SoCon Thoughts

[The Jackal]

In the vein of the changing landscape of college football, I thought this was an interesting comment.

[AllTimeFU]

https://omny.fm/shows/offsides-with-mar ... -hendrix-1

[Furmanoid]

In the vein of the changing landscape of college football, I thought this was an interesting comment.

I wish we used it more. Nobody is ever ready for it because they can’t spend the time necessary to train a realistic practice squad. So their D has likely never seen it except for some half ass practice reps. I think we don’t see it because coaches who know how to teach it have mostly retired. Too bad. So many strengths to that formation.

[FUBeAR]

In the vein of the changing landscape of college football, I thought this was an interesting comment.

I wish we used it more. Nobody is ever ready for it because they can’t spend the time necessary to train a realistic practice squad. So their D has likely never seen it except for some half ass practice reps. I think we don’t see it because coaches who know how to teach it have mostly retired. Too bad. So many strengths to that formation.

FUBeAR has seen the bellhops running some I-Formation this year…and that Orange Team in Maconga has jumped into it from time to time.

This is “South Wing Motion 48 Sweep” on 3rd down from the 2 YL goin’ in. Not sure if Coach Cronic spent some time in the Ancient Film archives during his FU days, but your late 70’s - late 80’s Paladins ran almost nothing except this play on Goaline & Short Yardage. They knew it was comin’…couldn’t stop it. FUBeAR has heard that won’t work in ‘modern College Football.” Guess Wofford had their Old-Timer/Alumni Team in the game on this play…

[Furmanoid]

In tennis nobody serves and volleys anymore. Teaching pros use that “it won’t work in today’s game” line. It won’t work because they don’t know how to do it or teach it.

The I died out 20-30 years ago. So only coaches in their late 40’s and up have any experience with it. And QB wise it seems like a good deal of coaching is needed at first to get the footwork right. I suspect coaches just feel a lot more comfy running the same shotgun stuff everybody else runs even if it doesn’t fit their team.

[Affirm]

There's a lot to unpack.
The transfer protocol has far-reaching consequences, not the least of which is to high school athletes because of the growing number of schools that recruit other colleges as much as high schools. It's kind of a rapidly accelerating madness. The high school kids take any offer they can get and go to school they don't really have much interest in. Then, if an opportunity arises, they bolt.
My concern is that the rapid increase in the number of schools in a conference doesn't afford enough success to go around. It's bad for fans. How much harder is it for say, South Carolina, to succeed with the SEC adding more and more longtime, traditional powers? It's all about money, and it might be OK if it was just mostly about money. Do fans want rivalries to disappear? In recent years, Kansas stopped playing Missouri, Texas with A&M, Pitt with Penn State ... all the way down to Presbyterian and Newberry. Since my Laurens County site covers PC, my perspective may be skewed because the last 15 years at PC could be a Mel Brooks movie (or, perhaps, the basis of a novel by a sportswriter who likes to write them).
I may be the last believer in the SoCon. To me, it's got an admirable, appealing mix of private and state schools, with two military schools for good measure. I believe ultimately the mix is good. Once I dreamed of a SoCon of like-minded schools: Furman, Wofford, Citadel, VMI, Samford, Mercer, William & Mary, Elon, Richmond, etc., but I now think that would be a mistake.
Furman can compete in the SoCon. It has the right amount of diversity. It's everywhere else that college athletics is going wild.
I fly in the face of public opinion a lot. -- MD

Unless Furman is one of the schools that gets picked off by an FBS or by another, better FCS conference (I do NOT see either of those scenarios happening), the big question is "what about the SoCon after the SoCon loses any of its current members to an FBS or to another FCS conference?" We can love the present SoCon (usually what is written on UFFP does not go to the extent you do talking about the positives of the current SoCon ["admirable, appealing mix of private and state schools, with two military schools for good measure"; "has the right amount of diversity"; (is not like) "everywhere else that college athletics is going wild"]), but is that love enough to just keep status quo? Is it a mistake to at least think about whether something could be done to strengthen the current SoCon such as by seeking to add good schools? Is it best to just wait until something happens? Maybe it is.

I don't frequently (ever?) agree with you, but this is my concern.

Most of the conferences that have done the "stand together" thing have hit hard times. The ones that are succeeding are the ones aggressively planning for the future. As long as these FBS conferences continue to expand to 12, 14, or 16 teams, then lower level FBS schools will continue to look to maintain relevance by poaching FCS schools.

While we may be happy with the current mix, what happens if other conferences are aggressively planning for the future by poaching SoCon schools? Would we be any better prepared than we were 10 years ago when we lost GSU, App, Davidson, and CofC?

Incidentally, it wasn't that long ago that the SoCon was a 12 team conference. We had 12 conference members as late as 2013.

Doesn't the SOCON charge pretty exorbitant fees for leaving now, or has that become irrelevant to the current landscape?

It is still relevant, but only as long as the departing schools' finances and lawyers do not allow it to be irrelevant.

[The Jackal]

In the vein of the changing landscape of college football, I thought this was an interesting comment.

I wish we used it more. Nobody is ever ready for it because they can’t spend the time necessary to train a realistic practice squad. So their D has likely never seen it except for some half ass practice reps. I think we don’t see it because coaches who know how to teach it have mostly retired. Too bad. So many strengths to that formation.

A lot of offensive football is still alive conceptually. Modern coaches just are better at disguising it. Furman is still a pretty "old school" rushing attack.

Going back, the "I formation" traditionally has the QB under center, a fullback lined up 3-4 yards back, and a tailback 5-7 yards deep off the ball.

Here's a play from Saturday.

At the snap, there's a big back (Abrams) at 4 yards back. There's a skill player (Dean) in the backfield at 7 yards. That's effectively the "I Formation."

Sure, our QB is in the shotgun and the tailback is a wide receiver in motion. Those are modern elements of the game, though.

As I view this particular play concept, Furman is running a type of fullback trap. LG pulls right around the Center. Center seals to his left. Both tackles and TE get to the second level. Fullback hits the hole between center and guard. This would be a staple play in a pro-style/I formation offense.

Some of the spread elements, though, help. Huff is able to freeze the defensive end by forcing him to respect the outside run. Dean occupied the outside linebacker through his wide motion. What results is Furman having numbers inside and a strong run by Abrams.

This is pretty "old school" run based football. It is just packaged with more modern elements. The concepts are still there, though.

[FUBeAR]

Yep - Good call, Jackal - that’s South Twins A Move 22 Trap (always thought it shoulda been called 32 Trap, but who was FUBeAR to argue with Coach Satterfield and/or Coach Sheridan).

Only ‘miss’ on your breakdown is that’s the RG, who most likely inside released on the 3TEC being trapped, up on the LB. The RT is doing a Pass Set influence block to get the DE to run upfield/pass rush. Against an odd front, it woulda been the OT on the LB and the OG would be down on the NG with a longer trap on the DE/DT. NOPE - WAIT - AFTER FURTHER REVIEW (Coach Hatcher convinced FUBeAR to take 1 more look at it)…you are correct, Jackal… that is the RT on the LB - wish we had the beginning of the play to see his release. He’s up there so quick, it had to be inside..and then the RG is out blocking on the DE. This is where you wonder about WCU’s D - those DL’s should NOT be giving those OT’s ‘free release’ up on those LB’s. DE shoulda been squeezing so hard the OT should be caught in the hole along with the RG coming to block him…and he shoulda been pushing the whole pile into the pulling OG…but FUBeAR bets he’s more familiar with pass rushing and getting a sack….and maybe his name in the paper. Oops.

Coaching Point - Like to see the QB, even with a gimpy elbow, take that fake all the way out to the LB he is ‘holding.’ If he wants to watch the game, he should buy a ticket and sit in the stands.*


* Violating the calling out of an individual Player ‘rule’ cuz he’s a QB and all QB’s deserve to be called out by OLmen (even old decrepit ones) for little stuff like this AND FUBeAR has given Mr. Huff so much love on here, his account was over its limit…but please, #6, don’t sit in the stands. FUBeAR is only kidding

[The Jackal]

And I think to Coach Saban's point, you can see Luke Shiflett's helmet right at the bottom of the screen. He's only a few yards off the sideline. WCU has to send someone to cover him - half a field away from the running back.

On a run play where you have to account for 11 defenders, Furman is able to "block" 3 without even touching them simply by play design.

Honestly, I'm pretty excited for what Furman can continue to do offensively in this new system. I love combining spread elements with power run elements. Sort of like old school/new school fusion.

[AstroDin]

^^^ curious about one thing I keep thinking about.

The DINS have serious speed in Anderson and KT. Recruiting Analytics posted a tweet where they timed Wayne Anderson on his KOR for a touchdown. Anderson hit 21.4 MPH - 2nd fastest ball carrier for the week in all college football. We see Anderson used in the slot in various ways.

My question concerns KT.
I don't think we've hit on the best ways to use his speed and skill set yet…
KT can hit full speed fast out of the backfield, but most of his runs are stymied by defensive bodies, as most of his rushes are between the tackles.

This could be a great matchup to get KT on the perimeter.

[apaladin]

Maybe we should switch KT again, this time over to defense. Defense is speed deficient obviously!

[The Jackal]

^^^ curious about one thing I keep thinking about.

The DINS have serious speed in Anderson and KT. Recruiting Analytics posted a tweet where they timed Wayne Anderson on his KOR for a touchdown. Anderson hit 21.4 MPH - 2nd fastest ball carrier for the week in all college football. We see Anderson used in the slot in various ways.

My question concerns KT.
I don't think we've hit on the best ways to use his speed and skill set yet…
KT can hit full speed fast out of the backfield, but most of his runs are stymied by defensive bodies, as most of his rushes are between the tackles.

This could be a great matchup to get KT on the perimeter.

He's only carrying the ball an average of 4-5 times a game, so there's not a large sample size to pull from in terms of use. He was in for a late drive against Western Carolina, but everyone in the stadium knew we were running the ball.

We used the screen game heavily in the first few games, but haven't seen much of it since. That's somewhere he'd be useful.

Honestly, I kinda thought we'd see Thomas used in a slasher role like Wayne Anderson. Big enough to take a hit. Fast enough to get to the edge. Good hands.