Upon Cronic's departure last year, I mentioned that Furman football would be impacted. The up tempo pace that we played last year was due to Cronic, and as we have seen, it's slowed immensely this season. In the last 3 games at Lenoir Ryhne, Cronic has put up 51, 59, and 31 points. Most UFFP'ers denied his departure would have any impact, but it's probably the biggest factor on the team this season. Obviously the loss of PJ is huge since many thought we could just plug and play at QB. Let's face it, Roberts is a serviceable QB, but CH knows that he's not going to carry the team to a conference championship or the playoffs. Roberts knows the system well, and on this alone, he should probably remain the starter because I think it's going to be a really long year for the Paladins (and not in a good way). Grainger has raw potential, but that's all it is at this point. He would have been best served by a redshirt year to understand the system.
For an OL that CH has been high on, I've really been disappointed. They played better yesterday for 3 quarters, but something is still missing here. One crucial component is Matthew Schmidt - he was a beast at Center, and we can attribute much of the inside running success of Dirks last year to Schmidt and Bush. Kroeber moving to Center was a complete disaster as evidenced by his play in the Clemson and Elon games, so at least the coaching staff was smart enough to start Neely and move Kroeber back to his natural position. Obviously, part of this move was made because of the sudden departure of OL Jacob Conrad - awfully strange that this happened 2 games in to the season. Conrad was a real bright spot his freshman year - not sure what happened here if we take an injury out of the situation.
On defense, the middle linebacker play of Reynard Ellis has also been missed. We've seen a lot of missed tackles this year, and losing a returning All SOCON player hurts. He was going to be a mega player for Furman - it was unfortunate to lose him.
Our DB's have actually played quite well this season, in part due to the Trapp transfer. Perhaps fatigue was an issue for the Q4 meltdown, but we were also missing Weems who played quite well in the Clemson game.
The most concerning issue with the team is that it has no rythm and is out of sync. There is no gel at all. The OL is not a very cohesive bunch, our play calling is substandard at best, and there is no clear leader at QB to take charge. Part of the latter is likely due to the staff wanting to see a freshman savior emerge. Well, it's not going to happen this year. Either way, we will be sub .500 team this year - just too many problems. I was hoping we'd see more from Lincoln, but it's clear that he's not a pure passing QB.
We are 0-3 to start the season. Our defense will keep us in most games. If there was ever a time for a transfer QB, the offseason would have been the time. But with the current play calling and OL performance we've seen this season, even the likes of Ingle Martin would be destitute. We can only hope for improvement over the remainder of the season because there will always be next year.
For an OL that CH has been high on, I've really been disappointed. They played better yesterday for 3 quarters, but something is still missing here. One crucial component is Matthew Schmidt - he was a beast at Center, and we can attribute much of the inside running success of Dirks last year to Schmidt and Bush. Kroeber moving to Center was a complete disaster as evidenced by his play in the Clemson and Elon games, so at least the coaching staff was smart enough to start Neely and move Kroeber back to his natural position. Obviously, part of this move was made because of the sudden departure of OL Jacob Conrad - awfully strange that this happened 2 games in to the season. Conrad was a real bright spot his freshman year - not sure what happened here if we take an injury out of the situation.
On defense, the middle linebacker play of Reynard Ellis has also been missed. We've seen a lot of missed tackles this year, and losing a returning All SOCON player hurts. He was going to be a mega player for Furman - it was unfortunate to lose him.
Our DB's have actually played quite well this season, in part due to the Trapp transfer. Perhaps fatigue was an issue for the Q4 meltdown, but we were also missing Weems who played quite well in the Clemson game.
The most concerning issue with the team is that it has no rythm and is out of sync. There is no gel at all. The OL is not a very cohesive bunch, our play calling is substandard at best, and there is no clear leader at QB to take charge. Part of the latter is likely due to the staff wanting to see a freshman savior emerge. Well, it's not going to happen this year. Either way, we will be sub .500 team this year - just too many problems. I was hoping we'd see more from Lincoln, but it's clear that he's not a pure passing QB.
We are 0-3 to start the season. Our defense will keep us in most games. If there was ever a time for a transfer QB, the offseason would have been the time. But with the current play calling and OL performance we've seen this season, even the likes of Ingle Martin would be destitute. We can only hope for improvement over the remainder of the season because there will always be next year.
