The Unofficial Furman Football Page

The 2018 issue of Street and Smiths,formerly Sporting News, formerly Street and Smiths, College Football Edition has hit the stands.

The Paladins are pre-season 2d in the Southern, behind Samford and ahead of Wofford.

Samford clocked in at No 10 nationally, right behind Elon. The Paladins at 17, and Wofford at 21. North Dakota State and JMU are 1 and 2.

With the Big Boys, Alabama and Clemson are 1-2, just ahead of Harvard. Oh, sorry, that's US News and World Reports.

The Chickens settled in at 24.

Athlon, in its meager coverage of the FCS, does not mention the Paladins. Elon is 10, Samford 12, and Wofford 16. The only projected playoff team from the SoCon is Samford with the Auto bid. No SoCon at large. The CAA has 5 (count em) projected playoff teams, which, to me at least, is patently unrealistic. I mean, has any conference EVER placed 5 in the playoffs? That's 25% of the field.

Athlon has a feature photo of 4 Clemson players, who, from their expressions, are coming off a week-long struggle with constipation.

ccoates wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 11:49 am

The 2018 issue of Street and Smiths,formerly Sporting News, formerly Street and Smiths, College Football Edition has hit the stands.

The Paladins are pre-season 2d in the Southern, behind Samford and ahead of Wofford.

Samford clocked in at No 10 nationally, right behind Elon. The Paladins at 17, and Wofford at 21. North Dakota State and JMU are 1 and 2.

With the Big Boys, Alabama and Clemson are 1-2, just ahead of Harvard. Oh, sorry, that's US News and World Reports.

The Chickens settled in at 24.

Athlon, in its meager coverage of the FCS, does not mention the Paladins. Elon is 10, Samford 12, and Wofford 16. The only projected playoff team from the SoCon is Samford with the Auto bid. No SoCon at large. The CAA has 5 (count em) projected playoff teams, which, to me at least, is patently unrealistic. I mean, has any conference EVER placed 5 in the playoffs? That's 25% of the field.

Athlon has a feature photo of 4 Clemson players, who, from their expressions, are coming off a week-long struggle with constipation.

Yes, MVFC has had 5 in the Playoffs - last year & in 2014 & 2015. Pretty sure the CAA also had 5 teams in 3 different Playoff year’s, but I don’t recall the years.

AND, it’s ridiculous that anyone would think the SoCon, clearly on an upswing since 2014 (the last time the SoCon only had 1 (Chatt)), doesn’t deserve at least 3 Teams in this year after having 3 in last year (FU, Woffy, & Samford) & in 2016 (Cit, Chatt, Sammy), and 2 in 2015 (Cit, Chatt). HARRUMPH!!

Can you rundown their full SoCon rankings?

ccoates wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 11:49 am

The 2018 issue of Street and Smiths,formerly Sporting News, formerly Street and Smiths, College Football Edition has hit the stands.

The Paladins are pre-season 2d in the Southern, behind Samford and ahead of Wofford.

Samford clocked in at No 10 nationally, right behind Elon. The Paladins at 17, and Wofford at 21. North Dakota State and JMU are 1 and 2.

With the Big Boys, Alabama and Clemson are 1-2, just ahead of Harvard. Oh, sorry, that's US News and World Reports.

The Chickens settled in at 24.

Athlon, in its meager coverage of the FCS, does not mention the Paladins. Elon is 10, Samford 12, and Wofford 16. The only projected playoff team from the SoCon is Samford with the Auto bid. No SoCon at large. The CAA has 5 (count em) projected playoff teams, which, to me at least, is patently unrealistic. I mean, has any conference EVER placed 5 in the playoffs? That's 25% of the field.

Athlon has a feature photo of 4 Clemson players, who, from their expressions, are coming off a week-long struggle with constipation.

The Missouri Valley placed 5 in the playoffs just last season.

I believe picking Furman at #2 is defensible. Samford probably has the most talent. Wofford should be good another year buoyed by a strong defense, but their peculiar changing of the guard this offseason and losses on offense leads me to think they will fall back some.

The SoCon will have more than one playoff team. Any top 25 ranking that has Elon at 10 and Furman nowhere should be summarily ignored.

The CAA might have 5 teams this season, but doubtful. With Furman's game against Elon and the Citadel's contest against Towson, the SoCon potentially has a chance to notch some key OOC wins against a competitive conference. Colgate also has two games against CAA teams, so beating them soundly would help as well.

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:11 pm

ccoates wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 11:49 am

The 2018 issue of Street and Smiths,formerly Sporting News, formerly Street and Smiths, College Football Edition has hit the stands.

The Paladins are pre-season 2d in the Southern, behind Samford and ahead of Wofford.

Samford clocked in at No 10 nationally, right behind Elon. The Paladins at 17, and Wofford at 21. North Dakota State and JMU are 1 and 2.

With the Big Boys, Alabama and Clemson are 1-2, just ahead of Harvard. Oh, sorry, that's US News and World Reports.

The Chickens settled in at 24.

Athlon, in its meager coverage of the FCS, does not mention the Paladins. Elon is 10, Samford 12, and Wofford 16. The only projected playoff team from the SoCon is Samford with the Auto bid. No SoCon at large. The CAA has 5 (count em) projected playoff teams, which, to me at least, is patently unrealistic. I mean, has any conference EVER placed 5 in the playoffs? That's 25% of the field.

Athlon has a feature photo of 4 Clemson players, who, from their expressions, are coming off a week-long struggle with constipation.

Yes, MVFC has had 5 in the Playoffs - last year & in 2014 & 2015. Pretty sure the CAA also had 5 teams in 3 different Playoff year’s, but I don’t recall the years.

AND, it’s ridiculous that anyone would think the SoCon, clearly on an upswing since 2014 (the last time the SoCon only had 1 (Chatt)), doesn’t deserve at least 3 Teams in this year after having 3 in last year (FU, Woffy, & Samford) & in 2016 (Cit, Chatt, Sammy), and 2 in 2015 (Cit, Chatt). HARRUMPH!!

Can you rundown their full SoCon rankings?

I am not sure the CAA recently reached five, but the MVFC had 5 in 2015 and 2014 as well. I didn't go back further than that.

The Jackal wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:17 pm

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:11 pm

ccoates wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 11:49 am

The 2018 issue of Street and Smiths,formerly Sporting News, formerly Street and Smiths, College Football Edition has hit the stands.

The Paladins are pre-season 2d in the Southern, behind Samford and ahead of Wofford.

Samford clocked in at No 10 nationally, right behind Elon. The Paladins at 17, and Wofford at 21. North Dakota State and JMU are 1 and 2.

With the Big Boys, Alabama and Clemson are 1-2, just ahead of Harvard. Oh, sorry, that's US News and World Reports.

The Chickens settled in at 24.

Athlon, in its meager coverage of the FCS, does not mention the Paladins. Elon is 10, Samford 12, and Wofford 16. The only projected playoff team from the SoCon is Samford with the Auto bid. No SoCon at large. The CAA has 5 (count em) projected playoff teams, which, to me at least, is patently unrealistic. I mean, has any conference EVER placed 5 in the playoffs? That's 25% of the field.

Athlon has a feature photo of 4 Clemson players, who, from their expressions, are coming off a week-long struggle with constipation.

Yes, MVFC has had 5 in the Playoffs - last year & in 2014 & 2015. Pretty sure the CAA also had 5 teams in 3 different Playoff year’s, but I don’t recall the years.

AND, it’s ridiculous that anyone would think the SoCon, clearly on an upswing since 2014 (the last time the SoCon only had 1 (Chatt)), doesn’t deserve at least 3 Teams in this year after having 3 in last year (FU, Woffy, & Samford) & in 2016 (Cit, Chatt, Sammy), and 2 in 2015 (Cit, Chatt). HARRUMPH!!

Can you rundown their full SoCon rankings?

I am not sure the CAA recently reached five, but the MVFC had 5 in 2015 and 2014 as well. I didn't go back further than that.

Um...yeah...As I said...

Update/Edit: The CAA had 5 Teams in the Playoffs in 2007 (Delaware, JMU, UMass, New Hampshire, & Richmond), 2008 (Richmond, Villanova, New Hampshire, JMU, & Maine), and 2011 (Towson, JMU, Maine, New Hampshire, & Old Dominion).

https://www.valley-football.org/news/20 ... h=football

Playoff Bids - MVFC History
The MVFC has had a league-record five teams selected to the playoffs three times (2014, 2015, 2017). In the past four seasons, the MVFC has had a total of 19 bids. Only CAA Football has had as many as 5 bids in the same season (also three times).

Playoff Selections - MVFC History
5 -- three times (2014, 2015, 2017)
4 -- twice (2003, 2016)
3 or more -- 7 times (03, 06, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16)
2 or more -- 26 times (in 33 seasons)
2 or more playoff bids every year since 1995

I think the people who allegedly "cover" FCS football for these mags are essentially clueless. They look at last year's record for a particular team - factor in how many key players they lost to graduation and then guess at this year's performance based upon who is coming back. That's pretty much the extent of their knowledge. In the case of FU, we lost our starting QB, leading pass receiver and, I believe, most productive RB. Therefore we are going into decline. It's as if they think we will just leave those positions empty in their tiny little brains. We cognoscenti, however, know that the system is the thing and we have more than ample replacements for all the dearly departed players. We also know that all those baby faced freshman we were forced to play last year will come back as bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced bad asses and that we also had a kickass recruiting year. Unfortunately, I don't think the SOCON coaches are as clueless and are spending a lot of off season film hours looking at our offensive and defensive schemes and wondering what the hell hit them last season. Let's keep it a secret from the writers though. Mums the word.

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:11 pm

ccoates wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 11:49 am

The 2018 issue of Street and Smiths,formerly Sporting News, formerly Street and Smiths, College Football Edition has hit the stands.

The Paladins are pre-season 2d in the Southern, behind Samford and ahead of Wofford.

Samford clocked in at No 10 nationally, right behind Elon. The Paladins at 17, and Wofford at 21. North Dakota State and JMU are 1 and 2.

With the Big Boys, Alabama and Clemson are 1-2, just ahead of Harvard. Oh, sorry, that's US News and World Reports.

The Chickens settled in at 24.

Athlon, in its meager coverage of the FCS, does not mention the Paladins. Elon is 10, Samford 12, and Wofford 16. The only projected playoff team from the SoCon is Samford with the Auto bid. No SoCon at large. The CAA has 5 (count em) projected playoff teams, which, to me at least, is patently unrealistic. I mean, has any conference EVER placed 5 in the playoffs? That's 25% of the field.

Athlon has a feature photo of 4 Clemson players, who, from their expressions, are coming off a week-long struggle with constipation.

Yes, MVFC has had 5 in the Playoffs - last year & in 2014 & 2015. Pretty sure the CAA also had 5 teams in 3 different Playoff year’s, but I don’t recall the years.

AND, it’s ridiculous that anyone would think the SoCon, clearly on an upswing since 2014 (the last time the SoCon only had 1 (Chatt)), doesn’t deserve at least 3 Teams in this year after having 3 in last year (FU, Woffy, & Samford) & in 2016 (Cit, Chatt, Sammy), and 2 in 2015 (Cit, Chatt). HARRUMPH!!

Can you rundown their full SoCon rankings?

1- Samford: 2= Furman: 3= Wofford-; 4 -Mercer; 5-WCU; 6-Citadel; 7-Chattanooga; 8-ETSU and









9-VMI

Jasper wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:19 pm

I think the people who allegedly "cover" FCS football for these mags are essentially clueless. They look at last year's record for a particular team - factor in how many key players they lost to graduation and then guess at this year's performance based upon who is coming back. That's pretty much the extent of their knowledge. In the case of FU, we lost our starting QB, leading pass receiver and, I believe, most productive RB. Therefore we are going into decline. It's as if they think we will just leave those positions empty in their tiny little brains. We cognoscenti, however, know that the system is the thing and we have more than ample replacements for all the dearly departed players. We also know that all those baby faced freshman we were forced to play last year will come back as bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced bad asses and that we also had a kickass recruiting year. Unfortunately, I don't think the SOCON coaches are as clueless and are spending a lot of off season film hours looking at our offensive and defensive schemes and wondering what the hell hit them last season. Let's keep it a secret from the writers though. Mums the word.

I think some might dock Furman because of losing Blazejowski. It is true, he was a good player for us, but I firmly believe (as if that matters) that this offense is not QB centric. The QB is called on to maintain possession, hit open receivers, and keep the train running on time. He isn't called on to make 40-50 throws a game.

I like to use Wofford as an example. Even those among us who have followed SoCon football for a long time probably cannot name more than 1 Wofford QB the last 10 years. Their offense is not an offense where the QB is the star of the show. Furman's not quite as run heavy as the Terriers are, but I think it is the same idea.

Folks also underestimate the jump between year 1 and year 2 in a new system. I remember Trey Robinson talking to the media about how much more he understood in Kyle Gillenwater's defense heading into his second year.

ccoates wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 8:18 pm

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:11 pm

ccoates wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 11:49 am

The 2018 issue of Street and Smiths,formerly Sporting News, formerly Street and Smiths, College Football Edition has hit the stands.

The Paladins are pre-season 2d in the Southern, behind Samford and ahead of Wofford.

Samford clocked in at No 10 nationally, right behind Elon. The Paladins at 17, and Wofford at 21. North Dakota State and JMU are 1 and 2.

With the Big Boys, Alabama and Clemson are 1-2, just ahead of Harvard. Oh, sorry, that's US News and World Reports.

The Chickens settled in at 24.

Athlon, in its meager coverage of the FCS, does not mention the Paladins. Elon is 10, Samford 12, and Wofford 16. The only projected playoff team from the SoCon is Samford with the Auto bid. No SoCon at large. The CAA has 5 (count em) projected playoff teams, which, to me at least, is patently unrealistic. I mean, has any conference EVER placed 5 in the playoffs? That's 25% of the field.

Athlon has a feature photo of 4 Clemson players, who, from their expressions, are coming off a week-long struggle with constipation.

Yes, MVFC has had 5 in the Playoffs - last year & in 2014 & 2015. Pretty sure the CAA also had 5 teams in 3 different Playoff year’s, but I don’t recall the years.

AND, it’s ridiculous that anyone would think the SoCon, clearly on an upswing since 2014 (the last time the SoCon only had 1 (Chatt)), doesn’t deserve at least 3 Teams in this year after having 3 in last year (FU, Woffy, & Samford) & in 2016 (Cit, Chatt, Sammy), and 2 in 2015 (Cit, Chatt). HARRUMPH!!

Can you rundown their full SoCon rankings?

1- Samford: 2= Furman: 3= Wofford-; 4 -Mercer; 5-WCU; 6-Citadel; 7-Chattanooga; 8-ETSU and









9-VMI

I'm not joking when I say VMI could be the worst SoCon team in memory. They were bad last year, lost a bunch of coaches, and many of the good players they had left the program.

The Jackal wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:20 am

Jasper wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:19 pm

I think the people who allegedly "cover" FCS football for these mags are essentially clueless. They look at last year's record for a particular team - factor in how many key players they lost to graduation and then guess at this year's performance based upon who is coming back. That's pretty much the extent of their knowledge. In the case of FU, we lost our starting QB, leading pass receiver and, I believe, most productive RB. Therefore we are going into decline. It's as if they think we will just leave those positions empty in their tiny little brains. We cognoscenti, however, know that the system is the thing and we have more than ample replacements for all the dearly departed players. We also know that all those baby faced freshman we were forced to play last year will come back as bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced bad asses and that we also had a kickass recruiting year. Unfortunately, I don't think the SOCON coaches are as clueless and are spending a lot of off season film hours looking at our offensive and defensive schemes and wondering what the hell hit them last season. Let's keep it a secret from the writers though. Mums the word.

I think some might dock Furman because of losing Blazejowski. It is true, he was a good player for us, but I firmly believe (as if that matters) that this offense is not QB centric. The QB is called on to maintain possession, hit open receivers, and keep the train running on time. He isn't called on to make 40-50 throws a game.

I like to use Wofford as an example. Even those among us who have followed SoCon football for a long time probably cannot name more than 1 Wofford QB the last 10 years. Their offense is not an offense where the QB is the star of the show. Furman's not quite as run heavy as the Terriers are, but I think it is the same idea.

Folks also underestimate the jump between year 1 and year 2 in a new system. I remember Trey Robinson talking to the media about how much more he understood in Kyle Gillenwater's defense heading into his second year.

I understand your point for sure, but I do think the importance of the QB in an option type offense is often undervalued. You don't need him to pass 50 times a game or rush for 1,000 yards, but they do need to know when to pitch and when to keep, need to be able to hit the open man, and be able to make at least a few moves to avoid defenders. Blaze is a big loss, but if someone on the staff can do those things well, we should still be in really good shape.

fufanatic wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:44 pm

The Jackal wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:20 am

Jasper wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:19 pm

I think the people who allegedly "cover" FCS football for these mags are essentially clueless. They look at last year's record for a particular team - factor in how many key players they lost to graduation and then guess at this year's performance based upon who is coming back. That's pretty much the extent of their knowledge. In the case of FU, we lost our starting QB, leading pass receiver and, I believe, most productive RB. Therefore we are going into decline. It's as if they think we will just leave those positions empty in their tiny little brains. We cognoscenti, however, know that the system is the thing and we have more than ample replacements for all the dearly departed players. We also know that all those baby faced freshman we were forced to play last year will come back as bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced bad asses and that we also had a kickass recruiting year. Unfortunately, I don't think the SOCON coaches are as clueless and are spending a lot of off season film hours looking at our offensive and defensive schemes and wondering what the hell hit them last season. Let's keep it a secret from the writers though. Mums the word.

I think some might dock Furman because of losing Blazejowski. It is true, he was a good player for us, but I firmly believe (as if that matters) that this offense is not QB centric. The QB is called on to maintain possession, hit open receivers, and keep the train running on time. He isn't called on to make 40-50 throws a game.

I like to use Wofford as an example. Even those among us who have followed SoCon football for a long time probably cannot name more than 1 Wofford QB the last 10 years. Their offense is not an offense where the QB is the star of the show. Furman's not quite as run heavy as the Terriers are, but I think it is the same idea.

Folks also underestimate the jump between year 1 and year 2 in a new system. I remember Trey Robinson talking to the media about how much more he understood in Kyle Gillenwater's defense heading into his second year.

I understand your point for sure, but I do think the importance of the QB in an option type offense is often undervalued. You don't need him to pass 50 times a game or rush for 1,000 yards, but they do need to know when to pitch and when to keep, need to be able to hit the open man, and be able to make at least a few moves to avoid defenders. Blaze is a big loss, but if someone on the staff can do those things well, we should still be in really good shape.

What you are describing is a "good quarterback." I'm in agreement. I think Furman needs a good QB. However, I do not think Furman's offense is going to need that position to carry the offense.

Take Furman's game last year against Mercer. The Bears had a good defense, and Furman managed to score 28 points in good weather (a good offensive day against a tough opponent). Furman ran 68 offensive plays. 38 of those plays (55%) were handoffs to the fullback. Blazejowski attempted 19 passes, the longest of which went for 21 yards and was thrown to Antonio Wilcox (a fullback). Of his 16 completions 4 of them (25%) were to backs.

That is, against Mercer Blazejowski simply handed the ball off over half of the plays our offense ran. A quarter of his passes would have been to running backs at or around the line of scrimmage.

Furman's offense de-emphasizes the QB needing to be the best player on the field. He is called on to do his job like everyone else. Some offenses (Samford's and WCU's come to mind) are almost exclusively reliant on the entire offense running through the QB. If Tyrie Adams or Devlin Hodges are out of the game, I imagine those teams are going to struggle offensively (Furman saw that first hand with Adams).

I'm not disagreeing with you, I just do not think that graduating a good QB is going to be a huge problem for Furman. The offense has so many parts working together that the QB is just a piece of the puzzle. A strong running game can make a good QB look really impressive. While we run a lot of option "action" we really do not run as much triple option as it may look like we do. A lot of our plays that look like option are either fullback handoffs or QB keepers.

The Jackal wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:20 am

Jasper wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:19 pm

I think the people who allegedly "cover" FCS football for these mags are essentially clueless. They look at last year's record for a particular team - factor in how many key players they lost to graduation and then guess at this year's performance based upon who is coming back. That's pretty much the extent of their knowledge. In the case of FU, we lost our starting QB, leading pass receiver and, I believe, most productive RB. Therefore we are going into decline. It's as if they think we will just leave those positions empty in their tiny little brains. We cognoscenti, however, know that the system is the thing and we have more than ample replacements for all the dearly departed players. We also know that all those baby faced freshman we were forced to play last year will come back as bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced bad asses and that we also had a kickass recruiting year. Unfortunately, I don't think the SOCON coaches are as clueless and are spending a lot of off season film hours looking at our offensive and defensive schemes and wondering what the hell hit them last season. Let's keep it a secret from the writers though. Mums the word.

I think some might dock Furman because of losing Blazejowski. It is true, he was a good player for us, but I firmly believe (as if that matters) that this offense is not QB centric. The QB is called on to maintain possession, hit open receivers, and keep the train running on time. He isn't called on to make 40-50 throws a game.

I like to use Wofford as an example. Even those among us who have followed SoCon football for a long time probably cannot name more than 1 Wofford QB the last 10 years. Their offense is not an offense where the QB is the star of the show. Furman's not quite as run heavy as the Terriers are, but I think it is the same idea.

Folks also underestimate the jump between year 1 and year 2 in a new system. I remember Trey Robinson talking to the media about how much more he understood in Kyle Gillenwater's defense heading into his second year.

THIS - I recall last year people were big on us 'surprising' other teams with schemes they hadn't seen. I don't think the 'surprise' factor is nearly as important as us knowing what WE are supposed to do in a given situation.. It's all good and well to run a few plays that catch the D off guard... but if your basic theory of football is to do the common things uncommonly well then I think our coaches would rather have our guys be able to know what WE are doing. Be able to react instead of having to think on defense etc.

1- Samford: 2= Furman: 3= Wofford-; 4 -Mercer; 5-WCU; 6-Citadel; 7-Chattanooga; 8-ETSU and 9-VMI...

Yep, I think its pretty clear 4 tiers ENTERING this year. Often one will surprise up and one will surprise down ... (more to come in a better thread but real quick)
tier 1 - 1- Samford: McKnight and Hodges will terrorize SoCon defenses once again and they have the SoCon preseason D player of the year back. They found a DEFENSE. And that was what avoided the 'Paul-C - predicted - Samford - late-season -decline' last year. Hopefully they lost enough on D that we can get em' this time. But great team.
2= Furman: how will we look on O. D should be great though our claims of 'returning 10 starters on D' has fallen especially with losing the freaky good Linebacker (Ellis?) and the GSU transfer isn't coming I don't think to help the DL ?
3= Wofford - coaching changes will hurt I think. But that front 7 D was scary when healthy. We saw that first hand in week 2 of the playoffs. All that talk of how they eeked out wins was because they were missing 2 key guys on their front 7. If healthy on their front 7 its hard to do much of anything - we couldnt' do sh**T in the playoffs vs them. As Hawg noted after our playoff loss to some WOff fan, surprised we couldn't get much outside or inside vs you all. I believe we can beat them this year.. will be interesting to watch their new coaching etc.

4 -Mercer; 5-WCU; I fear Mercer (PTSD from all those damn games we dropped?) more than WCU - esp since we go to Mercer and WCU who we ran all over comes here

6-Citadel; 7-Chattanooga; 8-ETSU.. CItadel in chucktown.. but actually Chatt came along at the end of the year. We caught them at the right time last year. Ill be interested to watch Chatt

9-VMI... If we are close in this game well.. we have issues - as Jackal said, they may be worst SoCon team in years. Bad and several good players transferred out. kinda sad actually


*Of huge importance is, as always, where we play the games - NIce that Samford and Woff come here this year.. if that was the case last yr I have to wonder if we could have gotten' one of them as a W. Tough are the next two teams - We now go to Mercer with a great returning QB and have WCU at home. I would prefer to go to the 'Whee (we did great last year) and have Mercer here if given my preference. Mercer at home was a close win last year and seems to ALWAYS be a very close one...so many nail biters with those Bears !

gofurman wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 12, 2018 6:13 pm

3= Wofford - coaching changes will hurt I think. But that front 7 D was scary when healthy. We saw that first hand in week 2 of the playoffs. All that talk of how they eeked out wins was because they were missing 2 key guys on their front 7. If healthy on their front 7 its hard to do much of anything - we couldnt' do sh**T in the playoffs vs them. As Hawg noted after our playoff loss to some WOff fan, surprised we couldn't get much outside or inside vs you all. I believe we can beat them this year.. will be interesting to watch their new coaching etc.

Wofford had a few guys missing a few games - same as just about every other College Football D.

Their best player, DLman (DE & NG) Miles Brown, started every game. Brown is expected to return for his Sr. Year. The other DE, Tyler Vaughn, started every game last year & graduated. Their expected starter at NG last year, Mikel Horton, who I think is 1 of the 2 you are referencing (not sure of or if there is a 2nd one...read on), missed the FU & Mercer games due to suspension, then started 6 straight games before missing the last 5 games due to mono. He is expected to return as a Jr in 2018. In his absence, Deon Priester, a Freshman All SoCon Player started 5 games. Priester is, as of very recently, no longer on the Wofford Football roster. Brandon Curtis had 2 starts at DE last year (Mercer & Chatt). He graduated. So, on the DL, the PorchYappers return 1 Starter, 1 Part-Time Starter & very little game experience among their other DE Starter, whomever that will be. And they will also have almost no game experience among their DL backups.

Moving to their LB’s, Terrance Morris started every game at 1 OLB. He graduated. At the other OLB, Darryl Vining started 9 of 13 games. He graduated. At 1 ILB, Colton Clemons started 12 of 13 games. He graduated. At the other ILB, Datavious Wilson started 11 of 13 games. He is expected to return as a Jr. The 3 Players who picked up the 6 Starts (for those keeping score...they started 5 DB’s vs Chatt for some reason) that their Regulars missed all return (2 Sr’s & 1 Jr). So 1 Returning Starter among their 4 LB’s & very little Starting experience among the 3 new Starters & almost no game experience for their backups.

So, in summary, they are only returning 2.5 Starters among their Front 7 AND their Regular Front 7 only missed 13 starts last year out of a possible 91. Over 86% healthy. Absence of key Players is not why they had close games last year. They had close games because they were only just a little bit better than their opponents on those days AND they had excellent, heavily experienced Coaching plus HEAVY Sr. Leadership. They may win the SoCon this year, but they will definitely not have either of those assets in their corner on game days.

Thank you for exposing gofurman’s unhealthy Wofford man-love.