2022 Outlook

[DungeonRealm]

Anyone with even half a brain knows we would beat the brakes off of Davidson, what a joke

[FUBeAR]

Yeah…all 3 of those cats are SoCon Haters - you got NDSU/MVFC, EWU/Big Sky, and JMU/former CAA represented…The 3 Conferences that wanted to see the SoCon beat down to elevate their conferences/Teams…and they sure beat the drum loudly for the death of the SoCon when Appy & GaSou moved down and e*Loan drifted on. Posturing & perception matters.

They’ve done a nice job of pumping themselves into “experts” and the one who did the 1-130 rankings (the JMU guy…aren’t they out of FCS now?) has pestered Craig Haley into letting him be a voter in a the STATS poll, which does actually matter…unfortunately.

They do a nice job of knowing Players/Teams/History, reading/compiling stats, reprocessing/regurgitating what they hear other media guys & some real Football analysts say. They are GREAT FCS FANS and prolific pundits. Not sure any of them really knows a lick about Football though…

Anyway…here’s the 1-130 guy’s ranking of all SoCon Teams

1 - ETSU - 7th
2 - Chattanooga - 17th
3 - Mercer - 24th
4 - Furman - 39th
5 - WCU - 53rd
6 - VMI - 55th
7 - Samford - 74th
8 - The Citadel - 87th
9 - Wofford - 113th

Anyone think non-schollie Davidson would finish 6-3 if they were a SoCon Team?

VMI beat the Wildcats by 3 scores last season. Every Team, with the possible exception of Wofford, would have waxed them by similar or more.

But…as FUBeAR said…this guy’s rankings matter….and he will start every SoCon Team well below their actual spot and, grudgingly, move them up after wins…and precipitously drop them after any loss…resulting in lower than deserved rankings at the end of the year…in ranking used by the committee to determine Playoff selections/seeds…which will be used the following year to set new rankings…vicious-circle, it is.

[The Jackal]

Bottom line, to get the respect we believe we deserve, we can’t lose to Western Carolina, need to close out games we are winning, and start beating some of these teams in the post season.

We can’t keep expecting different results when the production is similar every season.

[FUBeAR]

Bottom line, to get the respect we believe we deserve, we can’t lose to Western Carolina, need to close out games we are winning, and start beating some of these teams in the post season.

We can’t keep expecting different results when the production is similar every season.

No doubt…

But that doesn’t negate the bagful of BS that this guy’s rankings (which do matter) are with regard to the SoCon. ETSU gave NDSU, in the FargoDome, a much better game (13-0 at half) vs. Montana State’s neutral site game with the Bison (28-0 at half)…yet he has MSU @ #4 vs. ETSU @ #7. Mercer beat Chatt and led ETSU late into the 4th quarter (shoulda clinched the game..aarrggghh) as FU did (also arggghhh), but he starts Mercer almost out of his Top 25. The whole thing is BS.

And we (the SoCon) have to get Teams SELECTED to be in the post-season in order to “win games in the post season” and those Teams need to be seeded/bracketed in a way that is not ‘rigged’ for failure. Full Playoff Regionalization - the way D2 does it - is the only solution for this.

[apaladin]

^^^ Furman offered a while back, had plenty of other offerings, including Troy, Maine, MissValleySt.
Emmanuel is physically impressive;

Apparently No. Colorado didn’t think so. Only appeared in 12 games in 3 seasons including only 3 last year. Not too impressive.

[Yadkin]

The JMU grad who is represented as “covering the SoCon”…hardly anybody in the league can recall him attending a SoCon game. Maybe he’s stumbled into Lexington once or twice at some point but, as suggested, he’s long been nothing more than a CAA stool pigeon who provides cover “being from the South.” The dislike of the SoCon makes me wonder if somebody still hasn’t gotten over losing an ancestor at Bull Run, Gettysburg, or Cold Harbor.

[The Jackal]

^^^ Furman offered a while back, had plenty of other offerings, including Troy, Maine, MissValleySt.
Emmanuel is physically impressive;

Apparently No. Colorado didn’t think so. Only appeared in 12 games in 3 seasons including only 3 last year. Not too impressive.

I haven’t done a deep dive into No Colorado’s defense or his fit or use, but he fits the physical profile and skill set needed for our Bandit position.

We have one bandit with much experience (Luke Clark). We graduated two guys there that played a ton of snaps the last few years (McKoy and Hope). We’ve got another promising young player (Maier), but need depth.

I don’t think Furman is going to get a grad transfer in the program that they don’t believe can contribute.

[AstroDin]

Adebayo will play bandit for Furman - see the quote from the press release. What I like about Furman's transfer this season is they appear to be very strategic position offers. Schools like Chatty, Western, and Samford are bringing in large amounts of transfers, hoping to reload or rebuild the team for a season.

"Adebayo, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound bandit, joins the Paladins from Northern Colorado, where he earned playing time in 12 games over three seasons. He is enrolled in Furman's Strategic Design master's program and has two years of eligibility remaining."

https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2022/7/ ... nsfer.aspx

[The Jackal]

In this new era of college football, I like what we’re doing.

We’re going after guys that look to be contributors at positions where we needed depth.

This will have the added advantage of not forcing us to necessarily play freshmen off the jump and gives us the opportunity to replace guys we lose from our own program. It’s difficult at an fcs school to lose a veteran player (for whatever reason) and then have to replace him with an inexperienced player. Now we can keep up.

A number of these grad players also have 2 years of eligibility remaining.

[apaladin]

4 weeks from today is the start of the 2022 college football season. Channel 4 had a pretty good preview of FU last night.

[The Jackal]

I was perusing the roster this morning. There are a few slight changes that are worth noting.

1. Dae'One Wilkins is now listed at SS. Wilkins has played his entire career at the SPUR position, but is a player that Coach Vaughn likes to put all over the field. In my opinion, the only real gap Furman needed to fill in the defensive backfield was to replace Dimarcus Clay at SS. Wilkins is a great option to do that.

I assume Wilkins would be the likely starter. Kam Brinson we don't frequently talk about, but he's quietly played 21 games for Furman and, I presume, will be the #2. Also, two of the new signees (McLeod and Williams) are listed at SS.

2. Jalen Miller moves back to SPUR. Miller has bounced between ILB/OLB during his Furman career. I expect depth at ILB has allowed this move.

SPUR looks pretty set - Miller, Caiden Richards, and Amaah Achina. You could do a lot worse on that strong side than Miller with Wilkins lined up behind him.

3. Xavier Stephens is listed as DT. I would wager Stephens will figure heavily in the defensive rotation backing up Sochovka.

4. Stanfield moves from DE to DT.

Nothing earth shattering because I expect Furman is going to mix and match along the defensive front depending on the situation. Stanfield was a handful last season for offenses and it looks like he's gained 10 pounds.

5. We don't have a ton of DEs.

Jack Barton moved from DT to DE. Jeremiah Jackson seems likely to get the lead nod there. That's about it for guys with experience.

Again, I don't read too much into that because I think Furman is going to have all sorts of different packages to deploy depending on the situation and the opponent.

[The Jackal]

Just to wrap up the above post -

From what I can see, Furman looks well situated defensively.

There were a few holes to plug along the defensive front, and they addressed that with a few graduate transfers (Stephens and Adebayo). Those two should factor in the rotation.

In the backfield, the only spot we really needed to address was SS, and it looks like the coaches pegged Wilkins for that role along side Hugh Ryan. Our defensive backfield was already strong, and now we may have just added one of our most versatile defenders to the mix and will get back a few players that missed much of last season to injury.

There are two areas defensively where I had concern:

1. Replacing Hope/McKoy at Bandit
2. Finding a player to fill in Parker Stokes' role as a rotational defensive disruptor up front.

It seems Clark and Maier are the two likely to be slotted to rotate at Bandit. Clark's been impressive in limited action and Maier came highly rated out of high school. I think it's at least a little notable that both of those guys are bigger than Hope and McKoy, who were more linebacker-than-lineman. These two are built like prototypical edge rushers.

Up front, I think Duane Vaughn is going to mix-n-match. I expect we will see multiple fronts and utilize the experience and versatility depending on the opponent and game situation.

Just my uninformed opinion, but defensively we look about as deep/experienced as as I can recall. Notably, when Hendrix arrived we had a QB and two DBs starting at linebacker.

[apaladin]

Jackal, yes but can we score? Looking forward to your offensive breakdown,

[The Jackal]

Jackal, yes but can we score? Looking forward to your offensive breakdown,

My uneducated opinion on this is that our offense should be better.

Why?

We have two first team All SoCon players on the offensive line. That's usually a good recipe for success.

There are two pre-season All Americans on offense (Tomlin and Miller). Looking back, the last time Furman had two All Americans on offense was 2005 (Covington and Stewart).* We were pretty good that season.

Ryan Miller might be the single most dangerous offensive threat in the SoCon.

QB play should be improved regardless of who is under center. Jace Wilson will have a year and a few off seasons worth of work now and be in a system more closely resembling what he ran in high school. Huff also looks like he could be a highly regarded player and may win the job himself.

Our running back group looks loaded with guys that combine size, speed, agility and pass catching ability. It was hard not to watch Roberto last season and not see visions of Jerome Felton.

I think we'll really see Coach Roper let our QBs serve as a running threat. We may see Wilson may become a true dual threat player, not just a scrambler.

At bottom, football is a team game. I don't think our offense is going to put up dizzying point totals, but I hope improves upon the little things during the game. We lost a few contests this year that could have gone the other way with just one or two more plays by the offense - keeping a drive alive, converting a third down, scoring inside the red zone, etc. With talent and more experience, I think we can improve upon those few plays in a game we need to make.

*Dakota Dozier and Jerodis Williams were all Americans in 2012, but Williams made it as a kick returner.

[Affirm]

Jackal does not appear to be uneducated or uninformed. Thanks for the information and opinions.