Mercer

[FU3]

We just couldn’t run the ball at all. I still think 8 is going to be a good QB but we ran a lot of the same running schemes that we had with Huff only 8 isn’t a runner and our O line wasn’t going to bully people like we did last year. D was young to begin with and was decimated by injuries.Just a very strange season with several years with of bad events condensed into one.

[gofurman]

Defense played well early, but like so many games, our offense just cannot stay on the field and cannot stop shooting itself squarely in the foot.

Our lack of a running game this season has just been a complete head scratcher.

This. It all comes down to this. What I meant in part by LOS. We MUST get better at running the ball. Even if Hedden were a year older it’s too much pressure on the passing game. We are playing with half an offense

And it would Really help if our QBs were more mobile. That would work in tandem with helping the OL

[Thorny]

First off, thank you coaching staff and players for all of the work you put in.

However, if Furman's offense sinks or swims based on QB play, I'm not sure that is smart in the post portal world where any star skill player is going to get poached immediately.

On the other end of spectrum we could go triple option and no one would look to poach our offense, whether they be coaches or players, no matter how good they are.

I don't know that much about football. I'm just suspicious that a power run game will be more consistent with players being continually added and taken away from the football program.

/and I think the counter argument is we were REALLY young so it's hard to really read into any of this.

[Davemeister]

Regardless of what happens today, this season will mercifully end tonight.

Not with a bang but a whimper. May it Rest In Peace and not come back to haunt us.

[FUBeAR]

Couple of unrelated thoughts on Mercer.

The Bears have had a strong season. ALL of the pressure Saturday will be on them, however. As we saw last year, a struggling team can surprise the conference front runner late in the season.

Mercer's passing offense appears to essentially do what Furman does statistically. They'll turn it over some. The Bears run the ball this season better than we do and have been better defensively.

Our defense bowed their necks some in Johnson City. Might be a good time to see the old Paladin stuff-the-run unit show up and let a couple of these newly minted ball hawks on the back end pick off a pass or two.

It's a stat I've followed most of the season, but Mercer almost never (3 times total all year) kicks a touchback. Furman has, arguably, the SoCon's best kick returner that should have opportunities for returns. That will be interesting to follow as Furman loves to get the ball in Hinton's hands and the Bears, at least on kickoffs, will struggle to prevent that from happening.

Overall, limit turnovers, tackle the man with the ball, make Mercer get nervous on a big home game with so much on the line for them (like Furman had last year at Wofford). Make the game ugly.

I'm also sad to see a couple of good soldiers put on the purple and white for the last time. Especially Dimaggio and Clark. Those guys have been fun to watch develop over the years.

You are right about Mercer’s Kickoff game. FUBeAR has been unable to ascertain if it’s a bug or a feature though. They rank 47th in FCS in KR Defense and #1 (or #123, depending upon perspective) in number of Kickoff Returns against with 55. Furman has had 2. But FUBeAR hasn’t really recalled the Bears getting ‘hurt’ in this phase of the game this season … so he dug into the details…

Mercer has Kicked Off 71 times this season. They’ve kicked 5 of those out of bounds, giving the opposing Offense the ball at their 35 YL. Opponents have Fair Caught 8 Kickoffs, placing the ball at their 25 YL. They’ve only had 3 Touchbacks and 1 of those was on a KO from the 50. So…71-5-8-3 = 55 Returns.

They have used 2 different Kickers mid-season without a lot of notable difference between the 2, so it seems they’ve gone back to the original guy.

The interesting thing is, though, the average starting yard line for Mercer opponents after Kickoffs is the 26.6 yard line. So, if they had kicked it out of the back of the endzone on every kick, they would have gained an average of less than 2 yards of field position/kick. So, an average of about 10 yards/game worse than if they had banged it out of the back. Certainly higher risk, but they haven’t been ‘caught’ yet, and they did get 1 fumble recovery on a Kickoff. So, maybe that’s the Reward payoff they are hoping for in taking the risk. Or maybe their guy(s) just ain’t have enough leg. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Looks like Hinton’s 25.3 yds KR Avg trails only Chatt’s Whatley (27.7) and Samford’s Rias (26.7) in KR average. Whatley averaged 21.5 / KR (22% below his avg) against Mercer and Rias avg’d 21.0 (27% below his avg).

Bottom line … Stats tell us the most likely occurrence on Mercer Kickoffs is that Mercer is going to kick it to about the 7 or 8 yard line and the Paladin Offense will begin the drive at about the 27 or 28 yard line.

It seems the prevailing approach in college and NFL is that if you can force a touchback, you force a touchback. You know where the ball is getting spotted, you risk no return, you risk no injury.

I doubt Mercer's approach is intentional. You wouldn't not kick a touchback and then let your opponent get better field position than they might otherwise. I suspect their kickers can't make the end zone, which is also a little bizarre. It's a skill, for sure, but it's not an unheard of skill even among high school kickers. Ian Williams, with his cannon leg, is, of course, an exception into how prolific he is at forcing touchbacks.

It has not really seemed to burn them yet. Of course, Hinton is a dangerous return man.

It's like last year when teams had to kick to Devron Harper. He's not guaranteed to pop a big return, but you know the odds are eventually he will. In a potentially tight game, that's one of those things that could be pivotal.

Probably correct.

But, Mercer’s opponents have started drives after Non-OB (5) / Non-penalty-affected Kickoffs (1) across the 35 yard line on only 3 occasions and none have crossed midfield. So, the assessed Return Score/Field Position risk of kicking it to about the 7 seems, to Mercer’s Coaches, to be lower than just kicking it OB (past the 35) every time. Probably looking at their coverage capability, likelihood of a penalty on the return team, and possibility of a turnover as providing reward greater than that risk. That assessment may change based upon the ability of the returner / return team, but they didn’t seem to alter the strategy for Whatley or Rias, so maybe Hinton & his Stache (a separate entity unto itself) will get their chance … maybe only 1 shot though

If FUBeAR is Coaching and his guy can only put it down to the 7, that kid is aiming at the kicking net on the sidelines at the 20 yard line every time. Risk of a KOR for a TD gives FUBeAR the shakies!

Epilogue to this discussion…

On 7 Mercer Kickoff that were not Touchbacks (1), OB (0), or penalty-affected (0), the kicks went to the 11 yard line, on average … the 10 yard line, if we count the touchback Kickoff as the 0 yard line.

Furman drives began, on the average, including or excluding the TB Kickoff, at the 26 yard line…about as projected.

[FurmanATT]

Football season ends
#Paladins basketball teams
Roll past opponents
-- MD

https://wellpilgrim.com/2024/11/24/furm ... oth-teams/

[The Jackal]

First off, thank you coaching staff and players for all of the work you put in.

However, if Furman's offense sinks or swims based on QB play, I'm not sure that is smart in the post portal world where any star skill player is going to get poached immediately.

On the other end of spectrum we could go triple option and no one would look to poach our offense, whether they be coaches or players, no matter how good they are.

I don't know that much about football. I'm just suspicious that a power run game will be more consistent with players being continually added and taken away from the football program.

/and I think the counter argument is we were REALLY young so it's hard to really read into any of this.

I'm not sure folks are poaching our offense.

Most of the guys we lost from last season we expected to not be available in 2024. Arguably, the two guys we lost that we expected could have been back as anchor pieces were the two CBs - Robinson and Yates.

[The Jackal]

I watch plays and sometimes just wonder if we just couldn't hide all of our freshmen this season.

This isn't a bad play design. We've got numbers. It appears that a freshman TE just misses his block.

Hold onto the ball.

I have no idea what this was supposed to be.

[FUBeAR]

I watch plays and sometimes just wonder if we just couldn't hide all of our freshmen this season.

This isn't a bad play design. We've got numbers. It appears that a freshman TE just misses his block.

…and a pulling OLman is, what Coach Caldwell would call, “lollygagging,” which gums up the works, preventing the RB from going outside when the LB ran under the TE’s block. Can’t lollygag. Find the most threatening bad-colored jersey and knock his a$$ out…RIGHT NOW! Patience is for RB’s, not OLmen.

Hold onto the ball.

I have no idea what this was supposed to be.

Hard to say. From QB’s head movements, may have been an RPO slant to R-Fr WR who was not looking for the ball, so QB seems to get discombobulated and ‘forgets’ the R part of RPO and doesn’t hand off to RB - which looks like it would have been a great, well-blocked run. And/or this was a triple-option RPO and QB saw (out of the corner of his eye) the DE squeezing hard with flow, and decided he could get the edge on him. If so, bad decision. That True FR DE for Mercer is probably 1st, maybe 2nd, Team All SoCon - unbelievable motor. On the turnover aspect, the more FUBeAR has watched this, it wasn’t a case of the QB just chunking the ball up for grabs as it may have appeared initially. Looks like the ball was stripped loose and the twisting motion of the tackle spun the ball up in the air and out with QB’s arm ‘follow-through’ trying to catch/retain it; not toss it. Very unfortunate for FU and very fortunate for Mercer.

A couple of FUBeAR’s thoughts above/in-line, in bold

[FUATT]

I watch plays and sometimes just wonder if we just couldn't hide all of our freshmen this season.

This isn't a bad play design. We've got numbers. It appears that a freshman TE just misses his block.

…and a pulling OLman is, what Coach Caldwell would call, “lollygagging,” which gums up the works, preventing the RB from going outside when the LB ran under the TE’s block. Can’t lollygag. Find the most threatening bad-colored jersey and knock his a$$ out…RIGHT NOW! Patience is for RB’s, not OLmen.

Hold onto the ball.

I have no idea what this was supposed to be.

Hard to say. From QB’s head movements, may have been an RPO slant to R-Fr WR who was not looking for the ball, so QB seems to get discombobulated and ‘forgets’ the R part of RPO and doesn’t hand off to RB - which looks like it would have been a great, well-blocked run. And/or this was a triple-option RPO and QB saw (out of the corner of his eye) the DE squeezing hard with flow, and decided he could get the edge on him. If so, bad decision. That True FR DE for Mercer is probably 1st, maybe 2nd, Team All SoCon - unbelievable motor. On the turnover aspect, the more FUBeAR has watched this, it wasn’t a case of the QB just chunking the ball up for grabs as it may have appeared initially. Looks like the ball was stripped loose and the twisting motion of the tackle spun the ball up in the air and out with QB’s arm ‘follow-through’ trying to catch/retain it; not toss it. Very unfortunate for FU and very fortunate for Mercer.

A couple of FUBeAR’s thoughts above/in-line, in bold

On that last one, I don't think it's that complicated. 8 was mistaken as to where the back was going to be, thought he would be at the mesh point earlier because I think he though he was coming off his right shoulder (where 7 is on the other side) and not from the gun. When back was not at the expected mesh point immediately, he flinched, panics, and then instead of running to the play side he runs to the off side and there's nobody out there but him and the unblocked (by design) end. And Chaos ensues.

I think this because of the play design and what the other 10 are doing (don't think this is RPO for this reason) and also that 33 stops and throws his hands out in a "WFT" kind of pose like "why didn't you give me the ball dude.

What's worse, this play is blocked to hell and back. Luna pulls the left side of the line has great push and cover. 15 chips and has the MLB dead. Backside backer is in the wash out of the play. 7 has the playside backer dead and 9 is on the S. It's 33 and the corner one on one and if he makes him miss this is probably a huge chunk play for 20+ yards assuming the backside S runs him down, but he has a long ass way to go and 33 can wheel so if he doesn't run 33 down the scoreboard lights up because all 11 are there in the frame.

Great 2nd and 10 call. Great execution by 10 players. This is the stuff that keeps coaches awake at night and makes them leave the film room to puke.

[FUBeAR]

I watch plays and sometimes just wonder if we just couldn't hide all of our freshmen this season.

This isn't a bad play design. We've got numbers. It appears that a freshman TE just misses his block.

…and a pulling OLman is, what Coach Caldwell would call, “lollygagging,” which gums up the works, preventing the RB from going outside when the LB ran under the TE’s block. Can’t lollygag. Find the most threatening bad-colored jersey and knock his a$$ out…RIGHT NOW! Patience is for RB’s, not OLmen.

Hold onto the ball.

I have no idea what this was supposed to be.

Hard to say. From QB’s head movements, may have been an RPO slant to R-Fr WR who was not looking for the ball, so QB seems to get discombobulated and ‘forgets’ the R part of RPO and doesn’t hand off to RB - which looks like it would have been a great, well-blocked run. And/or this was a triple-option RPO and QB saw (out of the corner of his eye) the DE squeezing hard with flow, and decided he could get the edge on him. If so, bad decision. That True FR DE for Mercer is probably 1st, maybe 2nd, Team All SoCon - unbelievable motor. On the turnover aspect, the more FUBeAR has watched this, it wasn’t a case of the QB just chunking the ball up for grabs as it may have appeared initially. Looks like the ball was stripped loose and the twisting motion of the tackle spun the ball up in the air and out with QB’s arm ‘follow-through’ trying to catch/retain it; not toss it. Very unfortunate for FU and very fortunate for Mercer.

A couple of FUBeAR’s thoughts above/in-line, in bold

On that last one, I don't think it's that complicated. 8 was mistaken as to where the back was going to be, thought he would be at the mesh point earlier because I think he though he was coming off his right shoulder (where 7 is on the other side) and not from the gun. When back was not at the expected mesh point immediately, he flinched, panics, and then instead of running to the play side he runs to the off side and there's nobody out there but him and the unblocked (by design) end. And Chaos ensues.

I think this because of the play design and what the other 10 are doing (don't think this is RPO for this reason) and also that 33 stops and throws his hands out in a "WFT" kind of pose like "why didn't you give me the ball dude.

What's worse, this play is blocked to hell and back. Luna pulls the left side of the line has great push and cover. 15 chips and has the MLB dead. Backside backer is in the wash out of the play. 7 has the playside backer dead and 9 is on the S. It's 33 and the corner one on one and if he makes him miss this is probably a huge chunk play for 20+ yards assuming the backside S runs him down, but he has a long ass way to go and 33 can wheel so if he doesn't run 33 down the scoreboard lights up because all 11 are there in the frame.

Great 2nd and 10 call. Great execution by 10 players. This is the stuff that keeps coaches awake at night and makes them leave the film room to puke.

Good stuff - totally concur on how it’s being so well blocked, as stated.

But, your great explanation made FUBeAR take another look…and sees it differently now. It’s even simpler than we both thought. Not an RPO issue. Not a mesh point issue. Just a mental bust.

QB wasn’t looking to WR. He was looking to RB #7 to cross in front of him and take the ball in front of him - where he initially positions the ball - and run outside right.

When #7 goes away from QB to block left, that’s when the ‘panic’ and chaos ensues. QB’s are taught if something goes amiss on a handoff, you become the RB and go to the designed ‘hole.’ So, if QB, mistakenly, thought the play was going outside to the right, he did do that. Unfortunately, everyone else knew the play was designed to go outside left.

Yeah…looks like QB mental error…10 banks on Monday.

[The Jackal]

As we post-mortem the 2024 season, I think we'll see a lot of little mistakes over and over in a tough and competitive conference that just put us so far behind the 8ball it was tough to overcome.

That play with Hedden is great example - turn the wrong way, tried to make a play that wasn't there, and ends up a complete disaster.