Re: SoCon Week 3 Power Rankings/Pick 'Em.
Colgate @ Furman - The Dins get back on track a bit but not without a fight
ETSU @ VMI - The Bucs ransack Lexington
Mercer @ Samford - Samford show's they are the team to beat in the SoCon
Wofford @ Wyoming - Another close score but not enough for the dogs
UTC @ UT Martin - UTC continues to exercise last year's demons
Charleston Southern @ The Citadel - Things fall into place for the dogs this time
WCU @ Gardner-Webb - GW is always a tough opponent but the Cats pull away in the 2nd half
Re: SoCon Week 3 Power Rankings/Pick 'Em.
I'm not trying to pile on here, this type of mushrooming game can just happen for sure. What I don't understand, however, is mainly the FU defense. I complimented that secondary after the Clemson game, but they didn't look that good vs Elon. Elon had 448 total yards, were 12-16 passing, and averaged 7.7 yards/play. There seemed to be lots of missed tackles and bad coverages. To be honest also, Elon could have run those figures even higher if they had not been merciful in the 4th quarter. Furman QBs I understand, the defensive performance I really don't.
Re: SoCon Week 3 Power Rankings/Pick 'Em.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SU DOG
I'm not trying to pile on here, this type of mushrooming game can just happen for sure. What I don't understand, however, is mainly the FU defense. I complimented that secondary after the Clemson game, but they didn't look that good vs Elon. Elon had 448 total yards, were 12-16 passing, and averaged 7.7 yards/play. There seemed to be lots of missed tackles and bad coverages. To be honest also, Elon could have run those figures even higher if they had not been merciful in the 4th quarter. Furman QBs I understand, the defensive performance I really don't.
Hard to figure out anything from that game.
Elon's a good team. They made us look bad. I chalk it up to one of those contests where the offense just couldn't sustain anything and then eventually the defense started to crack. Elon was well prepared for us and we weren't ready to go.
Frankly, it was not something I expected from a Clay Hendrix team. I got used to it under Bruce Fowler.
Re: SoCon Week 3 Power Rankings/Pick 'Em.
Interesting predictions by Massey:
Furman (52%) over Colgate (48%) 24-21 - toss-up game
ETSU (82%) over VMI (18%) 30-16
Samford (72%) over Mercer (28%) 28-21
Wyoming (94%) over Wofford (6%) 28-6
UT-Martin (62%) over Chattanooga (38%) 21-17
Citadel (51%) over CSU (49%) 21-20 - another toss-up game
WCU (71%) over GWU (29%) 31-24
The league needs to figure out how to win at least 3 of the 5 OOC games (4 would be better, and a Wofford win to go 5-0 would be very nice). But nobody is expected to have an easy time this weekend.
Re: SoCon Week 3 Power Rankings/Pick 'Em.
With hurricane Florence bearing down upon us it looks like quite a few of the games could be impacted in a big way. The only games that look like they are safe are Wofford/Wyoming, Mercer/Samford and UTC/UTM. Everyone else is in the path with the storm expected to be over central NC Saturday morning.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/gra...?cone#contents
Re: SoCon Week 3 Power Rankings/Pick 'Em.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Catamount87
With hurricane Florence bearing down upon us it looks like quite a few of the games could be impacted in a big way. The only games that look like they are safe are Wofford/Wyoming, Mercer/Samford and UTC/UTM. Everyone else is in the path with the storm expected to be over central NC Saturday morning.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/gra...?cone#contents
This may not be indicative, but a few years ago Furman/SCSU played in a maelstrom after the governor told everyone to stay home.
Re: SoCon Week 3 Power Rankings/Pick 'Em.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PaladinFan
Season's not over. Furman still has all of their goals in front of them.
Again, Furman was 0-3 last season (although, they looked better), hit the Colgate game and put on the burners.
For all the people picking Colgate to win at Furman... FU was 0-3 last year and beat the shizzle out of Colgate. Hey, we are a game ahead this year at only 0-2 !!!
In all seriousness, we have played Colgate 3 or so times over the past decade and won EVERY time. Usually easily. Last year 45-14. Kinda hard to pick against us with basically 8/9 of the same defensive players who jumped all over Colgate in that game playing this Saturday. I will allow we don't have many (ANY) seniors as we only start 1 on offense and 3? on defense and that is huritng us.. esp on the OL.
I think if our D could see something - ANYTHING - from our O they would play more motivated.
All of that to say, Colgate is often the game we turn things around from our ever-present 0-2 or 0-3 start ;( . it's a tradition
I think you pick Colgate at your own peril - and I am objective. I thought Elon would win by 10 or so this past Saturday. (Not 30+ but I thought they would win - we are too young with true freshman QBs and not a single senior on the OL !!! - that's not a recipe for winning)
Re: SoCon Week 3 Power Rankings/Pick 'Em.
I think the Elon game just showed this is not last year - most of the same guys were also on the field for both teams in that game and there was a very different outcome. I am picking FU because they are at home and I don't expect Hendrix to let them play 2 stinkers in a row, but as I posted above Massey has this as basically a toss-up game. Furman will need to take better care of the ball and hit a few passes, and if they do I think they will be fine.
Re: SoCon Week 3 Power Rankings/Pick 'Em.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
wcugrad95
I think the Elon game just showed this is not last year - most of the same guys were also on the field for both teams in that game and there was a very different outcome. I am picking FU because they are at home and I don't expect Hendrix to let them play 2 stinkers in a row, but as I posted above Massey has this as basically a toss-up game. Furman will need to take better care of the ball and hit a few passes, and if they do I think they will be fine.
I mean, I could quibble and state that Elon returned more starters than Furman, their QB, has a veteran OL, and had the services of one of the FCS's better running backs (who didn't play at all in game 2 last year and sparingly in game 1). But the general point is correct.
I agree with you on the last point. Furman is killing itself with sloppy play. Perhaps the best thing for a young team is to get their butts beat and forget about all the preseason atta boys.
Re: SoCon Week 3 Power Rankings/Pick 'Em.
My perhaps unpopular hot take is that Furman's defense last year leaned heavily on their offense. Note: I'm not saying they were bad; they had their strengths and weaknesses (good at pass rush and stopping the run, etc) but they were a young team implementing the kind of defense you see on option teams like Wofford: keep the ball in front of you, stop the run, burn clock, be in a good position to force a stop on a short field. It's a great strategy, but it also has a trade off in that most teams that run it have a terrible pass defense in terms of completion percentage. You can dink and dunk all day. Furman had a dominant offense last year that didn't make mistakes, passed the ball efficiently (if only sparingly) and hit you in the mouth on the ground. It burnt clock and scored more frequently than any offense in the socon, which made opposing offenses have to play catch up (pass more, run less), which plays into the favor of your defense. That was the recipe for their domination of many Socon opponents.
But against decent teams last year (Wofford, Samford, Elon) they didn't dominate because those teams had better defenses (which kept the score low on Furman's end) and above average offenses (which kept it competitive).
I have to reiterate that I'm not taking away form Furman's season last year. They were a good team, but a flawed team (I'd like to think Wofford...another good yet flawed team exposed them in the playoffs) that the systemic weaknesses of socon play didn't quite capture.
But it *kinda* makes sense if you believe as I do that Blazejowki was a big f'n deal to this team that with his absence and the return of a lot of starters that they managed this drop off. When you turn the ball over 3 times, don't pass as efficiently and have a bend but don't break defense, scores are going to be more lopsided than they should be or even more equal than they should be.
So, I hypothesize that it's not over yet for Furman. They will probably grow more this year than they did last year. But for the next couple weeks, they will struggle to find their rhythm. If they they break even on turnovers and efficiency for the first half of the season, I'll presume my assumptions about them were pretty much verified. Having said that, I would not want to play them in the latter half of the season because they are still a young team that will continue to improve and once their QBs get in rhythm, it may not be the return of Blaze, but it's bad news either way for the socon.