The Unofficial Furman Football Page

IMHO we are pretty close to having a good team if we can just get some consistent QB play. I think our receivers, runnig backs are good enough to get the job done, The OL is not there yet but is showing progress and is still young. The huge miissing link is quarterback. We have only 2 choices. I believe the QB change was made last night because in a close game CCH felt more comfortable with HS in the game. Then he fumbles a good snap on third and short. Jace is a freshman and had a very freshman like game. That is to be expected but it was disappointing that he missed some WIDE open receivers that were not difficult throws. He did turn a couple of what looked like sure losses into positive yardage early in the game which HS is not capable of. IMHO JW still gives us the best chance to win because of his huge upside. I get the feeling he can do something special on any play. I don’t get that feeling with HS in the game. Of course we have a much larger sample size witn HS than JW. Maybe that is why I think JW gives us the best chance, We have seen what HS can and can’t do. JW is still an unknown so I guess that is why I think he gives us the best chance. Could be just wishful thinking. With that said I think HS will start against ETSU. I hope we learn somthing on the CCH show tomorrow but doubt it. Thoughts?

So, I both agree and disagree.

Yes, there were some open receivers. They weren't all easy throws, though. For instance, there was one play where Deluca streaked across the field and into the flat and Wilson missed him. Yes, he was open. He was still trying to hit a WR running away from him across the field in the flat. That's a small target to hit.

I haven't gone back, but I would wager that Citadel was probably doing some things defensively that led Furman to not be as comfortable trying to roll Wilson out like they did against Wofford. You saw early on that Citadel was brining heavy pressure well off the edge, and that may have given the coaches pause about trying to run some more slow developing plays outside the pocket.

It also wouldn't surprise me if Wilson had some jitters. It was a rivalry game. There was a 15 mph wind. The temperatures were dropping. You had the corps in the stands. I can see where a kid maybe wasn't quite as loose as he was on a sunny warm day at Gibbs Stadium the week prior.

When Furman made the switch to Wilson, we all knew there were going to be games where he had to learn on the job. It's like that with every young QB. The good news is that even despite a weak game at the position, we still won.

It's been my opinion for a while that our defense is good enough to win football games. Our offensive coordinator needs to sometimes be reminded that he has some behemoths in the backfield that need the football, but as long as our QB isn't crushing us, we can still win.

Agree but just to add to that last sentence “we can still win against not so good teams”. We have to be able to throw the ball to a certain degree to beat better than mediocre teams. It is bad when the Citadel more than doubles you in completions.

apaladin wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Agree but just to add to that last sentence “we can still win against not so good teams”. We have to be able to throw the ball to a certain degree to beat better than mediocre teams. It is bad when the Citadel more than doubles you in completions.

There's no real question that to beat better teams we are going to have to be able to throw it.

We don't have to light up the scoreboard. We scored 24 points yesterday. With our defense, 24 points would have been enough to win every game (would have tied Mercer) this season and most of the spring games.

The Jackal wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 17, 2021 2:23 pm

apaladin wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Agree but just to add to that last sentence “we can still win against not so good teams”. We have to be able to throw the ball to a certain degree to beat better than mediocre teams. It is bad when the Citadel more than doubles you in completions.

There's no real question that to beat better teams we are going to have to be able to throw it.

We don't have to light up the scoreboard. We scored 24 points yesterday. With our defense, 24 points would have been enough to win every game (would have tied Mercer) this season and most of the spring games.

Yep. 25 is a good goal for us on O. That would win a lot of games fir us. Mercer probably doesn’t score 24 if we score 25 bc we have the ball more. If we score 25 every game we are leading the SoCon in all likelihood at 3-0 undefeated in FCS

I was sort of thinking the same thing. 24 points is fine. And if we do it with a run game and long, slow, boring drives it’s even better.

Start Jace

I think this paints a better picture about the Wofford game. Maybe a HS lead offense would have had similar results? Heck, I’ll bet I could have done pretty good with #0 putting up 200 yards. That’s what was missing in the first few games was Oline play. Maybe Jace being in the game caused those holes, maybe Wofford just stinks? Either way anyone would have been crazy to expect the same result Saturday with Freshman QB and no #0.

A few years ago during the DG/HS split share at QB I posted something to the effect of “we need to pick one QB and ride him the whole season.” I was happy when that finally happened before the Spring. Not caring who necessarily is under center, but just happy there was a definitive starter. Of course I did not like the result from the Spring but counted it as progress toward a seasoned QB we’ve lacked for quite some time.

Well here we are again, two viable QBs and plenty of questions. Jace is a freshman and will play like one. He’ll have his highs and lows but will we just bring in HS when those lows come like we did with DG? I don’t like that for the team or for developing a QB. Are we just giving up on HS (he’s a team captain) or are we going to tease him with playing time? It just feels like we’re starting over with this QB project. If we are let’s do it right and put everything into Jace. Hopefully HS can still be a captain as a backup QB.

It just makes me wonder what it’s like in the meeting rooms. Was this always HS job to lose and Jace was in contention for the whole time? If we’ve seen HS ceiling and prefer the inconsistency of starting a freshman, how bad is Luke Shiflett under center? I know we won’t see it but I wish he had been given a real shot at QB. I’m wondering what Jace has that Shiflett doesn’t.

Anyways, let’s pick a QB and stick with it. Maybe coaches were just playing it safe with Jace and HS was playing backup duty, not replacing him? I just dread watching another episode of who’s playing better at QB this week.

I think JW is our starting QB but for a boost if things are not going well we could see HS to steady the ship. Makes sense to me. Time will tell.

It seems our receivers and Ryan Miller are good enough for us to have a decent passing game.

This was our true freshman QBs 2nd start. He also did not report until June. He was not here in January. He has the arm, no question, needs the game experience. He is 2-0 as a starter. We won.

DeepPurple wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:49 am

This was our true freshman QBs 2nd start. He also did not report until June. He was not here in January. He has the arm, no question, needs the game experience. He is 2-0 as a starter. We won.

Not excuses, but it was a 15 mph wind and temps in the 50s.

I know where that kid is from, and I'd be surprised if he's ever played a football game in cool windy temps. It's an adjustment.

If he can only complete passes in sunny temps, no wind and 75 degrees, we have serious issues.

bj93 wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:07 am

If he can only complete passes in sunny temps, no wind and 75 degrees, we have serious issues.

That's not what I said.

The Jackal wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:13 am

bj93 wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:07 am

If he can only complete passes in sunny temps, no wind and 75 degrees, we have serious issues.

That's not what I said.

College football is mostly played outdoors and mostly in the Fall/Winter.

‘Bout 10 degrees cooler in GVL vs. HOU during Football season w/‘bout the same number of days of precipitation (almost always regular old rain in both locations).

Is 10 degrees cooler really worth having this convo?

Heck, GVL probably feels 30 degrees cooler than COLA (AKA “Hades’ Sun Deck”) most of the year. We need to be discussing how Hugh Ryan (Irmo, SC) has adapted to the comparatively frigid climate in GVL. He may have acclimated now in his 3rd year living away from the center of the sun.