Furman Football Monday

[FUBeAR]

Interview was an interesting blend of candor and ADSpeak. Three things that jumped out at me:

1) Furman cannot and will not sign "jocks by the jock" like some of our Conference brethren. Methinks we
already knew that, but it is important to be reminded that the playing field is not level.

2) MORE basketball at the Well, especially with bigger schools that will not come to Timmons. He did
address my Q about the Poinsettia Classic, saying a multi-team event may be in the discussion but not
necessarily the Poinsettia. "A rose by any other name . . ." I know a number of Furman fans who love to
go to the Well but will not set foot in Timmons, no matter how much lipstick they put on it.

3) Furman is not married to the SoCon.

#3, very interesting!

User Error

[FUBeAR]

Interview was an interesting blend of candor and ADSpeak. Three things that jumped out at me:

1) Furman cannot and will not sign "jocks by the jock" like some of our Conference brethren. Methinks we
already knew that, but it is important to be reminded that the playing field is not level.

2) MORE basketball at the Well, especially with bigger schools that will not come to Timmons. He did
address my Q about the Poinsettia Classic, saying a multi-team event may be in the discussion but not
necessarily the Poinsettia. "A rose by any other name . . ." I know a number of Furman fans who love to
go to the Well but will not set foot in Timmons, no matter how much lipstick they put on it.

3) Furman is not married to the SoCon.

1) Coach Sheridan would agree. The field is not level. We know our Players are smarter than theirs.

3) Maybe not, but we’ve been relatively peacefully dating steady & cohabitating for 85 years (Note: ran out of fingers when I was counting decades before I edited this post from 55 to 85). We need to be very wary of some flashy, trashy blonde 2nd ‘wife’ luring us away and then putting a few drops of arsenic in our oatmeal every morning.

[gman84]

Interview was an interesting blend of candor and ADSpeak. Three things that jumped out at me:

1) Furman cannot and will not sign "jocks by the jock" like some of our Conference brethren. Methinks we
already knew that, but it is important to be reminded that the playing field is not level.

2) MORE basketball at the Well, especially with bigger schools that will not come to Timmons. He did
address my Q about the Poinsettia Classic, saying a multi-team event may be in the discussion but not
necessarily the Poinsettia. "A rose by any other name . . ." I know a number of Furman fans who love to
go to the Well but will not set foot in Timmons, no matter how much lipstick they put on it.

3) Furman is not married to the SoCon.

1) Coach Sheridan would agree. The field is not level. We know our Players are smarter than theirs.

3) Maybe not, but we’ve been relatively peacefully dating steady & cohabitating for 55 years. We need to be very wary of some flashy, trashy blonde 2nd ‘wife’ luring us away and then putting a few drops of arsenic in our oatmeal every morning.

I find this interesting because we have been in a steady relationship for 55 years. I'm not supporting the hottie of the month. I've watched too many forensic files episodes !

[The Jackal]

I think the question for the SoCon is do they try to strengthen their position. I'm nervous to just accept status quo around a changing landscape.

I know the SoCon takes pride in their "one true champion" model with every team playing every other team, but how did that work out for the Big 12?

The Big Sky may end up with 4 seeded teams in the post season bracket. One of those teams, Sacramento State, is ranked No. 11 and doesn't even play the two best teams in their own conference (Montana State/Eastern Washington). UC Davis is ranked in the top 10 and doesn't play Montana or Montana State.

Many brackets have Rhode Island in the playoffs. How'd they do against their conference mate, #2 James Madison? No idea. They didn't play them.

The SoCon is over here beating the crap out of one another while these other conferences do not even have their best teams playing one another. At some point, we may want to get on that boat.

[youwouldno]

The SoCon is perhaps an unhappier marriage than has generally been recognized. The private-public tensions have always been there.

The two things that are probably holding the conference together for now are (1) lack of alternatives and (2) basketball success. While the non-military public schools may be unhappy to varying degrees, all 4 of those schools are basketball first (and of course 'basketball only' in the case of UNC-G). It would be extremely unusual for a program invested in basketball to jump to a weaker conference. Plus there's a buyout, and schools have to be wary about making a jump 'too soon' and winding up in a worse situation (see CAA South).

[Furmanoid]

Interview was an interesting blend of candor and ADSpeak. Three things that jumped out at me:

1) Furman cannot and will not sign "jocks by the jock" like some of our Conference brethren. Methinks we
already knew that, but it is important to be reminded that the playing field is not level.

2) MORE basketball at the Well, especially with bigger schools that will not come to Timmons. He did
address my Q about the Poinsettia Classic, saying a multi-team event may be in the discussion but not
necessarily the Poinsettia. "A rose by any other name . . ." I know a number of Furman fans who love to
go to the Well but will not set foot in Timmons, no matter how much lipstick they put on it.

3) Furman is not married to the SoCon.

1) Coach Sheridan would agree. The field is not level. We know our Players are smarter than theirs.

3) Maybe not, but we’ve been relatively peacefully dating steady & cohabitating for 55 years. We need to be very wary of some flashy, trashy blonde 2nd ‘wife’ luring us away and then putting a few drops of arsenic in our oatmeal every morning.

Hasn't it been more like 85 years? That's a brutally long relationship. And during that time she's had every body part replaced except the one represented by Citadel (a couple of choices there). So she's not the same girl at all. There isn't any tradition much because the members have changed so much. It may be our best fit now, but its good to keep an open mind. If the smart kid policy makes it too hard to compete, maybe a new smart kid conference would be better some day. The problem is that we've already got most of the FCS football smart kid schools, so I don't know who would replace our dumb jock schools.

As far as getting to the playoffs goes, the answer is simple. Play better.

[FUBeAR]

Interview was an interesting blend of candor and ADSpeak. Three things that jumped out at me:

1) Furman cannot and will not sign "jocks by the jock" like some of our Conference brethren. Methinks we
already knew that, but it is important to be reminded that the playing field is not level.

2) MORE basketball at the Well, especially with bigger schools that will not come to Timmons. He did
address my Q about the Poinsettia Classic, saying a multi-team event may be in the discussion but not
necessarily the Poinsettia. "A rose by any other name . . ." I know a number of Furman fans who love to
go to the Well but will not set foot in Timmons, no matter how much lipstick they put on it.

3) Furman is not married to the SoCon.

1) Coach Sheridan would agree. The field is not level. We know our Players are smarter than theirs.

3) Maybe not, but we’ve been relatively peacefully dating steady & cohabitating for 55 years. We need to be very wary of some flashy, trashy blonde 2nd ‘wife’ luring us away and then putting a few drops of arsenic in our oatmeal every morning.

I find this interesting because we have been in a steady relationship for 55 years. I'm not supporting the hottie of the month. I've watched too many forensic files episodes !

*85 - sorry, edited my previous post to correct FUBeAR’s claw counting error.

[FUBeAR]

Interview was an interesting blend of candor and ADSpeak. Three things that jumped out at me:

1) Furman cannot and will not sign "jocks by the jock" like some of our Conference brethren. Methinks we
already knew that, but it is important to be reminded that the playing field is not level.

2) MORE basketball at the Well, especially with bigger schools that will not come to Timmons. He did
address my Q about the Poinsettia Classic, saying a multi-team event may be in the discussion but not
necessarily the Poinsettia. "A rose by any other name . . ." I know a number of Furman fans who love to
go to the Well but will not set foot in Timmons, no matter how much lipstick they put on it.

3) Furman is not married to the SoCon.

1) Coach Sheridan would agree. The field is not level. We know our Players are smarter than theirs.

3) Maybe not, but we’ve been relatively peacefully dating steady & cohabitating for 55 years. We need to be very wary of some flashy, trashy blonde 2nd ‘wife’ luring us away and then putting a few drops of arsenic in our oatmeal every morning.

Hasn't it been more like 85 years? That's a brutally long relationship. And during that time she's had every body part replaced except the one represented by Citadel (a couple of choices there). So she's not the same girl at all. There isn't any tradition much because the members have changed so much. It may be our best fit now, but its good to keep an open mind. If the smart kid policy makes it too hard to compete, maybe a new smart kid conference would be better some day. The problem is that we've already got most of the FCS football smart kid schools, so I don't know who would replace our dumb jock schools.

As far as getting to the playoffs goes, the answer is simple. Play better.

Yeah…before I saw your post, I recognized my really bad math.

CIT line is LOL HILARIOUS! Excellent work!! Thanks. You could even reverse the genders (it’s very popular these days) and your line still works.

Would love to get a Football-committed (and they are getting there) Davidson back in the SoCon. And Richmond and William & Mary are smart kid schools. FUBeAR could even swallow hard (like a CIT knob is req’d to do) and let E*Loan back in.

You are right though - SoCon’s & Furman’s options, like FUBeAR’s DM’s, should remain open.

[Furmanoid]

FUBeAR please elaborate a little about Davidson. If we could expel the dumb kid schools in favor of Davidson, W&M and Richmond we would put be putting the band back together sans ECU. That would be a conference to be proud of with everybody playing by the same rules.

[FUBeAR]

FUBeAR please elaborate a little about Davidson. If we could expel the dumb kid schools in favor of Davidson, W&M and Richmond we would put be putting the band back together sans ECU. That would be a conference to be proud of with everybody playing by the same rules.

https://www.davidson.edu/news/2021/09/ ... facilities

Davidson 2021 Football Schedule: OVERALL 7-2 PCT .778 CONF 6-1 PCT .857
Davidson Spring 2021 Football Schedule: OVERALL 4-3 PCT .571 CONF 4-1 PCT .800 (3rd loss was FCS Playoff game)
Davidson 2019 Football Schedule: OVERALL 8-4 PCT .667 CONF 5-3 PCT .625

Don’t need to expel the other kid schools because...

…Let’s see if FUBeAR can avoid a Biden-esque ‘poor kids / white kids’ faux pas here…

1) Smart kids can be as good at playing Football as less than smart kids. Even if some of them aren’t quite as good athletically, properly utilized, their ‘smarts’ can level (or favorably tilt) the playing field.

2) Kids who might not otherwise qualify academically to gain admission at a smart kid school are often admitted to such schools because they possess an exceptional talent, far exceeding that of ‘normal’ smart kids. Such talents may include a singing voice, playing of musical instruments, or being able to lock down Montrell Washington. When such students are admitted to smart kid schools, the schools, along with the exceptional effort of the exceptional student, can provide significant resources to ensure such students legitimately attain a degree from those smart kid schools.

FU, Wofford, Samford, and now Mercer have proven for years that these Private Schools can be competitive with WCU, Chatt, ETSU, UNCG…and throw in CIT & VMI (also State schools) if you want. We were also, never really not competitive with GaSou & Appy.

But…the changing times may be changing that disparity a bit. We have to adapt or become happy not being competitive. FUBeAR’s very little voice (matches his very little brain) chooses the former for his Alma Mater.

[din23]

Interview was an interesting blend of candor and ADSpeak. Three things that jumped out at me:

1) Furman cannot and will not sign "jocks by the jock" like some of our Conference brethren. Methinks we
already knew that, but it is important to be reminded that the playing field is not level.

2) MORE basketball at the Well, especially with bigger schools that will not come to Timmons. He did
address my Q about the Poinsettia Classic, saying a multi-team event may be in the discussion but not
necessarily the Poinsettia. "A rose by any other name . . ." I know a number of Furman fans who love to
go to the Well but will not set foot in Timmons, no matter how much lipstick they put on it.

3) Furman is not married to the SoCon.

Can you elaborate on #2? Have those fans who 'will not set foot in Timmons' been there in the past 5 years, or are their opinions of the arena tainted by angled seats, the stage, and the Davis/Jackson teams?

[Davemeister]

Can you elaborate on #2? Have those fans who 'will not set foot in Timmons' been there in the past 5 years, or are their opinions of the arena tainted by angled seats, the stage, and the Davis/Jackson teams?

All of the above. These are people who have nostalgic memories of the Big Brown Box and believe that Furman Basketball is best played in Downtown Greenville.

As the song goes: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone, They paved Paradise and put up a Parking Lot."

[Furmanoid]

FUBeAR please elaborate a little about Davidson. If we could expel the dumb kid schools in favor of Davidson, W&M and Richmond we would put be putting the band back together sans ECU. That would be a conference to be proud of with everybody playing by the same rules.

https://www.davidson.edu/news/2021/09/ ... facilities

Davidson 2021 Football Schedule: OVERALL 7-2 PCT .778 CONF 6-1 PCT .857
Davidson Spring 2021 Football Schedule: OVERALL 4-3 PCT .571 CONF 4-1 PCT .800 (3rd loss was FCS Playoff game)
Davidson 2019 Football Schedule: OVERALL 8-4 PCT .667 CONF 5-3 PCT .625

Don’t need to expel the other kid schools because...

…Let’s see if FUBeAR can avoid a Biden-esque ‘poor kids / white kids’ faux pas here…

1) Smart kids can be as good at playing Football as less than smart kids. Even if some of them aren’t quite as good athletically, properly utilized, their ‘smarts’ can level (or favorably tilt) the playing field.

2) Kids who might not otherwise qualify academically to gain admission at a smart kid school are often admitted to such schools because they possess an exceptional talent, far exceeding that of ‘normal’ smart kids. Such talents may include a singing voice, playing of musical instruments, or being able to lock down Montrell Washington. When such students are admitted to smart kid schools, the schools, along with the exceptional effort of the exceptional student, can provide significant resources to ensure such students legitimately attain a degree from those smart kid schools.

FU, Wofford, Samford, and now Mercer have proven for years that these Private Schools can be competitive with WCU, Chatt, ETSU, UNCG…and throw in CIT & VMI (also State schools) if you want. We were also, never really not competitive with GaSou & Appy.

But…the changing times may be changing that disparity a bit. We have to adapt or become happy not being competitive. FUBeAR’s very little voice (matches his very little brain) chooses the former for his Alma Mater.

Gotcha. I just thought you had some inside scoop on them bringing back scholarships.

I think we can still compete with our kinda guy. But if that is true, I wish people would stop using the academic excuse when we lose. We can use our intelligence and studying skills to out execute the competition as long as we don’t overestimate our smarts and overcomplicate things trying to master 50 plays. I think sometimes we tend to do that.

I fear the changing times may eventually lead to the demise of the NCAA. Most people SAY good riddance. But without the NCAA there will be no eligibility rules at all. I could imagine there being a minority of schools that still want to do real college sports, and I’d rather be in that group. I imagine 2 or 3 other SoCon schools might be more in favor of the no rules model.

[FurmAlum]

Well Done F'oid! Even I was able to figure out which body part El Cid might represent.

As for the NCAA, as much as I hate them, I think they are a necessary evil. Some of those schools that you mentioned that might like to have "no rules" need to remember that if you sell your soul to the devil you will wind up in HELL.

[gofurman]

I appreciate Donnelly's candor. He does well walking the line between giving an honest assessment and not overreacting. Overreacting is the fan's job.

For me, that's encouraging.

I think the coaches are learning to operate in a new world that is rapidly changing and, admittedly, we may not have been prepared for.

Love it. TRUTH instead of coach speak. A few people have defended CH using vague coach-speak but here we see that JD avoids such and is much more transparent- let’s remember this. Even our own AD gives us more on ‘QB situation’ etc than our coach.

Anyway, we hear in this interview that you can be tactful and yet transparent and informative . Thanks to JD. nice to hear someone say “we messed up on the QB”etc. We mostly knew this but still nice to hear an insider say it