2021 Spring Season

[The Jackal]

Jackal's post prompted me to look at the MLB depth.

Bryce McCormick 6-2 214 RSFR —
McCormick was injured and in a boot (surgery) as 2020 preseason practice begin, I'm pretty sure Bryce did play some against Point. McCormick was highly recruited out of CPA and appears to fit the mold of a Fruman MLB.

Nick Kuzemka 6-2 212 RSFR —
I think Kuzemka was a PWO - in the practices I watched he caught my attention. Nick appeared in three games and had six tackles. Nick appears to have a good shot at developing into a nice role player at MLB.

Dan Scianna 5-10 198 RSFR —
Scianna played against Point.

Evan DiMaggio 6-3 230 FR —
I have to temper my expectations of Evan as a true freshman playing MLB. That said DiMaggio has the pedigree (Buford HS) and size and skill set to be another Furman great.

Ty Youngblood 6-0 216 FR —
When Furman started recruiting Youngblood the thing that stood out to me was his toughness. Youngblood was a great two-way player in high school (fullback and linebacker).

A few thoughts on this.

MLB is one of those positions that you are not going to see a lot of rotation. So, my expectation is that Gilby will be the starter and will probably be out there most of the time.

I think we have enough depth at the moment to get really creative with how we use our front seven. This is an example I like from the Point game, but you saw Furman do similar stuff a lot of the season:

Furman is a base 3-4 defense, but this is more of a 4-2-5. Furman substitutes a CB for MLB and moves the SPUR (usually Wilkins) inside. They move the BANDIT (Agbenou here) down and Lawrence to the edge to give more of a traditional 4-3 look at DE. The two DTs are two NGs.

I'd expect to see a lot of this sort of thing from Furman - using limited substitutions to change up defensive looks while staying strong against run and pass.

I'm not breaking any new ground here, of course. This is what defenses want to be able to do. It's just been a long time since we've had the personnel to do it.

[FurmAlum]

I'm just hoping we're going to have a season. All this analysis and who the starters are going to be, etc. from JK and GF are getting me fired up for Paladin football.

I'm really going to be disappointed if they get the rug pulled out from under them at the last minute.

[FUBeAR]

Bears decide to hibernate along with their Grizzlies conference mates

Foxes staying in their holes. I guess we won’t get to hear what they say this spring.

[The Jackal]

Also North Carolina Central

https://meacsports.com/news/2021/1/21/n ... ition.aspx

[Furmanoid]

I bet most of these never intended to play in the first place. I think Big Sky teams probably knew it would be too cold. Others know that even if Covid numbers are bad now, they usually drop rapidly when they drop. So it is too early to predict how bad things will be in late February. The biggest jump to get over is admitting that the numbers we had during football season were manageable. They will have to admit a mistake which is almost impossible for academic people. The Big 10 and PAC 12 justified their about faces by citing “new information”. The FCS actually has new information in the form of a 4 month clinical trial performed by the FBS. Nobody died or even got very sick.

[Flagman]

I’m amazed that there seems to be so little interest in a conversation with Jason Donnelly who has offered to zoom with us to talk about our upcoming season.

[The Jackal]

I bet most of these never intended to play in the first place. I think Big Sky teams probably knew it would be too cold. Others know that even if Covid numbers are bad now, they usually drop rapidly when they drop. So it is too early to predict how bad things will be in late February. The biggest jump to get over is admitting that the numbers we had during football season were manageable. They will have to admit a mistake which is almost impossible for academic people. The Big 10 and PAC 12 justified their about faces by citing “new information”. The FCS actually has new information in the form of a 4 month clinical trial performed by the FBS. Nobody died or even got very sick.

I know the COO of a local hospital. He says the high numbers are still "Thanksgiving" numbers. We will then have Christmas numbers. After that, they may drop some.

The data is pretty clear - the numbers spike heavily after every holiday. Fortunately, there is not much holidaying from January through May. So, we may actually get some traction back along with the vaccine rollout.

[Fred Garvin]

I’m amazed that there seems to be so little interest in a conversation with Jason Donnelly who has offered to zoom with us to talk about our upcoming season.

ESPN 3 is not a season. I don't need a script on the countless time put in exploring all of our options BS.

[apaladin]

Numbers have dropped dramatucally in the last couple of weeks. Only 4 states reported an increase last week.

[gofurman]

I bet most of these never intended to play in the first place. I think Big Sky teams probably knew it would be too cold. Others know that even if Covid numbers are bad now, they usually drop rapidly when they drop. So it is too early to predict how bad things will be in late February. The biggest jump to get over is admitting that the numbers we had during football season were manageable. They will have to admit a mistake which is almost impossible for academic people. The Big 10 and PAC 12 justified their about faces by citing “new information”. The FCS actually has new information in the form of a 4 month clinical trial performed by the FBS. Nobody died or even got very sick.

If we don't have a season bc "academics' are too proud to admit they made a mistake I'm gonna be Very Very angry. But forget about me - the players on our team who really want to play should not suffer bc someone is too proud to admit they made a mistake! . We are human, we all make mistakes - and we should be willing to admit that. So admit we coulda played in the fall and instead of making it worse by not playing now Also... play now - that is way better than compounding the mistake by not playing Twice !

If we can play basketball Inside I don't see why football outside wouldn't be played? Am I missing something?

[The Jackal]

I bet most of these never intended to play in the first place. I think Big Sky teams probably knew it would be too cold. Others know that even if Covid numbers are bad now, they usually drop rapidly when they drop. So it is too early to predict how bad things will be in late February. The biggest jump to get over is admitting that the numbers we had during football season were manageable. They will have to admit a mistake which is almost impossible for academic people. The Big 10 and PAC 12 justified their about faces by citing “new information”. The FCS actually has new information in the form of a 4 month clinical trial performed by the FBS. Nobody died or even got very sick.

If we don't have a season bc "academics' are too proud to admit they made a mistake I'm gonna be Very Very angry. But forget about me - the players on our team who really want to play should not suffer bc someone is too proud to admit they made a mistake! . We are human, we all make mistakes - and we should be willing to admit that. So admit we coulda played in the fall and instead of making it worse by not playing now Also... play now - that is way better than compounding the mistake by not playing Twice !

If we can play basketball Inside I don't see why football outside wouldn't be played? Am I missing something?

Who said there was a mistake?

I don't really want to do round two of this, but there are and were completely logical and defensible reasons for the SoCon and Furman to make the decisions they did.

Basketball is a different animal. The roster is a fraction the size of football (smaller risk pool, less expensive to operate) and games can be much more easily rescheduled.

I think Baylor's women's coach put it most succinctly:

"The answer is this: The season will continue on. It's called the almighty dollar. "The NCAA has to have the almighty dollar from the men's tournament. The almighty dollar is more important than the health and welfare of me, the players or anybody else.

"One conference does this, one conference does that. The CDC says this. Everybody is confused. I'm confused. I'm uncomfortable coaching. I understand, COVID is real. I've had it -- come talk to me sometime. But I don't know ... all the calls and procedures, that's gonna go on and make it unusual, uncomfortable for every program. We're no different at Baylor."

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-bas ... mps-health

[FUBeAR]

I bet most of these never intended to play in the first place. I think Big Sky teams probably knew it would be too cold. Others know that even if Covid numbers are bad now, they usually drop rapidly when they drop. So it is too early to predict how bad things will be in late February. The biggest jump to get over is admitting that the numbers we had during football season were manageable. They will have to admit a mistake which is almost impossible for academic people. The Big 10 and PAC 12 justified their about faces by citing “new information”. The FCS actually has new information in the form of a 4 month clinical trial performed by the FBS. Nobody died or even got very sick.

I know the COO of a local hospital. He says the high numbers are still "Thanksgiving" numbers. We will then have Christmas numbers. After that, they may drop some.

The data is pretty clear - the numbers spike heavily after every holiday. Fortunately, there is not much holidaying from January through May. So, we may actually get some traction back along with the vaccine rollout.

I’m no Hospital COO, but I am a well-documented ( ) Covid survivor. And, I did a little research on the ‘rona during my bout. Your guy’s assessment doesn’t align with my research. For someone that dies from Covid, the average number of days from onset of any symptoms to death is about 18 days. People that go to the hospital usually go on Day 5 or 6...and they get better or they go to ICU by day 10 or 11...and they get better or die by Day 18. Obviously there are differences in cases, but that’s the math (SCIENCE!) my research concluded.

So...unless my calendar is defective, the current surge is not “Thanksgiving numbers.” It’s Xmas / New Year’s (my exposure...symptoms 4 days after initial exposure) numbers.

So, Dr. FUBeAR says...yep...we are still going to see some increase from 2nd, 3rd, 4th-hand Christmas exposure/spread...but, after that...in about 3-4 weeks, IMO...we are going to see things coming down...pretty quickly...vaccinations & herd immunity and less ‘holiday spread’ is going to get us there...just in time for our Spring Football Season

#StormTheStadium

[apaladin]

The Missouri Valley announced their spring fb schedule yesterday. 10 teams participating.

[FUBeAR]

The Missouri Valley announced their spring fb schedule yesterday. 10 teams participating.

Small Pint of clarification, I believe. This is the MVFC’s REVISED schedule after the Indiana State Sycamores decided to fold up their branches this Spring Season.

[FUPlayer74]

On a high note, I can't remember when I have been more encouraged reading about our OL. I suppose with Clay at the helm, he was going to make sure we're solid there. I get the feeling with our OL and RB's, if Hamp can take a snap and handoff, we're going to be able to move the ball.