• Tennessee Tech - August 31

 #74883  by I-85 Paladin
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 9:25 am
Just nice to see us go get a good win. For me OL wasn't as dominant as I like (but their D was selling out on the run) and Huff wasn't as sharp as I would like. D looked pretty good especially down the stretch. They were the definition of opportunistic.
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 #74884  by The Jackal
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 9:28 am
Went back through the game this morning. My thoughts:

1. I didn't hate what I saw on offense. Yes, there were some procedure penalties. Those will get cleaned up. Yes, there were some missed blocks. Those will get cleaned up. It wasn't a lack of effort. Those sorts of issues can make life difficult on an offense, put you behind the chains and throw off the schedule.

2. On Huff's interception, it looked like Pline turned the wrong way. No, you don't like to throw interceptions, but it was pretty clear that was a miscommunication with a new player to the system. That'll get cleaned up.

3. Our defensive front seven basically wholesale rotated every drive. Both units were fast, physical, and aggressive. Tackling was largely very good. Both Gilby and Dimaggio were hammering runners in the hole.

4. Xavier Stephens has added weight at NG, but was still mobile enough to pick off a screen pass. I think he and Cook are going to be a solid rotation in the middle of the defense.

5. Hendrix commented post game that we probably allowed TTU to "play in a phone booth." Lot of inside zone reads that allowed TTU to overload the box. On some plays inside the 10, the Golden Eagles had 9 guys crashing the line. Hard to block 9 with 7 regardless of the opponent. I don't think we'll see that balance of play calling in conference play.

6. Colton Hinton looks incredibly elusive as a wide receiver. Hendrix noted he is explosive and also was diving for loose balls and got his helmet ripped off. I think we're going to like him and appears to be a guy that is going to allow easy throws with big play potential. I think we'll see him house a kickoff at least once this year.

7. TTU really wasn't able to run the ball, which was supposed to be their strength. The game plan appeared to essentially play keep away, and most of their pass attempts were little dink, dunks, flares, bubbles, screens, etc. Hard to do that playing from behind and incredibly hard to beat a good defense with that approach.

8. Lot of stuff I liked on defense, but our ability to funnel the ball carrier back to tacklers was particularly good. Our linemen frequently sucked up double teams, our DBs took on blocks, and everything was funneled back to our linebackers.

9. Easily won special teams. Had a big punt return. Leavy averaged over 51 yards per punt. You can win a lot of games pinning teams deep on special teams supporting a good defense.

10. There were some misfires on passes, especially inside of 10 yards. Last season, these throws typically were directed at Ryan Miller. Now, Furman is going to have to get a new crop of guys on the same page with timing. Throws were open, just a little out of synch with timing.

11. 384 yards is on par with most of our games last year. Considering we scored two touchdowns without the offense on the field and had several short fields, that's a pretty decent day moving the football.

12. TTU's #22 is Marcus Knight, who held rushing records at Montana before transferring. He basically ran into a black-shirted wall every time he touched it.

13. I think teams are pretty much going to stop throwing it at Blackshear. It looks like TTU attempted to throw his direction twice in the first half - the first time was a pick six, the second time should have been intercepted, but just batted down.

14. TTU made a nice play on their end of half touchdown. We can't give away a throw like that right before the half. It was covered, but gotta make that play.

15. The two minute drill before the half (again, minus the penalties) wasn't terrible. Williams had the leg from 57, just pulled it a bit.

16. Norman and Toomey appear to be alright. Norman walked off by himself and Hendrix said Toomey could have returned. I'm surprised we didn't have more injuries - TTU's safeties were attacking the run by basically launching themselves full speed at everyone's legs.

17. We had two drives in the second half starting deep in TTU territory that netted a turnover and a field goal. We've gotta convert those to touchdowns.


All in, I didn't hate what I saw. I thought our offensive game plan was very close to the vest - I saw a lot of inside zone runs against a team hell-bent on stopping the run. We had timing issues, some missed blocks, and procedure penalties, all of which you expect in Week 1. I'm not sure how much of the perceived "offensive line concerns" was just TTU having more players committed to stopping the run than we had to block them.

Defensively, I was very impressed. TTU's offense basically became lateral throws. Other than the one touchdown throw, from about 30 yards out, they never really threatened the end zone. The defense was fast, aggressive, and athletic. Anytime the opposing offense throws more touchdowns to your team than their team, it's a good night.

Special teams looked strong. Punting looked good. Coverage was good. Kicks were good. Returns were good.
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 #74889  by tya1
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:15 am
In agreement with most of the comments on this thread.

Defense was great, offense had a few hiccups but was pretty good despite that. Special teams were great.

Huff powered through any problems.
I haven't "checked the tape" but it seemed TTU lost interest in challenging Blackshear and was focusing a lot of defensive attention on Harris and Roberto. Didn't do anything but hurt their individual stats. They moved the ball early but we took that away from them in the second half.
Their TD was a very good throw and a good catch in traffic. Sometimes the other guys just make plays. They could not make enough of them though to really challenge..
Our offense had two fewer possessions because of the two pick 6 TDs and less total possession time but still had 88 more yards than TTU.
Can never be unhappy with a second half shutout.
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 #74895  by apaladin
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 1:12 pm
The Jackal wrote:
Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:06 am
I'm not concerned.

384 yards is on par with what we would do week to week last season. Hendrix noted we had a few linemen playing some of their first meaningful snaps of their careers and they'd have some things to clean up, but didn't seem worried.

Played a lot of guys on both sides of the ball, which is good for depth development.

On to USC.
384 is not bad but the concern is thru 3 and a half quaters we barely had 200 yds. 47% of that yardage came in the last 7.5 minutes when the game was decided and TTU was done. Way too many drives that didn’t go anywhere the first 3 and a half quarters.
 #74896  by GOAT
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 1:52 pm
My hope is we win every game 45-10 and people come on this board during the game and after game and complain about how bad we are. It will be a great season for the football team and lots of therapy for the people who need it.
Bootie liked this
 #74897  by The Jackal
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 2:29 pm
apaladin wrote:
Fri Sep 01, 2023 1:12 pm
The Jackal wrote:
Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:06 am
I'm not concerned.

384 yards is on par with what we would do week to week last season. Hendrix noted we had a few linemen playing some of their first meaningful snaps of their careers and they'd have some things to clean up, but didn't seem worried.

Played a lot of guys on both sides of the ball, which is good for depth development.

On to USC.
384 is not bad but the concern is thru 3 and a half quaters we barely had 200 yds. 47% of that yardage came in the last 7.5 minutes when the game was decided and TTU was done. Way too many drives that didn’t go anywhere the first 3 and a half quarters.
Football is four quarters of football. Equally timed. Equally weighted.

The rules also changed this year that the clock doesn't stop on first downs. So, the quarters will move a little quicker, which may result in fewer possessions.

For instance, with two non-offensive touchdowns, Furman essentially lost two possessions. Our offense only had the ball once in the first quarter.
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 #74908  by gman84
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:53 pm
My how times have changed. 6-7 years ago we would have been gushing over a 45-10 win. Now we are upset that we didn’t win 56-0. I even texted a fellow uffper that our offense was stinking it up half way through the 3rd quarter. Shame on me ! I’d rather have things to fix than think we are unbeatable.
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 #74915  by FurmAlum
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 10:52 pm
It's nice to have some Bitching and Moaning and win 45-10. :D

I admit I was frustrated with the offense. If it had been in-synch we would have scored at least 3 more touchdowns. 66-10. It will all get fixed. Better to let the Lamecocks think the O is not up to the task.

The defense was awesome. They put a hurtin on some people. I bet there will be a lot of TTU players in the whirlpool this weekend.
 #74917  by AllTimeFU
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:12 pm
gofurman wrote:
Fri Sep 01, 2023 2:30 am
apaladin wrote:
Fri Sep 01, 2023 2:07 am
gofurman wrote:
Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:34 pm
FU3 wrote:
Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:22 pm
Norman had cramps. O looked out of sync D is going to be very good. Pessimists are in almost post season form! On to Columbia.
Hmm. We NEED Toomey and Johanning. NEED
GF-CCH said in the postgame presser Toomey is fine and could have went back in the game. Great news!
That is GREAT news !! GREAT.

Thank you. I couldn’t listen to raidio show

Is Hughes ok? Didn’t see him late in game
I don’t recall Hughes coming out hurt.
 #74918  by AllTimeFU
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:13 pm
The Jackal wrote:
Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:16 pm
gofurman wrote:
Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:12 pm
The Jackal wrote:
Thu Aug 31, 2023 9:58 pm
furmandad wrote:
Thu Aug 31, 2023 9:51 pm
Jackal, thought you felt OL was deep/ experienced (all been with the program a while) and cross trained in different positions. Do you think it’s just opening night jitters?

I don't read much into week 1 games.

As best I can tell, we currently have zero guys in the game playing where we thought they'd be in terms of the starting line. Toomey came out, Norman out, Johanning out. Hughes playing center, etc.

Some of the missed blocks on the edge have been our grad TE in his first D1 football game.

As usual, I'm a glass half full, but I'm not worried.
Ok. So Hughes is ok?.

Any word on Toomey or Norman ?!!!

On TV, looks like Norman has ice on his calf, but is still dressed in uniform.
Ice was below his left knee.
 #74919  by AllTimeFU
 Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:16 pm
The Jackal wrote:
Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:49 am
A look into the future as freshman Jayquan Smith barrels into the endzone behind sophomore Myion Hicks.

TTU had two defenders plugging the hole. Hicks blew up one. Smith blew up the other.




I was a huge fan of Smith's film when Furman signed him a couple of years ago. Good to see him starting to work into the rotation.
We are getting a glimpse!
 #74991  by FurmanATT
 Sun Sep 03, 2023 4:51 pm
This is one of the more amazing, if somewhat trivial, statistics I've ever seen.
Ryan Leavy punted 4 times for a 51.2 average, with a longest of 52. In other words, all four were almost exactly the same.
That's not easy to do. -- MD
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 #75015  by The Jackal
 Mon Sep 04, 2023 7:41 am
Went back and watched this one a few times. I liked what I saw.

This is a good example of what we may see a lot with two TE sets this year. Play appears to be a read option (maybe even with option to throw off the QB keeper). Pline is in line on the left with Gissinger lined up behind him.

End man is left unblocked, who Huff reads. Gissinger, Pline, Toomey, and Petit just collapse the defensive right. I love that Gissinger has his hand on Pline and is coming right off his hip to the second level. They pretty much pile drive TTU's defensive front into the turf. Roberto makes a nice read, gets past the unblocked man and cuts back out into green space.

Also, when you talk about team identity, look at Harris at the bottom of the screen block his man to Timmons Arena. That guy wasn't making a play on this one, but Harris escorted him off the field anyway.

 #75019  by FUBeAR
 Mon Sep 04, 2023 8:59 am
The Jackal wrote:
Mon Sep 04, 2023 7:41 am
Went back and watched this one a few times. I liked what I saw.

This is a good example of what we may see a lot with two TE sets this year. Play appears to be a read option (maybe even with option to throw off the QB keeper). Pline is in line on the left with Gissinger lined up behind him.

End man is left unblocked, who Huff reads. Gissinger, Pline, Toomey, and Petit just collapse the defensive right. I love that Gissinger has his hand on Pline and is coming right off his hip to the second level. They pretty much pile drive TTU's defensive front into the turf. Roberto makes a nice read, gets past the unblocked man and cuts back out into green space.

Also, when you talk about team identity, look at Harris at the bottom of the screen block his man to Timmons Arena. That guy wasn't making a play on this one, but Harris escorted him off the field anyway.

Oooh - that p/s LB and p/s DLman were hatin’ Football and regretting their foolish decisions to play Defense on this play. Gissinger & Toomey MASHED them. 2 Pancake Stack!!

Now FUBeAR woulda rather seen the b/s OG wrapping and mashing that p/s LB (Power-scheme) while Gissinger was mashing the b/s LB (#20 - who does hit the RB, after taking 2 false steps the wrong way) because the p/s OG can’t get to him with that angle - even after the LB’s false steps. But that would have required a Scoop-to-Cutoff from the b/s OT…and maybe 6-7 / 343 don’t Scoop. No worries … #8 can run thru most SoCon LB’s. Can he run thru SDSU’s, NDSU’s, and/or MontSt’s though? Maybe…FUBeAR just too much wants to block (or option) ‘em all …like the old days.
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