2018 Offensive Production

[AstroDin]

I obviously didn't pay attention to the final SoCon offensive stats. Enjoying my cup of coffee I decided to look up Dirks stats in relationship to other returning players. I totally forgot statistically how far the Paladins offense came in just one season under CH.

Scoring offense #1 — 32.6
Touchdowns scored #1 — 57
Points scored kicking #1 — 55
Total offensive plays #1 — 880
Total offensive yards #1 — 5507
Total offensive average per play #1 — 6.3
Total offensive touchdowns #1 — 55

That's stunning… I guess I knew this. I think we have even more eye-popping offensive numbers to look forward too. Curious what everyone things related to 2018… will these numbers be less with a new QB - will we see the same balance?

[FUBeAR]

I obviously didn't pay attention to the final SoCon offensive stats. Enjoying my cup of coffee I decided to look up Dirks stats in relationship to other returning players. I totally forgot statistically how far the Paladins offense came in just one season under CH.

Scoring offense #1 — 32.6
Touchdowns scored #1 — 57
Points scored kicking #1 — 55
Total offensive plays #1 — 880
Total offensive yards #1 — 5507
Total offensive average per play #1 — 6.3
Total offensive touchdowns #1 — 55

That's stunning… I guess I knew this. I think we have even more eye-popping offensive numbers to look forward too. Curious what everyone things related to 2018… will these numbers be less with a new QB - will we see the same balance?

Athletic Offensive Linemen (vs. “Fatties”) & running an Offensive SYSTEM (vs. hunting for the “perfect” PLAY) does a body good, huh?

[The Jackal]

I think the offensive system Furman has in place is adaptable. The coaching staff will adapt the system to whomever is under center and best utilize their skill sets. As I've said before, I think Reese Hannon - who was more a "thrower" than a "runner" - could easily have played in this system with great success.

The QB in this offense is not expected to shoulder the entire load. He is expected to take care of the ball and hit high percentage throws. I think any QB we have on the roster should be able to fit nicely into doing that.

To sustain this sort of production, though, we are going to have to keep improving on the offensive line. I am less worried about replacing the QB as I am Schmidt. The only teams that were really able to slow Furman down on offense were those that had big physical interior defensive linemen (NC State, Wofford, Elon, Samford). Those teams could limit our ability to pound the ball inside and narrowed our option. This offense is decidedly less deadly when teams can afford to send extra men to the edges against the run and play action.

All that said, for year one the results were phenomenal. What Furman is doing right now on offense is my favorite version of football to watch. They can go downfield, they can push you around up front, they will run over you, they are fast, they are athletic. Hard for a defense to deal with all of that. Goal in year 2 is to keep getting better.

[gofurman]

"To sustain this sort of production, though, we are going to have to keep improving on the offensive line. I am less worried about replacing the QB as I am Schmidt. The only teams that were really able to slow Furman down on offense were those that had big physical interior defensive linemen (NC State, Wofford, Elon, Samford). Those teams could limit our ability to pound the ball inside and narrowed our option. This offense is decidedly less deadly when teams can afford to send extra men to the edges against the run and play action. '

THIS. I hope the learning and work of the other OL more than compensates for Schmidt but he is a big loss... Hendrix can certainly make that happen - teach em' up! This offense is predicated upon having at least some success up the middle. (Wasn't watching us DESTROY the Citadel fun ? .... You could basically draw a direct correlation to our losses and close games with those teams with the best front seven and especially a strong front 4. While that may sound obvious, what I am saying is we weren't quite as susceptible to lose to teams w strong Offenses as we were to teams w a great DL.

Have to look at our offense returnees to guage my next year expectations as sometimes you hit a sophomore slump for various reasons but I do expect us to do relatively well. ( Hate that our Jerry Rice candidate on D is gone at MLB - that stings ) Long-term I think we are in for a good ride.

[The Jackal]

Generally, we didn't look as good against better defenses, but that was expected. Teams without top end defenses struggled to keep up with our offense. Once or twice our offense managed to stop itself with turnovers and penalties.

I imagine the league will be better prepared for us in 2018 than they were last year. However, we will have a group of players that have now gone through two springs and two summer practices in this system, which should make a huge difference.

[AstroDin]

Offensive line saw -- big, big, big improvement in 2017. We lost two studs but there appears to be a bunch for Lusk and Hendrix to work with. No seniors and man have we gotten longer, tons of 6-4 players. It wasn't that long ago that we were throwing scholarships at offensive linemen - like we were giving out candy. For the most part, Clay is coaching and building with what was there when his staff arrived. Cole Neeley 2017 and Anderson Tomlin 2018 are the only linemen brought in so far.

Center
Cole Neely SO 6-3 273 - my guess is Neely is the starter.
Jonathan Bockhorst JR 6-3 284 - coming back from injury, vocal, love his spirit
Chris Breedlove JR 6-2 282 - has a ton of playing experience
*Caleb Auer SO 6-3 254 - if Auer can continue to grow into an OL player, he'll bring a lot of athletic ability

Guards
Andy Godwin JR 6-4 281 - starter
Jordan Harris SO 6-4 282 - Clay mentioned Harris as having a lot of potential
*Caleb Auer SO 6-3 254 – see above
Cole Kennedy SO 6-5 298
Bo McKinney FR 6-7 307 – Bo is huge - Bo is a lean 307

Tackles
Bo Layton SO 6-7 287 - starter
**Reed Krober SO 6-4 284 - starter - can play any position on the OL - the next All-American
Jacob Conrad JR 6-4 286 - starter
Cody Wyatt SO 6-2 268 - tough, gritty
Anderson Tomlin 6-5 275 - incoming freshman

[The Jackal]

I think McKinney is an interesting guy on the "new look" Furman offensive line. He is the only player over 300, but was 335 on last year's roster.

I think we've taken a smaller group of freshmen the last two years because of the flexibility of moving guys over. We've landed so many strong players along the DL that it makes a guy that played OL in high school, like Harris, available to flip over to offense. If you watch his high school film, he's really impressive on the offensive line. I imagine he will be a contributor for us this year.

[The Jackal]

Looking at last year's lineup this is my guess:

LT: Godwin
LG: Breedlove
C: Bockhorst
RG: Krober
RT: Layton

Krober used to fill in both at OT and OG. Auer will be the first OG off the bench. Neely backs up at C.

The bad news is we lost two guys that contributed a bunch (Schmidt/Bush). The good news is we return a bunch of guys that have a lot of playing time.

[FUBeAR]

Looking at last year's lineup this is my guess:

LT: Godwin
LG: Breedlove
C: Bockhorst
RG: Krober
RT: Layton

Krober used to fill in both at OT and OG. Auer will be the first OG off the bench. Neely backs up at C.

The bad news is we lost two guys that contributed a bunch (Schmidt/Bush). The good news is we return a bunch of guys that have a lot of playing time.

It’s Kroeber...with that extra “e” for EXCELLENCE. I probably wouldn’t be picky ‘bout spellin’ y’know, but he’s from Roswell & I know his family; so I like to be sure we’re treating him well on here.

Also, Coach Hendrix said Reed moved to Center in the Spring in that recent interview. I was doing 2 other things when I watched that interview, but my sense was that this was more than a casual experiment and I would, therefore, expect to see #66 starting at Center next Fall.

[The Jackal]

Blame Astro. I copied him.

Guessing the OL is a fruitless endeavor most years. I can usually get one guy right, but the rest are toss ups. Kroeber is a talented player and is a guy that looks like Furman can deploy in any number of places. Hendrix certainly seems to crosstrain a lot of his OL, so they seem prepared to play any number of positions if necessary.

[AstroDin]

Looking at last year's lineup this is my guess:

LT: Godwin
LG: Breedlove
C: Bockhorst
RG: Krober
RT: Layton

Krober used to fill in both at OT and OG. Auer will be the first OG off the bench. Neely backs up at C.

The bad news is we lost two guys that contributed a bunch (Schmidt/Bush). The good news is we return a bunch of guys that have a lot of playing time.

It’s Kroeber...with that extra “e” for EXCELLENCE. I probably wouldn’t be picky ‘bout spellin’ y’know, but he’s from Roswell & I know his family; so I like to be sure we’re treating him well on here.

Also, Coach Hendrix said Reed moved to Center in the Spring in that recent interview. I was doing 2 other things when I watched that interview, but my sense was that this was more than a casual experiment and I would, therefore, expect to see #66 starting at Center next Fall.

Blame me for the spelling… I'm an ART major…

I heard Clay say that about Reed — but I guess I thought he was still thinking, in the end, Reed would play OT.
That said — we have Layton-Conrad as experienced starters at tackle. So maybe, I'm way off. You do have three starters - you want to get on the field at the same time.

[The Jackal]

Looking at last year's lineup this is my guess:

LT: Godwin
LG: Breedlove
C: Bockhorst
RG: Krober
RT: Layton

Krober used to fill in both at OT and OG. Auer will be the first OG off the bench. Neely backs up at C.

The bad news is we lost two guys that contributed a bunch (Schmidt/Bush). The good news is we return a bunch of guys that have a lot of playing time.

It’s Kroeber...with that extra “e” for EXCELLENCE. I probably wouldn’t be picky ‘bout spellin’ y’know, but he’s from Roswell & I know his family; so I like to be sure we’re treating him well on here.

Also, Coach Hendrix said Reed moved to Center in the Spring in that recent interview. I was doing 2 other things when I watched that interview, but my sense was that this was more than a casual experiment and I would, therefore, expect to see #66 starting at Center next Fall.

Blame me for the spelling… I'm an ART major…

I heard Clay say that about Reed — but I guess I thought he was still thinking, in the end, Reed would play OT.
That said — we have Layton-Conrad as experienced starters at tackle. So maybe, I'm way off. You do have three starters - you want to get on the field at the same time.

Kroeber started the first three games at LT. He then moved at started at RG. When everyone was healthy, Layton started at LT and Godwin at RT.

Not that it means anything.