Transfer Portal Thread

[Fred Garvin]

So we have learned that this Sluggo fella was almost like a shape shifter and the FUBEAR guy is saying length was a problem??????

Anyway, I will put those 5'10" to 6'2' guys up against any and watch them plow a defense.....any defense....maybe even take a knee instead of scoring 50

[FUBeAR]

So we have learned that this Sluggo fella was almost like a shape shifter and the FUBEAR guy is saying length was a problem??????

Anyway, I will put those 5'10" to 6'2' guys up against any and watch them plow a defense.....any defense....maybe even take a knee instead of scoring 50

*listed length

Strictly a messaging issue


So…Fred, are you saying that more length might not be the best solution to improve run blocking? Why would that be?

[FUwolfpacker]

It's interesting to watch the shift in recruiting.

Last season, Furman announced the signing of 16 players (12 in December, 4 in February) and later announced 3 transfers midsummer.

This season, Furman announced signing 10 players in December, but has since added 8 transfers in December. My guess is that if all of these transfers are on the roster, they are enrolled at school and will participate in spring practices.

It's just a different environment. I was looking at Kerry King, the new transfer WR from East Carolina. I have no idea how good he is, but he is listed as having two years of eligibility. He appears to be a 2020 high school grad.

So, Furman is, in some way, trading two years of Colton Hinton for two years of Kerry King. Furman, while it looks different, is essentially getting four seasons of a starter-caliber WR they wanted in the form of two different players.

I think the King/Hinton combo thing is how people are going to have to start looking at these players I think. The key difference being you feel like you know what you have with Hinton and we are hoping we get something similar from King. We'll see how it works out, but I think that's a good way to think about it if a fan wants to maintain some sanity in the portal craziness.

I'm glad we were able to get all the new guys in for the spring semester. Certainly will be interesting to see how all the new pieces fit at the spring "game."

[AstroDin]

I don't know JACK about offensive linemen and what makes them great or what the heck the coaches look for. It appears we're looking for players with length - especially at tackle. Hasn't CCH said as much?

Anyways—our highest rated 'o-line' recruit for 2025 is 6-2 Grady Smith, rated by 247SPORTS a 3 star 84 rating…

[AstroDin]

It's interesting to watch the shift in recruiting.

Last season, Furman announced the signing of 16 players (12 in December, 4 in February) and later announced 3 transfers midsummer.

This season, Furman announced signing 10 players in December, but has since added 8 transfers in December. My guess is that if all of these transfers are on the roster, they are enrolled at school and will participate in spring practices.

It's just a different environment. I was looking at Kerry King, the new transfer WR from East Carolina. I have no idea how good he is, but he is listed as having two years of eligibility. He appears to be a 2020 high school grad.

So, Furman is, in some way, trading two years of Colton Hinton for two years of Kerry King. Furman, while it looks different, is essentially getting four seasons of a starter-caliber WR they wanted in the form of two different players.

I think the King/Hinton combo thing is how people are going to have to start looking at these players I think. The key difference being you feel like you know what you have with Hinton and we are hoping we get something similar from King. We'll see how it works out, but I think that's a good way to think about it if a fan wants to maintain some sanity in the portal craziness.

I'm glad we were able to get all the new guys in for the spring semester. Certainly will be interesting to see how all the new pieces fit at the spring "game."

Do we throw into this replacing King for Hinton conversation — incoming Evan James?

[FUwolfpacker]

It's interesting to watch the shift in recruiting.

Last season, Furman announced the signing of 16 players (12 in December, 4 in February) and later announced 3 transfers midsummer.

This season, Furman announced signing 10 players in December, but has since added 8 transfers in December. My guess is that if all of these transfers are on the roster, they are enrolled at school and will participate in spring practices.

It's just a different environment. I was looking at Kerry King, the new transfer WR from East Carolina. I have no idea how good he is, but he is listed as having two years of eligibility. He appears to be a 2020 high school grad.

So, Furman is, in some way, trading two years of Colton Hinton for two years of Kerry King. Furman, while it looks different, is essentially getting four seasons of a starter-caliber WR they wanted in the form of two different players.

I think the King/Hinton combo thing is how people are going to have to start looking at these players I think. The key difference being you feel like you know what you have with Hinton and we are hoping we get something similar from King. We'll see how it works out, but I think that's a good way to think about it if a fan wants to maintain some sanity in the portal craziness.

I'm glad we were able to get all the new guys in for the spring semester. Certainly will be interesting to see how all the new pieces fit at the spring "game."

Do we throw into this replacing King for Hinton conversation — incoming Evan James?

I like what I saw from James. I would imagine that Hester would have a leg up on him at this point, but I do believe James will fill that role eventually. After last year and the additions of the transfers, I would imagine one of the true freshmen (outside of Nettles) would have to be noticeably better than one of the returners to see significant time this year.

[gman84]

I have no idea where we are with scholarships, but I would think this portal thing is fluid. My guess is most staffs are always looking at who is in and who is out. Maybe we add some guys this summer?? It's happened before.

[FUATT]

I think it’s going to be interesting to see the confluence of Roper scheme transition and personnel.

When Furman was more of an inside, power/iso play action, we didn’t need wingspan and height. We needed, as Jackal says, weight that could move and move people. That was reflected in bigger backs who could move piles and fall forward.

If we are going to be more a zone team, screen and downfield throws with more emphasis on blocking space and pass protection, well, having the longer guys who can move and cover space, and force the shape of a pocket with wingspan, that makes sense. As does backs more in the 205ish range who are shiftier in open space.

You can look at the evolution of the roster and it makes sense.

[The Jackal]

It's interesting to watch the shift in recruiting.

Last season, Furman announced the signing of 16 players (12 in December, 4 in February) and later announced 3 transfers midsummer.

This season, Furman announced signing 10 players in December, but has since added 8 transfers in December. My guess is that if all of these transfers are on the roster, they are enrolled at school and will participate in spring practices.

It's just a different environment. I was looking at Kerry King, the new transfer WR from East Carolina. I have no idea how good he is, but he is listed as having two years of eligibility. He appears to be a 2020 high school grad.

So, Furman is, in some way, trading two years of Colton Hinton for two years of Kerry King. Furman, while it looks different, is essentially getting four seasons of a starter-caliber WR they wanted in the form of two different players.

I think the King/Hinton combo thing is how people are going to have to start looking at these players I think. The key difference being you feel like you know what you have with Hinton and we are hoping we get something similar from King. We'll see how it works out, but I think that's a good way to think about it if a fan wants to maintain some sanity in the portal craziness.

I'm glad we were able to get all the new guys in for the spring semester. Certainly will be interesting to see how all the new pieces fit at the spring "game."

Do we throw into this replacing King for Hinton conversation — incoming Evan James?

It's almost like a moneyball question - recreating players in the aggregate.

WR is one position where Furman really hasn't run away from playing Freshmen. Obviously, if you can avoid that, you'd prefer to.

I suspect that Furman wanted two WRs out of the 2025 class, and may have gotten to that spot with James and reclassifying Santonio Varvel as a freshman with his injury.

We need someone to step into the role Joshua Harris filled as a guy that could really push coverage downfield. I'm not sure we saw that after his departure from the program.

[The Jackal]

I think it’s going to be interesting to see the confluence of Roper scheme transition and personnel.

When Furman was more of an inside, power/iso play action, we didn’t need wingspan and height. We needed, as Jackal says, weight that could move and move people. That was reflected in bigger backs who could move piles and fall forward.

If we are going to be more a zone team, screen and downfield throws with more emphasis on blocking space and pass protection, well, having the longer guys who can move and cover space, and force the shape of a pocket with wingspan, that makes sense. As does backs more in the 205ish range who are shiftier in open space.

You can look at the evolution of the roster and it makes sense.

My guess is that it will not exactly be easy to locate the 5'10 Gavin Hall and CJ Nettles behinds a bunch of 6'4-6'7 linemen.

[FUATT]

It's interesting to watch the shift in recruiting.

Last season, Furman announced the signing of 16 players (12 in December, 4 in February) and later announced 3 transfers midsummer.

This season, Furman announced signing 10 players in December, but has since added 8 transfers in December. My guess is that if all of these transfers are on the roster, they are enrolled at school and will participate in spring practices.

It's just a different environment. I was looking at Kerry King, the new transfer WR from East Carolina. I have no idea how good he is, but he is listed as having two years of eligibility. He appears to be a 2020 high school grad.

So, Furman is, in some way, trading two years of Colton Hinton for two years of Kerry King. Furman, while it looks different, is essentially getting four seasons of a starter-caliber WR they wanted in the form of two different players.

I think the King/Hinton combo thing is how people are going to have to start looking at these players I think. The key difference being you feel like you know what you have with Hinton and we are hoping we get something similar from King. We'll see how it works out, but I think that's a good way to think about it if a fan wants to maintain some sanity in the portal craziness.

I'm glad we were able to get all the new guys in for the spring semester. Certainly will be interesting to see how all the new pieces fit at the spring "game."

Do we throw into this replacing King for Hinton conversation — incoming Evan James?

It's almost like a moneyball question - recreating players in the aggregate.

WR is one position where Furman really hasn't run away from playing Freshmen. Obviously, if you can avoid that, you'd prefer to.

I suspect that Furman wanted two WRs out of the 2025 class, and may have gotten to that spot with James and reclassifying Santonio Varvel as a freshman with his injury.

We need someone to step into the role Joshua Harris filled as a guy that could really push coverage downfield. I'm not sure we saw that after his departure from the program.

I hear the staff is very high on Evan James.

Burrell in a way can be, maybe not the fastest guy but a big target who can go up and get it.

I think that having guys open is not the offenses biggest concern. It's protecting 8 and running the ball.

[FUwolfpacker]

I hear the staff is very high on Evan James.

Burrell in a way can be, maybe not the fastest guy but a big target who can go up and get it.

I think that having guys open is not the offenses biggest concern. It's protecting 8 and running the ball.

We're probably veering more into an offseason thread versus a portal thread, but I've been thinking about that actually. I'm sure there were times we were covered up, but I have more concerns about how open the opposing WRs were than how open our WRs were. I still think we'd benefit from a guy who can beat a DB when we get a one on one match up, but based on how many times Hendrix mentioned one of the QBs making the wrong decision on the RPO, I'm hoping another off season of drilling/repping that will help with both the run and pass game.

[gofurman]

I think it’s going to be interesting to see the confluence of Roper scheme transition and personnel.

When Furman was more of an inside, power/iso play action, we didn’t need wingspan and height. We needed, as Jackal says, weight that could move and move people. That was reflected in bigger backs who could move piles and fall forward.

If we are going to be more a zone team, screen and downfield throws with more emphasis on blocking space and pass protection, well, having the longer guys who can move and cover space, and force the shape of a pocket with wingspan, that makes sense. As does backs more in the 205ish range who are shiftier in open space.

You can look at the evolution of the roster and it makes sense.

My guess is that it will not exactly be easy to locate the 5'10 Gavin Hall and CJ Nettles behinds a bunch of 6'4-6'7 linemen.

I hear you. I just miss beating Citadel FIFTY SIX to TWENTY !! Power runs in the first year of CCH.

2017. Furman with 6.3 yards per running play. I LOVED that game. This is what I want.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/g ... del-furman

[gofurman]

^^^
I'm not sure how much you've read of the posts by Jackal and FuWolfpacker. It's not just my post that WE BIG! My point was we're long, not just BIG… none of those are carrying IMO excess weight. If you think Watson (the Cornell transfer) is slow - we see things differently.

Concerning Jake — He had two offers out of HS, Wofford and Furman. Gman and I watched Jake play at SJCS, we believed he was special, and so did Clay Hendrix. Our coaches, Hendrix and McCutchan, know what they're doing. I'm not sure what your point is about Jake.

Astro, Why do you think I think Watson is slow? I never said that. Ever. I’ve never even mentioned his name …

Second I was simply using Jake as an example of a GREAT OL who wasn’t tall. I was being complimentary of Jake. PLEASE go back and read slowly what I post. Thanks in advance.

Of note - It was recently posted by another guy here that many people are reading my posts too fast and without true comprehension of what I am stating or asking. He admitted that my posts had legitimate questions that people were skimming too quickly and not reading for the actual question.

Astro, You do seem to struggle reading my posts. I don’t mean that to be mean. But please slow down when reading them. Heck, former OL GREAT FUBeAR liked the post in question by me. FUBear even backed me with his own post. He has MUCH more data. I’ll put that below for you. Maybe that will help. I was saying that you don’t need length to be great. That’s my point. I proved it by utilizing Jake J as our best OL in the past few years (with Raiders now). Yet he stood only 6’2”. MY POINT WAS THIS LOVE OF LENGTH hasn’t really proven out over the years. Ability to move and technique and pad level etc is what matters. Though I get zone vs power.

To my point (I used Jake J to prove it) but FUBeAR listed all our great OL. HE FOUND ONLY SIX OF OUR 99 all conference OL are “tall”. SIX

Furman’s 99 All SoCon OL selections and their listed altitudes…the 6 individuals listed over 6-4 are shown in bold

2024 - Luke Petit - 6-3
2023 - Jacob Johanning - 6-3
2023 - Wyatt Hughes - 6-3
2023 - Pearson Toomey - 6-3
2022 - Jacob Johanning - 6-3
2022 - Pearson Toomey - 6-3
2022 - Anderson Tomlin - 6-5
2021 - Anderson Tomlin - 6-5
2021 - Pearson Toomey - 6-3
2020 - Anderson Tomlin - 6-5
2019 - Jordan Harris - 6-4
2019 - Bo Layton - 6-7
2018 - Bo Layton - 6-7
2018 - Andy Godwin - 6-4
2017 - Terrell Bush - 6-4
2017 - Matthew Schmidt - 6-3
2016 - Matthew Schmidt - 6-3
2015 - Joe Turner - 6-3
2014 - Joe Turner - 6-3
2013 - Dakota Dozier - 6-4
2012 - Dakota Dozier - 6-4
2011 - Dakota Dozier - 6-4
2011 - Ryan Lee - 6-4
2009 - Tyler Haynes - 6-2
2008 - Thomas Slaughter - 6-4
2008 - Joel Bell - 6-8
2007 - Joel Bell - 6-7
2006 - Joel Bell - 6-7
2006 - John Kivett - 6-3
2006 - Andrew Thornburg - 6-3
2006 - Reggie Goolsby - 6-1
2005 - Corey Stewart - 6-2
2005 - Patrick Covington - 6-3
2005 - John Kivett - 6-2
2005 - Brian Laggis - 6-3
2004 - Corey Stewart - 6-2
2004 - Patrick Covington - 6-3
2004 - Ben Bainbridge - 6-6
2003 - Ben Bainbridge - 6-6
2003 - Corey Stewart - 6-2
2003 - Clayton Dyson - 6-1
2002 - Trevor Kruger - 6-2
2002 - Steven Cain - 6-5
2001 - Donnie Littlejohn - 6-3
2001 - Chris Stewart - 6-0
2001 - Marty Priore - 6-1
2000 - Donnie Littlejohn - 6-3
2000 - Chris Stewart - 5-11
2000 - Marty Priore - 6-1
2000 - Josh Moore - 6-5
1999 - Josh Moore - 6-4
1999 - Ben Hall - 6-4
1997 - Mark Foster - 6-2
1997 - Lee Drake - 6-4
1995 - Brian Fisher - 6-2
1994 - Brian Fisher - 6-2
1993 - Brian Fisher - 6-2
1992 - Fred Sturgis - 6-1
1991 - Eric Walter - 6-2
1991 - Kyle Lowery - 6-3
1990 - Eric Walter - 6-2
1990 - Kyle Lowery - 6-3
1990 - Steve Duggan - 6-2
1989 - Steve Duggan - 6-3
1989 - David Adams - 6-0
1988 - Steve Duggan - 6-2
1988 - Fe Cowan - 6-0
1988 - Elton Bailey - 5-11
1987 - Fe Cowan - 6-0
1987 - Alex Albert - 6-0
1986 - Alex Albert - 6-0
1985 - Gene Reeder - 5-11
1984 - Gene Reeder - 5-11
1983 - Paul Johannessen - 6-1
1983 - Dan Sleet - 6-2
1982 - Briggs Traylor - 6-1
1982 - Mike Coleman - 6-0
1982 - Bart Heres - 6-2
1982 - Hollis Barton - 6-0
1981 - Mike Coleman - 5-11
1981 - Steve Lloyd - 6-2
1981 - Charlie Anderson - 6-2
1980 - Mike Coleman - 6-0
1980 - Steve Lloyd - 6-2
1980 - Charlie Anderson - 6-2
1979 - Stan Stanley - 5-11
1979 - Bobby Woods - 6-3
1978 - Rickey Young - 6-2
1978 - Hal Westlake - 6-3
1977 - Ken Cadle - 6-3
1976 - Jeff Holcomb - 6-2
1973 - Danny Utley - 6-2
1972 - Danny Utley - 6-2
1970 - Butch Kersey - 5-11
1970 - Peyton Barton - 6-2
1967 - Robbie Patterson - 6-0
1954 - Webster Williams - 5-11
1953 - Vince Perone - 5-10

[gofurman]

We also have the OT from Wake Forest coming in. This is what I hate about the portal. A guy like Brasher has to be wondering if he will have a starting spot. Does he move inside which then put pressure on other FurMen.

Yep. Pretty poorly kept secret there. We should be a lot better at OT this year. Brasher could move inside.

These two OT cement this staffs obvious new philosophy at OL - If you are going to miss, miss big and long.

When they were listing the size of the Texas and Ohio State offensive line… I couldn't help but think about the size of the line Furman will have next year. Furman's O-Line will be longer, not as heavy, but longer. Throw in another 6-7 TE. We BIG!

Exactly, posted this in a thread a while back. The trend in philosophy here is unmistakable. They seem to have to have a VERY good reason last two seasons to take a guy under 6-4 at G or T. That is an intentional choice.

BIG is good.. .but you better be able to MOVE. For years we have been better than many FCS teams who have bigger OL etc. I have watched us beat SC State etc. in some years where all they did was brag about the size of their OL.

As FUBeAR etc note... heart and hustle will beat a fat slow dude every time. Now size and speed and technique will win - to whit:

Our best OL in past few years (or one of two) ------ "GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Furman (2X) All-America offensive guard Jacob Johanning has inked a free agent contract with the Las Vegas Raiders, it has been confirmed.

A Simpsonville, S.C., product, the 6-foot-3, 290-pound Johanning was selected as the SoCon's top offensive lineman in 2023 by capturing the Jacobs Blocking Award and collected All-America honors from the AFCA, Associated Press, and Stats Perform this past season after serving as a team co-captain and helping the Paladins to a 10-3 campaign, SoCon championship, FCS quarterfinal round playoff appearance.

Astro, READ IT SLOWLY. How in the world could you not see I am saying Jake was great ??????? Good gosh man. I literally said “ Our best OL in past few years (or one of two)‘ with regards to Jake. And, as FUBeAR and most understood I was saying height isn’t everything or even much. As I said above it’s heart and hustle and technique.


PLEASE READ YOUR DM. that would have explained everything but it has been stagnant for two months !! Please read the DM. it will help us both


It explains something I don’t want to post publicly. Thanks in advance !