VMI

[The Jackal]

My guess is that the coaching staff has probably had a contingency plan in place for Jones all season. With the physical style Huff plays with, it seems like Furman would have always had to prepare for the eventuality that he'd be knocked out of a game at some point.

Jones is still a relative unknown to the fan base. He put up big numbers at a 6A high school. In his limited action prior to Saturday, we'd seen him throw a few easy routes in mop up duty.

To this point, he's got four career carries for three yards. I think it is probably safe to assume that he is going to be a different type of player than Huff, who is a quick twitch powerful runner. Jones appears to be more of a passing type QB. His bio indicates he ran for 14 touchdowns as QB at Maryville, so it stands to reason he can tote it if he needs to.

I presume Nehuel Garcia will be the backup QB for Saturday's action. I guess Charles Watson, who does a lot of the holding on kicks, is also available if needed.

I hate to even say this, but this could end up working out for Furman in the long run. Furman has two very winnable games to end the season. Jones appears to be the likely heir apparent to Huff in this offense but has gotten limited opportunities to this point. If Furman can win both games and give Jones some extended playing time in the offense, that just makes us better next year too.

[The Jackal]

VMI is a dangerous football team.

There is no doubt the Keydets have improved, but I do not think we need to read too much into that. VMI, like a few of the other "have nots" had the most room to improve from when the season started, so they will have the appearance of making great leaps. Furman, by contrast, was already pretty good and improvement in their game will be a lot less noticeable than those teams that started off well behind the curve.

VMI has the league's third best scoring defense, though it should be noted they have not played Furman or Western Carolina, two of the league's better offenses.

They are a little unique insofar as they are a decent defense, but do not defend the run well. They are second to last in the SoCon in terms of surrendering rushing yards. Again, they still have yet to play the league's two best rushing offenses.

They lead the league in passing defense, but also face the fewest number of passing attempts - likely because teams have success running on them. Furman, similarly, gives up a lot of passing yards comparatively, but that's mostly due to the fact that teams struggle to run the ball on our defense.

Under their new coach, the Keydets are more balanced than they were under Wachenhiem. Their run/pass distribution is a bit like Furman. At times, they have really struggled to score points.

Special teams looks like an advantage for Furman. VMI isn't great in the kicking game, about 50% on field goals, and doesn't force many touchbacks.

I'd almost bet the farm that knowing they are facing a backup QB, VMI will be selling out on stopping the run Saturday. They are going to force Carson Jones to beat them throwing the ball. Furman, I think, will be content to play their preferred field position game, punt VMI deep, play stout defense, and wait for opportunities to get favorable matchups on offense.

[Stumpy]

They lead the league in passing defense

This worries me if Huff is still out. I'm well aware that Jones kept his cool and got us the win - and I applaud him - but he also had a number of really questionable/near-interception passes. If he's the man this week, I hope we can go run-heavy.

[The Jackal]

They lead the league in passing defense

This worries me if Huff is still out. I'm well aware that Jones kept his cool and got us the win - and I applaud him - but he also had a number of really questionable/near-interception passes. If he's the man this week, I hope we can go run-heavy.

I think there is some give and take in the numbers.

Defensively, the Keydets are not very good against the run. They've seen the most rushing attempts in the SoCon, but the fewest passing attempts. Naturally, teams are trying to exploit their weakness and their pass defense numbers will skew that direction - fewer passing attempts, fewer passing yards, etc.

Furman is the opposite. Furman has seen the fewest rushing attempts in the league. Correlatively, they have seen the second most passing attempts. Furman's pass defense numbers are higher in large part because we see more passing attempts because team's struggle to run the ball against us.

I was a bit surprised - Furman has faced only 283 rushing attempts all season. That is 90 fewer rushing attempts than VMI's defense has seen and still 40+ fewer than the next lowest SoCon team (UTC, who has played more games). I'm not suggesting teams are abandoning trying to run the ball against our defense, but the numbers would suggest our opponents know they aren't having a ton of success there and opting to do something else.

[saltyshaker]

vmi and wofford have both shown improvement throughout the year. i take neither for granted especially if we are missing huff,i feel we can beat both with jones @qb but i do wonder about our backup.we have garcia the true froshman in place but wonder if we might consider shiflet as well.my recollection is that he transferred in some years ago as a qb from mtsu. before switching to wr.
if we can win the next two without huff,we likely would earn a bye in 1st playoff round which would give him one more week to recover while giving jones and the remaining backups some valuble experience.

[stonemd]

“ if we can win the next two without huff,we likely would earn a bye in 1st playoff round”

We deserve a number 2 seed if we win the next 2. No way we would be unseeded.

[cavedweller2]

The Paladins are a very good football TEAM. I fully expect them to dispatch the keydets and the yap dogs. #5 will take good care of the Paladin offense. I wouldnt be surprised if we came out 4 wide and throwing.

[FU Hoopla]

[gofurman]

They lead the league in passing defense

This worries me if Huff is still out. I'm well aware that Jones kept his cool and got us the win - and I applaud him - but he also had a number of really questionable/near-interception passes. If he's the man this week, I hope we can go run-heavy.

Agree there was a screen pass he shoulda thrown higher.. whew... the UTC LB(?) almost had a pick 6. Have to know to eat that or throw it above the defender. A few passes scared me. That comes with experience.

Looking for the scouting report but it appears VMI does not defend the run well. Many good teams are running for 250 yards on them at 5ypc. Which is good. run, run, run play action and teach him all week that it is OK to throw it away and live to play another down !!! So many QBs even at the highest level can't make themselves throw the ball away and just live to play another down.

We are playing for seeding or a bye week. THese are HUGE games! Kill em Paladins !!!!!!!!!!!

I do like this matchup as VMI looks to allow a lot of running yards. Which is what we want. our toughest game ? - clearly at UTC - where they shut down our run game with (credit where credit is due) an outstanding DL / LB corps.

People may rank WCU and UTC about even but for us as Furman fans I would rather play WCU every day of the week instead of UTC . Our OL and big man Roberto love seeing WCU. UTC Is a better run stopping team and gives us fits

I will have to get stats but I saw that maybe Mercer and ETSU ran for strong yards vs VMI

[gofurman]

VMI is a dangerous football team.

There is no doubt the Keydets have improved, but I do not think we need to read too much into that. VMI, like a few of the other "have nots" had the most room to improve from when the season started, so they will have the appearance of making great leaps. Furman, by contrast, was already pretty good and improvement in their game will be a lot less noticeable than those teams that started off well behind the curve.

VMI has the league's third best scoring defense, though it should be noted they have not played Furman or Western Carolina, two of the league's better offenses.

They are a little unique insofar as they are a decent defense, but do not defend the run well. They are second to last in the SoCon in terms of surrendering rushing yards. Again, they still have yet to play the league's two best rushing offenses.

They lead the league in passing defense, but also face the fewest number of passing attempts - likely because teams have success running on them. Furman, similarly, gives up a lot of passing yards comparatively, but that's mostly due to the fact that teams struggle to run the ball on our defense.

Under their new coach, the Keydets are more balanced than they were under Wachenhiem. Their run/pass distribution is a bit like Furman. At times, they have really struggled to score points.

Special teams looks like an advantage for Furman. VMI isn't great in the kicking game, about 50% on field goals, and doesn't force many touchbacks.

I'd almost bet the farm that knowing they are facing a backup QB, VMI will be selling out on stopping the run Saturday. They are going to force Carson Jones to beat them throwing the ball. Furman, I think, will be content to play their preferred field position game, punt VMI deep, play stout defense, and wait for opportunities to get favorable matchups on offense.

i like it

RUN Stats:
VMI beat ETSU in a turnover heavy game. But ETSU ran 50 times for 287 for roughly 5.5 yards per carry . NICE
UTC escaped VMI (24-23) but ran 35 times for 172. 4.9 ypc (oddly, vs UTC stout run D. VMI ran 39 times for 210 for 5.4 ypc. that is impressive..)
Samford ran 37 times for 213 yards. 5.8 per carry

In short, win or lose, VMI allows a good many rushing yards. I think they will have to put extra guys up front to stop our run. Which I suspect they will

[FU Hoopla]

Let's hope we don't struggle at home with a team that lost to awful Bucknell, I predict an easy win even with CJ at QB

[The Jackal]

Let's hope we don't struggle at home with a team that lost to awful Bucknell, I predict an easy win even with CJ at QB

Furman' the more talented team, but I do not think we need to expect a cakewalk.

VMI's strength is their defense, though they struggle to score. I suspect Furman is going to play a field position game, punt them deep and try to get our offense a short field.

I'd love to see the offense open up as much as anyone, but against a team like this, trying to push the issue could spell disaster.

ETSU, for instance, wasn't likely to drive the field and score on us twice. The worst thing we could have done is exactly what happened - we turned the ball over deep in our territory and gave up a touchdown with ETSU's struggling offense on the sideline.

[FUpaladin08]

Touching on some of the points above:

VMI defense: it’s definitely important to dig into the numbers like Jackal has done. Is the VMI pass defense so good bc of their coverage, their pass rush, or maybe just a lack of passing attempts? Is there a lack of attempts bc of their superior pass defense or their poor run defense? Roper will be all over this on the film and have a solid plan. I would hope we try to impose our will in the run game across multiple RBs and give CJ easy down and distance pass plays.

Furman offense: we have seen it talked about all season: “the offense is inconsistent, Huff is a bit inaccurate, the offense line is injured, etc.” I think we have the full picture now seeing his shoulder has been banged up in games. Couldn’t ask for a better opponent for CJ first start. Yes, they’ll load up the box to stop the run but that didn’t seem to matter against ETSU. That should afford some pretty favorable matchups when we decide to throw for the young QB. I will say, of all the inconsistencies we need the offensive line to really come together these last two games. This was supposed to be a strength coming into the season and we will need them to open holes for the RBs and keep the pass rush off CJ.

Huff vs Jones: I not worried about CJ now that he gets a whole week of practice with the first team. I do think he could bring something different that defenses haven’t seen this year. Every team has been happy to sell out on the run and force Huff to pass. He hasn’t exactly made defenses pay for that. I wonder if CJ will be able to hit some big plays if we are to assume some of Huff’s issues stemmed from his shoulder? We will certainly miss Huff’s on field leadership and ability to extend plays with his legs. But as it was said, I’m excited for CJ to get some valuable experience ahead of next season after we locked up the conference title.

[FUBeAR]

Let's hope we don't struggle at home with a team that lost to awful Bucknell, I predict an easy win even with CJ at QB

VMI is much better now than when they played Bucknell. New Coaching Staff was 'settling in' during the early part of VMI's schedule. They have won or been competitive in every SoCon game except against Mercer.

Also Bucknell just beat Colgate, who just beat Lafayette, who just beat Holy Cross, who darn near beat Boston College, who darn near beat Undefeated FBS ACC Leader / CFP #4 Florida State. Maybe the Bison are not so awful as you say.

[KingPaladin]

Will we play down to the competition like we did against Cit and ETSU this week?