HERO Sports

[Purpleglasses]

Both Brian and Sam have us going down to Austin Peay State U.
anyone here care to prognosticate?
I say FU 37- APSU 21
as someone on another thread said earlier...we are due for another breakout... here's hoping to see the team that played Samford show up!

[purplehorse]

The “good” Furman team with good QB play and good overall execution and balance and ENERGY and PHYSICALITY and creative smart coaching wins going away against AP and Sacramento State.

Why not get hot at the right time of year and enjoy playing and play your best games and start laying a foundation of winning “big games”. Why not us? Why not now? This is our chance.

[fupaladin01]

A.Peay cannot beat us if we play our A game. Then again we won't win with a Citadel game performance.

As to Hero Sports, Sam lost confidence in us when Wofford shoved us around.(He thought we'd beat Woff) Brian just interviewed the APSU coach for his weekly coaches podcast and I think he felt awkward picking against them after such a good conversation. So, in what he considers a toss-up (FAIR) he gave them the edge by ONE point.

I'm thinking 31-17 FU.

[gman]

We will be able to tell which team showed up within 5 minutes. The body language will tell us everything. It’s hard to make a prediction when we have no clue which team will show up.

[apaladin]

Seems like when everyone starts predicting relative easy wins, we lay an egg. I have no idea, it could go either way and wouldn't be surprised either way. It will prolly come down to if we can complete passes and I am not talking about 5-6. If we think we are going to run all over them I think we will be in for a long day. Conservative play calling, could be another detriment.

[FUwolfpacker]

The weather forecast worries me a little. Completing the passes we need to in order to make our offense go may be difficult in that. APSU can further load up the box if that happens making it tough to run the ball. If the weather holds, I would be surprised if it's a high scoring game. Will come down, as usual, to turnovers at that point (and if we can complete enough passes to keep them from stacking the box).

[youwouldno]

The Paladins offense hasn't moved the ball well against a single good defense all year. APSU has a pretty good defense . . . add in the weather, and it's a tough match-up for sure.

[FurmAlum]

At least we have some experience playing in the rain. I think APSU does too but I don't know how much.

[gman]

NWS forecast for Saturday. Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 64. South wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Detailed discussion speaks of heavy rain and gusty winds.

[The Jackal]

Seems like when everyone starts predicting relative easy wins, we lay an egg. I have no idea, it could go either way and wouldn't be surprised either way. It will prolly come down to if we can complete passes and I am not talking about 5-6. If we think we are going to run all over them I think we will be in for a long day. Conservative play calling, could be another detriment.

Hard to say, really.

There are only two OVC teams that averaged 170+ ypg rushing - Austin Peay and Eastern Kentucky. There are five such teams in the SoCon (Furman, Wofford, Citadel, Chattanooga, ETSU).

Against EKU, Austin Peay surrendered 192 rushing yards and 4.5 ypc, which is just slightly off the Colonel's averages (205/4.7)

Against ETSU, Austin Peay surrendered 150 rushing yards, which is not far off ETSU's 170 ypg output. So, largely, APSU has held two decent rushing teams to around their season averages.

Furman averages 275 ypg on the ground and 6.1 ypc.

So, just to put it in perspective, while Austin Peay has an impressive run defense statistically, Furman will be the best rushing offense they've faced by a country mile. Maybe they stop it, maybe they don't.

[AstroDin]

Coaches talk - CCH has said it numerous times he wants a matchup for his team against a team not familiar with the Dins offense. I have no doubt Furman will open that playbook up against APSU.

The APSU head coach on the OVC coaches/media show spoke highly of Furman's offense, said he loved it. Also made a point no one in the OVC runs the option and several teams do in the SoCon. He expressed concerns about emulating the offense with his scout team. He did say its the type of offense he grew up on as a player.coach.

I like GQ and the DINS running some great schemes Saturday - also think the Govs offense plays into our defensive strength. I think our defense is very underrated in this matchup as well as Grayson Atkins.

[gofurman]

A.Peay cannot beat us if we play our A game. Then again we won't win with a Citadel game performance.

As to Hero Sports, Sam lost confidence in us when Wofford shoved us around.(He thought we'd beat Woff) Brian just interviewed the APSU coach for his weekly coaches podcast and I think he felt awkward picking against them after such a good conversation. So, in what he considers a toss-up (FAIR) he gave them the edge by ONE point.

I'm thinking 31-17 FU.

I USUALLY dislike the phrase that “we win with our A game” because it’s pretty vague and it demeans the other team a little (that they can’t stop our “A game”). Also, I’m always curious to see our B- vs what’s a C+ game? LOL

But for now I agree w Fupaladin01 to the extent I haven’t seen a Furman Team this up and down due to passing game in a long time. You can just look at box score for us and we basically beat every FCS team where we have a 50% completion rate. Which says we are good. If we only need 50% completions to win that’s dang impressive. Throw them screen passes and short out routes ! Our QBs are very capable. Just need to play confidently.

But I mean no disrespect to APeay. I just think if we play like we did V Samford or coming back v Chatt we have a great chance

[purplehorse]

Losing to a Montana or a Montana State (like 2006) in frigid or snowy weather is one thing.

If we cannot play in 60 degree rain that is a mental problem.... and an excuse. Time to end that non-sensical thinking etc.

[Davemeister]

I keep hearing that we will win if we get good QB play. That is true, but we ain't gonna get good QB play if we get the kind of OL play we got against Cit & Woffy.

[purplehorse]

I keep hearing that we will win if we get good QB play. That is true, but we ain't gonna get good QB play if we get the kind of OL play we got against Cit & Woffy.

100%. We need execution by the entire team including both LOS. I think most of us mean that if our QB is missing our receivers with errant passes then our chance of winning greatly diminishes.