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[FurmanATT]

#Paladins to hit the road hard. -- MD
https://wellpilgrim.wordpress.com/2023/ ... rt-begins/

[The Jackal]

Highlights from their Wofford game.

I know the score was lopsided, but there were some opportunities for Wofford. I don't know how many passes the Terrier receivers dropped, but it was a bunch.

I think our game against Mercer will prep us well for Samford defensively. Samford's press notes call their defense a 4-3, but that seems a bit confusing.

Samford has three down defensive linemen. Two of those linemen they all the DT and NT. Those two appear to be more space holders than disruptors. A player they call "B" is, I guess, like a defensive tackle. They have a "W" which is in a two point stance on the weak side, I suppose a bit like our BANDIT.

What's a little peculiar is even though they list two linebackers, a WLB and MLB, those players rarely start in the middle of the field. They frequently line up outside of the formation leaving no one in the middle of the field. It looks like they slant their defense a lot of try and fill in all of the gaps.

I'd have to think there'd be some good opportunities for Furman to go to work in the middle of the field. If you can break their defensive linemen, there's not much behind them.

[gofurman]

Highlights from their Wofford game.

I know the score was lopsided, but there were some opportunities for Wofford. I don't know how many passes the Terrier receivers dropped, but it was a bunch.

I think our game against Mercer will prep us well for Samford defensively. Samford's press notes call their defense a 4-3, but that seems a bit confusing.

Samford has three down defensive linemen. Two of those linemen they all the DT and NT. Those two appear to be more space holders than disruptors. A player they call "B" is, I guess, like a defensive tackle. They have a "W" which is in a two point stance on the weak side, I suppose a bit like our BANDIT.

What's a little peculiar is even though they list two linebackers, a WLB and MLB, those players rarely start in the middle of the field. They frequently line up outside of the formation leaving no one in the middle of the field. It looks like they slant their defense a lot of try and fill in all of the gaps.

I'd have to think there'd be some good opportunities for Furman to go to work in the middle of the field. If you can break their defensive linemen, there's not much behind them.

Agree on similarities. Though I think SAMMY is possibly more dangerous. We seem to have gotten past the Mercer bump. Sammy always has that durn QB etc

[The Jackal]

More dangerous how? They're both good football teams.

Mercer leads Samford in many statistical categories and virtually every defensive category.

[FUBeAR]

More dangerous how? They're both good football teams.

Mercer leads Samford in many statistical categories and virtually every defensive category.

Mercer hasn’t given up a TD in 2 straight conference games the past 2 weeks. Samford gave up 2 TD’s while FUBeAR was typing this.

[gofurman]

Speaking of civility, I got a huge kick out of this story about Evan Jumper.

Jumper was at Furman after App State left the conference, but a good Paladin knows when to stick it to Yosef.

This is awesome. Though I love our OL I wish he were still here - lets start a few more grad programs !

[The Jackal]

More dangerous how? They're both good football teams.

Mercer leads Samford in many statistical categories and virtually every defensive category.

Mercer hasn’t given up a TD in 2 straight conference games the past 2 weeks. Samford gave up 2 TD’s while FUBeAR was typing this.

Samford's defense gave up 28 points to a team that literally hasn't scored a touchdown against another FCS program.

[gofurman]

More dangerous how? They're both good football teams.

Mercer leads Samford in many statistical categories and virtually every defensive category.

Just my "eyeball" test. We will find out this weekend. We beat Mercer 38-14. Ya'll often tell me it is points that matter. I will be shocked if we beat Samford like that. I will take a 1-point win.

*I do realize this game is on the road ...

When you pull the game up on ESPN Samford has the statistical top QB , WR, and RB in this game. I realize we spread the ball around but it is rare in a game like this where we feel we are favored to see the other team have all 3 of those. As an example, Mercer v UTC - UTC (look on the ESPN page of Socon games this weekend) has the leading passer (Artopeus) but Mercer has the leading WR (James). Weird that a favored team wouldn't have any of the 3.

Again, I get the context. We spread the ball around. It is just my eye test that Samford is more of a threat. We beat Mercer last year and this year. Sammy beat us last year. So there is that. And I watched some of Sammy beat Woffd. They make some nice throws. Hard to defend. I think we are going to need 20/25+ points to win this game. In short, Heirs already has 1700+ yrads passing! That's a scare

Also, Sammy made a strong run in the playoffs last year. Mercer has yet to quite make the playoffs... always seem to not quite over the hump. And I respect Mercer and Cronic A LOT.

Sammy also OUTGAINED UTC. That is something I don't think Mercer could do. They only lost because of turnovers... which count but still it shows potential. they put 470+ yards on UTC. The talent is there. That's a scary offensive output

[gofurman]

More dangerous how? They're both good football teams.

Mercer leads Samford in many statistical categories and virtually every defensive category.

Mercer hasn’t given up a TD in 2 straight conference games the past 2 weeks. Samford gave up 2 TD’s while FUBeAR was typing this.

Samford's defense gave up 28 points to a team that literally hasn't scored a touchdown against another FCS program.

Hope you are right to be confident !

[apaladin]

Samford and Furman are similar in that neither has lived up to potential/expectations. Furman has been lucky enough to have the softer schedule thus the better record. Oddly FU can lose this game and still control its own destiny. With that said a loss Saturday and the odds of beating both WCU and UTC on the road go way down.

[The Jackal]

More dangerous how? They're both good football teams.

Mercer leads Samford in many statistical categories and virtually every defensive category.

Just my "eyeball" test. We will find out this weekend. We beat Mercer 38-14. Ya'll often tell me it is points that matter. I will be shocked if we beat Samford like that. I will take a 1-point win.

*I do realize this game is on the road ...

When you pull the game up on ESPN Samford has the statistical top QB , WR, and RB in this game. I realize we spread the ball around but it is rare in a game like this where we feel we are favored to see the other team have all 3 of those. As an example, Mercer v UTC - UTC (look on the ESPN page of Socon games this weekend) has the leading passer (Artopeus) but Mercer has the leading WR (James). Weird that a favored team wouldn't have any of the 3.

Again, I get the context. We spread the ball around. It is just my eye test that Samford is more of a threat. We beat Mercer last year and this year. Sammy beat us last year. So there is that. And I watched some of Sammy beat Woffd. They make some nice throws. Hard to defend. I think we are going to need 20/25+ points to win this game. In short, Heirs already has 1700+ yrads passing! That's a scare

Also, Sammy made a strong run in the playoffs last year. Mercer has yet to quite make the playoffs... always seem to not quite over the hump. And I respect Mercer and Cronic A LOT.

Sammy also OUTGAINED UTC. That is something I don't think Mercer could do. They only lost because of turnovers... which count but still it shows potential. they put 470+ yards on UTC. The talent is there. That's a scary offensive output

I don't doubt that Furman is going to need to score in the high 20s to win.

I also don't get wrapped up in Samford's offensive statistics. Their offense always puts up big numbers. They run more plays and throw more than just about anyone in the country. A lot of their numerical superiority is "system" based, not talent.

Furman's offense actually compares favorably to Samford's. We don't run as many plays, move as fast, or throw it as much, but we score a bunch, run the ball well, and throw it well enough that you have to respect it. Furman also didn't play a D2 school to bolster their statistics.

Defensively, Furman is the superior unit. The Paladin defense leads Samford in virtually every statistical category. I suspect that Furman's defense will, on paper, be the best defense Samford has played this year outside of Auburn.

Like every year, the game is going to come down to whether Furman can maintain possession and keep Samford's offense on the sideline. We need to tackle well on defense and limit their ability to get yards after the catch. We need to pressure the QB and disrupt his timing. I think we'll pick off a pass or two, we're good at doing that and he's prone to throwing them.

[The Jackal]

Samford and Furman are similar in that neither has lived up to potential/expectations. Furman has been lucky enough to have the softer schedule thus the better record. Oddly FU can lose this game and still control its own destiny. With that said a loss Saturday and the odds of beating both WCU and UTC on the road go way down.

I'm sorry - do what now?

Furman was expected to be 4-1 at this point in the season. You may think we should have beaten teams more convincingly or looked prettier doing it, but this is exactly where people thought Furman would be.

Samford was a top 10 team and got hammered by two SoCon schools. When was the last time Furman got thrashed in a conference game? Maybe the Mercer game in September of '21?

It's a positive, I guess, that Furman's expectations are high enough that we can be in the top 5, have won 8 straight conference games, and folks are still complaining.

[gofurman]

And all my take is nothing more than some fear really. Play as hard as possible Dins. GET EM DINS !!!!!!!!!!!!



How about some score guesses?

I will say 27-20 for the good guys and hope to be right

[The Jackal]

And all my take is nothing more than some fear really. Play as hard as possible Dins. GET EM DINS !!!!!!!!!!!!



How about some score guesses?

I will say 27-20 for the good guys and hope to be right

Make no mistake, Samford's plenty good. I just don't think they are as dangerous as they were last year or as good defensively.

We struggle some in pass defense, but we tend to fare pretty well when we lock in against teams we know that are going to sling it. We held Mercer's dynamic duo down. We did well in pass coverage against Samford last season. I think we'll be alright.

[FU Hoopla]

Game notes:
https://furmanpaladins.com/documents/20 ... _Stats.pdf