Western Carolina 52, Furman 20

[gofurman]

2024 is a Rebuilding Year for Furman Football. I hope that's what we are doing.

In the "Poop Squad" year of 1998 - which has been referenced in other threads - we won 5 games. I'd be tickled to death if we can equal that total this season.

I realize we lost a lot of players and have had some injuries, but this is an established program, and we should not have to "rebuild". After several years, we should be in a position to only "reload."

Paladin91, it’s a valid question that you have.
Look I understand crazy injuries. It’s My fetish right ? LOL. And I know about the numerous Covid year players last year - heck in my second edition of “how many games do we win now “. - after Having seen 4 or 5 games - I still thought we would compete for 5 wins. People thought I was negative guessing only 5 victories for us.

This is literally the worst I’ve ever seen. We are just getting blown off the field now. And here’s the thing. If I could see the talent and speed etc … like I do in Hinton and a few guys then OK… I guess the execution will come later. But I see WRs blow by our DBs … DL just KILLING our OL. and our OL are not that young.. no real injuries there on OL.

Put another way, and this is gonna sting, but please read calmly. it comes from the reasoning of PaulC etc. PaulC gave me heck because we won in the 80s with HEART and EXECUTION- not pure Talent. Ok, let’s run with that reasoning. We went to the title game in 85. Won it all in 88. Coulda won it all in 89. Well, if we were out-talented back then as Paul and FUBeAR maintain ( and I’ll buy that ) and yet able to maintain consistent superior play …. Title worthy play…. Conference championship worthy play for an entire DECADE(!!!) …. Then what is different now ? They (Paul and FUBeAR) said you don’t need talent just coaching and execution and heart…. So that leads to the only conclusion that we just don’t have guys with execution or grit or something right now. It’s simple deductive reasoning

I think my biggest issue is the Offensive Line - yes, we lost personnel there, but we have a group that should be performing at a higher level. CH is a former offensive lineman and I'm just really surprised at how poor our execution has been on the OL. We literally get no push against the opposing DL. Either our recruiting for offensive linemen has really dropped off or we need to find an OL coach that can push these guys to peak performance. I don't think the issue is with our running backs - when they can find a hole, they gain yards. Our lack of first downs from the running game leaves lots of time on the clock, resulting in opposing offenses killing our tired defense. Improving our O-line play should be a key priority heading into the second half of the year and off season.

But anyway, back to the original point, programs like GA, Alabama, North Dakota St., Montana, etc. find a way to reload their programs without having to "rebuild". Sure, we're going to have a down year from time to time, but I'm not that hopeful that we wil see significant improvement with our current lineup heading into next year. We need a strong recruiting class and some talented transfers.

Agree and Agree. OL is the biggest issue. Second is pass coverage (pass rush + DBs). You are right if OL could maintain drives it would mask the pass coverage a little as our O would keep the ball away from the opposing offense at least some. Then we might only lose 40 - 27. LOL

But yes, why have we dropped SO FAR. Sure the injuris... but I would have thought we could win 5 games this year. I mean Mercer has a whole new staff etc and ETSU is in a year of flux. We have the same staff for continuity on D. And again the OL is Not injured. They are Not. And we have the same great OL coaches. The D is pretty decimated though I still would expect a little more. But the OL is inexplicable. Same guys we knew we would have. Same coaches. Possibly the worst unit on the team...

[furmandad]

Paladin91, you mentioned in your post that it may not be our RBs. I believe we have some opportunities there to improve:
1. Ability to break tackles.
2. Big play breakaway ability.
3. Ability to effectively pass block.
Most on this board know how our top 3 backs would grade out in these areas.

[apaladin]

Paladin91, you mentioned in your post that it may not be our RBs. I believe we have some opportunities there to improve:
1. Ability to break tackles.
2. Big play breakaway ability.
3. Ability to effectively pass block.
Most on this board know how our top 3 backs would grade out in these areas.

Agree, the RB’s have not been impressive to say the least. 585 yards rushing in 7 games. No RB is averaging 40 yards a game. Of course they are not getting any help either.