Day 2 Observations

[Jasper]

Same caveat - minimal contact again.

Got there in time for plays practice with 11 on 11. No contact on red shirted guys ( QB's & Jake Walker) but everyone else was getting after one another pretty good - sans tackling - especially the linemen. Davonta Porter from the Bandit looks unstoppable. Zach Peterson and Ryan DeLuca caught everything thrown in their zip code. Bell looks like he can take every catch to the house. Fast, crafty runner after the catch.

Concentrated on QB's as they ran plays. Hamp Sisson is a much improved short passer and a better runner than I had given him credit for. He may be the right fit for this offense. He seems much more confident & poised than last year. Remember this young man played in a very high level league in high school. I am told that he nearly aced the ACTs and had a 4.0 GPA in his freshman year at FU. Those advantages don't hurt in our complicated, diverse offense. As I recall, he either completed or had dropped every pass he attempted during his sets and they were all under 20 yards - which is typical of our offense.
And then there is Darren Grainger with a cannon for an arm and great running ability. I have spoken with him and he too is a bright young man but I am not sure if he has the overall grasp of the offense that Sisson seems to have. He took second snaps again today but I have no idea if that is a pecking order or chance.
Luke Shiflett is a very good athlete who made a marked improvement from yesterday. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he spent his off time between sessions practicing his foot work, fakes and handoff/pitch out techniques that the staff was working on with him yesterday. I also noticed yesterday that he is also a punter. Another similarity with Chris Forcier.

We will know much more next week when they start hitting in earnest but I think I understand better now why CCH does not seem concerned about the QB position and he certainly knows more about that than we fans. There are a lot of very good football players on that field that are not QB's and they will have a great deal to say about the success of this team this year.

[gofurman]

Same caveat - minimal contact again.

Got there in time for plays practice with 11 on 11. No contact on red shirted guys ( QB's & Jake Walker) but everyone else was getting after one another pretty good - sans tackling - especially the linemen. Davonta Porter from the Bandit looks unstoppable. Zach Peterson and Ryan DeLuca caught everything thrown in their zip code. Bell looks like he can take every catch to the house. Fast, crafty runner after the catch.

Concentrated on QB's as they ran plays. Hamp Sisson is a much improved short passer and a better runner than I had given him credit for. He may be the right fit for this offense. He seems much more confident & poised than last year. Remember this young man played in a very high level league in high school. I am told that he nearly aced the ACTs and had a 4.0 GPA in his freshman year at FU. Those advantages don't hurt in our complicated, diverse offense. As I recall, he either completed or had dropped every pass he attempted during his sets and they were all under 20 yards - which is typical of our offense.
And then there is Darren Grainger with a cannon for an arm and great running ability. I have spoken with him and he too is a bright young man but I am not sure if he has the overall grasp of the offense that Sisson seems to have. He took second snaps again today but I have no idea if that is a pecking order or chance.
Luke Shiflett is a very good athlete who made a marked improvement from yesterday. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he spent his off time between sessions practicing his foot work, fakes and handoff/pitch out techniques that the staff was working on with him yesterday. I also noticed yesterday that he is also a punter. Another similarity with Chris Forcier.

We will know much more next week when they start hitting in earnest but I think I understand better now why CCH does not seem concerned about the QB position and he certainly knows more about that than we fans. There are a lot of very good football players on that field that are not QB's and they will have a great deal to say about the success of this team this year.

FIrst, I really appreciate your reports Jasper!! Please keep us updated!
I would suspect Shiflett to improve the most each day as he has no knowledge or work with our system. ZERO. If he is a great QB I could see him taking over late in season or next year. Just so hard to come in - unless you are Ingle Martin talent - and take over. I wasn't worried when you said he looked lost yesterday - who wouldn't ?

Did you see Godwin out there?

"Davonta Porter from the Bandit looks unstoppable." - this is also interesting and great to hear because we need someone on the two-deep with Adrian Hope. If Porter is great I wonder if Hope stays a situational passing-down guy? That was interesting last year that we had an All-America (Hope) come in only once every couple of plays. You don't see that much. Jackal has alluded to this as one of the interesting questions for this year - Does Hope stay a situational guy or become a 3-down guy?

[soconjohn]

I don’t remember Forcier being a punter, however, I do remember Ingle Martin being one.

[apaladin]

Thanks for the update. Did we throw any deep passes??

[FurmanEagle]

I stopped by briefly and didn’t see any true deep balls thrown. Receivers were catching most balls thrown their way. A lot of 10 and 20 yard receptions. Defense seems ready to get some more contact. Clay and Griffin seemed to be getting a lot of reps at Safety. Hadn’t seen Griffin play a lot but he moves really well. Also looked like Blackshear was getting reps with first team at corner. Can’t wait to see things at full speed!

[Paul C]

If Griffin is cleared to play that’s huge. I know the coaches really liked him last year and were disappointed he had to be held out.

[gofurman]

If Griffin is cleared to play that’s huge. I know the coaches really liked him last year and were disappointed he had to be held out.

Right - no HIPAA violatoin here.. just thought he was held out as Paul said. That would be a nice thing for FU and for him! Mostly I hope he is ok.

Selfishly, I hope he is there as that helps with one of the two or so spots I said we were still thin or young - Safety / QB. If we don't have Griffin then Safety only returned DiMarcus Clay with any real experience.. Thus why I interpreted they brought Austin Jones in early as a true freshman.

I guess I have to list Center along w Safety and QB as thin or young. Center would just be thin. Strong safety thin w only Clay returning. QB deep but inexperienced. C - Neely is experienced but behind him we had Kroeber who really appears more of a Guard. I assume Evan Jumper has a pretty sure shot at being one of the few true freshman on the two deep as it looks that Kroeber went to OG ... I would be surprised if Jumper were not on the two deep. Here's to hoping both Griffin is ok and that Neely stays healthy. We don't want a true FR Center starting. Hope Jumper is awesome but gets to play as a backup this year even if he burns a redshirt.

[The Jackal]

Not reading much into this, but going by the numbers, this is Wayne Anderson (21) and Dominic Roberto (42) running the option.

I'm probably overthinking, but I think it is slightly interesting that the TB (Anderson) is the inside give while the RB (Roberto) is taking the pitch on the edge. The last two seasons, Furman has pretty much only used the RB as a north/south battering ram.

Perhaps we have depth enough in the backfield to run option with either position. There is a lot you can do as an offense if you can run the same play to either side of the field based on how the defenses align.

Besides, if we are going to run pitch option with a 240 lbs running back, I'm here for it.

[Paul C]

If Griffin is cleared to play that’s huge. I know the coaches really liked him last year and were disappointed he had to be held out.

Right - no HIPAA violatoin here.. just thought he was held out as Paul said. That would be a nice thing for FU and for him! Mostly I hope he is ok.

Selfishly, I hope he is there as that helps with one of the two or so spots I said we were still thin or young - Safety / QB. If we don't have Griffin then Safety only returned DiMarcus Clay with any real experience.. Thus why I interpreted they brought Austin Jones in early as a true freshman.

You keep leaving Bryan Okeh out of the the conversation...he’s a returning starter at S

[gofurman]

If Griffin is cleared to play that’s huge. I know the coaches really liked him last year and were disappointed he had to be held out.

Right - no HIPAA violatoin here.. just thought he was held out as Paul said. That would be a nice thing for FU and for him! Mostly I hope he is ok.

Selfishly, I hope he is there as that helps with one of the two or so spots I said we were still thin or young - Safety / QB. If we don't have Griffin then Safety only returned DiMarcus Clay with any real experience.. Thus why I interpreted they brought Austin Jones in early as a true freshman.

You keep leaving Bryan Okeh out of the the conversation...he’s a returning starter at S

Paul, absolutely agree - I figure Okeh has the FS position locked up.. I mean the SS when I refer to Clay, Griffin and Jones

[FUBeAR]

Not reading much into this, but going by the numbers, this is Wayne Anderson (21) and Dominic Roberto (42) running the option.

I'm probably overthinking, but I think it is slightly interesting that the TB (Anderson) is the inside give while the RB (Roberto) is taking the pitch on the edge. The last two seasons, Furman has pretty much only used the RB as a north/south battering ram.

Perhaps we have depth enough in the backfield to run option with either position. There is a lot you can do as an offense if you can run the same play to either side of the field based on how the defenses align.

Besides, if we are going to run pitch option with a 240 lbs running back, I'm here for it.

The best thing I see here is how the QB aggressively takes the ball up into the D, FORCING the DE (force Player) to tackle him instead of ‘slow playing’ and being able to force the pitch AND get to the RB. So much “option” I see today has the QB going flat down the line or even drifting backward as he approaches the force player. IMO, that’s really dumb & defeats the purpose of running the option in the 1st place. I know the idea is to ‘protect’ the QB, but I saw Furman QB’s from David Whitehurst (on vid) to Bobby Lamb take many, many of those hits in practice & games, pop up, and run the next play. They were taught how to force the force Player AND then recoil to absorb/minimize the impact of the contact. If you gonna run the down the line option at all, QB has to know how to do these things & create the numbers advantage that the option provides.

[The Jackal]

So, here's that play in real time. Debateably, the wrong read by the QB, who probably should have kept the ball, but the result was a good one.

What I find interesting on that play is that the "second" back in the formation was Corey Watkins. Perhaps in 2018 the team felt it needed two tailbacks in the backfield to make the option work. Maybe in 2019 they feel comfortable keeping the RB in the formation and doing the same thing.

[paladinduece]

If Griffin is cleared to play that’s huge. I know the coaches really liked him last year and were disappointed he had to be held out.

Right - no HIPAA violatoin here.. just thought he was held out as Paul said. That would be a nice thing for FU and for him! Mostly I hope he is ok.

Selfishly, I hope he is there as that helps with one of the two or so spots I said we were still thin or young - Safety / QB. If we don't have Griffin then Safety only returned DiMarcus Clay with any real experience.. Thus why I interpreted they brought Austin Jones in early as a true freshman.

I guess I have to list Center along w Safety and QB as thin or young. Center would just be thin. Strong safety thin w only Clay returning. QB deep but inexperienced. C - Neely is experienced but behind him we had Kroeber who really appears more of a Guard. I assume Evan Jumper has a pretty sure shot at being one of the few true freshman on the two deep as it looks that Kroeber went to OG ... I would be surprised if Jumper were not on the two deep. Here's to hoping both Griffin is ok and that Neely stays healthy. We don't want a true FR Center starting. Hope Jumper is awesome but gets to play as a backup this year even if he burns a redshirt.

I think there will be 3 true freshman to have an impact this season. To what extent I do not know. Jumper has noticeably filled out since the spring, and I would expect they get him in the mix. It will be interesting to see how they handle his red shirt. Agbenou is physically ready now and is extremely athletic for his size. I expect by the second half of the season you may see him in the rotation. Saw him for the first time last week and he passes the eye test. Jones was not participating in practice last week. I am not sure why he is being held out, but he took the majority of the snaps in the spring game. With Griffin back in the mix it will be interesting to see how this goes, but nice to build depth for sure. Jones has noticeably changed his body as well since the spring. If anyone gets any injury updates please pass them along.

[FUBeAR]

So, here's that play in real time. Debateably, the wrong read by the QB, who probably should have kept the ball, but the result was a good one.

What I find interesting on that play is that the "second" back in the formation was Corey Watkins. Perhaps in 2018 the team felt it needed two tailbacks in the backfield to make the option work. Maybe in 2019 they feel comfortable keeping the RB in the formation and doing the same thing.

That’s a trap with option ‘window dressing.’ Yes, a ‘trap option’ is a thing, but pretty sure that one is a pre-determined trap, instead of a “wrong read.”

[The Jackal]

For you Evan Jumper fans