gofurman wrote: ↑Sat Dec 07, 2024 4:48 am
paladinfan41 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2024 7:57 pm
FUBeAR wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2024 5:37 pm
Doesn’t mention the mustache. FUBeAR, ever the optimist, is going to assume it’s staying…
Diversity of uniform selections is nice. Strong pics. There are better font choices for the header.
Word is the stache is sadly staying.
Oh wow !!! Hadn’t been here in a few days. This stinks. No loyalty in college anywhere.
REAL QUESTION- how can Furman survive and adapt in this era where we try to develop guys and then they just leave once they get good enough that an NIL makes an offer or something? I don’t doubt he can get some money somewhere…. I mean if we struggle to get transfers IN to Furman how are we gonna survive with transfers leaving? Somewhat similar to Clemson… people are leaving but none coming via portal so they have dropped a tier from top 5 to top 15/20. No longer would they make the old 4 team playoff there.
If those transfers leaving exceed those transfers coming each year or in general how can Furman sustain? Real question. Thoughts ? Any thoughts. Maybe we can’t?
I think there are a few things. First, lets begin with some assumptions: Furman is not going to pay the revenue share and were not going to have meaningful NIL opportunities for football. That's our baseline.
1. . At present, we really have two impact players (Hinton and Maier) and two depth players (Balliew and Robinson) in the portal. And a LS. The one that I think the coaches really wish they could retain is Hinton. So we are not getting gashed - at present, lets get through next week - on the order many programs are. This is because our culture is very strong, value of a Furman degree well understood, all the intangibles. But the first issue in any situation is to understand if you are having an "issue" or a "crisis." I think Furman has an issue with the portal, not a crisis. IF we had, say Ryan Earl and another OL leaving for a fifth year, Hedden in portal, Hinton in portal, Moson in portal, that would be a crisis.
2. The portal will taketh away and the portal will giveth. We are hitting the portal hard. We are likely to add OL, CB and RB and that will UPGRADE our talent in these position. The portal is not a one way street. We will have to be committed and active in this space and be willing to trade up where we can.
3. Furman needs to develop a realistic graduate level degree opportunity for Graduate Transfers. Right now, we are significantly challenged to bring in grad transfers given the 5 grad degrees we offer. Samford, for instance, another SoCon private, offers an MBA, several in Health Care, Master of Social Work, Organizational Leadership, Environmental Management etc. - they have options.
4. Double down on effective HS recruiting. Two things are working in our favor here. First, roster limits will force some guys down from FBS to FCS in HS recruiting and we have to find those guys on the margins and get them. Second, Furman is developmental on the OL and DL and sort of a QB for sure but we are going to have to get more Colton Hintons, and Evan James and Trey Heddens and guys that come in and have an immediate impact, especially at the skill positions. The new world order creates good HS opportunities for Furman. We are going to have to have more of a "play them now" mindset. This is not terrible because other programs are getting poached and will be forced into this too. But we will need to get more guys more snaps more early.
5. Ultimately, be the best version of who we are. Furman should look at the other D1 privates and, being realistic about resources, examine who is managing the portal era well and who is not, copy best practices where we can find one innovative thing we can do if we can.
So I am not in a panic, yet, about the portal. If we do get totally gashed this year or in a succeeding year, I reserve the right to change my view
