2022 Outlook

[The Jackal]

Wide Receivers: https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2022/8/ ... DFUMax6SBU

I noticed in a few photos that Joshua Harris looked bigger. Turns out, he is:

"Joshua was a ready-made product when he got here," said Hendrix. "He started most of our games (nine) as a true freshman and gained 25 pounds in the offseason. He has playmaking ability and great hands, and we're really looking for big things out of him."

[FU3]

No Dejuan Bell mentioned and don’t see him on roster anymore. He had a great spring and with our new OC looking to utilize our speed thought he would finally have a break out season.

[The Jackal]

No Dejuan Bell mentioned and don’t see him on roster anymore. He had a great spring and with our new OC looking to utilize our speed thought he would finally have a break out season.

I had not noticed that, but good catch. I do not know if that move was already anticipated over the summer and explains why Wayne Anderson was moved to slot.

While slot seems like a bit of a question mark, I don't think that need will be as acute as it was in Quarles offense where we basically relied on two wide outs. We'll have more size on the outside and Ryan Miller is as good a receiver as there is in the league. Seems like a real opportunity for snaps behind Anderson, though.

I wish him well wherever he ends up.

[AstroDin]

Jackal, correct me if I'm wrong here.
Let's go all the way back to Bobby Johnson or Bobby Lamb;
prior Furman offenses schemed a Wide Receiver and a Split End.

Based on the WR outlook - our guesses were right that Wayne Anderson will be a slot receiver.
I hadn't thought much about what this means and what Wayne brings to the new scheme. With Wayne being one of the fastest players on the team. I started thinking, what type of slot receiver will Anderson be?

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/proje ... archetypes

[gofurman]

No Dejuan Bell mentioned and don’t see him on roster anymore. He had a great spring and with our new OC looking to utilize our speed thought he would finally have a break out season.

Still, I don't love this. WE NEED SPEED. Think how J Harris and R Miller change our potential. Bell had that - he never seemed to capitalize on it but he had the raw ability.

[FurmAlum]

After reading all the hype on here the last few weeks, I gotta say I'm pretty excited about this season. I'm optimistic that the offense will be better. Offensive line, running backs, and wide receivers all look better on paper. QB too.

Defense looks as solid a last year. Especially DB's.

A good start to the season would be a good beat down of NG, a good showing vs. Clempson, and an upset of ETSU.

I think we have a good chance to beat all 3 ranked SoCon teams, but I would be happy with 2 out of 3.

Go Paladins!

[The Jackal]

No Dejuan Bell mentioned and don’t see him on roster anymore. He had a great spring and with our new OC looking to utilize our speed thought he would finally have a break out season.

Still, I don't love this. WE NEED SPEED. Think how J Harris and R Miller change our potential. Bell had that - he never seemed to capitalize on it but he had the raw ability.

I was surprised when I looked this up.

In 31 games (4 seasons), Bell had 20 catches for 223 yards and 1 touchdown. That's about 7 yards a game.

[apaladin]

No Dejuan Bell mentioned and don’t see him on roster anymore. He had a great spring and with our new OC looking to utilize our speed thought he would finally have a break out season.

Still, I don't love this. WE NEED SPEED. Think how J Harris and R Miller change our potential. Bell had that - he never seemed to capitalize on it but he had the raw ability.

I was surprised when I looked this up.

In 31 games (4 seasons), Bell had 20 catches for 223 yards and 1 touchdown. That's about 7 yards a game.

Yep we kept hearing a lot about him but for some reason it never came to fruition on the field.

[The Jackal]

Jackal, correct me if I'm wrong here.
Let's go all the way back to Bobby Johnson or Bobby Lamb;
prior Furman offenses schemed a Wide Receiver and a Split End.

Based on the WR outlook - our guesses were right that Wayne Anderson will be a slot receiver.
I hadn't thought much about what this means and what Wayne brings to the new scheme. With Wayne being one of the fastest players on the team. I started thinking, what type of slot receiver will Anderson be?

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/proje ... archetypes

I'm going to ramble a minute.

Passing game-wise, I think we will see a mix.

During his tenure, Quarles frequently tried to use our base 21 offense (2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE) to disguise our personnel groupings. To do this, he often relied on "utility players" that could line up at various spots to give the defense a different look without changing personnel. Most often, this was Devin Wynn, Wayne Anderson, and Ryan Miller.

Our base offense primarily consisted of one SE and one FLK. When we wanted a 3 WR look, we frequently used one of those utility guys at receiver. I don't know whether that was entirely by design, or was necessitated by lack of depth at receiver.

A lot of what Furman did in the passing game under Quarles was try to disguise Ryan Miller. We can quibble with a lot of Quarles' tenure, but he was admittedly pretty strong at finding ways to hide our best player in plain sight.

Initially I liked what Quarles was doing. It had a level of deception and forced defenses to deal with a variety of formations with the same personnel groupings.

Over the years, though, I liked it less. Over time, it looked like we were just trying to be too clever. We would frequently put good player out of position in the name of deception. Were we better on offense with Devin Wynn lined up at receiver?

Now, I do not believe we will see the same attempts at mystery under Coach Roper.

Honestly, I think added WR depth is going to open up a lot of possibilities. With Dean and Harris (and maybe Shiflett, Ethan Harris, etc), we now have several big, fast, physical receivers.

As for Anderson, he was listed as a RB last season, but played as a receiver a lot of the season.

Against WCU:

Against Mercer

So, it's a position change, but he's doing something he's been already asked to do a lot of.

[The Jackal]

No Dejuan Bell mentioned and don’t see him on roster anymore. He had a great spring and with our new OC looking to utilize our speed thought he would finally have a break out season.

Still, I don't love this. WE NEED SPEED. Think how J Harris and R Miller change our potential. Bell had that - he never seemed to capitalize on it but he had the raw ability.

I was surprised when I looked this up.

In 31 games (4 seasons), Bell had 20 catches for 223 yards and 1 touchdown. That's about 7 yards a game.

Yep we kept hearing a lot about him but for some reason it never came to fruition on the field.

He played a bunch, just never really factored in the passing game. Some of that may have been due to the QB carousel, so it's difficult to know whether he would have made a bigger impact with more consistent QB play.

I do not however believe that Bell was all the speed we had at WR. I think we are going to see big things from Dean and Harris.

[The Jackal]

Defensive line: https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2022/8/ ... -line.aspx

For comparison's sake, I looked at the depth chart from 2017, Hendrix's first year. That was a playoff team.

Our starting defensive line went 245 at DE (Okonya), 270 at NG (Reid), and 268 at DT (Tibbs).

This season we'll likely go 260 (Jackson), 304 (Coleman), and 296 (Sochovka). Across the board, we're 20-30 lbs bigger. That gap is more pronounced when you look at the depth chart (our backups are significantly bigger and older than our backups were then).

[FUBeAR]

Ranking all 130 FCS teams. Furman at #39 one spot ahead of SCSt and 4 spots below Davidson. Wow!

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.

This should really be in the Pre-Season Rankings thread, but apaladin started it here…so, here it will stay…

ANYWAY…

See these JULY 26th rankings by the JMU Fan / SoCon Hater (IFBO)…

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

Welp…he wrote/published a SoCon Preview article ( https://www.college-sports-journal.com ... n-preview/) today, AUGUST 24th, for The College Sports Journal which included a “Predicted Order of Finish” as follows

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

What the heck did Furman & Samford do in the past 4 weeks to lose so much ground in the eyes of this widely read pundit AND STATS Poll voter?

Hint: Nothing. He’s either bucking for trolling clicks or just ‘ranks’ Teams according to whatever thought happens to pass thru his brain at the time of writing or both.

The problem is that he is no different than all of the other pundits…who the Playoff Selection Committee directly, or at least indirectly, looks to for guidance.

[AstroDin]

Now that all the position previews are out for the 2022 season, which position group will make the most impact in 22?

The sexy choices would be running backs and receivers - with new coaches and a ton of talent - with a new offensive scheme. These groups are going to score a lot of points this season.

I'm going to go with the Tommy Spangler-coached defensive backs. Furman's core five is experienced, and I feel underrated. Blackshear is All So-Con first team, as expected, but Travis isn't going to be caring the weight for the backfield. Furman has two of the bigger DBs in the SoCon in Micah Robinson (6-0 184) and Ivan Yates (6-0 180) both Robinson and Yates have displayed increased physical play under Spangler. Add Dominic Morris (5-11 175) you've got four players that could be rotated freely.

That brings us to Cally Chizik - Cally has a hard-nosed football player and seems to always be around the football. We could see Cally start a few games based on matchups, but I think we'll see Cally excel in Paladin packages.

I know - all of this has already been said - but it's week zero, and I'm excited to see the DINS Thursday night.

[DungeonRealm]

Mercer has never even made the playoffs

'cart before the horse'

[Roundball]

FWIW, Sapakoff at the P&C has the Paladins going 8-3. I’ll take that right now. I will keep preaching, if you want to read good SoCon sports coverage, the P&C is your source. And yes, I know this article is for all teams in the state.
https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/c ... ium=social