SoCon Offseason 2017-18

[FUBeAR]

In case any of you non-Furmans want to post on the Furman Fans’ Message Board or just spy on ‘Dins Fans, the inimitable & indefatigable Stumpy has recreated the former Unofficial Furman Football Page (TheUFFP) at a new URL: http://gopaladins.com

[PaladinFan]

Samford releases their schedule: https://samfordsports.com/news/2018/...-schedule.aspx

First, fine them for playing Shorter. They were 0-11 last year and were only competitive in a single game. They are the VMI of D2.

Second, the rest of the slate is going to be a tough one. The stretch with at FSU, Mercer, at UTC, at KSU, and WCU is going to be brutal. They also finish with three of their last four on the road, all of which will be long road trips.

I still have Samford as my likely favorite in 2018, but I'm vacillating on that a little bit after looking at this.

Incidentally, I think Wofford will face both Furman and Samford coming off their bye weeks. That would concern me if I were a Terrier fans. Both of those teams should have pretty good defenses and an extra week to get ready for the option.

[FUBeAR]

The stretch with at FSU, Mercer, at UTC, at KSU, and WCU is going to be brutal.

Exactly my thoughts when I saw their schedule.

I'm willing to bet right now that Mercer's Offense, in 2018, will not put up more points for Samford than they do for Mercer; as they did in the 2017 game, when they scored 4 for Sammy and only 3 for Mercer. Whatever it was the Bears were doing (actually, TRYING to do is more accurate) on Offense that day will never be seen again. If it is, I suspect President Underwood will pull a Ted Turner of 1977 and assume the Coaching reins before halftime.

And we saw what a less-than-standard Chatt Team did to Sammy last year...as well as KSU...and WCU led the Bullpups with 7 minutes left last year. They can clear the bench in the 2nd quarter vs. Shorter, but the next 5 weeks straight could be quite a tough row to hoe for the boys from Homewood.

[PaladinFan]

Exactly my thoughts when I saw their schedule.

I'm willing to bet right now that Mercer's Offense, in 2018, will not put up more points for Samford than they do for Mercer; as they did in the 2017 game, when they scored 4 for Sammy and only 3 for Mercer. Whatever it was the Bears were doing (actually, TRYING to do is more accurate) on Offense that day will never be seen again. If it is, I suspect President Underwood will pull a Ted Turner of 1977 and assume the Coaching reins before halftime.

And we saw what a less-than-standard Chatt Team did to Sammy last year...as well as KSU...and WCU led the Bullpups with 7 minutes left last year. They can clear the bench in the 2nd quarter vs. Shorter, but the next 5 weeks straight could be quite a tough row to hoe for the boys from Homewood.

That's a big early season conference game. Unfortunately for Mercer, I don't think they are going to know a whole lot about Samford after watching game film against Shorter and Florida State.

[ElCid]

That's a big early season conference game. Unfortunately for Mercer, I don't think they are going to know a whole lot about Samford after watching game film against Shorter and Florida State.

Yeah, we get stuck with two games out of the chute...again. That is good if we win, we lose, and obviously not so good. Puts you in the hole early. We had two to start in 2016 and luckily won both. Not sure how we got stuck again so fast with two to start. We got Wofford to start, which I actually like given their turmoil, although that may be a bit strong of a word or simply wishful thinking. And then Chatty. Not bad if we can pull them both off. I think I would rather have Alabama first instead of last.

[PaladinFan]

I happened to circle back on this article from last year, suggesting UTC may consider a move to the SunBelt or OVC. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/s...c-look/426797/

UTC's attendance was up in 2017 to 9,170. Hard to gauge, really, how a new regime that suffered through a long season impacted that. Of course, their two biggest gates were against JSU and UT-M.

I do still wonder whether the SoCon would/could manage to expand its footprint westward. For a long time, I thought Jacksonville State was destined for the FBS, but it certainly seems like they would have jumped if they were going to. I'm less certain about Kennesaw State, who, while a big school, has a transient fan base and drew home attendance less than schools a fraction of its size.

I realize those schools don't perfectly fit the profile of the current SoCon members, but I can see great benefit to member schools if, say, Jacksonville State and their fans/band ventured to Samford and UTC in alternating years. I also imagine there would be a nice gate for Kennesaw playing at home against a school like Furman, with their large Atlanta area alumni base. I guarantee they'd do better than playing home games against Monmouth or Charleston Southern.

[Mocs123]

Most Chattanooga fans consider JSU our biggest rival due to a couple of factors:
1.) They have a large energetic fan base that travels well to Finley and is at near capacity for home games.
2.) We have a history of close, competitive games.
3.) The past few years both teams have been ranked.
4.) We have had several “rivalry incidents” on both sides . Rodney Allison said “I didn’t come here (UTC) to beat Jacksonville State” which of course was bulletin board material. A few years later JSU said we “trashed” the visitor locker room after a loss. JSUs coach “forgot” to shake Huesman’s hand after a game. A JSU player flipped UTC fans off after a playoff game, got into an argument with UTC students and entered the visitors section of the stands.

Many Chattanooga fans would like to see JSU and Chattanooga in the same conference (though I think most would prefer that be the SoCon than the OVC) and I think almost all UTC fans would like to play JSU every year even if we remain in separate conferences.

I was for a move to the OVC the last time it was discussed (~2007) as the OVC was a marginally? Better basketball conference (which utc has traditionally been strong in) and we would be more competitive in football (we had been bad in the SoCon for a long time), but we didn’t move to the OVC, we hired Huesman and proved we can be competitive in the SoCon and nationally in football. I have no interest in the OVC now. The SoCon added ETSU, Samford, and Mercer to keep it from being the “Carolina Conference” - I think Chattanooga fans were happy with those additions. The SoCon also added VMI which most Moc fans didn’t care for but made The Citadel happy.

I don’t see us going the OVC as long as we can be competitive in SoCon football.

Chattanooga couldn’t afford to go FBS and I am not sure I would be interested in that anyways. To most Chattanoogans the SunBelt, the OVC, and the SoCon are all “D2”.

[GreenGlasses]

Chattanooga couldn’t afford to go FBS and I am not sure I would be interested in that anyways. To most Chattanoogans the SunBelt, the OVC, and the SoCon are all “D2”.

I'll take the bolded statement one step more. For the most part in Tennessee if you don't root for the Vols then you don't exist.

[ElCid]

I'll take the bolded statement one step more. For the most part in Tennessee if you don't root for the Vols then you don't exist.

Did they field a team this last year?

[FUBeAR]

FWIW - Hero Sports Top 30 Signees in the SoCon - https://herosports.com/fcs/recruitin...18-class-ajaj? - I bolded some...cuz I wanted to...

THE SOUTHERN CONFERENCE TOP 30

RK	FCS CHOICE	POS	PROSPECT	HOMETOWN	HGT	WGT	OTHER OFFERS
1	CHATTANOOGA	DT	Josh Walker	Bradenton, FL	6'2"	285	Arizona decommit - 41 total offers
2	THE CITADEL	RB	Emeka Nwanze	Roswell, GA	5'11"	205	Penn decommit; several ACC offers
3	THE CITADEL	RB	Clay Harris	Atlanta, GA	6'0"	205	Purdue decommitment - 3 FBS offers
4	CHATTANOOGA	S	Kohl Henke	Chattanooga, TN	6'2"	190	Virginia, Navy, JSU, APSU, Mercer
5	THE CITADEL	LB	Caleb Deveaux	Waxhaw, NC	6'0"	195	Pittsburgh
6	MERCER	WR	Tony Jones	Fairburn, GA	6'0"	175	Tennessee - 15 offers
7	MERCER	RB	Kareem Rogers	Stockbridge, GA	5'10"	180	Syracuse, Navy, S. Alabama, Tulane, JMU
8	WESTERN CAROLINA	QB	A.J. Curry	Mount Airy, GA	6'4"	200	FAU, S. Alabama
9	CHATTANOOGA	DE	Mychal Austin	Apopka, FL	6'1"	250	Minnesota - 9 offers
10	WOFFORD	OL	Al Hogan	Fairburn, GA	6'3"	285	Virginia, Air Force, Citadel, Buffalo, Kennesaw, Fordham
11	WESTERN CAROLINA	WR	Mahari Stribling	Loganville, GA	6'3"	180	Boston College, Tulane
12	MERCER	WR	DeMond Ellison	Canton, GA	6'3"	200	Ga. Southern, Chattanooga
13	WESTERN CAROLINA	DB	Charles Gadie	Douglasville, GA	5'9"	165	Purdue, Tulane - 5 FBS offers
14	MERCER	TE	Brandon Shelnutt	Lawrenceville, GA	6'4"	230	3 FBS - 7 total offers
15	CHATTANOOGA	WR	Genuine Potts	Powder Springs, GA	6'3"	195	Wake Forest, West Virg - 27 offers
16	MERCER	QB	Bryce Lawrence	McDonough, GA	6'3"	185	FAU, Western Illinois, Eastern Ky
17	CHATTANOOGA	WR	Logan Pitts	Trussville, AL	6'1"	210	Citadel, Tenn. Tech - committed early
18	ETSU	ATH	Chris Armstrong	Foley, AL	6'0"	200	8 FBS offers, 14 total
19	FURMAN	QB	Hamp Sisson	Birmingham, AL	5'11"	185	Air Force, Army - 7 total offers
20	SAMFORD	OL	Gavin Orr	Gadsden, AL	6'4"	270	6 FBS offers - 13 offers total
21	WOFFORD	OL	Elijah Ball	Rome, GA	6'3"	290	Navy, Ga. Southern, Ball St., Austin Peay
22	SAMFORD	DE	Justin Hayes	Smyrna, GA	6'3"	250	UCF, Navy - 10 total offers
23	FURMAN	DE	Cameron Coleman	Clarksville, TN	6'3"	285	UTSA, ETSU
24	WOFFORD	RB	Colby Wood	Jefferson, GA	5'10"	180	Navy
25	FURMAN	RB	Corey Watkins	Evans, GA	5'8"	185	Academies - 6 total offers
26	VMI	DB	Ethan Caselberry	Harvest, AL	6'3"	190	Marshall PWO, Samford, UT Martin
27	WOFFORD	DT	Corey Prince	Hollywood, FL	6'0"	265	FAU
28	WESTERN CAROLINA	DB	Ronald Kent	Harrisburg, PA	5'10"	170	8 total offers
29	MERCER	DE	Coby Germany	Evans, GA	6'3"	245	Georgia State, Samford
30	ETSU	QB	Cam Lewis	McDonough, GA	6'3"	200	Old Dominion, Southern, Jackson St

Mercer wins the "Quantity Award" with 6 of the Top 30. Chatt comes in 2nd with 4 and WCU & Wofford tie for 3rd with 4 each.

CIT wins the "Quality Award" with the average ranking of their 3 on the list at 3.33. Chatt is next at 9.20 with Mercer being 3rd with 14.00.

Per Hero's opinion, it seems that ETSU and VMI bring up the "Recruiting Rear" with WCU, Wofford, Samford, and Furman in the middle of the pack trailing the "Recruiting Winners" - Mercer, Chattanooga, and The Citadel.

BTW - 18 of 30 from GA (60%), 5 from AL (16.67%), 3 from FL (10%), 2 from TN (6.67%), 1 from NC (3.33%), 1 from PA (3.33%)

NOTE: Hero Sports does not include Transfers (4-year or JUCO) in their Signee Rankings