Quote Originally Posted by gofurman View Post
FUBeAR - I hate to do this.. not piling on... but I really would be interested in Furman's "close-loss" numbers with Lamb and Fowler vs. with Hendrix. I don't think it is bad luck. Everyone loses SOME close games,sure. but some coaches lose more of them.
I anticipate that most SoCon teams play a fair number of one-score games each season. I have not gone team by team, but ETSU, for instance, played 7 one-score games in 2018. Wofford played 8 in 2017. The difference is, for whatever reason, Mercer tends to lose a higher percentage of those type of games.

In my opinion, most close games come down to what you might expect - coaching and execution. Sometimes the ball dinks off the crossbar, but more often than not, the game comes down to who makes the plays or makes fewer mistakes.

To note the difference in the Hendrix and Fowler eras, Mercer makes for a good example. In Fowler's last two seasons (2015, 2016), Furman lost two one-score games to Mercer in large part due to late-game execution.

2015 - Furman was hit with an unsportsmanlike penalty on what should have been a game-winning touchdown only then to miss the kick and lose in OT.
2016 - Furman loses in Macon after surrendering (inexplicably) a 33 yard touchdown pass on a 4th and 10 with approximately :30 left in the game.

The script flipped with Hendrix's arrival.

2017 - Furman wins a one-score game in Greenville after converting four 4th downs and sealing the game with a goal-line interception.
2018 - Furman wins a one-score game in Macon with a 4th quarter game-winning TD and closed the game with a sack on a Mercer come-back attempt.

All four games were incredibly close. In the first two, Mercer made the plays it needed to make. In the latter two, Furman did. Luck really didn't have any part in any of those games - execution did.