Freshmen Thoughts

[The Jackal]

I figured I would start a thread to include some of my periodic musings on the freshmen influx we are seeing.

One set of stats I found interesting:

Through 7 games, Trey Hedden is 100 of 164 (60.9%) for 1269 yards, 9 TDs and 7 Ints.

For comparison's sake:

• In 2019 Darren Grainger as a redshirt freshman started 11 of 13 games. He was 79 of 161 (49%) for 1222 yards, 13 TDs, 3 Ints. Furman was a playoff team that season.

• In 2012, Reese Hannon was 160 of 260 (61.5%) for 1896 with 7 TDs and 8 Ints in 2012 as a true freshman. I believe he set Furman's freshman passing record that season

So, in 4 fewer games to this point, Hedden has already exceeded Darren Grainger's production. He'll have a pretty good shot to surpass Hannon as well.

Now, ideally you don't want to start freshmen at QB. I think the difference in Grainger's 2019 season is we had a stout running game and he was basically just asked not to throw interceptions. This season, for whatever reason, we can't run the ball and it's putting a lot more pressure on the QBs.

My hope is that Hedden's career tracks more like Grainger's, where he struggled as a freshman and by the time he was a senior (at Georgia State) was all conference. Hannon was an excellent QB that just played on some really bad teams in the latter part of Bruce Fowler's tenure.

[gman84]

I'll not sugar coat things. Hedden would be lights out if we had a run game. We have ZERO. Its not hard to defend a team with a freshman Qb when they can't run the ball. It's that simple!

[gman84]

I'll not sugar coat things. Hedden would be lights out if we had a run game. We have ZERO. Its not hard to defend a team with a freshman Qb when they can't run the ball. It's that simple!

[FUwolfpacker]

Pretty obvious, but I also think that Hall, Hester, and Pryor have also shown flashes of being good players as well. Assuming we can get the O-line play and running game back to our typical standard, that looks like a good core of players for the future on offense.

[The Jackal]

More musings.

By my count, there are now 6 freshman that are not going to be redshirting:

• Hedden, QB

• Jones, DB

• Hester, WR

• Hall, RB

• Coleman, DB

• Smith, LS

There are two other players that are right at the 4 game mark:

• Pryor, TE

• Kaserud, DL

There are likely only four games left in the 2024 season. I think one of the interesting things to follow is what the coaching staff decides to do from here.

By my count, there are not many true freshmen that have yet to log playing time yet. One, Varvel, is injured. Interestingly, three of those players are the highly regarded offensive linemen, O'Dell, Gregorek, and Akinsola.

I would not be surprised, with four games remaining, to see those three start logging some playing time if healthy. There seems to be little downside to doing that at this point.

I will also be interested to see what the coaches try to do with Kasreud and Pryor. Can they afford to hold them out and save the redshirt?

[FUwolfpacker]

I think Kauserud is going to play. Hendrix basically said he was going to have play now during the PC after the Stephens injury.

Obviously the OL is an issue, but the thing I keep coming back to is that, given how rough things have been to this point, the coaches still haven't played any of them. Maybe they feel like none of them are ready enough to not drastically increase the chances of Hedden getting hurt (sorry for the double negative). Maybe the mindset is different now that they can play them without risk of losing the redshirt. I don't know. I feel like O'Dell could be really good and Gregorek has hung around on the depth chart all year, but as rough as things have been, they haven't been put in yet. I know that's not necessarily a reason to keep the status quo, but part of me feels like if the coaches really thought there was someone else could help significantly, they would have made the change already. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's where my brain keeps going.

Evan Jumper started multiple games as a true freshman in 2019, but I feel fairly safe saying that it's uncommon occurrence at Furman. It would take a decent amount of time to check (unless I'm missing a shortcut), but that's the only one that came to mind recently.

[The Jackal]

Uniquely, the one position where we've started a bunch of freshmen on the OL has been center. I think Schmidt, Neely, Jumper, and Luna all started as freshmen.

I'm not sure why that is.

[AstroDin]

I'd expect to see Baldwin and Knauber in the next games.

[gofurman]

Uniquely, the one position where we've started a bunch of freshmen on the OL has been center. I think Schmidt, Neely, Jumper, and Luna all started as freshmen.

I'm not sure why that is.

I find that odd that we start younger guys at Center more than other positions. Center is perhaps the toughest OL position? You have to snap AND block but more than that you have to READ THE DEFENSE. I think that's why we have seen recent changes at Center honestly. Between the QB and the Center ...the offense makes the reads and adapts to what is seen in the Defense. To have BOTH a FR QB And a FR Center is just odd to me. And I do notice that we have changed lately; it just wasn't getting done. - As AllTimeFU has been pointing out ... the guys playing center have been rotated lately.

[gofurman]

I'll not sugar coat things. Hedden would be lights out if we had a run game. We have ZERO. Its not hard to defend a team with a freshman Qb when they can't run the ball. It's that simple!

Gman, No one can deny this for sure. Pretty easy to defend us - we CANNOT RUN to save our lives... and then Western only had to rush 4 guys and got good QB pressure with only 4 guys as our announcers were bemoaning... Which means there are 7 defenders in the defensive backfield to pick off our passes. I recall one of our announcers saying "they are doing basic DL moves - nothing fancy - and just killing our OL and getting to Hedden". Or something of the sort. He was PISSED. It's a Brutal Cycle. The lack of running game is just killing us. If we could run for even 3-4 yards per carry the opposing pass rush would slow down and Hedden would have it MUCH easier. Can't run. AT ALL. Can't pass block well... we looked better at Citadel but the better teams are all over Hedden... and well, that's it. Game over.

It's all about the LOS !

[The Jackal]

I'd expect to see Baldwin and Knauber in the next games.

I think Baldwin and Knauber have played in one game each.

[apaladin]

I'll not sugar coat things. Hedden would be lights out if we had a run game. We have ZERO. Its not hard to defend a team with a freshman Qb when they can't run the ball. It's that simple!

You forget that they pass block well, ok nevermind. Another telling stat is we have not had a 20 yd run from the line of scrimmage all season. Probably the only team in the country that can say that.

[AllTimeFU]

Uniquely, the one position where we've started a bunch of freshmen on the OL has been center. I think Schmidt, Neely, Jumper, and Luna all started as freshmen.

I'm not sure why that is.

I find that odd that we start younger guys at Center more than other positions. Center is perhaps the toughest OL position? You have to snap AND block but more than that you have to READ THE DEFENSE. I think that's why we have seen recent changes at Center honestly. Between the QB and the Center ...the offense makes the reads and adapts to what is seen in the Defense. To have BOTH a FR QB And a FR Center is just odd to me. And I do notice that we have changed lately; it just wasn't getting done. - As AllTimeFU has been pointing out ... the guys playing center have been rotated lately.

I want a center that’s smart, reads the LB and safety, snaps a brisk ball and gets to the second level.

We’ve fallen in love with a big (power 5) arm some say and a big butt. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have a worse record with CJ5.

We need to go young young at OL for the remaining games and build. Heck, we’ve never even seen Garcia! Not even once.

[gofurman]

Uniquely, the one position where we've started a bunch of freshmen on the OL has been center. I think Schmidt, Neely, Jumper, and Luna all started as freshmen.

I'm not sure why that is.

I find that odd that we start younger guys at Center more than other positions. Center is perhaps the toughest OL position? You have to snap AND block but more than that you have to READ THE DEFENSE. I think that's why we have seen recent changes at Center honestly. Between the QB and the Center ...the offense makes the reads and adapts to what is seen in the Defense. To have BOTH a FR QB And a FR Center is just odd to me. And I do notice that we have changed lately; it just wasn't getting done. - As AllTimeFU has been pointing out ... the guys playing center have been rotated lately.

I want a center that’s smart, reads the LB and safety, snaps a brisk ball and gets to the second level.

We’ve fallen in love with a big (power 5) arm some say and a big butt. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have a worse record with CJ5.

We need to go young young at OL for the remaining games and build. Heck, we’ve never even seen Garcia! Not even once.

AllTimeFU,
Agree with your post about asking frankly which juniors are returning.

Also I’ve been told we often win through the years with HEART and EXECUTION. more than talent. That would lend itself to trying other guys on the OL and maybe Garcia because we flat out don’t execute right now. No denying that. We. Just. Don’t. Execute. It’s baffling. . I’m more looking at the OL than Hedden as he’s a true FR. But he can’t keep having 4 picks a game. I don’t care if you are a Freshman, that’s just unacceptable Keep trying different guys until you find those who DO execute on the OL during the game. Can’t be any worse

[apaladin]

GF- in defense of Hedden he’s thrown 7 int’s all year so one a game average.