PreSeason Poll

[The Jackal]

With the current ever changing rosters year to year, preseason polls may become out of date/irrelevant/obsolete.

There is some truth to that.

[apaladin]

Always look forward to the FBS games but I’m afraid the one this year will need to be forgotten quickly. A top 5 FBS team vs. a young inexperienced FCS team will not bode well. Last year they opened with Mercer and ot was 73-7. They are supposed to be better this year. Hopefully this game will get ignored in the fcs polls.

[MidlandsPaladin]

Always look forward to the FBS games but I’m afraid the one this year will need to be forgotten quickly. A top 5 FBS team vs. a young inexperienced FCS team will not bode well. Last year they opened with Mercer and ot was 73-7. They are supposed to be better this year. Hopefully this game will get ignored in the fcs polls.

Wrong thread.

https://gopaladins.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4391

[apaladin]

Not really.

[gofurman]

Certainly not representative of where we finished in ‘23. And, Chattanooga ahead of us? Didn’t we beat them last year… twice!?

The second time hardly counts. Love the win but, as Jackal or someone said upthread, they were missing JAY PERSON and their qb and starting CB. and etc etc. And it showed. That was half the team …. Person was a BEAST. Best D Player In conference BY FAR. With him it’s a game. Without we are far better. He’s the type guy that in this new portal NIL world might have been gone a year or two earlier

[The Jackal]

Certainly not representative of where we finished in ‘23. And, Chattanooga ahead of us? Didn’t we beat them last year… twice!?

The second time hardly counts. Love the win but, as Jackal or someone said upthread, they were missing JAY PERSON and their qb and starting CB. and etc etc. And it showed. That was half the team …. Person was a BEAST. Best D Player In conference BY FAR. With him it’s a game. Without we are far better. He’s the type guy that in this new portal NIL world might have been gone a year or two earlier

Hardly counts? We throttled them in Greenville. By the same token, we played them in Chattanooga with Person on the field and we played most of the game with a backup QB and beat them anyway.

Remember, many of the dudes they were "missing" in the playoffs are guys that they are "missing" this season, too.

[apaladin]

Everyone lost some but no one lost as much as FU. Not even anyne close to FU losses.

[FUBeAR]

LINDY'S COLLEGE FOOTBALL FCS 2024 PREVIEW

1. SOUTH DAKOTA STATE - MVFC
2. NORTH DAKOTA STATE - MVFC
3. MONTANA STATE - BIG SKY
4. VILLANOVA - CAA
5. SOUTH DAKOTA - MVFC
6, MONTANA - BIG SKY
7. FURMAN - SoCon
8. SOUTHERN ILLINOIS - MVFC
9. DELAWARE - CAA (Ineligible for Playoffs)
10. NORTH DAKOTA - MVFC
11. RICHMOND - CAA (Patriot League ‘25)
12. CHATTANOOGA - SoCon
13. ALBANY - CAA
14. LAFAYETTE - Patriot League
15. IDAHO - BIG SKY
16. YOUNGSTOWN STATE - MVFC
17. SACRAMENTO STATE - BIG SKY
18. INCARNATE WORD - SOUTHLAND
19. GARDNER-WEBB - Big South / OVC
20. FLORIDA A&M - SWAC
21. CENTRAL ARKANSAS - UAC
22. EASTERN ILLINOIS - Big South / OVC
23. WESTERN CAROLINA - SoCon
24. AUSTIN PEAY - UAC
25. MERCER - SoCon

[Flagman]

Now, that's more like it!

[AllTimeFU]

It’s going to be fun to see how much of the DNA from the last 2 years has elevated all boats in the team this year.

[gofurman]

Certainly not representative of where we finished in ‘23. And, Chattanooga ahead of us? Didn’t we beat them last year… twice!?

The second time hardly counts. Love the win but, as Jackal or someone said upthread, they were missing JAY PERSON and their qb and starting CB. and etc etc. And it showed. That was half the team …. Person was a BEAST. Best D Player In conference BY FAR. With him it’s a game. Without we are far better. He’s the type guy that in this new portal NIL world might have been gone a year or two earlier

Hardly counts? We throttled them in Greenville. By the same token, we played them in Chattanooga with Person on the field and we played most of the game with a backup QB and beat them anyway.

Remember, many of the dudes they were "missing" in the playoffs are guys that they are "missing" this season, too.

By that logic we should lose to Wofford this year.

We were missing Huff and Roberto and lost to daggum Wofford. We will be missing those same two dudes and MANY MANY. More this year.

Can’t have your cake and eat it too. What applies to Chatt applies to us too

That said I bet we kill Wofford. Just pointing out the flaw in logic

[apaladin]

I think the biggest questions are do we have a QB that can step up and win a game in crunch time, and will we have a defense that can step up and stop the other team in crunch time. TBD

[The Jackal]

I think the biggest questions are do we have a QB that can step up and win a game in crunch time, and will we have a defense that can step up and stop the other team in crunch time. TBD

I personally think we will be deep at QB. In fact, I suspect that we will be better throwing the ball than we’ve been the past few seasons.

If Carson Jones wins the job, it’s at least notable that he lead a game winning drive at then top-15 Chattanooga on the road against a really good defense. He had two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter that game giving Furman the lead. So, he’s at least already demonstrated he can win a big game on the road in crunch time.

As far as the defense goes, since Vaughn took over coordinator duties in 2019, we’ve been one of the top units in the conference every season. That’s not just one player, but a style of play and identity. While we’ll have some new faces this season, I’m pretty confident that Furman will put a fast aggressive defense on the field again.

[Davemeister]

Do we have a QB who can run the football? That's been a BIG part of our Offense the last two years.

[FUBeAR]

Do we have a QB who can run the football? That's been a BIG part of our Offense the last two years.

It’s a good question.

QB runs were also a huge part of Coach Roper’s O with Matt Sluka @ Holy Cross.

QB Season GP ATT ATT/GP YDS TD Long AVG/A AVG/G
Sluka 2020 4 44 11.0 234 4 57 5.3 58.5
Sluka 2021 13 166 12.8 868 14 76 5.2 66.8
Huff 2022 12 105 8.8 694 8 56 6.6 57.8
Huff 2023 11 105 9.5 591 6 53 5.6 53.7

FUBeAR didn’t note that Carson Jones was a particularly strong runner in his 3 extended appearances (Chatt, VMI, Woffy), but he may be. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Garcia has great QB mechanics and looks like an outstanding athlete in his uniform. That could make him the next Justin Herbert or the next Johnny Utah ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

High-flyin’ rook, Hedden … no clue … not even worth a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ until he figures out how to sneak into the girls dorms (guess they don’t have to do that anymore, huh? … anyway … we’ll see)

So … great question … no way to begin to answer it until Fall practice and prolly won’t be answered fully until about Game #6