WCU Game Thread

[apaladin]

hello all, just a little PR work..

if you are like SD and like the positivity of winning in Dins sports, given this is a rebuilding year for FB, check out these other Dins sports that have excellent teams this year ( in no particular order)

Mens Soccer
Womens Soccer
Ladies and Mens Golf
Ladies and Mens XC (ranked in top 25)

Do have to note that Mens Soccer play is excellent plus the ladies play very hard and are fun to watch especially live

In all due respect, that doesn’t help at all.

[The Cats]

As Clay said, some teams care about yards and points - If you listen closely, Clay said he told Bell that and didn't appreciate it. This isn't a verbatim quote, but what comes around goes around Coach Bell.

I find it interesting that Clay said that. However, I don't think past WCU head coaches appreciated these games or final scores that FU layed on the Catamounts... When the shoe is on the other foot, you see it a little differently. As you guys have told us, it's the defenses job to keep the other team out of the end zone...

2/20/2021 L 7 - 35
9/29/2012 L 24 - 45
10/1/2011 L 21 - 47
10/11/2008 L 14 - 42
11/17/2007 L 21 - 52
9/23/2006 L 7 - 42

[Yadkin]

It wasn’t the points and yards as much as how and when WCU elected to score late. Running it in with backups actually would have been okay IMO; but when you’re chunking it from +30 into the end zone when up 25 inside two minutes, you are entering the bush league realm.

[FU3]

In how many of those games were we running a tempo O with our starting QB throwing deep passes late in the 4th quarter. It was definitely a bush league move but not a big surprise.

[cavedweller2]

I had a great time yesterday at Paladin Stadium. Homecoming is what it’s all about. My face still hurts from all the laughing. The game sucked. It sucked worse when ETSU beat us worse than that on Homecoming in the late 90’s. It rained that day.

Thanks for the shot and the cap.

[The Jackal]

As Clay said, some teams care about yards and points - If you listen closely, Clay said he told Bell that and didn't appreciate it. This isn't a verbatim quote, but what comes around goes around Coach Bell.

I find it interesting that Clay said that. However, I don't think past WCU head coaches appreciated these games or final scores that FU layed on the Catamounts... When the shoe is on the other foot, you see it a little differently. As you guys have told us, it's the defenses job to keep the other team out of the end zone...

2/20/2021 L 7 - 35
9/29/2012 L 24 - 45
10/1/2011 L 21 - 47
10/11/2008 L 14 - 42
11/17/2007 L 21 - 52
9/23/2006 L 7 - 42

I'm not sure that's entirely compelling. Clay Hendrix was Furman's coach for only one of the contests you referenced - the "2020" game played in the spring of 2021. Kerwin Bell wasn't the head coach for any of them.

In that game, it was 28-7 at the half, Furman had pulled virtually every starter by the fourth quarter and basically didn't throw the ball in the second half. Furman ran the football 66 times and scored only 7 points after half time.

Saturday, up 25 in the 4th quarter, Cole Gonzalez was still throwing the ball downfield. There's really not a football reason to have Gonzalez in the game in the fourth quarter beyond stat padding and running it up.

[The Jackal]

A number of the posters lamenting this years team and predicting that we are going to be the new VMI for the foreseeable future were telling us at the time that our teams in 22 and 23 really weren’t that good and that we were either A. Lucky or B. Our competition sucked. Furman thru its generous donor base has invested a lot of money in this program in the past decade and I have little doubt that this investment will continue to produce quality teams that graduate real college students.

I suspect this is a one off. There is literally nothing about this program that appears to support the notion of some downward trend.

We graduated 41 players and even among the experienced players we had returning, many of them are injured or unavailable. I don't believe we have to over think it much beyond that.

[gman84]

As Clay said, some teams care about yards and points - If you listen closely, Clay said he told Bell that and didn't appreciate it. This isn't a verbatim quote, but what comes around goes around Coach Bell.

I find it interesting that Clay said that. However, I don't think past WCU head coaches appreciated these games or final scores that FU layed on the Catamounts... When the shoe is on the other foot, you see it a little differently. As you guys have told us, it's the defenses job to keep the other team out of the end zone...

2/20/2021 L 7 - 35
9/29/2012 L 24 - 45
10/1/2011 L 21 - 47
10/11/2008 L 14 - 42
11/17/2007 L 21 - 52
9/23/2006 L 7 - 42

Bell is a TOOL! Yesterday, when I said the game was complete garbage, I was hard on my team. I should have been more clear that the game I watched was also garbage from the TOOL head coach of WCU. Yep, it’s up to us to stop them, and if he wants to keep his qb in when the game is in hand to pad some stats, go ahead. Did I mention Bell is a TOOL?

[gofurman]

So many thoughts and mixed emotions on this game and season...

- We have been decimated by the injury bug
- We have a true freshman at QB
- Offenses seem to be able to gain junk plays through the air at will
- As stated earlier, it seems we are playing for who we wish we were vs who we are
- a seemingly lack of creativity in play calling. I presume passes over the middle are minimized to limit risk to a young QB. Pass to set up the run, draw, outside zone, etc...
- We continue to search for answers at the OL
- 8 must show a significant better ability than 5 in practice at QB
- To bring in 5 as a decoy on those 3 stopped running plays was an absolute face slap
- You would think 5 would be much better at processing what the D is giving based on experience (not much game, but practice anyway). With the state of our OL that's even more important to be able to process quickly.
- 51 started at C. 72 played sporadically at G. 61 came in for the last 2 drives at C which did lead to a TD. 77 worked in at RT.
- 65,69, 72 and 79 all worked around at G.
- With 2 losses and no signs of turning this thing around, I wonder how the older OL(R-SR) guys will respond. Step back to eliminate injury risk? Also, 2 R-JR, who might be close to graduation.
- We now should be playing OL that will be here next year.
- We have good skill talent on O. For the life of me I can't figure out why we don't have a big passing game.
- I'm not sure if 3 was even targeted once in the game and he is a big time possession receiver.
- 1,3,19,0 and 2 6'5" TEs see like real trouble to cover. Add to that skittish 33. We have the weapons.

I would imagine 11 being out for injury and 2 off the team is a big impact. However, we do have capable players in those same positions. I haven't seen anything that makes me think having either of those two players would result in any different results on O. We came into the season thinking we'd be throwing it all over the park.

EXACTLY. the D is young and decimated by injuries. OL has some age and our O has not been decimated by injuries. Just Harris mainly for disciple. That’s it. . Yes 11 is out but our young TEs have even been on Sportscenter.

So while D was young and lost two DBs to transfer and lost 40. A great DL. And every Bandit!!! And 8 Moson starting Freshman DB. By contrast , our Offense really is close to who we knew we would have and who we PLANNED on having…. So I don’t give our offense the same excuses.

What gives there ??? It’s who we planned on playing with - So I don’t really understand the extent of struggles on Offense

and our Offense is arguably worse than our defense where we have lost so many to injury !! Yesterday both stunk. But often the D has outplayed the O despite the injuries being primarily to the Defense (Citadel the D kept us in it the whole game ).

[gofurman]

I am having a hard time understanding the “cupboard is bare” situation. Someone explain it to me like I’m a first grader.

According to Hero Sports we had the 2nd ranked recruiting class in 2020:
https://herosports.com/football-2020-r ... ings-ajaj/. There are other such rankings during the CH tenure and to my knowledge Hero Sports is a fairly reputable FCS source. These kids, unless they graduated early, should be seniors or redshirt juniors this year. Where did they all go? Surely attrition isn’t that bad, is it?

I too am struggling with this. What about 2021. 2022? We supposedly have been recruiting great but some of it when I watch is NOT inexperience. Some of it is a lack of speed and talent. You can’t correct speed by getting older. Like Hinton has SPEED. and he is already a weapon. A superb young talent will show early on.

[wcugrad95]

I am sure I'll get several "FUs" and "get off our board" but I'd add something a little different.

If WCU hadn't been backed down inside the 1 yard line, I am not sure Cole goes back out there. I have no doubt Bell wanted him to get 500 yards passing, and he did that on the previous posession. His last TD came on a very simple screen pass and our RB just made a big-time run to get in the endzone from nearly 50 yards out. So that is not exactly slinging it all over the yard. The other part is our offense is built on the RPO and the QB has a lot of say in those plays. Gonzales has a penchant for taking what Ds give him, and Furman was giving up passing yardage. If he is in the game, he is going to make plays.

When we put the backup in, it was really the first any of our other QBs have played this season. That series Western originally ate up yards running the ball a few times, but when it was a 3rd and 9 the QB threw a pass. Not sure if you guys saw us miss the playoffs last year because our backup QB was not in any way ready to play in the last game against VMI. Our backups need reps, too.

I totally get how it feels. Believe me - WCU has had plenty of games where the score has been run up against them. But with the game in hand, did Furman take their starters out? Did you guys quit trying to throw the ball and shorten the game? Would it have been ok if WCU just ran it down your throat and the problem is we threw the ball? Lots of the blowouts against Western fans can say "we just ran the ball" but of course for years that was what killed Western so it wasn't much solace.

I personally wanted Cole to come out a series before he did because I didn't want to risk injury, but again as I mentiond I think based on Bell's comments on his show earlier last week he wanted our team to develop a different mentality. So this felt as much a message to our team as it was to anybody else. And I also think that most non-WCU fans don't like him. I prefer that vs everybody liking our former coaches who weren't very good.

Sorry for writing a book here. Your board and it should be about your team. Just trying to at least add a little additional perspective that most probably wouldn't think of.

[Sad Din]

hello all, just a little PR work..

if you are like SD and like the positivity of winning in Dins sports, given this is a rebuilding year for FB, check out these other Dins sports that have excellent teams this year ( in no particular order)

Mens Soccer
Womens Soccer
Ladies and Mens Golf
Ladies and Mens XC (ranked in top 25)

Do have to note that Mens Soccer play is excellent plus the ladies play very hard and are fun to watch especially live

In all due respect, that doesn’t help at all.

well, Ladies soccer beat down Woofy today 4-0. Its soocer world, a complete blowout.

Any W vs woofy should help some...

[tim]

I am sure I'll get several "FUs" and "get off our board" but I'd add something a little different.

If WCU hadn't been backed down inside the 1 yard line, I am not sure Cole goes back out there. I have no doubt Bell wanted him to get 500 yards passing, and he did that on the previous posession. His last TD came on a very simple screen pass and our RB just made a big-time run to get in the endzone from nearly 50 yards out. So that is not exactly slinging it all over the yard. The other part is our offense is built on the RPO and the QB has a lot of say in those plays. Gonzales has a penchant for taking what Ds give him, and Furman was giving up passing yardage. If he is in the game, he is going to make plays.

When we put the backup in, it was really the first any of our other QBs have played this season. That series Western originally ate up yards running the ball a few times, but when it was a 3rd and 9 the QB threw a pass. Not sure if you guys saw us miss the playoffs last year because our backup QB was not in any way ready to play in the last game against VMI. Our backups need reps, too.

I totally get how it feels. Believe me - WCU has had plenty of games where the score has been run up against them. But with the game in hand, did Furman take their starters out? Did you guys quit trying to throw the ball and shorten the game? Would it have been ok if WCU just ran it down your throat and the problem is we threw the ball? Lots of the blowouts against Western fans can say "we just ran the ball" but of course for years that was what killed Western so it wasn't much solace.

I personally wanted Cole to come out a series before he did because I didn't want to risk injury, but again as I mentiond I think based on Bell's comments on his show earlier last week he wanted our team to develop a different mentality. So this felt as much a message to our team as it was to anybody else. And I also think that most non-WCU fans don't like him. I prefer that vs everybody liking our former coaches who weren't very good.

Sorry for writing a book here. Your board and it should be about your team. Just trying to at least add a little additional perspective that most probably wouldn't think of.

No Sale. Punk move.

[AstroDin]

WCU, I am not sure I buy your about-ism.
Concerning Furman playing back-ups, due to injuries and such, Furman played a heavy dose of backups the entire game. By my count, 27 freshmen/redshirts participated yesterday, and seven started.

One bright spot—I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned it—is Trevor Short's getting his first PT at Bandit. He made several nice plays and showed his athleticism.

[The Cats]

No Sale. Punk move.

I'll say it more straight forward, so even you can understand.

It was a football game. WCU's job is to score when on offense, Furman's job is defense when WCU in on offense. So it it WCU's job NOT to score? or is it Furman's job to keep WCU out of the end zone?

Time to man up, take the loss, quite crying and look forward to next year in Cullowhee. We certainly looked forward to Travelers Rest this season, after last year's loss in Cullowhee...