Moving on to UTC

[saltyshaker]

wcu put 52 on these guys a few weeks ago.wofford played them pretty tough as well.i think we control time of possession and should score about 38 or so which should be enough to win with our defense.

[Flagman]

wcu put 52 on these guys a few weeks ago.wofford played them pretty tough as well.i think we control time of possession and should score about 38 or so which should be enough to win with our defense.

I like the way you think.

[gofurman]

wcu put 52 on these guys a few weeks ago.wofford played them pretty tough as well.i think we control time of possession and should score about 38 or so which should be enough to win with our defense.

Of ocurse they (utc) put 50 on WCU... we put 29. Its easy to be selective. Yes, Wofford played them tough and I am glad to see that !! But utc also ran Samford out of the building and some say "well, they had pick 6s" - do pick 6 not count??? Do our interceptions vs ETSU not count? Of course they do.

heck they (again Utc) beat the Citadel 48 - 3 !! and I recall many saying when we beat Citadael 28-14 that "the Citadel was finally finding the right guys and getting it together".. and then Sammy beats the sh*t out of em 37-7.

In short, it just seems our guys are great - hear me, I am loving it... but something isn't there for the KILL shot against lesser teams. that's a dangerous game to play. I recall thinking v ETSU "man, they are ONE play from beating us if we continue dilly dally around at 6-0". And they got that one play with the punt block !! 8 points. thank goodness we tacked on a FG and a TD.

Just weird. Look, I played some HS sports and have known many who do college etc. There is always a weird score or weird weekend (this past one would probably be the best SoCon example) but rarely such a trend of playing to the opponent - both UP and down. Please hear me there - UP and down. We really do play to the opponent w the exception of TTU. There we put it on em...

I will feel a lot better if we win this weekend. I have been watching since the 90s and not sure I have seen an outright SoCon title? Have we? When was our last OUTRIGHT title? (i have certainly seen shared titles which are great)


EDIT - I think I found the answer... our last outright SoCon title was 1990 ? We have had 5 (all shared) since then?

[gofurman]

Dave, I need a question asked

[FurmAlum]

I don't know who the whiniest coach in the SoCon is. But we all know about Hatcher at Sammy. Every time the camera showed WCU's Bell in the Furman game he was whining about something. And last year I remember Rusty Wright whining up and down the sidelines at Paladin Stadium.

One thing is for sure. Wright will be at his whiniest this coming Sat. in Chattyland.

Maybe FUBeAR needs to have a pre-game chat with the SoCon Refs.

[The Jackal]

They'll be tough. If we play like we did Saturday, we'll lose. However, everything I'v seen to this point leads me to the conclusion that Furman is the better team and should be the favorite in this one.

[Paul C]

Moving on, I remember some games from our championship years, when we played poorly, and lost. I think last Saturday will do nothing but inspire this bunch to play their butts off this Saturday!
Go DINS!

We beat Elon 10-0 with Ingle Martin.

I also remember a lackadaisical performance at Gardner-Webb in that era.

[FUBeAR]

I don't know who the whiniest coach in the SoCon is. But we all know about Hatcher at Sammy. Every time the camera showed WCU's Bell in the Furman game he was whining about something. And last year I remember Rusty Wright whining up and down the sidelines at Paladin Stadium.

One thing is for sure. Wright will be at his whiniest this coming Sat. in Chattyland.

Maybe FUBeAR needs to have a pre-game chat with the SoCon Refs.

Yes - we’ll cover this in our weekly conference call.

[Rokawaylifer]

Bear, off topic but what do or did you think about the quality of the fried chicken turned out by Furman caf? I thought it was the best. Not sure if Mr Ed Banton was still running the show when you were there. Retired U.S. marine, if memory serves.

[FUBeAR]

Bear, off topic but what do or did you think about the quality of the fried chicken turned out by Furman caf? I thought it was the best. Not sure if Mr Ed Banton was still running the show when you were there. Retired U.S. marine, if memory serves.

Coach Food was certainly in charge.

Dude, FUBeAR LOVED EVERYTHING about the Furman Dining Hall. He ain’t never ate so good before or since.

Once we moved off campus (which was ASAP for most of us), we had no meal plans with our scholarships, so sneaking into the Dining Hall 2 or 3 times / day was a literal way of life and was an integral part of FUBeAR’s college education. And, of course, it became a place of employment and, in some ways, a social life hub / catalyst during Summer / Camps seasons.

FUBeAR gets misty when he gets near the building. He considers it a shrine of his youth.

[Mocs123]

Is their QB a run threat?

He averages about 15 yards per game on 51 total attempts. He rushed for 40 and 50 yards in the first two weeks of the season, respectively, but since then his top rushing game is 19 yards.

So, not really. He's much more of a passing QB.

He's a talented player. He's not going to be terribly different than what we saw in Heirs and Gonzalez - guys that can spin it, can run if they need to, but it's not a huge part of their game.

I wouldn't call him a real running QB, but Chase ran the ball really well in the first few games, but has been nursing an ankle injury the past few weeks and hasn't run the ball much. He did have a few nice scrambles against VMI but kept his eyes downfield and made the pass rather than take off and run. He hasn't looked gimpy, so I'm not sure if the change in his running has been by design or by necessity, but it's certainly been a noticeable change. He's not the running threat that Huff is or anything.

[Mocs123]

My guess is UTC isn't going to spend a lot of time trying to slam their QB or RB up into the teeth of Furman's run defense.

The Mocs are thinner at RB with Ford's injury. The backup Appleberry has a lot of experience, but I'm not sure how much depth they have behind him. The #3 RB had only registered 1 carry before Ford's injury in the ETSU game.

I suspect we'll see them try to force Furman to respect the run a bit, but my guess is their ticket to beating Furman is to let Artropeous drop back and throw it.

While he has not played much, FUBeAR understands the Mocs Coaching Staff is very high on Reggie Davis. In the Covid year, FUBeAR was impressed with Lance Jackson, but he has not seen many touches in his career there.

RUSHING
________________GP-GS Att Gain Loss Net Avg TD Long Avg/G
Appleberry,Gino 8-4 109 496 17 479 4.4 6 41 59.9
Davis,Reggie 3-0 23 137 5 132 5.7 1 45 44.0
Houston,Chris 7-0 28 104 5 99 3.5 0 19 14.1
Jackson,Lance 4-0 9 25 5 20 2.2 1 8

Appleberry still getting the most work, but Davis’ Attempts are on the rise with Ford out…

#8 Appleberry,Gino
Rushing Receiving Passing Kick Ret Punt Ret all
Date Opponent no. yds td lg no. yds td lg c-a-i yds td lg no. yds td lg no. yds td lg purp
Sep 02, 2023 at North Ala. 11 48 1 12 1 10 0 10 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 58
Sep 09, 2023 KENNESAW ST. 6 16 0 5 1 7 0 7 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 23
Sep 23, 2023 at Samford 11 48 1 12 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48
Sep 30, 2023 at Wofford 13 93 1 41 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 93
Oct 07, 2023 WESTERN CARO. 8 33 0 17 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 33
Oct 14, 2023 at Mercer 19 57 0 14 1 7 0 7 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 64
Oct 21, 2023 ETSU 20 71 2 12 1 7 0 7 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 78
Oct 28, 2023 at VMI 21 113 1 19 3 39 0 19 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 152
Totals 109 479 6 41 7 70 0 19 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 549


#36 Davis,Reggie
Rushing Receiving Passing Kick Ret Punt Ret all
Date Opponent no. yds td lg no. yds td lg c-a-i yds td lg no. yds td lg no. yds td lg purp
Sep 02, 2023 at North Ala. 1 -1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -1
Oct 21, 2023 ETSU 15 68 0 13 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 68
Oct 28, 2023 at VMI 7 65 1 45 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 65
Totals 23 132 1 45 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 132

I understand the staff is high on Reggie Davis as well. He was hurt in the first quarter of the tUNA game hence why he seemed to disappear until recently. Lance has looked impressive at times, but as you said, hasn't gotten many snaps - I'm not sure why. Appleberry is a veteran guy and has looked better this year, but as you remember last year vs. Furman, he was pretty ineffective. My take is that he's a serviceable back but he's not Ford. Hopefully he proves me wrong this weekend.

My real concern is with the Mocs defense, which has looked really good at times, and really bad at times. The game on Saturday may depend on which unit shows up.

[Davemeister]

gofurman: Are you skeered of the Mocs?

[saltyshaker]

no.

[The Jackal]

My guess is UTC isn't going to spend a lot of time trying to slam their QB or RB up into the teeth of Furman's run defense.

The Mocs are thinner at RB with Ford's injury. The backup Appleberry has a lot of experience, but I'm not sure how much depth they have behind him. The #3 RB had only registered 1 carry before Ford's injury in the ETSU game.

I suspect we'll see them try to force Furman to respect the run a bit, but my guess is their ticket to beating Furman is to let Artropeous drop back and throw it.

While he has not played much, FUBeAR understands the Mocs Coaching Staff is very high on Reggie Davis. In the Covid year, FUBeAR was impressed with Lance Jackson, but he has not seen many touches in his career there.

RUSHING
________________GP-GS Att Gain Loss Net Avg TD Long Avg/G
Appleberry,Gino 8-4 109 496 17 479 4.4 6 41 59.9
Davis,Reggie 3-0 23 137 5 132 5.7 1 45 44.0
Houston,Chris 7-0 28 104 5 99 3.5 0 19 14.1
Jackson,Lance 4-0 9 25 5 20 2.2 1 8

Appleberry still getting the most work, but Davis’ Attempts are on the rise with Ford out…

#8 Appleberry,Gino
Rushing Receiving Passing Kick Ret Punt Ret all
Date Opponent no. yds td lg no. yds td lg c-a-i yds td lg no. yds td lg no. yds td lg purp
Sep 02, 2023 at North Ala. 11 48 1 12 1 10 0 10 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 58
Sep 09, 2023 KENNESAW ST. 6 16 0 5 1 7 0 7 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 23
Sep 23, 2023 at Samford 11 48 1 12 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48
Sep 30, 2023 at Wofford 13 93 1 41 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 93
Oct 07, 2023 WESTERN CARO. 8 33 0 17 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 33
Oct 14, 2023 at Mercer 19 57 0 14 1 7 0 7 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 64
Oct 21, 2023 ETSU 20 71 2 12 1 7 0 7 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 78
Oct 28, 2023 at VMI 21 113 1 19 3 39 0 19 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 152
Totals 109 479 6 41 7 70 0 19 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 549


#36 Davis,Reggie
Rushing Receiving Passing Kick Ret Punt Ret all
Date Opponent no. yds td lg no. yds td lg c-a-i yds td lg no. yds td lg no. yds td lg purp
Sep 02, 2023 at North Ala. 1 -1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -1
Oct 21, 2023 ETSU 15 68 0 13 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 68
Oct 28, 2023 at VMI 7 65 1 45 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 65
Totals 23 132 1 45 0 0 0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 132

I understand the staff is high on Reggie Davis as well. He was hurt in the first quarter of the tUNA game hence why he seemed to disappear until recently. Lance has looked impressive at times, but as you said, hasn't gotten many snaps - I'm not sure why. Appleberry is a veteran guy and has looked better this year, but as you remember last year vs. Furman, he was pretty ineffective. My take is that he's a serviceable back but he's not Ford. Hopefully he proves me wrong this weekend.

My real concern is with the Mocs defense, which has looked really good at times, and really bad at times. The game on Saturday may depend on which unit shows up.

In my view, the playbook that seems to work against Furman the best is a lot of man coverage, bringing a safety up to add numbers against the run, and keeping a defender free on the backside to guard against the boot action.

Where Furman is most vulnerable, IMO, is when Huff can't seem to get into a passing rhythm. Furman is not a quick strike offense (or hasn't been) so teams have basically sacrificed trying to defend the big play in favor of just throwing as many bodies in the backfield as possible.