Furman Preseason Previews

[apaladin]

When you read all these preseason previews, unless they are just incredibly biased how can this team finish in the bottom half of the SoCon? Seems like we are loaded and stacked at every position group.

[AstroDin]

When you read all these preseason previews, unless they are just incredibly biased how can this team finish in the bottom half of the SoCon? Seems like we are loaded and stacked at every position group.

Not sure why - the doom and gloom by the pres-season rankings related to Furman and the ascension of VMI, Chatty, ETSU, and Samford.

When you start looking at starters and depth, the quality of depth - you start feeling that Furman is underrated.

[The Jackal]

When you read all these preseason previews, unless they are just incredibly biased how can this team finish in the bottom half of the SoCon? Seems like we are loaded and stacked at every position group.

We're a good football team. We had a difficult spring.

[Jasper]

So. are you simply ignoring that “difficult” spring season even though the coaching staff and key players are essentially the same? It was a very disappointing performance. What has happened to anticipate a positive change? It’s not as if they finished on a high note. As a fan, I hope all this optimism is justified but would like to hear some logical reasons for it.

[apaladin]

Jasper, I hear you. Just throwing some things out there that may or may not be reasons for optimism.
1. A couple of coaching changes.
2. We lost most of the OL.
3. Hamp Sisson has really improved(supposedly).
4. CCH feels really good about where we are. (Ok scratch #4).
5. We have a new field turf.

[FUBeAR]

5. We have a new field turf.

Also, I think I read somewhere that we’re now growing and offering Wicked Weed in the end zone.

That’ll certainly put smiles on the faces of Paladin Fans…and should cause a nice bump in food concessions sales as well.

[FUPlayer74]

Jasper, I hear you. Just throwing some things out there that may or may not be reasons for optimism.
1. A couple of coaching changes.
2. We lost most of the OL.
3. Hamp Sisson has really improved(supposedly).
4. CCH feels really good about where we are. (Ok scratch #4).
5. We have a new field turf.

I'll add no.6
6. We're going to run the option with Hamp, and if he gets hurt, we're going to run it with Jace, and if he gets hurt, we're going to run it with......... and if he gets hurt...

[AstroDin]

Jasper, I hear you. Just throwing some things out there that may or may not be reasons for optimism.
1. A couple of coaching changes.
2. We lost most of the OL.
3. Hamp Sisson has really improved(supposedly).
4. CCH feels really good about where we are. (Ok scratch #4).
5. We have a new field turf.

I'll add no.6
6. We're going to run the option with Hamp, and if he gets hurt, we're going to run it with Jace, and if he gets hurt, we're going to run it with......... and if he gets hurt...

^^^^ I think your on to something!!!!

[The Jackal]

So. are you simply ignoring that “difficult” spring season even though the coaching staff and key players are essentially the same? It was a very disappointing performance. What has happened to anticipate a positive change? It’s not as if they finished on a high note. As a fan, I hope all this optimism is justified but would like to hear some logical reasons for it.

I'm not ignoring any of it.

I am looking at our roster and realize we have solid talent and depth across the board.

I look at the coaching staff. I am looking at their body of work over the last four years, not a missed extra point against VMI, to draw conclusions. They've had a lot of success at this point.

I look at the historic trends for perspective. Did you know it took Bobby Johnson six seasons before he finished higher than 3rd in SoCon play? Six years in to Johnson's tenure Furman finished tied for 6th. The very next season Furman started a torrid run with back to back 9 win seasons and then a national title appearance in the third.

Furman also has never really had a ton of success while starting a 1st or 2nd year player at QB. If Furman played this spring with a freshman/sophomore QB, whether that player was named Sisson, Grainger, Hannon, Blazejowski, Napier, Sorrells, or Gray, the odds are our offense would have struggled.

Beyond all of that, SoCon football is full of examples where a teams do complete 180s the next season. VMI was terrible in 2019 and won the conference in 2020. ETSU shared the conference title and a playoff berth in 2018 and finished dead last in 2019. This happens all the time.

So, sure, one can be hyper-focused on the spring season. I choose to look at all of the other signs pointing towards a successful 2021 season.

[Furmanoid]

I’m not picking at you but I am curious. When you look at the roster and “see talent” (as several fellows do) how does that work? What is the assessment based upon if not performance on the field? Is it recruiting notes, 40 times or what? Hopefully not coach speak and hopefully not circus catches in practice. I want to be converted but I have this scientific mindset that gets in the way.

I think you make very good arguments for the possibility of us being really good (our D makes anything possible), but I’m not seeing much probability of it.

[Jasper]

So. are you simply ignoring that “difficult” spring season even though the coaching staff and key players are essentially the same? It was a very disappointing performance. What has happened to anticipate a positive change? It’s not as if they finished on a high note. As a fan, I hope all this optimism is justified but would like to hear some logical reasons for it.

I'm not ignoring any of it.

I am looking at our roster and realize we have solid talent and depth across the board.

I look at the coaching staff. I am looking at their body of work over the last four years, not a missed extra point against VMI, to draw conclusions. They've had a lot of success at this point.

I look at the historic trends for perspective. Did you know it took Bobby Johnson six seasons before he finished higher than 3rd in SoCon play? Six years in to Johnson's tenure Furman finished tied for 6th. The very next season Furman started a torrid run with back to back 9 win seasons and then a national title appearance in the third.

Furman also has never really had a ton of success while starting a 1st or 2nd year player at QB. If Furman played this spring with a freshman/sophomore QB, whether that player was named Sisson, Grainger, Hannon, Blazejowski, Napier, Sorrells, or Gray, the odds are our offense would have struggled.

Beyond all of that, SoCon football is full of examples where a teams do complete 180s the next season. VMI was terrible in 2019 and won the conference in 2020. ETSU shared the conference title and a playoff berth in 2018 and finished dead last in 2019. This happens all the time.

So, sure, one can be hyper-focused on the spring season. I choose to look at all of the other signs pointing towards a successful 2021 season.

A missed extra point against VMI is not important but the teams performance in losing the last 3 games of the year against SoCon teams should be. I certainly hope your optimism is justified and that the team rebounds from that terrible showing. We should have a good idea on that in a few weeks when we play North Carolina A & T, a ranked opponent. This team and staff needs to show a marked improvement offensively right out of the gate.

[The Jackal]

So. are you simply ignoring that “difficult” spring season even though the coaching staff and key players are essentially the same? It was a very disappointing performance. What has happened to anticipate a positive change? It’s not as if they finished on a high note. As a fan, I hope all this optimism is justified but would like to hear some logical reasons for it.

I'm not ignoring any of it.

I am looking at our roster and realize we have solid talent and depth across the board.

I look at the coaching staff. I am looking at their body of work over the last four years, not a missed extra point against VMI, to draw conclusions. They've had a lot of success at this point.

I look at the historic trends for perspective. Did you know it took Bobby Johnson six seasons before he finished higher than 3rd in SoCon play? Six years in to Johnson's tenure Furman finished tied for 6th. The very next season Furman started a torrid run with back to back 9 win seasons and then a national title appearance in the third.

Furman also has never really had a ton of success while starting a 1st or 2nd year player at QB. If Furman played this spring with a freshman/sophomore QB, whether that player was named Sisson, Grainger, Hannon, Blazejowski, Napier, Sorrells, or Gray, the odds are our offense would have struggled.

Beyond all of that, SoCon football is full of examples where a teams do complete 180s the next season. VMI was terrible in 2019 and won the conference in 2020. ETSU shared the conference title and a playoff berth in 2018 and finished dead last in 2019. This happens all the time.

So, sure, one can be hyper-focused on the spring season. I choose to look at all of the other signs pointing towards a successful 2021 season.

A missed extra point against VMI is not important but the teams performance in losing the last 3 games of the year against SoCon teams should be. I certainly hope your optimism is justified and that the team rebounds from that terrible showing. We should have a good idea on that in a few weeks when we play North Carolina A & T, a ranked opponent. This team and staff needs to show a marked improvement offensively right out of the gate.

I'm not debating that the spring season did not raise concerns. It did. At times, we looked bad.

The question we all are asking is "why?" Why did the offense take a step backwards?

This is my personal opinion, but a lot of what I saw last season was small mistakes that magnified themselves in close games - throws not out a split second quick enough, a ball off the receivers hands, recognizing the blitz a split second slow, a wrong read here, a false step there.

You do that enough times in a game, and you are constantly behind the chains and are going to struggle to win close games, which is largely what happened in the spring. Do I think that is unfixable and indicative of a struggling program? I don't. We have good coaches. We have good players. They will figure it out.

What I have tried to convey, too, is that this is not just a "Furman problem." You saw this play out all over the FCS.

When you look at the preseason Top 25 for 2020, you can see the complete havoc COVID wrecked on the entire division. Of the preseason Top 10, only 4 teams (NDSU, JMU, Weber, and SDSU) finished in the top 10. Most of the top 10 fell apart, or played then quit, or never bothered.

Just look at NDSU. They had a "good" season by objective standards, but not up to their usual reputation. When you look at the statistics, though, their 20/21 team averaged 11 fewer points per game, 2 yards fewer per play, and roughly 120 yards fewer per game. They had a big drop off offensively. Do we consider that a one off or evidence that NDSU football is broken? My opinion - the former.

Furman was not the only team with national aspirations to struggle.
-Nicholls started #14 and finished 4-3 (losing 3 of last 4).
-UNI started #3 and finished 3-4 (lost 3 of last 4).
-Villanova was top 10 and went 2-2 with two games canceled.
-Albany started top 20, went 1-3 and then quit the season.
-Wofford started top 20, went 1-4 and then quit the season
-Illinois State started top 10, went 1-3 and then quit the season.

I see a whole lot more evidence that Furman's struggles were consistent with what happened nationally in light of COVID than I do see evidence that Furman is just now a bad team.

Again, that's just the way I see it.

[apaladin]

I’m not picking at you but I am curious. When you look at the roster and “see talent” (as several fellows do) how does that work? What is the assessment based upon if not performance on the field? Is it recruiting notes, 40 times or what? Hopefully not coach speak and hopefully not circus catches in practice. I want to be converted but I have this scientific mindset that gets in the way.

I think you make very good arguments for the possibility of us being really good (our D makes anything possible), but I’m not seeing much probability of it.

Furmanoid is like a lot of us that need to see some huge improvement on the field to get really excited. All the glowing position previews makes it sound like we are national contenders. Arguably the most improvement needs to be with the OL and the QB position. We though we could have seen a change at QB but that didn’t happen. The QB position will be the same and the OL lost a lot but that may not be a bad thing. To say the NC A&T is huge is an undestatement. Time to see some good football from the Paladins.

[apaladin]

Jackel, you can keep saying the spring season was difficult for many. Probably was. According to CCH before the spring season we were older, bigger, faster, strionger than ever. He also stated many times and even in the recent podcast that the team wanted to play, was ready to play and was going to regardless. With all of this we fell flat on our face. I think this is what is most concerning to most of us.

[The Jackal]

Jackel, you can keep saying the spring season was difficult for many. Probably was. According to CCH before the spring season we were older, bigger, faster, strionger than ever. He also stated many times and even in the recent podcast that the team wanted to play, was ready to play and was going to regardless. With all of this we fell flat on our face. I think this is what is most concerning to most of us.

I said it was my opinion. Your opinion has been for some time that the program is substandard, and the spring supported your theory.

While I think most of you are dumb for solely looking at the spring and drawing a bunch of conclusions, I understand you think I am dumb for opting to look beyond the spring at a larger picture.

I can cite you a boatload of evidence where a prior season is not necessarily correlative with the next year's results. You wouldn't buy it if I cited it, but it's all out there if you want to look it up. Even our own program was a 3 win team in 2016 and then an 8 win team in 2017. That sort of an about face happens almost every year in this conference.

At bottom, I think most of us can agree the defense is pretty good. Virtually no one - not even the perpetually dissatisfied among you - have much issue with the defense. It's a peculiar thing that most of the pessimistic crowd on this forum forget that there are three phases to a football game, and we are going to be really good and maybe excellent in one of them.

We return something like 20 of 22 players off the defensive two deep. By all accounts, we should have a very strong defense. I expect we will have a pretty good shot at holding most offenses under 20 ppg.

The question, then, is can our offense average more than 20 ppg? I think they can. If we do that over the course of a season, we will win the majority of the games.