Quote Originally Posted by FUBeAR View Post
Agree. Studied their 2015 1st game against El Cid very closely. They did a lot of interesting things with personnel groups and stunts/games on the end of the line to confuse the blockers and the QB. They were able to do this because they were able to stop the dive without having to fully commit 4-6 guys to get that piece done - pretty much stopped the dive (either way) with the 3 guys in the middle.

Also would point out that Mercer's D, with the exception of 1 play (70 yd TD on the 2nd play of the game) vs. El Cid, was rather solid against the TO in 2016 as well. Held CIT to 3.76 ypc (with the exception of that 70 yard run) & 11 1st downs rushing. CIT avg'd 5.37 ypc/18 1st downs rushing in 2016. They didn't fare quite so well the following week vs. GT as they took some time to get adjusted to FBS speed in their 1st game vs. an FBS Team in 75 years, but they weren't awful and the outcome was not determined until about 1/2way thru the 4th quarter. Finally, they played an outstanding game vs. Woffy's TO holding the LittleDogs to 205 yards/3.42 ypc and only 10 1st downs rushing - 2nd only to CSU's defense of their rushing game.

The Bears open with 2 TO Teams again in 2017 - 1st JacksonvilleU, then Woffy - both in Macon. Then they'll face their 3rd TO Opponent @ CIT 4 weeks later and, likely, another TO-based Team, @ Furman, 2 weeks after that. It will be interesting to see how having a reasonably solid 2016 vs. the TO and playing 7 games against the TO over the 2016-17 span will work out for Mercer this coming season.

On a more 'macro-level,' Furman should be able to defend the TO well with their familiarity with it as most of the Staff is from CSU or Air Force and, most likely, will be running a version of it themselves. Mercer seems to have it reasonably well figured out and El Cid and Woffy don't seem to be able to do to one another what they have been able to do to non-TO Teams. Didn't do the 'deep analysis' on it, but, at a glance, it appears that Sammy, ETSU, and WCU struggled to stop CIT's and Woffy's running games last year, with VMI & Chatt having mixed results. So, it will be interesting to see how that (the possible rise of Defense-ability by Mercer and Furman vs. the TO) plays out and translates into wins/losses in SoCon games in 2017.
As a former colleague would say, "other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"