwing the ball downfield. The runners will sacrifice yards for time. Running an option pitch play may reap bigger rewards, but with a lead late in the game you'll be happy with a simple fullback run and taking 40 seconds off the clock.

So, it's not surprising the offense looked basic or vanilla. Situational football by its nature demands a vastly scaled down playbook with a specific purpose in mind. Now, it doesn't sound like they were particularly good at running those plays, but I don't think we should read into the fact that we are going to a pre-Hendrix type of offense.

[PaladinDad]

The offense was without Roberts at QB, Morehead didn't play at RB, and Dirks was limited to a few plays in the scrimmage. Gordan and Burnette played i think a total of 5 plays each in the actual scrimmage. Some of the starting Oline also didnt participate much if at all in the scrimmage. I think yesterday was a day trying to find depth at some positions and depth chart order at others. I think we have alot of good players that played yesterday, but there is a difference between starters and guys that are 2 and 3 on the depth chart. Thats not to diminish any of the young men that are the 2 and 3 at any position, but the starter is the starter for a reason.

[apaladin]

Scott Keeler said it best in the first line of his report:
In a matter of a couple hours Saturday, the mood surrounding the Furman football team went from "only two weeks to go until the season begins" to "thank goodness there's still two weeks to go until the season begins."

[The Jackal]

The offense was without Roberts at QB, Morehead didn't play at RB, and Dirks was limited to a few plays in the scrimmage. Gordan and Burnette played i think a total of 5 plays each in the actual scrimmage. Some of the starting Oline also didnt participate much if at all in the scrimmage. I think yesterday was a day trying to find depth at some positions and depth chart order at others. I think we have alot of good players that played yesterday, but there is a difference between starters and guys that are 2 and 3 on the depth chart. Thats not to diminish any of the young men that are the 2 and 3 at any position, but the starter is the starter for a reason.

Ideally, you'd like to be three deep across the board. I've rarely heard Coach Hendrix interviewed where he didn't mention the need to develop depth.

[JohnW]

It's a good thing we have each other, LOL. Not a word from channel 4, the Greenville News or even the official site. This is the only place you can fin any info on the scrimmage.

And no write up on the Furman site either. Maybe less said the better about this particular scrimmage. It's been a day and I still can't figure out what they were trying to accomplish in the live scrimmage portion. I thought the main best thing Coach Hendricks did was to re-establish an identity. This is who we are as an offense. We're going to lineup and run right at you, stop that; were going outside, contain that; we're going to beat you down field; not a deep hand-off to a single back out of the frigging shotgun and hope he finds a hole, pass happy junk I saw yesterday.

I wasn't there, but a couple of thoughts.

1. Our likely starting QB didn't play.

2. Coach Hendrix said that they held some guys out. That is, don't subject some of your best players to game-like conditions when the only thing you may gain from that is an injury. I don't know who was held out, but he did something similar last season.

3. He noted that a lot of the offense was "situational." That is going to heavily change the playbook. In a two-minute offense, the team is trying to score, but maybe only runs a handful of base plays that don't require a lot of sophisticated formations, motions, and personnel groups. Most of the time, the team will be passing to increase the likelihood of stopping the clock.

In a four-minute offense (something Furman was extremely good at last year), the offense is by design trying to slow things down. They aren't going to be running a lot of risky plays or throwing the ball downfield. The runners will sacrifice yards for time. Running an option pitch play may reap bigger rewards, but with a lead late in the game you'll be happy with a simple fullback run and taking 40 seconds off the clock.

So, it's not surprising the offense looked basic or vanilla. Situational football by its nature demands a vastly scaled down playbook with a specific purpose in mind. Now, it doesn't sound like they were particularly good at running those plays, but I don't think we should read into the fact that we are going to a pre-Hendrix type of offense.

I think you're missing my point. It wasn't who was doing it, it was what they were doing. Changing what we do, entirely, based on personnel is the antithesis of having an identity. The offense didn't look basic or vanilla, it looked different, it looked pre-2017. Also how does running an entirely different offense aid in building depth? I hope you're right that it is as I said earlier an aberration, but it worries me. So much so that I'm considering fighting through traffic Wednesday morning to watch the last scrimmage.

[AstroDin]

Jackals, points are spot on… after one break most of the "starters" went to the scoreboard end zone where medicine balls, rowing machines, and other equipment were waiting on them. I chatted with PDaddy before practice — he noted that one success so far of this pre-season no one is standing on the sideline in crutches. Credit the way they are practicing and Coach Andre' Bernardi.

JohnW… I understand your point. I think a trip out to watch a scrimmage this week will ease your fears that Furman has reverted back to our Atari-football ways.

[Jasper]

It seems to me that if the sky has really fallen and we have reverted to the "shot gun handoff to the guy standing next to you and wishing him good luck" offense of previous administrations because of an uninspired and admittedly odd scrimmage performance by the offense, then last year's success was all the result of one man, the now departed OC. I don't recall his name but he loved the winged T and we played a variation of that last year with elements of the triple option, the run/pass option, the power I, the spread, etc. thrown in for good measure and that offense was not on the field yesterday. I guess that means that George Quarles, Clay Hendricks and the rest of the offensive staff had no hand in it and are using an old playbook found in an empty locker left by the previous coaching staff? I don't think so and I don't think that the dedicated Paladin fan's worst nightmare has come to pass. I don't know what that was on Saturday but it certainly was not most of us came to expect. I also don't know what that coachspeak about "situational offenses" means but I suspect it has something to do with playing one's hand close to the vest. If I am correct in that assumption, then the scrimmage was a monumental success. We didn't give any spies in the stands anything to write down. Or maybe Clemson does not have the greatest defense in the history of college football. Maybe WE DO? Let's wait a few weeks before we put the champagne back in the wine cellar.

[gofurman]

Also, I think if you scour reports around the country, head coaches are almost uniformly unhappy with the first scrimmage. The defense is always ahead of the offense and things aren't looking crisp. This isn't unique to Furman.

Defense is almost always ahead regardless .. and especially with 8/ 9 starters returning on D vs 5 on O... that will really make an O look bad. Despite Ellis transferring that's still almost the entire D from last year that those 5 returning O players are facing

[gofurman]

It's a good thing we have each other, LOL. Not a word from channel 4, the Greenville News or even the official site. This is the only place you can fin any info on the scrimmage.

And no write up on the Furman site either. Maybe less said the better about this particular scrimmage. It's been a day and I still can't figure out what they were trying to accomplish in the live scrimmage portion. I thought the main best thing Coach Hendricks did was to re-establish an identity. This is who we are as an offense. We're going to lineup and run right at you, stop that; were going outside, contain that; we're going to beat you down field; not a deep hand-off to a single back out of the frigging shotgun and hope he finds a hole, pass happy junk I saw yesterday.

Not going to get too worried but why - even in "situational downs' - would we do the pre-2017 plays we NEVER saw last year ??? Just because it is goal line or whatever wouldn't we run some of the stuff from last year? that is a little odd and not my favorite thing to hear - we better see our standard 2017 O formations and plays when the season starts !

[DungeonRealm]

It's a good thing we have each other, LOL. Not a word from channel 4, the Greenville News or even the official site. This is the only place you can fin any info on the scrimmage.

And no write up on the Furman site either. Maybe less said the better about this particular scrimmage. It's been a day and I still can't figure out what they were trying to accomplish in the live scrimmage portion. I thought the main best thing Coach Hendricks did was to re-establish an identity. This is who we are as an offense. We're going to lineup and run right at you, stop that; were going outside, contain that; we're going to beat you down field; not a deep hand-off to a single back out of the frigging shotgun and hope he finds a hole, pass happy junk I saw yesterday.

Not going to get too worried but why - even in "situational downs' - would we do the pre-2017 plays we NEVER saw last year ??? Just because it is goal line or whatever wouldn't we run some of the stuff from last year? that is a little odd and not my favorite thing to hear - we better see our standard 2017 O formations and plays when the season starts !

Agree, I am going to be very upset if we attempt to move away from the things that were so successful for us offensively last season, hopefully that will not be the case

[The Jackal]

It's a good thing we have each other, LOL. Not a word from channel 4, the Greenville News or even the official site. This is the only place you can fin any info on the scrimmage.

And no write up on the Furman site either. Maybe less said the better about this particular scrimmage. It's been a day and I still can't figure out what they were trying to accomplish in the live scrimmage portion. I thought the main best thing Coach Hendricks did was to re-establish an identity. This is who we are as an offense. We're going to lineup and run right at you, stop that; were going outside, contain that; we're going to beat you down field; not a deep hand-off to a single back out of the frigging shotgun and hope he finds a hole, pass happy junk I saw yesterday.

Not going to get too worried but why - even in "situational downs' - would we do the pre-2017 plays we NEVER saw last year ??? Just because it is goal line or whatever wouldn't we run some of the stuff from last year? that is a little odd and not my favorite thing to hear - we better see our standard 2017 O formations and plays when the season starts !

Hold on. Who's to say we never saw certain plays last year? Furman ran out single back out of the shotgun a boatload last season. Here's just one example:

That's a single back, 3 WR, 1 TE set that Furman has literally run for decades. That looks nothing like Drew Cronic's offense at Reinhardt. That looks a whole lot like what Furman ran with Tim Sorrells as OC.

Good grief. Our offense had a bad practice running a limited set with key players sitting out against what might be the SoCon's best defense. Let's not overthink this.

[apaladin]

That's a pass play. What we saw Saturday was a stand alone back standing flat footed being handed the ball and being wished good luck. The pre-2017offense. The part I saw we were never under center, no motion at all.

[The Jackal]

That's a pass play. What we saw Saturday was a stand alone back standing flat footed being handed the ball and being wished good luck. The pre-2017offense. The part I saw we were never under center, no motion at all.

Fine. 3 WRs, 1 RB, 1 TE. A run play.

It's execution, not the play call.

[Jasper]

The more I read and the more I look at plays that Jackal has been good enough to post showing our excellent execution last season, the better I think our defense is. Although the offense was playing somewhat short handed and had certain "coaching restrictions" placed on it, that defense really kicked butt. In the immortal words of The Beatles "let it be, let it be".

[The Jackal]

The more I read and the more I look at plays that Jackal has been good enough to post showing our excellent execution last season, the better I think our defense is. Although the offense was playing somewhat short handed and had certain "coaching restrictions" placed on it, that defense really kicked butt. In the immortal words of The Beatles "let it be, let it be".

1. Any reaction one way or the other to the first scrimmage of the preseason is likely an overreaction. It's a practice with some game-like conditions. I'd frankly much rather have an ugly scrimmage where coaches can teach and players can learn than a great scrimmage where everyone thinks they are invincible.

2. I think our defense could be really good.