Mercer

[apaladin]

Mercer has emeged as the clear cut favorite to win the SoCon. In 3 conference games gave they have given up one TD and 13 points total. In 5 FCS games games they have given up a total of 40 points or 8 points a game. No SoCon team has scored more than 7 points on them and they have not been scored on in the first half of any SoCon game. On top of that they are scoring. Over 40 points in 4 games. Granted their competition has been minimal, 3 SoCon bottom feeders and GW and Morehead. They play at ETSU this coming Saturday so maybe that will give us a better ndication of how good they are. I said when Cronic took over FU would not beat MU again as long as DC was there. I see no reason to alter that thinking. Hope I will be proven wrong.

[The Jackal]

Mercer's a good team, but I don't think anything is clear cut at this stage.

When you look at the statistics, Furman is right up there with Mercer in most categories on both sides of the ball. Furman has played a tougher schedule to this point.

Furman and Mercer have one common opponent, the Citadel. Mercer played the Bulldogs at home, Furman played them on the road. Both were similar games.

Mercer has been impressive, that's not to take anything away from them. It's a long season and there's plenty of football to be played before crowning one team as the "clear cut" favorite.

[FUBeAR]

Mercer's a good team, but I don't think anything is clear cut at this stage.

When you look at the statistics, Furman is right up there with Mercer in most categories on both sides of the ball. Furman has played a tougher schedule to this point.

Furman and Mercer have one common opponent, the Citadel. Mercer played the Bulldogs at home, Furman played them on the road. Both were similar games.

Mercer has been impressive, that's not to take anything away from them. It's a long season and there's plenty of football to be played before crowning one team as the "clear cut" favorite.

This is a fair assessment; unusually so for Jackal when commenting on anything Mercer-related.

FUBeAR sees it like this, at present…

1. Mercer (3-0, 5-1)
2. Furman (2-1, 4-2)
3. Chattanooga (2-0, 4-1)
4. Samford (3-0, 5-1)
5t. CIT (1-2, 1-4)
5t. ETSU (1-3, 3-3)
5t. WCU (1-2, 3-3)
8. VMI (0-2, 1-4)
9. Wofford (0-3, 0-6)

FUBeAR had Furman & Samford tied @ #2 until Furman TCB’d in ChuckTown while Sammy was unable to clearly differentiate themselves from a hapless & hopeless WOEfford squad. Top Teams don’t let the bottomest of bottom-feeders ‘hang around’ the whole game.

[gman84]

Mercer is a good football team and has earned the top of the conference position so far this season. Still a lot of ball to be played so no need to put the cart before the horse. I’m glad we have a bye before we play them. It’s fun to look ahead but all that matters at this point is Western.

[AstroDin]

I don't want to count our chickens before they hatch… but I like the rest of the schedule for Furman.
Granted, Furman can't stub a toe and needs to take care of business against Western and VMI.

Mercer plays at Chatty the week before the Mocs come to GVegas. Then Furman has a timely bye week before playing at Mercer. (in an oddity, Mercer has the same bye-week).

Mercer has to get through ETSU at home and Chatty and VMI on the road.

The DINS have not played exceptionally well against Mercer - it always seems like they have the mental edge in this matchup. It's time to change that!

[AstroDin]

I know this is a Mercer thread… but it's worth noting the SoCon teams ranked and who could be playing for a playoff bid.

Samford has IMO the hardest road — they could easily lose 2 to 3 games.
@ ETSU
@The Citadel
VMI
@ Chatty
Mercer

[The Jackal]

This is the part of the schedule where Furman cannot afford screw ups.

Beat Citadel, WCU, and VMI. That gets you to 6-2 heading into the UTC game.

If Furman beats the teams they should beat, they will get to spot where they will need to beat 2 of UTC, Mercer, and Wofford to get to 8 wins and a likely playoff bid. I cannot imagine an 8-3 SoCon team left out of the field.

Furman's gotta go 1-0 each week. They have two winnable games the next two weeks. The path gets a lot harder dropping either of those two games.

[purplehorse]

I predict we go 6-5 based on what I have seen so far. Losses to UTC and Mercer and either Western or VMI. So far our only respectable win is against ETSU who is 0-3 in conference. Time will tell. Hoping for better but I don’t see it happening. I am pulling for CCH to produce a play-off bound team that can compete in the playoffs (unlike our Austin Peay debacle in 2019). So far I have seen nothing to make me think he can do it in the future. But I hope he can.

[The Jackal]

I predict we go 6-5 based on what I have seen so far. Losses to UTC and Mercer and either Western or VMI. So far our only respectable win is against ETSU who is 0-3 in conference. Time will tell. Hoping for better but I don’t see it happening. I am pulling for CCH to produce a play-off bound team that can compete in the playoffs (unlike our Austin Peay debacle in 2019). So far I have seen nothing to make me think he can do it in the future. But I hope he can.

Seeing as you have real keen attention to detail, I'm sure you already knew that ETSU blew out VMI yesterday on the road and just forgot to mention it.

[AstroDin]

I predict we go 6-5 based on what I have seen so far. Losses to UTC and Mercer and either Western or VMI. So far our only respectable win is against ETSU who is 0-3 in conference. Time will tell. Hoping for better but I don’t see it happening. I am pulling for CCH to produce a play-off bound team that can compete in the playoffs (unlike our Austin Peay debacle in 2019). So far I have seen nothing to make me think he can do it in the future. But I hope he can.

We all see things I guess the way we see 'em. I'm thinking the same about Chatty. Solid team but not a great team - definitely beatable by this Furman team and in Greenville. I guess I'm also not seeing what you're seeing in Western and VMI.

[apaladin]

The only way to get to 8 wins is to run the table. Remember NG doesn’t count if you are talking 8 wins that would be considered for the playoffs. I am afraid the Sammy game will come back to haunt us as a should’ve, woukd’ve coukd’ve game.

[The Jackal]

The only way to get to 8 wins is to run the table. Remember NG doesn’t count if you are talking 8 wins that would be considered for the playoffs. I am afraid the Sammy game will come back to haunt us as a should’ve, woukd’ve coukd’ve game.

There was a 6-5 team that made the playoffs last season.

[purplehorse]

The only way to get to 8 wins is to run the table. Remember NG doesn’t count if you are talking 8 wins that would be considered for the playoffs. I am afraid the Sammy game will come back to haunt us as a should’ve, woukd’ve coukd’ve game.

There was a 6-5 team that made the playoffs last season.

The Southern Conference gets so little respect these days-if a Southern Conference team gets in the playoffs at 6-5 during my lifetime, I will send you money for a dinner out.

Yes I had seen the ETSU score but forgot it. That doesn’t affect my opinion so far based on what I have seen. I absolutely hope we run the table and make the playoffs and I am wrong-but if we go 6-5 you heard it here first. I just don’t think we have looked very good since the Clemson game when Tyler Huff looked so good. Time will tell.

[FUBeAR]

The only way to get to 8 wins is to run the table. Remember NG doesn’t count if you are talking 8 wins that would be considered for the playoffs. I am afraid the Sammy game will come back to haunt us as a should’ve, woukd’ve coukd’ve game.

There was a 6-5 team that made the playoffs last season.

Furman will not make the Playoffs at 6-5 in 2022.

Why you wanna lie to the people?

[Affirm]

Not sure how much this thread is about Mercer and how much it is about expectations of how many games Furman wins and loses the rest of the season.
My expectation is that Furman will lose to Mercer and to Chattanooga, probably badly against each of those.
And against WCU, VMI, and Wofford, I have some hope that we will win all 3; and I expect we will win at least 2 of those 3.
End up 6-5 or 5-6.
Then it's on to 2023, starting with the OOC games against Tennessee Tech at Paladin Stadium, UofSC away, and Kennesaw State away on September 2, 9, and 16.
The Eagles, the Gamecocks, and the Owls.