I realize I am probably more optimistic than most, but I'm pretty bullish on the next few years.
This season feels, to me, a bit like the spring 2020 and fall 2021 seasons. We were not particularly good those two campaigns, but it created the foundation for what would become strong 2022 and 2023 seasons.
We have three wins this season. It feels like we left two wins clearly on the table - VMI and Charleston Southern - in two games marred by turnovers and mistakes by young offensive skill players. I see us this season as roughly a .500 team. Depending on the outcome of the Mercer game, we should probably be 5-6 right now.
Ideally, we'd like to get out of the business of rebuilding every four years. One difference in Furman and some of the current FCS powers is they never seem to rebuild, they just seem to reload every season. I'm not sure if our coaches would have handled 2023 differently knowing just how many reserves we would have to rely on 2024. It would have been nice for those guys to have a few more snaps under their belt before this season started.
In any event, we are where we are. This has been a long tough season to watch, but hopefully we've gotten a lot of guys a lot of reps that will then start building towards another run in a season or two. Unlike this year, we are going to return a boatload of starters and lettermen next season.