Tennessee Tech - Sept. 11

[The Jackal]

Good article by Scott Keeler today: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/ ... 760555001/

Here's the play he references.

Nice play design on a third down. Miller in at H back. Wynn in the slot. Looks like Peterson to the far side and Deluca to the near side.

Pretty sure A&T blows this coverage. The safety rolls to a cover 4 look, but no other defender drops into the deep quarter on the right. The Aggies have three defenders occupying about 10 yards of grass in the middle of the field. Not sure if this screw up is on the safety or on the rover/linebacker, but someone should have been playing centerfield.

Couple of points:

• Excellent pass protection by the offensive line. Sisson had to move up in the pocket, but really wasn't in danger of taking a sack.

• Excellent footwork by Sisson. Felt the pressure, moved up in the pocket, kept his eyes downfield.

• Look how much attention the Aggie defense pays to Miller out of the backfield. By the time Sisson throws it, there are three A&T defenders watching Miller.

• You can see some maturity in Sisson's game. Back in the pocket, you could see he wants to throw it earlier. He wisely holds it, moves up, and finds Wynn.

• At the 0:03 mark of the video, you can see Furman has three receivers wide open - Wynn up top, Abrams in the flat, and Peterson to the far side.

[cavedweller2]

I remember a Furman vs Holy Cross game way back in the day in Sirrine Stadium, a regular season game actually. I was a wee lad.

I was there.

[Affirm]

I'm glad our admissions office doesn't handle football scheduling.

Holy Cross...BFD.

Actually our admissions strategies and our intercollegiate athletics should have mutual alignment to whatever degree feasible.
Prospective students (including athletes), current students, alumni, general public locally, and general public nationally all do pay attention to whom we play.
Winning is important, but so is who we play.
I am not saying we should load up our schedule with the most prestigious schools. To do that, we would need to move our campus northward and become D-3.
But I do think that 1 or more of the D-1 schools that are ABOVE us in USN&WR liberal arts rankings, including Holy Cross, Colgate, Bucknell, Lafayette, Richmond, Davidson, Navy, Army, Air Force, would be good to have on our schedules at least a couple of times every decade or so.
I also think it would be good to have 1 or more Ivy League schools such as Yale, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, on our schedules at least a couple of time every 20 years or so.
It is good already that we do get to play both Wofford and VMI (tied at #69 ranking in the USN&WR liberal arts colleges rankings) each and every year in multiple sports. Furman is #52 in those rankings. And I think there are not many other D-1 FCS schools in the liberal arts school rankings than those 9 listed above (the national military academies [not FCS] and the Ivies [not in the liberal arts schools group] are not in that 9.

[apaladin]

Does anyone really care about the USNews rankings except affirm when it comes to football. When a schedule is announced i have never thought for a second about where said team is ranked by USN&WR.

[FU3]

US News college rankings are one of the things that make higher education so expensive. Institutions spend an inordinate amount of time and money attempting to game the criteria in order to move up a few positions in the rankings.Higher rankings mean in general more exclusivity, lower acceptance rates and higher dollar yield per student.I am all for keeping score but the criteria used seem don’t seem to have much to do on how “ good” a school is.Mort Zuckerman has hit on the mother lode in ranking things and college administrators live in fear of declining numbers so the institutions will keep on playing.

[The Jackal]

Does anyone really care about the USNews rankings except affirm when it comes to football. When a schedule is announced i have never thought for a second about where said team is ranked by USN&WR.

I think many assume scheduling football games is easier than it probably is.

I was surprised to read this was the first time we've played Tenn. Tech since the mid-70s and the first regular season contest against the OCV since the mid-2000s.

So, it's been 45 years or so since we've been able to schedule a team that plays in Tennessee and routine plays SoCon teams. I don't think it's as easy as just putting a school on the schedule.

[The Jackal]

Leaving Holy Cross for a moment. I perused Samford's game against TTU from last week. A few thoughts:

Defensively

TTU played the run fairly well most of the afternoon. Samford, of course, is not juggernaut running the ball and only uses the ground game to set up the pass. I am also of the opinion that none of the Samford backs would make it into Furman's rotation. So it will be a different challenge for TTU this week.

Against the pass, the Golden Eagles didn't do a whole lot defensively. Welch is a good QB, but 75% completions for 370 and 4 touchdowns isn't particularly effective. Of course, Samford throws it better than we do, so we'll see what adjustments they make.

Notable, I think, that Tech had a spot of difficulty containing Samford's big TE, Michael Vice. Vice is a serviceable pass catcher, but he's not Ryan Miller. If the Golden Eagles had a hard time covering Vice, I expect they will find the sledding tougher this week.

Offensively,

Not a ton to get excited about. They fed their primary back a bunch. He broke one long run, but beyond that, didn't do much. Samford, in my opinion, is not in the same class as Furman's defense against the run.

The Golden Eagle passing attack averaged around 8 yards a reception on 34 attempts. That would indicate a lot of short passing attempts and not a whole lot of stuff downfield. It wouldn't surprise me to see Tech try to do the one thing A&T managed to do successfully - max protect and try to hock the ball downfield.


This group will be geared up for a home opener. They played earlier last week, so have had a few more days off after their Samford contest. They have a history of upsetting teams at home, so Furman needs to be alert to that.

Frankly, this is a type of game where Furman needs to go on the road and put the pedal down. No screwing around here.

[Affirm]

US News college rankings are one of the things that make higher education so expensive. Institutions spend an inordinate amount of time and money attempting to game the criteria in order to move up a few positions in the rankings.Higher rankings mean in general more exclusivity, lower acceptance rates and higher dollar yield per student.I am all for keeping score but the criteria used seem don’t seem to have much to do on how “ good” a school is.Mort Zuckerman has hit on the mother lode in ranking things and college administrators live in fear of declining numbers so the institutions will keep on playing.

We’re not going to get rid of them. Furman and all schools attempt to show up as well as possible in them. It’s a major way the general public is informed in comparing schools. They affect a lot of things, including recruitment of students (including those who are athletes). And if you know other ratings and ranking systems that rank colleges (there are numerous one) THAT RECEIVE MORE ATTENTION AND MORE PRESS, be sure to let us know. People who discredit or ignore rating systems are those whose schools do not show up especially well in them.

[Affirm]

Does anyone really care about the USNews rankings except affirm when it comes to football. When a schedule is announced i have never thought for a second about where said team is ranked by USN&WR.

I think many assume scheduling football games is easier than it probably is.

I was surprised to read this was the first time we've played Tenn. Tech since the mid-70s and the first regular season contest against the OCV since the mid-2000s.

So, it's been 45 years or so since we've been able to schedule a team that plays in Tennessee and routine plays SoCon teams. I don't think it's as easy as just putting a school on the schedule.

I know it’s not easy, though in the case of Tennessee Tech, I doubt that we prioritized them particularly highly on the list of potential OOC opponents. That, and the travel expense involved, are reasons that I said (six) total games in 2 decades against 16 listed schools. I’d lower my request to at least 4 total games in 2 decades - only 1 every 5 years; and it could be accomplished with games against only 1 or 2 of the 16 schools named.

[FUBeAR]

Does anyone really care about the USNews rankings except affirm when it comes to football. When a schedule is announced i have never thought for a second about where said team is ranked by USN&WR.

FUBeAR likes it when we play strong academic schools, and FUBeAR likes it when we play HBCU’s (could get both with Howard, I believe). FUBeAR also likes to play Teams we’ve never played and when we play Teams on the road that are located in fun cities (how bout teeing it up @ UNLV someday?) or located in Cool College Towns…like Cookeville, TN.

When FUBeAR thinks of interesting future opponents, this Hank song always pops into his noggin’ for some reason…

[The Jackal]

Tech football returns to Tucker Stadium for visit from Furman

https://tennesseetech.prestosports.com/ ... 0909q3mvu0

[AstroDin]

^^^ looking over the Furman game notes for the Tech game…

Wayne Anderson isn't listed - he was gimpy after a first-quarter, run KT played the rest of the game.
Thomas is listed as Wynn's backup. My guess is Abshier (very underrated) will see more PT and we could see a true freshman dressed for this game (#7 Myion Hicks). Our running backs have to be a headache for opposing defenses. They all can catch the ball. WYnn - it appears is getting a lot of NFL interest due to his running but also his pass-catching ability. We've seen glimpses of KT's ability in a couple of games - Thomas could be the best RB we have at catching the ball. You need to watch him in the warmups and during drills.

Clay Daniels is back on the depth chart after not being able to play against A&T.

Dominic Morris received a lot of pre-season praise - he was in a gray jersey for the A&T game, Morris is listed on the two-deep. Excited to see how he performs.

Joshua Harris watch — it will be interesting to see how Furman uses Peterson/Harris/Henderson.

* back to the o-line > CCH mentioned that Furman played 7 offensive linemen against A&T.
4 sophomores
2 freshmen
1 junior
Daniels is the lone senior offensive linemen

Final thought > coaching up players.
Pretty sure Wyatt Hughes was a PWO. Hughes now has a start under his belt as a R-SO and Clay has already mentioned his name (as an improved player) this season.
Hughes joined Nicky Kuzemka as the second starter who came to Furman as a PWO.

[The Jackal]

^^^ looking over the Furman game notes for the Tech game…

Wayne Anderson isn't listed - he was gimpy after a first-quarter, run KT played the rest of the game.
Thomas is listed as Wynn's backup. My guess is Abshier (very underrated) will see more PT and we could see a true freshman dressed for this game (#7 Myion Hicks). Our running backs have to be a headache for opposing defenses. They all can catch the ball. WYnn - it appears is getting a lot of NFL interest due to his running but also his pass-catching ability. We've seen glimpses of KT's ability in a couple of games - Thomas could be the best RB we have at catching the ball. You need to watch him in the warmups and during drills.

Clay Daniels is back on the depth chart after not being able to play against A&T.

Dominic Morris received a lot of pre-season praise - he was in a gray jersey for the A&T game, Morris is listed on the two-deep. Excited to see how he performs.

Joshua Harris watch — it will be interesting to see how Furman uses Peterson/Harris/Henderson.

* back to the o-line > CCH mentioned that Furman played 7 offensive linemen against A&T.
4 sophomores
2 freshmen
1 junior
Daniels is the lone senior offensive linemen

Final thought > coaching up players.
Pretty sure Wyatt Hughes was a PWO. Hughes now has a start under his belt as a R-SO and Clay has already mentioned his name (as an improved player) this season.
Hughes joined Nicky Kuzemka as the second starter who came to Furman as a PWO.

Didn't see much Anderson in the game last Saturday. I assumed he got banged up a bit.

Pretty sure Deluca was a walk-on as well.

Hope to see some improvement in the pass defense. A&T started to attack our younger corners downfield. I expect TTU will try the same thing.

[Affirm]

Does anyone really care about the USNews rankings except affirm when it comes to football. When a schedule is announced i have never thought for a second about where said team is ranked by USN&WR.

FUBeAR likes it when we play strong academic schools, and FUBeAR likes it when we play HBCU’s (could get both with Howard, I believe). FUBeAR also likes to play Teams we’ve never played and when we play Teams on the road that are located in fun cities (how bout teeing it up @ UNLV someday?) or located in Cool College Towns…like Cookeville, TN.
…

I agree about wanting to play HBCUs - yes.
I also agree that it IS surprising that we have not played Tennessee Tech more than we have, since they are apparently closer than 2 of our SoCon schools are.

[Affirm]

I'm glad our admissions office doesn't handle football scheduling.

Holy Cross...BFD.

Actually our admissions strategies and our intercollegiate athletics should have mutual alignment to whatever degree feasible.
Prospective students (including athletes), current students, alumni, general public locally, and general public nationally all do pay attention to whom we play.
Winning is important, but so is who we play.
I am not saying we should load up our schedule with the most prestigious schools. To do that, we would need to move our campus northward and become D-3.
But I do think that 1 or more of the D-1 schools that are ABOVE us in USN&WR liberal arts rankings, including Holy Cross, Colgate, Bucknell, Lafayette, Richmond, Davidson, Navy, Army, Air Force, would be good to have on our schedules at least a couple of times every decade or so.
I also think it would be good to have 1 or more Ivy League schools such as Yale, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, on our schedules at least a couple of time every 20 years or so.
It is good already that we do get to play both Wofford and VMI (tied at #69 ranking in the USN&WR liberal arts colleges rankings) each and every year in multiple sports. Furman is #52 in those rankings. And I think there are not many other D-1 FCS schools in the liberal arts school rankings than those 9 listed above (the national military academies [not FCS] and the Ivies [not in the liberal arts schools group] are not in that 9.

By the way, Presbyterian College may be the only other FCS liberal arts college in that US N&WR ranking, and they are #127. I think it’s fine when we play PC, which I consider a very good school. Just don’t want PC to be the only OOC liberal arts college (like FU is) that we ever play.