2021 Spring Season and Fall Season

[AstroDin]

We're heading into the 4th week of Spring football and as expected it's been unpredictable. Watching what is happening 30 miles down the road in Spartanburg makes me wonder what are the strategies FCS coaches are employing knowing round two of 2021 football starts in five months.

Wofford has some serious depth issues as does The Citadel. Several teams have QBs that are playing their last (Udenski and Arnold). With such a quick turnaround the fall 2021 season I think is going to be a battle for the top spot between Furman and Nooga. If Nooga can replace Arnold.

Hands down I consider Furman the deepest team in the SoCon. Furman will lose some very good seniors but the Furman depth is allowing Furman to at times rotate three deep along the line and in the defensive backfield.

Furman has nine true seniors that are eligible to play both 2021 seasons; Wynn, DeLuca, McKoy, Kearse, Clay, Lawrence, Neely, Stokes, and Walker. I have no idea if all nine will play two 2021 seasons but the possibility of this group getting another season is a huge advantage for Furman.

It has already been mentioned that Wynn plans to play both seasons, with McKoy on the sidelines this spring I've gotta believe McKoy will play in the fall.

So, what will DeLuca, Kearse, and Clay do? DeLuca and Sisson appear to be developing a special connection this season. The Dins would really benefit from having a savvy senior receiver in the fall as they continue to develop Bell, Peterson, Henderson, Hughes, and Gunn.

I know I'm jumping the gun a bit on this but we're seeing a lot of weird things this spring - it's going to be a fun year of football.

[FUBeAR]

You may not have meant to imply this...but I believe even the 5 R-SR’s playing this Spring could also play in Fall 2021 if they choose to...

4 Patrick Wells SPUR 6-0 203 R-Sr. Franklin, Tenn. / Battle Ground Academy
29 Jack Owen SPUR 6-3 220 R-Sr. Dunwoody, Ga. / Marist
40 Dru Seabrook DE 6-3 242 R-Sr. Charlotte, N.C. / Providence
66 Reed Kroeber OG 6-4 305 R-Sr. Roswell, Ga. / Fellowship Christian School
71 Jordan Harris OT 6-4 305 R-Sr. Atlanta, Ga. / Pace Academy

Basically, the 2020-2021 Academic year/Athletic Calendar Year is a “Free Space” year of eligibility for all participants.

[Furmanoid]

Won’t somebody need to cough up about $60k per head to cover the additional scholarships? (Maybe only $30k if they leave after the season.)

[FUBeAR]

Won’t somebody need to cough up about $60k per head to cover the additional scholarships? (Maybe only $30k if they leave after the season.)

Thank you for your generosity!

https://furmanpaladins.com/sports/paladin

[apaladin]

Won’t somebody need to cough up about $60k per head to cover the additional scholarships? (Maybe only $30k if they leave after the season.)

Not really.

[apaladin]

Hands down I consider Furman the deepest team in the SoCon. Furman will lose some very good seniors but the Furman depth is allowing Furman to at times rotate three deep along the line and in the defensive backfield.

[/quote]

I know its easy to say this because FU is who we follow. Every other team in the SoCon can and will bring in transfers. How many times have we said things like this just to be disappointed? Just saying.

[Paul C]

Hands down I consider Furman the deepest team in the SoCon. Furman will lose some very good seniors but the Furman depth is allowing Furman to at times rotate three deep along the line and in the defensive backfield.

I know its easy to say this because FU is who we follow. Every other team in the SoCon can and will bring in transfers. How many times have we said things like this just to be disappointed? Just saying.
[/quote]

True....we have knowledge of the FU 2nd and 3rd string to a level that we don't with other teams.

But to Geno's point, I think we feel better about our depth relative to our knowledge of our team than we ever have.....

[AstroDin]

Hands down I consider Furman the deepest team in the SoCon. Furman will lose some very good seniors but the Furman depth is allowing Furman to at times rotate three deep along the line and in the defensive backfield.

I know its easy to say this because FU is who we follow. Every other team in the SoCon can and will bring in transfers. How many times have we said things like this just to be disappointed? Just saying.
[/quote]

Apaladin… I can only speak for myself and how I see things. Yes, several teams in the SoCon rely on transfers every year to patch-up their holes. Furman and Wofford through the years have built some darn good teams through recruiting and developing players.

My take is that Furman was behind in the Jimmy's and Joe's department when Clay's staff came in. Clay mentioned again that this Furman team is still a little out of balance, veterans in some positions, young at other positions. I think we're seeing the fruits of recent recruiting on the field - we just stood toe to toe with a team pretty loaded with transfers and a graduate quarterback. Note: The star of the Samford game Cally Chizik choose Furman over Chatty.

Concerning the depth and quality of talent question- Furman's superior depth showed in the 4th quarter and overtime. Samford was gassed - rumor posted on the AGS board was that Hatcher was going for two if they scored. Anyways - Our line blew them off the ball and Wynn barreled into the endzone. Samford's overtime possession was a mess of scrambling and aided by a penalty, then it ended on poor execution by their back.

I'm glad it only took one overtime but my take, Furman could have gone toe to toe in overtime and not missed a beat.

[Furmanoid]

Yes, but that team we went toe to toe with was, I think, 5-7 last season, and they are headed toward another losing season. Struggling for a miracle comeback win against them is great and all, but it is not an indicator of significant improvement. The evidence we have so far is that we are about the same as we have been for years. Hopefully the remaining games will demonstrate the improvement we hoped to see.

[The Jackal]

Yes, but that team we went toe to toe with was, I think, 5-7 last season, and they are headed toward another losing season. Struggling for a miracle comeback win against them is great and all, but it is not an indicator of significant improvement. The evidence we have so far is that we are about the same as we have been for years. Hopefully the remaining games will demonstrate the improvement we hoped to see.

I still think you need to look at this in some context. These kids sat out 400+ days between games. Little of this is "normal"

Look to at the national FCS scene. A bunch of traditional power teams have struggled the first few weeks of the spring season. North Dakota State lost off the jump for the first time in years. James Madison has struggled to beat two bad teams. Elon nearly lost to Davidson. Wofford canceled a game because they couldn't find enough players. Last week nearly half the top 25 lost on a single weekend.

Nearly every team jumps right into conference play without having played a single snap in over a year. That's not remotely easy. After three games last year we'd warmed up against out of conference opponents before seeing our first conference foe in Week 4.

I don't think you can just dismiss the first few games and say "we aren't getting better" when hardly any team in the country looks full speed or what I would have expected to see out of them in the fall.

Let the season play out.

[FUBeAR]

Yes, but that team we went toe to toe with was, I think, 5-7 last season, and they are headed toward another losing season. Struggling for a miracle comeback win against them is great and all, but it is not an indicator of significant improvement. The evidence we have so far is that we are about the same as we have been for years. Hopefully the remaining games will demonstrate the improvement we hoped to see.

I still think you need to look at this in some context. These kids sat out 400+ days between games. Little of this is "normal"

Look to at the national FCS scene. A bunch of traditional power teams have struggled the first few weeks of the spring season. North Dakota State lost off the jump for the first time in years. James Madison has struggled to beat two bad teams. Elon nearly lost to Davidson. Wofford canceled a game because they couldn't find enough players. Last week nearly half the top 25 lost on a single weekend.

Nearly every team jumps right into conference play without having played a single snap in over a year. That's not remotely easy. After three games last year we'd warmed up against out of conference opponents before seeing our first conference foe in Week 4.

I don't think you can just dismiss the first few games and say "we aren't getting better" when hardly any team in the country looks full speed or what I would have expected to see out of them in the fall.

Let the season play out.

Just want to add - regarding JMU squeaking by Elon - Elon lost to Gardner-Webb the week before (after nearly losing to Davidson). Gardner-Webb went to OT with PC last week. When PC announced they were moving to a Non-Scholarship model, all of their quality Players rapidly departed. They have not offered scholarships since their 2017 Recruiting Class.

People can dismiss “transitive properties” analysis all they want...but the way FUBeAR looks at it, JMU nearly lost (and may have lost) to a middle-of-the-pack PFL non-scholarship Team. I listed JMU as my “Most Significant Win” in my AGS poll this week, but for unusual reasons. That win tells me a lot about JMU and they plummeted from #1 in my ranking. Now, I heard the Dukes changed QB’s and the replacement nearly single-handedly engineered their huge comeback to squeak by the Formerly Fightin’ Former Christians. If so, they can represent that in their game with Richmond on 3/20. Just saw their game this week with Bill & Mary has been postponed. Wonder if JMU is pulling a Conklin to take a week to re-group.

On a broader level, it seems to FUBeAR that the CAA and the Big South are right at PFL level this Spring.

[The Jackal]

Just noticed too that in the STATS FCS poll, VMI is the first "other receiving votes" and just outside the top 25. They could easily be 3-0 with Mercer making the long road trip up to Lexington this weekend.

[Furmanoid]

First off I NEVER SAID we aren’t getting better. I said hopefully the remaining games will demonstrate the improvement we hoped to see. To me that is the same thing as “letting the season play out”.

I operate using sort of a scientific method. My null hypothesis is that this team is the same as last year’s team until evidence shows me otherwise. Others appear to use the hypothesis, “The team has significantly improved unless a large amount of evidence indicates otherwise.” That doesn’t make much sense to me.

I’m going to chalk up “JMU almost lost to Elon. Elon is bad. Therefore Furman has clearly improved” to Covid brain fog.

[FUBeAR]

First off I NEVER SAID we aren’t getting better. I said hopefully the remaining games will demonstrate the improvement we hoped to see. To me that is the same thing as “letting the season play out”.

I operate using sort of a scientific method. My null hypothesis is that this team is the same as last year’s team until evidence shows me otherwise. Others appear to use the hypothesis, “The team has significantly improved unless a large amount of evidence indicates otherwise.” That doesn’t make much sense to me.

I’m going to chalk up “JMU almost lost to Elon. Elon is bad. Therefore Furman has clearly improved” to Covid brain fog.

LOL - not the stated conclusion (I reached or was endorsing). The correct conclusion is FCS Spring Football is a (beautiful) mess. You can’t trust any pre-conceived notions about any Team.

My conclusions about FU are that the Defense is definitely improved & the Offense has a higher ceiling now in comparison to 2019. But, the O has not yet learned fully how to impose their will on the opponents’ D’s. They aren’t yet fully EXPECTING to pick up 1st downs on 3rd & 4. They’re somewhere between HOPING they can and being FAIRLY CONFIDENT they can.

The 4th Quarter & OT last week just may be the oxygen they needed to light that EXPECT SUCCESS fire. They imposed their will on Sammy’s D in the 4th quarter & OT. Now, that’s not necessarily saying they can do that vs. NDSU yet...or maybe not even on ETSU, but we’ll find out soon and they took another step toward reaching that ceiling last Sat.

[Furmanoid]

Exactly.
Sorry I messed with you.