The Unofficial Furman Football Page

We are on the road, but as of this writing 6:28 pm on Saturday, Elon is playing in Tampa while Furman is sitting at home (probably watching Elon play in Tampa).

Elon dropped their contest to USF 34-14. The Bulls led 24-0 at the half and then pushed it to 31-0.

The Phoenix couldn't do anything throwing the ball, but managed to get some good work out of their running backs. They look deeper at RB this year than when we last saw them.

This will be a big game Saturday.

Watched a good bit of the game — this is obvious but USF is no Clemson, early I thought Elon had a good game plan Elon appeared bigger offensive line vs defensive line. As Jackal noted they have three RB's that are clones 5-9 205ish they were running hard early. Cheek did not look good throwing the ball. They did click better on offense when IMO they let the cat out of the bag — they brought in running back Jaylan Thomas under center. Thomas ran for 87 yards.

I'd assume Staggs will be ready for that. Trapp, based on what I saw Saturday will cause most FCS teams to not throw to his side, I guess we will see.

Digging around to see if the Elon game will have a video broadcast — I'm going to be at Myrtle Beach for Mustang Week and I don't think I want to tackle a drive from MB to Elon.

The Elon site lists - COLLEGE SPORTS LIVE / CBS DIGITAL as the video partner for the game.
I have CBS Live through Hulu, back they aren't listing the Elon Furman game, and College Sports Live has a basic site that appears to be good at hiding a schedule.

Maybe we'll learn more as the week moves along.

Ok, it was a browser issue SportsLive has the game listed.

The game is free streaming also thru CBS Sports Live.

http://www.collegesportslive.com/

http://www.collegesportslive.com/?media=576315

This is such a huge game for both teams

This game will also be on your Roku.

Elon, like Furman, was a young team last year. We'll see pretty much the same cast of characters. I watched a good bit of their game against USF, and came away with some general thoughts.

Offensively, Elon tries to run out of the spread. They look really similar to Furman's pre-2017 look. A lot of outside runs in multiple receiver sets. No real fullback, but moves the TE/H back around to act as an extra blocker.

David Cheek looks like he's the guy. Jalen Greene came in after the game was decided and led Elon on a touchdown drive. When Greene is in the game, it looks much more like a pure shotgun read option game. Greene can throw it, but not often. He gave Furman some trouble last year early in the season.

Defensively, they are a base 3-3-5. This is a bit different than what we typically see, and it can cause a little confusion for the OL because defenders can come from just about anywhere. It did look like USF was able to throw over their heads a few times, which Furman was able to do some in last year's playoff game.

Another casual observation - they are big. Both their offensive and defensive lines have a number of guys 330+. I do not watch them and think they are built with a lot of team speed. They look like they are built to lean on you.

Last season our offense moved the ball well on them and our defense was able to limit them. We had them guessing a bunch on defense late last season.

I watched alot of this game also and while USF was the better team Elon showed a few flashes of being pretty good. Both lines are big, same NG from last year at 340 lbs. OL tall and 300 lb avg. Good speed at skill positions.
This game concerns me because we are on the road again and their coaching staff will have some idea of what we are doing. Their coaching staff seems competent now. I hope the improvemeant between 1st and 2nd game shows for us. We can't go up there and make mistakes in execution or turn the ball over. This bunch will take advantage. I'm sure last year's game is on their mind.
We have to get some consistency from our starters whomever they are. Im sure play calling will change/improve because we were so limited at Clemptson. I feel from seeing our team and Elon we are the better team and staff but this is an early test for sure. Clay and staff will have the team ready just no trap game.

furman88 wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 03, 2018 9:29 am

I watched alot of this game also and while USF was the better team Elon showed a few flashes of being pretty good. Both lines are big, same NG from last year at 340 lbs. OL tall and 300 lb avg. Good speed at skill positions.
This game concerns me because we are on the road again and their coaching staff will have some idea of what we are doing. Their coaching staff seems competent now. I hope the improvemeant between 1st and 2nd game shows for us. We can't go up there and make mistakes in execution or turn the ball over. This bunch will take advantage. I'm sure last year's game is on their mind.
We have to get some consistency from our starters whomever they are. Im sure play calling will change/improve because we were so limited at Clemptson. I feel from seeing our team and Elon we are the better team and staff but this is an early test for sure. Clay and staff will have the team ready just no trap game.

Probably a good reminder that even though the playoff game was a 1 point squeaker, Furman largely outplayed Elon.

Thomas Gordon had two uncharacteristically bad mistakes - two fumbles deep in our zone. Elon had two touchdown drives of about 25 yards. Blazejowski also threw a pick in the endzone from Elon's 6 yard line. Different results there and Furman probably wins by two scores.

Oddly enough, it was a similar story in our first game as well. Furman fumbled deep in our own zone twice, leading to Elon touchdown drives of 24 and 23 yards. We pretty much spotted them 21 points early. Anoor saved our fannies by intercepting a ball on the goalline before the Phoenix made it a 4 TD lead early.

I won't say this with 100% certainty, but I think both Elon games last year were our ugliest games from a mistakes standpoint. In two games, 6 fumbles, 4 lost, and an interception in the endzone. We don't do that again and I think we'll be fine.

Of course I think we will get a better feel of where we are this week. The BIG question of course is will we be able to generate any kind of consistent offense?? Will we throw more than 10-12 times. I think the defense is fine but I think we will see a couple of adjustments in personnel.

apaladin wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 03, 2018 11:08 am

Of course I think we will get a better feel of where we are this week. The BIG question of course is will we be able to generate any kind of consistent offense?? Will we throw more than 10-12 times?

Well, in 14 games under Clay Hendrix, we've generated consistent offense against every team we've played that wasn't the best defense in the country. So, I think we'll be alright.

furman88 wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 03, 2018 9:29 am

Both lines are big...OL tall and 300 lb avg.

At an average of 6'3"/304, their starting OL is 2 inches shorter than FU's.

They do have a 6'5" 335 OT starting (who can only block 1 guy at a time...maybe). The other 4 average 296 lbs...probably just a bit below average size of the OL Starters in the SoCon these days. WCU averages 312, Chatt 311, and Sammy is right there at 301. Only El Cid would be considered 'small' up front and FU is, comparatively, a bit light (which I like!) for their height.

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 03, 2018 11:39 am

furman88 wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 03, 2018 9:29 am

Both lines are big...OL tall and 300 lb avg.

At an average of 6'3"/304, their starting OL is 2 inches shorter than FU's.

They do have a 6'5" 335 OT starting (who can only block 1 guy at a time...maybe). The other 4 average 296 lbs...probably just a bit below average size of the OL Starters in the SoCon these days. WCU averages 312, Chatt 311, and Sammy is right there at 301. Only El Cid would be considered 'small' up front and FU is, comparatively, a bit light (which I like!) for their height.

Speaking of big offensive linemen Bo KcKinney (6-7 335) got some good snaps in the second half. I believe he was playing on both drives the one that ended with a fumble and the touchdown drive.