gofurman
August 28th, 2019, 10:39 AM
this is gonna get long so feel free to ignore. LOL. Notes on each team as we go through the year...
teams from best to worst?
FURMAN?? Obviously the team I know best :)
We may take a one year step back. DEPENDS ON QB. Big time! Prior regime left us Blaze and Roberts who was a career backup but did Wonderful this year. But they left us No QBs as junior or sophomore really. So Hendrix had to get a QB quick - my GUESS is Grainger who the coaches are very high on but he only played ONE year of high school QB! That's Scary inexperienced. Missing three years of high school vs a regular guy. Dude Is really talented but loose with the ball - tends to fumble... Other options are Hamp Sisson - probably more polished right now than Grainger? Grainger maybe more raw talent.
**NEW is a transfer QB from MTSU who MTSU had at WR (so quite athletic) but wasn't going to be their QB. So he is coming to FU in June to try to be a QB. 3 star guy? Clearly if MTSU (and GTech looked at him) took him he is a mid-level FBS athlete UPDATE - MTSU guy Shiflett is going to play WR for us this year.. . OL returns ALL 8 guys and given another year of Hendrix training should be ok/good. Long term need more Hendrix-recruited guys on OL as he wants a different type of OL. Only lose 4 guys on O. These 4- QB Roberts and RB Dirks ... and TB Morehead had to quit because of injuris . All OL and most WRs and RBs return (one starting WR Cam Burnette left team too).
On D we will miss Jaylan Reid at DT. And Anoor at Safety. Both were all conference and 30 starts+. That will hurt. LB I feel good about. You all know Hope led FCS Nation in sacks as freshman - despite playing only 10 games!. McKoy is a killer. And we saw our LBs hold Wofford and Citadel to 14 points and 17 points respectively. ***What we are needing to work on is pass defense !! Need to improve there - we have pass rush, need better coverage
*update*. LB ( pass rush) Adrian Hope was Fourth in Jerry Rice vote for best freshman in country. Voted Freshman AA by Hero Sports too. Adrian Hope on 2019 Pre-Season Buchanan List !
3 positions to watch... - Center, Strong Safety and QB as thin or young. Center would just be thin. at C the starter returns in Neely but no one behind him w experience. Strong safety thin w only our backup Clay returning w any experience (Griffin or Jones as backup?). QB is deep but inexperienced as noted above. Furman is out starting LB VANN
*GAME ONE - FURMAN WON over CSU 46-13 and basically ran all over them. CSU is only an ok Big South team though.
*GAME TWO - FURMAN LOST to FBS Georgia State 48-42 in a shootout. takeaway? Furman has a nasty offense w 540 yards of offense! On other hand not sure about our pass D? We gave up 560 yards of O to an FBS ... that's too much even if it is FBS
*GAME THREE - - FURMAN LOST to FBS V Tech (looked bad v Duke then beat Miami FL) 24-17 so again Furman played very close to an ACC FBS. We played great D vs VT holding them to 370 yds. We only gained 230 though.
* GAME FOUR FURMAN WON beating Mercer 45-10. We ran for 400+ yards and 600 total of O. Lost starting LB Dillon Vann for season
* GAME FIVE FURMAN WON beating ETSU 17-10. Both defenses outplayed both offenses
* GAME SIX FURMAN WON beating Samford 55+ - 14. Furman ran for 460 yards and pulled off in 4th q.
* GAME SEVEN FURMAN LOST to Citadel. outplayed. outcoached. out everything - we couldn't complete a pass or a third down of any type. Citadel won on OL and DL - congrats to Dogs.
* GAME EIGHT FURMAN WON vs wcu. wcu isn't good but Furman ran the ball well
WOFFORD - returns Everyone on OL. Both QBs return. Pretty scary for SoCon Defenses !
UPDATE - Justis Basinger named an ALL-AMERICA on OL. I think 3 of Wofford's OL are all-conference? Strong. - yep 3: Basinger, Ralph and Jeresaty all named all-conference. UPDATE w transfer QB - "As many as three quarterbacks could see action under center for the Terriers in 2019.. Joe Newman is the returning starter... For now, heÂ’s the leader in the clubhouse, although Appalachian State transfer Peyton Derrick and talented redshirt freshman Jimmy Weirick will also likely figure into the mix"
Significant graduations for Wofford include: HB SPEED Lennox McAfee and FB TOUGH RUNNER Andre Stoddard on offense but that's all I think ... Those are top two runners though.
They Lose CB Domonique Lemon, CB Devin Watson, S Jojo Tillery. ** so they lose 3 out of 4 starters in D backfield
DL will miss Miles Brown big time but they get Horton back who is great. They do lose 2 of Front 3 on DL as Zamary graduates in addition to Miles Brown. Still Horton's return makes up for a lot of that. they return pretty much all LBs.
Keys for Wofford next year look to be RBs and defensive backfield. Looks like middle of run defense will be stout again w Horton coming back from injury. Wofford returns a lot (all OL) of players for a SoCon champ -
ROSTER IN AUGUST: Wofford has THIRTEEN SENIOR STARTERS THIS YEAR. WOW... next year could be very different w 9 returning players(?) but they should be great this year !
UPDATE IN AUGUST - In addition, all-league cornerback George Gbesee came up limping after making an interception in the end zone late SC State but should return. Safety Strawter and LB Brown - out indefinite.. were they starters ? I don't think... September - Big losses in all conf DE Mangum (slight chance he is back late year) and Horton out for year as all conf DL NG. Starting number 86 TE G Moore out ?
I see we will be without TE Karas and WR Luther. CC made it sound like Karas's injury was bad on the coach's show Monday night
T Luther out one more game with a suspension. Lindsey out three more. Who is Lindsey? Wofford fans - thoughts? not snarky just fact: but Wofford could have injuries etc and be fine because their schedule is very easy up-front and is tough at the end..
**GAME ONE - WOFFORD LOST to SC State (28-13 for SC St) and looked overmatched but Woff was throwing the ball a lot. -will Wof return to T.O? I think they return to TO and quit passing so much
**GAME TWO - WOFFORD LOST to Samford - 21-14. They only threw 5 times this week (for -1 yd !) but ran the ball a lot more. Not triple option but running basic plays.. so from throwing all over to running but not Triple option. The D did well by holding Sam to 21 points. I think they looked good running at times.
**GAME THREE - WOFFORD WON over GWU 49-10. Woff appears to go back to runnin' more and more each week - NOT triple option but runnin' plays for sure. Woff ran for 480 yards and passed for 80.
**GAME FOUR - WOFFORD WON over VMI who is actually a decent team. high scoring
**GAME FIVE - WOFFORD WON over ETSU with a good showing scoring 35 on a good defense. 35-17 was final. Woff ran for over 400 yards on a strong D = woff is back to throwing only 7/8 times a game now.
**GAME SIX - WOFFORD WON over wester'. bad western but a crushin' win 59-7
**GAME SEVEN - WOFFORD WON over Chatt in OT in a game that came down to one drop pass
CHATTANOOGA. I put them here because now it's coaching turmoil. All 2018 offensive coaches are gone. Talent wise they have some for sure. But they had talent this past year and had no offense.
on O - Tiano QB and WR Nunnely and RB Price return.... Nunnelly is on the Payton Award watch list pre-season.
All 5 OL return.. Though the OL really struggled in 2018
LOSSES - Kareem Orr graduated and he was a great DB ! On the DL the two killers - Mack and Mahaffey are both gone. That's a big loss - so HUGE defensive losses
UPDATE Chatt now hired new HC Rusty Wright who was an assistant at Georgia State. Used to play for Chatt
The Mocs have quite a few starters out in October:
We are currently down our *Two pre-season starting running backs (one an all American and one all conference) as RB - Tyrel Price out for the season ... RB - Ibi Hanks (Hamstring) out but week to week now.. RB Wood out for season. but FR running back Ford looks good! *Our starting right tackle RT - Harrison Moon (ACL) out for the season.. *And our two leading pass catchers (including an all American) are out or somewhat iffy. good WR - Lameric Tucker out for the year; BRYCE NUNNELLY PLAYED AGAIN vs ETSU but is still hurt- he left the Mercer game with a \shoulder but He did tough it out vs. ETSU but was basically a one armed wideout ; Our best returning defensive player is playing with a cast - ILB Marshall Cooper
**GAME ONE CHATT WON 24 - 10 vs EIU ... Chatt had a good passing game w 250 yards but only 340+ yards total O because they ran for only 90 yds... Chatt needs to work on run game. Chatt D was okk
*GAME TWO - CHATT LOST I guess JSU rebounded? JSUT won by 20 - bc they were shellacked the week prior. JSU outgained Chatt 500 - 300 roughly. JSU threw all over Chatt for 300+ yards in the air
* GAME THREE - CHATT LOST beat bad by UT. A little surprised at that score considering UTs struggles (Georgia State beat UT); but hey, you can't take much from one FBS game
* GAME FOUR - CHATT LOST 37-14. JMU is great though
* GAME FIVE - CHatt won beating western but wcu is not good
* GAME SIX - Chatt won beating Mercer who is not too good but Chatt is winning we shall learn mo' soon as they have tough games comin'
* GAME SEVEN- Chatt won beating ETSU so that's a decent win
VMI - Air raid can always upset someone. Strong QB and WR corps. QB Udinski is legit. But he doesn't have enough team help. *AUGUST UPDATE --- VMI took a hit w leading WR Thornton out of the program as is starting DB Loftis
**GAME ONE - VMI lost to FBS Marshall 56-17 not too much takeaway from this
* GAME TWO - VMI WON 63-21 over D2 Mars Hill
* GAME THREE - VMI WON beating conference foe ETSU ! in OT
* GAME FOUR VMI LOST to Robert Morris.
* GAME FIVE VMI LOST to Wofford but was respectable 36-51
* GAME SIX VMI WON over CItadel !
* GAME 7 VMI WON over Samford.. high scoring
CITADEL - Return 4 OL from 2018 - though the one they lost was a great one - name?. New QB, Rainey, showed a lot of promise at end of 2018 vs last few teams on schedule. All backs return. So O should be good and much improved. D only loses 5 guys though they were key guys.
D loses 5 guys now: Great LB Dawkins and top DB Spann. Also lose good nose tackle DL Ken Allen and another LB Hubbs.
* UPDATE * Now Citadel did additionally lose DE Mason Kinsey, who is no longer with the program. Kinsey was a SoCon All-Freshman pick last fall. so that makes 5 guys lost on the Defensive side of the ball
Citadel could be moving up in SoCon with so few losses on O
( * UPDATE *On Monday, Sam Houston State (https://herosports.com/colleges/sam-houston-state) running back Remus Bulmer (https://herosports.com/colleges/team-player-stats/remus-bulmer) -- one of the top returning career rushers in the FCS (https://herosports.com/fcs-football) -- reached out to HERO Sports and said he is going to sit out the rest of 2018 and will take his redshirt this year, then look to play his senior season elsewhere in 2019.-
he is coming to Citadel for Senior season )
( *UPDATE - Citadel football adds transfer linebacker:
The Citadel has added a transfer linebacker who will be eligible for the 2019 football season, coach Brent Thompson announced Wednesday. Airan Reed is a graduate-student transfer from Southern Illinois and will have one season to play for the Bulldogs.
UPDATE*. OL Haas (center?) and punter Campbell voted Freshman AA form Hero sports !
**GAME ONE - CITADEL LOST to Towson (28-21 for Towson) - Citadel looked respecatable in loss to a good Towson team leading in 4th Q. on other hand, Citadel only threw ball four times !
**GAME TWO - CITADEL LOST at Elon (35-28 for Elon). Elon really out gained Citadel 480 - 225. Again, Citadel is running every play true to option meaning only 8 passes. 4/8/1 passing.
**GAME THREE - CITADEL WON vs Georgia Tech. GREAT FBS win ! held ball 40+ minutes. won in OT. QB, Rainey, is day to day shuold be ok
** GAME FOUR - CITADEL WON over CSU 22-13. Let down from GT? missing Rainey the starting QB
** GAME FIVE - CITADEL LOST to Samford in OT
** GAME SIX- CITADEL LOST to VMI.. CItadel not looking good. wacky they threw 34 times after averaging 7 or so throws per game? ElCid "QB is gimpy, BBack was out again, r secondary sucks
** GAME SIX- CITADEL WON vs Western - Wcu isnt good
** GAME SEVEN - CITADEL WON vs Furman. beat my paladins. impressive win
SAMFORD - Shelling - great WR returns. Samford does have several good freshman playing on D this year.
Samford does return a lot on OL - 4 or 5 guys.
New QB is probably Oladokun he "transferred to Samford from South Florida and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining. He started three games for the USF Bulls last season, and played in six. Dual threat?? - not sure on that. Three-star recruit. He received scholarship offers from: Nebraska, Temple, Iowa State, Bowling Green, Georgia Southern, South Alabama and Toledo so he has talent.
UPDATE: In summer camp Lamar Anderson was added as a Safety, came from Ball State will have 2 seasons to play for the Dogs. He started the first 3 games for Ball State, All-State 3*** rated player
*GAME ONE - SAMFORD LOST to Youngstown and looked overmatched by the YSU OL vs Samford DL. Now, to be fair the Samford D gave effort but was on the field was too long (40+ minutes!). Had they been able to complete more passes on O maybe the D could have held up better? A key here seems to be will Welch hold on to his QB job or will Oladokun take over? Oladokun did some good things when they took Welch out of the game.
*GAME TWO SAMFORD LOST TO TTU in OT 59-58, choking away a large lead. just horrible choke. Samford ledby 20 or so in second half
*GAME THREE SAMFORD WONbeating Wofford 21-14. Good win - struggles to stop Wofford run but passing game was nice by Sam
GAME FOUR SAMFORD WON beating Alabama A&M 55-21
GAME FIVE SAMFORD WON over Citadel 60-55 in OT
GAME SIX SAMFORD LOST to Furman by 40 or so ... Samford starting QB Oladokun is gimpy but played some
GAME SEVEN SAMFORD LOST to VMI. high scoring
MERCER - Return two Great QBs who were gimpy this year. Riddle and Riley. Bobby Lamb said Riddle was the best QB he had ever had since Ingle Martin at Furman.. that's high praise.. I would think they have the best QB / QB depth in the conference next year. MERCER WAS JUST SO BEAT UP LAST YEAR (that is the summary of 2018 for them). Great RB returns huge load - 5'8" 233 Lb Devezin. He is a load. OL looks good and returns 4 of 5 starters. only offense where they will hurt is that the WR corps suffers big losses - Irvin, Houzah and walker. Pretty big losses there.
Defense. Edge rushing losses are big - Losing Buehler and Wysor at DE will hurt .... Buehler was a strong pass rusher. Lose all 3 OLB including all-conference LeMarkus Bailey. So they lose both DE and all starting OLB. Pass rush will be a question mark for them. Stopping the edge runs of option teams may be an issue when you lose all your DEs and all your OLBs ??
Special teams. Losing Irvin on PR and Houzah on KOR will hurt. Mercer was very very good at KOR and PR in 2018. Though one guy - Durden - returns.
**GAME 1 Mercer win over WCU 49-27. Good win as conf win onroad though western may not be that good.
**GAME 2 Mercer winover PC 45 - 7, but PC is not good.
* GAME 3 Mercer LOSS to a good Austin Peay team. Mercer threw the ball well thought running was not vgood. Mercer seemed susceptible to penetration by APS DL
* GAME 4 Mercer LOSS to Furman 10-45. whoopin'
* GAME 5 Mercer LOSS to Campbell by 7
* GAME 6 Mercer LOSS to Chatt
* GAME SEVEN Mercer WIN over a good VMI team -good win. Riddle out for year though
ETSU? Can they repeat this years run of one score wins ? Sanders looks to be doing good things there which is main thing. Good coaching is priority 1 !!!
How many key guys graduate? I know Henrik was a BIG part of success and he graduates. *Question number one is replacing Henrik at QB!! both QBs graduated.
UPDATE **WELL ETSU went and got two FBS transfers at QB. Coastal Carolina guy Thrasher w one year eligibility. Coastal guy "Coastal Carolina transfer and three-star recruit out of high school, ...one year of eligibility remaining, ...appeared only sparingly in three games for the Chanticleers last season. He was rated the #47 quarterback in the NATION by 247Sports coming out of high school. AND ETSU got a Miami FL transfer who enters as a RSo so he will have three yrs left and he played in four games at Miami and started one game. He has to have raw talent to even start one game at Miami, FL QB - name is WELDON but sounds like he is out a while w shoulder surgery some this year; now ANOTHER QB transfers to ETSU - former Army QB Malik McGue is coming to ETSU per his Twitter feed... last played HS Ball in 2014? 23 years old w 3 years of eligibility left?
Quay Holmes returns at RB and is very good ! Appears w injury to Miami QB that "It looks as though -- Chance Thrasher, a graduate transfer from Coastal Carolina, has moved to the forefront in the competition to become the Bucs’ new signal caller."
**update* Quay Holmes won Freshman AA awards from Hero Sports
How many OL graduate- just one! Though he was a great Center so it will hurt a little. So they return 4 out of 5 OL.
Nasir Player returns on DL and is possibly the best DL in conference.
ETSU with 2 on Buchanan pre-season list - Nasir Player DE and Tyree Robinson (Safety?)
**GAME 1 - ETSU LOST big to FBS App State 42-7. So not much can be known from this game
*GAME 2 - ETSU WON over D2 Shorter 48 - 10.
* GAME 3 - ETSU LOST to VMI (OT)
* GAME 4 - ETSU WON over a decent Austin Peay team. ETSU has D -they won 20-14. Apparently QB Thrasher is ifffy this week as hurt vs App State so Mitchell has been playing QB. Also Tyree Robinson may not play
* GAME 5 - ETSU LOST to Furman though close game
* GAME 6 - ETSU LOST to Woff. Woff looked good
* GAME 7 - ETSU LOST to CHatt in another Defensive game
WCU. Tyrie Adams is awesome. Maybe best singular player in SoCon .. Adams is on the Payton award watch list pre-season.
But 4 of the OL starters graduate. That's gonna hurt
Owen Cosenke Is a very good TE (all-conference level)
Can they finally improve on defense ?? and they Lost 2 of 3 starting DL including Nate Link who decided to not play his Graduate year and was good DL Also lost Jordan Mathis at WR who was good.
On D - they return a lot of the back 7 of DBs and LBs as most all of those were young last year. The key according to some is how is their DL going to be?? So sounds like OL and DL are the big questions.
That said, they return the all-conf TE and good WRs including Patten..and return their top two RBs - so they lose almost all OL but return much of the skill positions.
**update Ronald Kent at DB won freshman AA from Hero Sports
WCU lost six offensive linemen (4 starters) that saw extensive playing time in 2018 - Among the losses were five players with 30-or-more career games played including all-conference selection Zach Weeks (44 career games) and classmates Nathan Dalton (45), Andrew Miles (45), Kaleb Spry (40), and Chase Stehling (34). Veteran offensive line coach John Holt will lean heavily upon his lone returning starter in junior Grady Thomas. He has 12 starts including three as a true freshman in 2017 and nine a year ago. Thomas is flanked by redshirt junior Matthew Bair who has played in 17 career games and redshirt sophomore Michael Harper who started one of the four games he played in 2018. Behind them is a slew of redshirt and true freshmen that will be battling for positioning in the offensive depth chart. Three returning redshirts have seen some collegiate action, Tyler Smith (4 games), Nick Campbell (3 games), Garrett Bowman (1 game)
The coaching staff is very high on two incoming freshmen – both of whom enrolled early to go through 2019 spring drills. Isaiah Helms and Jacob Combs could both find themselves in the starting lineup for the opener against Mercer. Local product Dillon Luther (Asheville, N.C. / Erwin HS) has had a productive fall camp and could factor into playing time early in his collegiate career. They may have FRESHMAN at Center and OG on the OL !
Tyrie Adams and 3 other WCU players suspended for today's game with NC State. Starting QB, Starting OLman, Starting DLman, -how long are they out? Tyrie is still out vs North Greenville.
*GAME 1- LOST to conference Mercer. lost 27-49 at home in cullowhee
*GAME 2- LOST TO FBS NC STATE, not much takeaway - will Adams return to team?
*Game 3- WON vs D2 North Greenville in a tough one 20-17. Adams? not yet
*Game 4 - LOST to Chatt
*Game 5- LOST to Gwebb .. good grief (how is Spier not on hot seat??)
*Game 6- LOST to CItadel
teams from best to worst?
FURMAN?? Obviously the team I know best :)
We may take a one year step back. DEPENDS ON QB. Big time! Prior regime left us Blaze and Roberts who was a career backup but did Wonderful this year. But they left us No QBs as junior or sophomore really. So Hendrix had to get a QB quick - my GUESS is Grainger who the coaches are very high on but he only played ONE year of high school QB! That's Scary inexperienced. Missing three years of high school vs a regular guy. Dude Is really talented but loose with the ball - tends to fumble... Other options are Hamp Sisson - probably more polished right now than Grainger? Grainger maybe more raw talent.
**NEW is a transfer QB from MTSU who MTSU had at WR (so quite athletic) but wasn't going to be their QB. So he is coming to FU in June to try to be a QB. 3 star guy? Clearly if MTSU (and GTech looked at him) took him he is a mid-level FBS athlete UPDATE - MTSU guy Shiflett is going to play WR for us this year.. . OL returns ALL 8 guys and given another year of Hendrix training should be ok/good. Long term need more Hendrix-recruited guys on OL as he wants a different type of OL. Only lose 4 guys on O. These 4- QB Roberts and RB Dirks ... and TB Morehead had to quit because of injuris . All OL and most WRs and RBs return (one starting WR Cam Burnette left team too).
On D we will miss Jaylan Reid at DT. And Anoor at Safety. Both were all conference and 30 starts+. That will hurt. LB I feel good about. You all know Hope led FCS Nation in sacks as freshman - despite playing only 10 games!. McKoy is a killer. And we saw our LBs hold Wofford and Citadel to 14 points and 17 points respectively. ***What we are needing to work on is pass defense !! Need to improve there - we have pass rush, need better coverage
*update*. LB ( pass rush) Adrian Hope was Fourth in Jerry Rice vote for best freshman in country. Voted Freshman AA by Hero Sports too. Adrian Hope on 2019 Pre-Season Buchanan List !
3 positions to watch... - Center, Strong Safety and QB as thin or young. Center would just be thin. at C the starter returns in Neely but no one behind him w experience. Strong safety thin w only our backup Clay returning w any experience (Griffin or Jones as backup?). QB is deep but inexperienced as noted above. Furman is out starting LB VANN
*GAME ONE - FURMAN WON over CSU 46-13 and basically ran all over them. CSU is only an ok Big South team though.
*GAME TWO - FURMAN LOST to FBS Georgia State 48-42 in a shootout. takeaway? Furman has a nasty offense w 540 yards of offense! On other hand not sure about our pass D? We gave up 560 yards of O to an FBS ... that's too much even if it is FBS
*GAME THREE - - FURMAN LOST to FBS V Tech (looked bad v Duke then beat Miami FL) 24-17 so again Furman played very close to an ACC FBS. We played great D vs VT holding them to 370 yds. We only gained 230 though.
* GAME FOUR FURMAN WON beating Mercer 45-10. We ran for 400+ yards and 600 total of O. Lost starting LB Dillon Vann for season
* GAME FIVE FURMAN WON beating ETSU 17-10. Both defenses outplayed both offenses
* GAME SIX FURMAN WON beating Samford 55+ - 14. Furman ran for 460 yards and pulled off in 4th q.
* GAME SEVEN FURMAN LOST to Citadel. outplayed. outcoached. out everything - we couldn't complete a pass or a third down of any type. Citadel won on OL and DL - congrats to Dogs.
* GAME EIGHT FURMAN WON vs wcu. wcu isn't good but Furman ran the ball well
WOFFORD - returns Everyone on OL. Both QBs return. Pretty scary for SoCon Defenses !
UPDATE - Justis Basinger named an ALL-AMERICA on OL. I think 3 of Wofford's OL are all-conference? Strong. - yep 3: Basinger, Ralph and Jeresaty all named all-conference. UPDATE w transfer QB - "As many as three quarterbacks could see action under center for the Terriers in 2019.. Joe Newman is the returning starter... For now, heÂ’s the leader in the clubhouse, although Appalachian State transfer Peyton Derrick and talented redshirt freshman Jimmy Weirick will also likely figure into the mix"
Significant graduations for Wofford include: HB SPEED Lennox McAfee and FB TOUGH RUNNER Andre Stoddard on offense but that's all I think ... Those are top two runners though.
They Lose CB Domonique Lemon, CB Devin Watson, S Jojo Tillery. ** so they lose 3 out of 4 starters in D backfield
DL will miss Miles Brown big time but they get Horton back who is great. They do lose 2 of Front 3 on DL as Zamary graduates in addition to Miles Brown. Still Horton's return makes up for a lot of that. they return pretty much all LBs.
Keys for Wofford next year look to be RBs and defensive backfield. Looks like middle of run defense will be stout again w Horton coming back from injury. Wofford returns a lot (all OL) of players for a SoCon champ -
ROSTER IN AUGUST: Wofford has THIRTEEN SENIOR STARTERS THIS YEAR. WOW... next year could be very different w 9 returning players(?) but they should be great this year !
UPDATE IN AUGUST - In addition, all-league cornerback George Gbesee came up limping after making an interception in the end zone late SC State but should return. Safety Strawter and LB Brown - out indefinite.. were they starters ? I don't think... September - Big losses in all conf DE Mangum (slight chance he is back late year) and Horton out for year as all conf DL NG. Starting number 86 TE G Moore out ?
I see we will be without TE Karas and WR Luther. CC made it sound like Karas's injury was bad on the coach's show Monday night
T Luther out one more game with a suspension. Lindsey out three more. Who is Lindsey? Wofford fans - thoughts? not snarky just fact: but Wofford could have injuries etc and be fine because their schedule is very easy up-front and is tough at the end..
**GAME ONE - WOFFORD LOST to SC State (28-13 for SC St) and looked overmatched but Woff was throwing the ball a lot. -will Wof return to T.O? I think they return to TO and quit passing so much
**GAME TWO - WOFFORD LOST to Samford - 21-14. They only threw 5 times this week (for -1 yd !) but ran the ball a lot more. Not triple option but running basic plays.. so from throwing all over to running but not Triple option. The D did well by holding Sam to 21 points. I think they looked good running at times.
**GAME THREE - WOFFORD WON over GWU 49-10. Woff appears to go back to runnin' more and more each week - NOT triple option but runnin' plays for sure. Woff ran for 480 yards and passed for 80.
**GAME FOUR - WOFFORD WON over VMI who is actually a decent team. high scoring
**GAME FIVE - WOFFORD WON over ETSU with a good showing scoring 35 on a good defense. 35-17 was final. Woff ran for over 400 yards on a strong D = woff is back to throwing only 7/8 times a game now.
**GAME SIX - WOFFORD WON over wester'. bad western but a crushin' win 59-7
**GAME SEVEN - WOFFORD WON over Chatt in OT in a game that came down to one drop pass
CHATTANOOGA. I put them here because now it's coaching turmoil. All 2018 offensive coaches are gone. Talent wise they have some for sure. But they had talent this past year and had no offense.
on O - Tiano QB and WR Nunnely and RB Price return.... Nunnelly is on the Payton Award watch list pre-season.
All 5 OL return.. Though the OL really struggled in 2018
LOSSES - Kareem Orr graduated and he was a great DB ! On the DL the two killers - Mack and Mahaffey are both gone. That's a big loss - so HUGE defensive losses
UPDATE Chatt now hired new HC Rusty Wright who was an assistant at Georgia State. Used to play for Chatt
The Mocs have quite a few starters out in October:
We are currently down our *Two pre-season starting running backs (one an all American and one all conference) as RB - Tyrel Price out for the season ... RB - Ibi Hanks (Hamstring) out but week to week now.. RB Wood out for season. but FR running back Ford looks good! *Our starting right tackle RT - Harrison Moon (ACL) out for the season.. *And our two leading pass catchers (including an all American) are out or somewhat iffy. good WR - Lameric Tucker out for the year; BRYCE NUNNELLY PLAYED AGAIN vs ETSU but is still hurt- he left the Mercer game with a \shoulder but He did tough it out vs. ETSU but was basically a one armed wideout ; Our best returning defensive player is playing with a cast - ILB Marshall Cooper
**GAME ONE CHATT WON 24 - 10 vs EIU ... Chatt had a good passing game w 250 yards but only 340+ yards total O because they ran for only 90 yds... Chatt needs to work on run game. Chatt D was okk
*GAME TWO - CHATT LOST I guess JSU rebounded? JSUT won by 20 - bc they were shellacked the week prior. JSU outgained Chatt 500 - 300 roughly. JSU threw all over Chatt for 300+ yards in the air
* GAME THREE - CHATT LOST beat bad by UT. A little surprised at that score considering UTs struggles (Georgia State beat UT); but hey, you can't take much from one FBS game
* GAME FOUR - CHATT LOST 37-14. JMU is great though
* GAME FIVE - CHatt won beating western but wcu is not good
* GAME SIX - Chatt won beating Mercer who is not too good but Chatt is winning we shall learn mo' soon as they have tough games comin'
* GAME SEVEN- Chatt won beating ETSU so that's a decent win
VMI - Air raid can always upset someone. Strong QB and WR corps. QB Udinski is legit. But he doesn't have enough team help. *AUGUST UPDATE --- VMI took a hit w leading WR Thornton out of the program as is starting DB Loftis
**GAME ONE - VMI lost to FBS Marshall 56-17 not too much takeaway from this
* GAME TWO - VMI WON 63-21 over D2 Mars Hill
* GAME THREE - VMI WON beating conference foe ETSU ! in OT
* GAME FOUR VMI LOST to Robert Morris.
* GAME FIVE VMI LOST to Wofford but was respectable 36-51
* GAME SIX VMI WON over CItadel !
* GAME 7 VMI WON over Samford.. high scoring
CITADEL - Return 4 OL from 2018 - though the one they lost was a great one - name?. New QB, Rainey, showed a lot of promise at end of 2018 vs last few teams on schedule. All backs return. So O should be good and much improved. D only loses 5 guys though they were key guys.
D loses 5 guys now: Great LB Dawkins and top DB Spann. Also lose good nose tackle DL Ken Allen and another LB Hubbs.
* UPDATE * Now Citadel did additionally lose DE Mason Kinsey, who is no longer with the program. Kinsey was a SoCon All-Freshman pick last fall. so that makes 5 guys lost on the Defensive side of the ball
Citadel could be moving up in SoCon with so few losses on O
( * UPDATE *On Monday, Sam Houston State (https://herosports.com/colleges/sam-houston-state) running back Remus Bulmer (https://herosports.com/colleges/team-player-stats/remus-bulmer) -- one of the top returning career rushers in the FCS (https://herosports.com/fcs-football) -- reached out to HERO Sports and said he is going to sit out the rest of 2018 and will take his redshirt this year, then look to play his senior season elsewhere in 2019.-
he is coming to Citadel for Senior season )
( *UPDATE - Citadel football adds transfer linebacker:
The Citadel has added a transfer linebacker who will be eligible for the 2019 football season, coach Brent Thompson announced Wednesday. Airan Reed is a graduate-student transfer from Southern Illinois and will have one season to play for the Bulldogs.
UPDATE*. OL Haas (center?) and punter Campbell voted Freshman AA form Hero sports !
**GAME ONE - CITADEL LOST to Towson (28-21 for Towson) - Citadel looked respecatable in loss to a good Towson team leading in 4th Q. on other hand, Citadel only threw ball four times !
**GAME TWO - CITADEL LOST at Elon (35-28 for Elon). Elon really out gained Citadel 480 - 225. Again, Citadel is running every play true to option meaning only 8 passes. 4/8/1 passing.
**GAME THREE - CITADEL WON vs Georgia Tech. GREAT FBS win ! held ball 40+ minutes. won in OT. QB, Rainey, is day to day shuold be ok
** GAME FOUR - CITADEL WON over CSU 22-13. Let down from GT? missing Rainey the starting QB
** GAME FIVE - CITADEL LOST to Samford in OT
** GAME SIX- CITADEL LOST to VMI.. CItadel not looking good. wacky they threw 34 times after averaging 7 or so throws per game? ElCid "QB is gimpy, BBack was out again, r secondary sucks
** GAME SIX- CITADEL WON vs Western - Wcu isnt good
** GAME SEVEN - CITADEL WON vs Furman. beat my paladins. impressive win
SAMFORD - Shelling - great WR returns. Samford does have several good freshman playing on D this year.
Samford does return a lot on OL - 4 or 5 guys.
New QB is probably Oladokun he "transferred to Samford from South Florida and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining. He started three games for the USF Bulls last season, and played in six. Dual threat?? - not sure on that. Three-star recruit. He received scholarship offers from: Nebraska, Temple, Iowa State, Bowling Green, Georgia Southern, South Alabama and Toledo so he has talent.
UPDATE: In summer camp Lamar Anderson was added as a Safety, came from Ball State will have 2 seasons to play for the Dogs. He started the first 3 games for Ball State, All-State 3*** rated player
*GAME ONE - SAMFORD LOST to Youngstown and looked overmatched by the YSU OL vs Samford DL. Now, to be fair the Samford D gave effort but was on the field was too long (40+ minutes!). Had they been able to complete more passes on O maybe the D could have held up better? A key here seems to be will Welch hold on to his QB job or will Oladokun take over? Oladokun did some good things when they took Welch out of the game.
*GAME TWO SAMFORD LOST TO TTU in OT 59-58, choking away a large lead. just horrible choke. Samford ledby 20 or so in second half
*GAME THREE SAMFORD WONbeating Wofford 21-14. Good win - struggles to stop Wofford run but passing game was nice by Sam
GAME FOUR SAMFORD WON beating Alabama A&M 55-21
GAME FIVE SAMFORD WON over Citadel 60-55 in OT
GAME SIX SAMFORD LOST to Furman by 40 or so ... Samford starting QB Oladokun is gimpy but played some
GAME SEVEN SAMFORD LOST to VMI. high scoring
MERCER - Return two Great QBs who were gimpy this year. Riddle and Riley. Bobby Lamb said Riddle was the best QB he had ever had since Ingle Martin at Furman.. that's high praise.. I would think they have the best QB / QB depth in the conference next year. MERCER WAS JUST SO BEAT UP LAST YEAR (that is the summary of 2018 for them). Great RB returns huge load - 5'8" 233 Lb Devezin. He is a load. OL looks good and returns 4 of 5 starters. only offense where they will hurt is that the WR corps suffers big losses - Irvin, Houzah and walker. Pretty big losses there.
Defense. Edge rushing losses are big - Losing Buehler and Wysor at DE will hurt .... Buehler was a strong pass rusher. Lose all 3 OLB including all-conference LeMarkus Bailey. So they lose both DE and all starting OLB. Pass rush will be a question mark for them. Stopping the edge runs of option teams may be an issue when you lose all your DEs and all your OLBs ??
Special teams. Losing Irvin on PR and Houzah on KOR will hurt. Mercer was very very good at KOR and PR in 2018. Though one guy - Durden - returns.
**GAME 1 Mercer win over WCU 49-27. Good win as conf win onroad though western may not be that good.
**GAME 2 Mercer winover PC 45 - 7, but PC is not good.
* GAME 3 Mercer LOSS to a good Austin Peay team. Mercer threw the ball well thought running was not vgood. Mercer seemed susceptible to penetration by APS DL
* GAME 4 Mercer LOSS to Furman 10-45. whoopin'
* GAME 5 Mercer LOSS to Campbell by 7
* GAME 6 Mercer LOSS to Chatt
* GAME SEVEN Mercer WIN over a good VMI team -good win. Riddle out for year though
ETSU? Can they repeat this years run of one score wins ? Sanders looks to be doing good things there which is main thing. Good coaching is priority 1 !!!
How many key guys graduate? I know Henrik was a BIG part of success and he graduates. *Question number one is replacing Henrik at QB!! both QBs graduated.
UPDATE **WELL ETSU went and got two FBS transfers at QB. Coastal Carolina guy Thrasher w one year eligibility. Coastal guy "Coastal Carolina transfer and three-star recruit out of high school, ...one year of eligibility remaining, ...appeared only sparingly in three games for the Chanticleers last season. He was rated the #47 quarterback in the NATION by 247Sports coming out of high school. AND ETSU got a Miami FL transfer who enters as a RSo so he will have three yrs left and he played in four games at Miami and started one game. He has to have raw talent to even start one game at Miami, FL QB - name is WELDON but sounds like he is out a while w shoulder surgery some this year; now ANOTHER QB transfers to ETSU - former Army QB Malik McGue is coming to ETSU per his Twitter feed... last played HS Ball in 2014? 23 years old w 3 years of eligibility left?
Quay Holmes returns at RB and is very good ! Appears w injury to Miami QB that "It looks as though -- Chance Thrasher, a graduate transfer from Coastal Carolina, has moved to the forefront in the competition to become the Bucs’ new signal caller."
**update* Quay Holmes won Freshman AA awards from Hero Sports
How many OL graduate- just one! Though he was a great Center so it will hurt a little. So they return 4 out of 5 OL.
Nasir Player returns on DL and is possibly the best DL in conference.
ETSU with 2 on Buchanan pre-season list - Nasir Player DE and Tyree Robinson (Safety?)
**GAME 1 - ETSU LOST big to FBS App State 42-7. So not much can be known from this game
*GAME 2 - ETSU WON over D2 Shorter 48 - 10.
* GAME 3 - ETSU LOST to VMI (OT)
* GAME 4 - ETSU WON over a decent Austin Peay team. ETSU has D -they won 20-14. Apparently QB Thrasher is ifffy this week as hurt vs App State so Mitchell has been playing QB. Also Tyree Robinson may not play
* GAME 5 - ETSU LOST to Furman though close game
* GAME 6 - ETSU LOST to Woff. Woff looked good
* GAME 7 - ETSU LOST to CHatt in another Defensive game
WCU. Tyrie Adams is awesome. Maybe best singular player in SoCon .. Adams is on the Payton award watch list pre-season.
But 4 of the OL starters graduate. That's gonna hurt
Owen Cosenke Is a very good TE (all-conference level)
Can they finally improve on defense ?? and they Lost 2 of 3 starting DL including Nate Link who decided to not play his Graduate year and was good DL Also lost Jordan Mathis at WR who was good.
On D - they return a lot of the back 7 of DBs and LBs as most all of those were young last year. The key according to some is how is their DL going to be?? So sounds like OL and DL are the big questions.
That said, they return the all-conf TE and good WRs including Patten..and return their top two RBs - so they lose almost all OL but return much of the skill positions.
**update Ronald Kent at DB won freshman AA from Hero Sports
WCU lost six offensive linemen (4 starters) that saw extensive playing time in 2018 - Among the losses were five players with 30-or-more career games played including all-conference selection Zach Weeks (44 career games) and classmates Nathan Dalton (45), Andrew Miles (45), Kaleb Spry (40), and Chase Stehling (34). Veteran offensive line coach John Holt will lean heavily upon his lone returning starter in junior Grady Thomas. He has 12 starts including three as a true freshman in 2017 and nine a year ago. Thomas is flanked by redshirt junior Matthew Bair who has played in 17 career games and redshirt sophomore Michael Harper who started one of the four games he played in 2018. Behind them is a slew of redshirt and true freshmen that will be battling for positioning in the offensive depth chart. Three returning redshirts have seen some collegiate action, Tyler Smith (4 games), Nick Campbell (3 games), Garrett Bowman (1 game)
The coaching staff is very high on two incoming freshmen – both of whom enrolled early to go through 2019 spring drills. Isaiah Helms and Jacob Combs could both find themselves in the starting lineup for the opener against Mercer. Local product Dillon Luther (Asheville, N.C. / Erwin HS) has had a productive fall camp and could factor into playing time early in his collegiate career. They may have FRESHMAN at Center and OG on the OL !
Tyrie Adams and 3 other WCU players suspended for today's game with NC State. Starting QB, Starting OLman, Starting DLman, -how long are they out? Tyrie is still out vs North Greenville.
*GAME 1- LOST to conference Mercer. lost 27-49 at home in cullowhee
*GAME 2- LOST TO FBS NC STATE, not much takeaway - will Adams return to team?
*Game 3- WON vs D2 North Greenville in a tough one 20-17. Adams? not yet
*Game 4 - LOST to Chatt
*Game 5- LOST to Gwebb .. good grief (how is Spier not on hot seat??)
*Game 6- LOST to CItadel