PreSeason Poll

[Afurmanfan]

Hedden has an NFL arm. One of our coaches said they have not seen an arm like his in the FCS since Flacco.

[apaladin]

Do we have a QB who can run the football? That's been a BIG part of our Offense the last two years.

It’s a good question.

QB runs was also a huge part of Coach Roper’s O with Matt Sluka @ Holy Cross.

FUBeAR didn’t note that Carson Jones was a particularly strong runner in his 3 extended appearances (Chatt, VMI, Woffy), but he may be. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Garcia has great QB mechanics and looks like an outstanding athlete in his uniform. That could make him the next Justin Herbert or the next Johnny Utah ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

High-flyin’ rook, Hedden … no clue … not even worth a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ until he figures out how to sneak into the girls dorms (guess they don’t have to do that anymore, huh? … anyway … we’ll see)

So … great question … no way to begin to answer it until Fall practice and prolly won’t be answered fully until about Game #6

Correct about Jones being a non-threat in the running game. 7 carries for minus 23 yds last season. With that said in his situation I am sure the coaches did not want him runnng the ball. Appears that runnung was not a big part of his game in HS either.

[The Jackal]

Do we have a QB who can run the football? That's been a BIG part of our Offense the last two years.

I am a bit less worried about that, honestly. In my view, good coaches will fit their system to the personnel they have.

Sluka at Holy Cross was a battering ram at QB. He ran the ball 100 more times in 2022 than Huff did in 2023.

Huff certainly had some games where his running ability was a difference maker, but it is also worth noting that there were plenty of games where he did not run much at all.

I do think the VMI game from '23 may be an indicator of where our offense was going. We saw Furman take some big time deep shots against a pretty solid Keydet defense with Jones under center. He was making throws we really never saw Huff make. We may lose some running/scrambling ability without Huff, but I think we'll gain some ability to really throw the ball down the field.

[apaladin]

We were all impressed with Jones aganst VMI but just as unimpressed against WC the next week. After the VMI game I was thinking maybe we should just stay with Jones. After WC I was thinking please let Huff be ok.

[gman84]

The entire team stunk against Wofford. The coaches and players will openly admit that. I would not use Wofford or VMI games to make any conclusions about Jones. What our offense can do this year is more about the O line and less about our QB.

[The Jackal]

We were all impressed with Jones aganst VMI but just as unimpressed against WC the next week. After the VMI game I was thinking maybe we should just stay with Jones. After WC I was thinking please let Huff be ok.

You know, I honestly don't read too much into the Wofford game. In my view, it was such an outlier from what we've seen under Hendrix that it's hard to draw too many conclusions.

Furman played poorly. Wofford played well. Wofford got most (every?) break in the game. The stars aligned for them that day.

That said, Jones was still a freshman. Very few freshman come on and blow the doors off at our level. There will be some good days and bad days. We saw what Jones could do against VMI, and then saw him struggle against Wofford. That happens with a young QB.

[gofurman]

The entire team stunk against Wofford. The coaches and players will openly admit that. I would not use Wofford or VMI games to make any conclusions about Jones. What our offense can do this year is more about the O line and less about our QB.

While QB WILL matter... I agree - it's OL and DBs this year. And OL pretty much every year. A bad OL makes for a looooong day for the QB. A QB's best friend is an OL that can get you 3+ yards on any carry

[The Jackal]

The entire team stunk against Wofford. The coaches and players will openly admit that. I would not use Wofford or VMI games to make any conclusions about Jones. What our offense can do this year is more about the O line and less about our QB.

While QB WILL matter... I agree - it's OL and DBs this year. And OL pretty much every year. A bad OL makes for a looooong day for the QB. A QB's best friend is an OL that can get you 3+ yards on any carry

Good news for us that Furman has quality coaches at the offensive line spots, and has generally fielded one of the most solid units in the conference.

We'll have some new faces on the OL, but they aren't really going to be spring chickens.

[apaladin]

That said, Jones was still a freshman. Very few freshman come on and blow the doors off at our level. There will be some good days and bad days. We saw what Jones could do against VMI, and then saw him struggle against Wofford. That happens with a young QB.
[/quote]
True but he was a redshirt freshman and had been in the program for 2 years by the end of last season. With that said the entire offense was very poor in that game. The defense played winning football, offennse wasn’t close to winning foitball.

[gofurman]

The entire team stunk against Wofford. The coaches and players will openly admit that. I would not use Wofford or VMI games to make any conclusions about Jones. What our offense can do this year is more about the O line and less about our QB.

While QB WILL matter... I agree - it's OL and DBs this year. And OL pretty much every year. A bad OL makes for a looooong day for the QB. A QB's best friend is an OL that can get you 3+ yards on any carry

Good news for us that Furman has quality coaches at the offensive line spots, and has generally fielded one of the most solid units in the conference.

We'll have some new faces on the OL, but they aren't really going to be spring chickens.

Jackal. Agree. There was that one year or few games we couldn’t get a dam half yard on fourth and short (or starting at third and two could get a first with two tries). I think I recall that a few years back. But most years we get that. CCH is definitely a believer in his OL and goes for fourth and short on our 40+ sometimes. Other than that one year we have done well with this.

[apaladin]

Have all the confidence in the world in CCH but this could be his biggest challenge with the OL.

[FUBeAR]

Have all the confidence in the world in CCH but this could be his biggest challenge with the OL.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/365218
Air Force Rebuilds: Six Headlines From Spring Practices
JAKE SCHALLER - MARCH 18, 2010

1. Falcons Begin Rebuilding Offensive Line
And it’s a big rebuilding job. Air Force lost all five of its 2009 (8–5 (5–3 MW)) starters to graduation. Clay Hendrix, the Falcons’ offensive line coach, is heading into his 23rd season as a college coach, but said, “I don’t know if I’ve ever had all five gone.”

The linemen clearly lack game experience, as only Wallerstein has logged substantial snaps. But Hendrix notes that most of the projected starters played last season with the second-team offense, which gets about as many snaps in practice as the Falcons’ starting unit.


And…How they did???

2010 Air Force Falcons football
Independence Bowl champion, W 14–7 vs. Georgia Tech
Conference - Mountain West Conference
Record - 9–4 (5–3 MW)
Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy Winner

Opponent Rank Result
Northwestern State W 65–21
BYU W 35–14
at No. 7 Oklahoma L 24–27
at Wyoming W 20–14
Navy W 14–6
Colorado State No. 25 W 49–27
at San Diego State No. 23 L 25–27 (oops, dangit!)
at No. 4 TCU L 7–38
No. 8 Utah L 23–28
at Army* W 42–22
New Mexico W 48–23
at UNLV W 35–20
vs. Georgia Tech* (Independence Bowl W 14–7

Ranking movements
RV = Received votes
Week Pre 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Final
AP RV RV RV 25 23 RV RV RV RV
Coaches RV RV RV RV RV 23 RV RV RV RV RV
Harris Not released 23 RV RV RV RV RV RV Not released

[apaladin]

Athlon is out, anyone seen the FCS top 25?

[FUBeAR]

Massey sez…

SoCon FCS SoCon Overall
Rank Rank Team Record Record Details of Record
1 20 Furman 8-0 10-2 Losses to Ole Miss and W&M in a 24-23 "toss up" game
2 24 Chattanooga 7-1 8-4 Losses to Tennessee, GaState, Furman, APSU
3 37 Samford 6-2 9-3 Losses to Florida, Furman, Chattanooga
4 36 Mercer 5-3 8-4 Losses to Chattanooga, Samford, Alabama, Furman
5 47 WCU 4-4 5-7 Losses to NCSU, Elon, Montana, FU, Mercer, Chatt, Samford
6 72 Wofford 3-5 3-9 Wins over VMI, ETSU, The Citadel
7 75 VMI 2-6 4-8 Wins over Bucknell, Norfolk State, The Citadel, ETSU
8 70 ETSU 1-7 2-10 Wins over UVa-Wise (D2) and The Citadel
9 100 Citadel 0-8 1-11 Win over North Greenville (D2)

That SHOULD yield 4 Playoff Teams with Mercer on the bubble w/2 losses in a row (@Bama & FU) to close out the season and 2 weak games on their OOC schedule (PC, Bethune-Cookman). A projected win over Princeton in Maconga will be helpful if the Tigers do well in the Ivy.

Does WCU fire Kerwin Bell if this plays out - another season of no playoffs (none since ‘83), no SoCon Championship (never; since 1976), and losses to Furman & Mercer (9th consecutive)?

[gofurman]

Do we have a QB who can run the football? That's been a BIG part of our Offense the last two years.

agree - I am all for throwing and extending the field.. letting them know they can't just forget the DB area. but we really helped ourselves with a running QB as it is a whole other thing you have to account for. defenses hate running QBs becuase sometimes they even have to 'wasste a LB by leaving him as a spy. Its now 11 on 11. wiht a qb who almost never runs its 10 on 11 and offense only has 10 guys. running QBs are a HUUUUGE advantage.