thoughts on the morning after

[Jasper]

Clemson appears to be a legit contender for the national title. They have some athletes on both sides of the ball that we fortunately will not face for the rest of this season. Their defense speaks for itself. The freshman QB and RB looked awesome. Wide receivers made some unbelievable catches.
The Furman defense will be very formidable in the FCS and dominant in the SoCon. The halftime score should have been 13-0 -even with some offensive and special teams blunders. They understandably wore down after that but with only 5 or 6 minutes remaining in the half, the Tigers were in a football game.
I have been concerned about our offense since the scrimmage a few weeks ago and continue to be. I did not like some of the play calling. Our offensive scheme does not look like 2017. Because it was CU, I think we can just forget it and get a better idea of what we will be like for this year in next week's Elon game.
Is Harris Roberts still hurt and only given a token start to hand off 3 times before being pulled and is he still in the QB mix? Most posters on this forum seem to think we will be going with one or both of the freshmen. That is OK with me. I thought they both looked pretty good yesterday and will certainly mature and get better.
None of the SoCon teams were very impressive yesterday. Augurs well for the Paladins.
I expect the coaching staff will make some personnel tweaks after Week 1. Perhaps Kroeber back to g/t - more PT for Gilby - freshmen PT at RB - Sanders PT at FB

All in all and forgetting the score, it was a better game against the FBS team than last year. At this time next week, we will have a better handle on the 2018 season outlook.

[The Jackal]

1. I think Hendrix said post game that Roberts wasn't 100%. They gave him the honor of starting the game, didn't let him throw a pass, and then pulled him.

2. I think we will still see Kroeber at C. Playing C is hard because you have to do all the OL stuff, but also snap the ball. Against a really good defensive front, you can get some happy feet.

3. Clemson's WRs threw some big blocks downfield. They are as big as most of the TEs we will face in SoCon play and twice as fast.

4. I'm not worried about the offensive play calling. The defense we faced was incredibly good. There's a lot of slow developing stuff in our playbook that we killed teams with last year that would have just been gobbled up by Clemson. You have to scheme against your opponent, and the worst thing we could have done yesterday is let their defensive linemen get up a head of steam against our QBs.

5. My thoughts on the QB are this - Furman is still a young team (11 seniors). If everything else is equal, you might as well go with the younger QBs who can gain experience along with the rest of the team. Furman, I think, will return their entire offensive line and receiving corps next season. Might as well let those guys play together.

[Davemeister]

In the radio pre-game, Morehead was listed as a starter at RB. I don't believe he played at all. Injuri?

I was also expecting to see HS get a series or two at QB. Is he OK?

[Paul C]

I think Sisson went in when Grainger lost his helmet. But we called TO and he came back out.

[The Jackal]

I think Sisson went in when Grainger lost his helmet. But we called TO and he came back out.

I feel quite confident in saying that Lincoln took the next snap after that. I'm not saying you are incorrect, I just think Lincoln was eventually the guy that took the snap.

If Sisson didn't play in that game, it seems unlikely we see him this year barring injury.

[apaladin]

Coach Hendrix said on the postgame they would go with 2 QB's. I think it is obviously Lincoln and Grainger. BTW did anyone else take offense at the GNews use of the word "stomps" in their headline? Of course it was never mentioned that FU's 2 QB's had never taken a snap until yesterday. This was also by far the least amount of coverage of a Clempson game I have ever seen.

[AstroDin]

Sisson #19 had on a red mesh over his jersey he was calling in signals with Vita and Hardin.

I do think we'll see some tweaks;
Porter #37 played very well at SPUR he gives us great size and athletic ability.
Neely played very well at center against the Clemson reserves, I might be alone in my thinking but I could see Kroeber moving back to guard - I trust Lusk and Hendrix to make the right move if necessary.
Ditto on GIlby.
Watkins looks good as does Bell… those two are going to make some plays, I'll be curious to see what kind of havoc Bell makes in the open field against FCS talent.
I agree with Jackal — our skill players are young — Lincoln and Grainger are the future — I'd get them reps and clean up timing and reads. We have two games for them to learn and grow before the real season starts at ETSU.

[PaladinDad]

My thoughts were that the defense played very well. I thought our corners and LB's were very impressive! Not concerned about the play calling because i think there was alot of variables this week. I am going to disagree with most of you guys when it comes to the qb situation. I will agree that if it was equal to go with one of the young guys, but the word i have gotten is that has not been equal day to day. I think if Roberts is healthy he is the starter, but i do think Grainger is closing the gap. We all sometimes see a guy make a great athletic play and think "man that guy is talented". What we don't realize as fans is the reason he continues to have to make athletic plays is because he made the wrong read, didn't make the throw he was suppose to, etc. Again i think all of these young men are great and really good people, but if i had to make the depth chart I would go Roberts, Grainger, Lincoln. Luckily i dont have to make that decision lol

[AstroDin]

Paladin Dad… I think your words are wise. Us fans always pine for the backup quarterback, I have a long history of doing just that.

Furman's in a bit of pickle with quarterbacks… you have a redshirt senior who has been banged up for most of the pre-season. You have a redshirt freshman and two true freshmen.

We could rock the FCS this season but I'm looking forward to 2019. In 2019, on offense Gordo is a SR, Burnette is a JR, you'll have a seasoned o-line I would hate to see us back in the position of breaking in a quarterback, again.

It sounds like for Elon it's going to be Lincoln and Grainger based on Clay's comments, I guess we will have to wait and see what happens when Roberts is finally healthy.

[Affirm]

Sisson #19 had on a red mesh over his jersey he was calling in signals with Vita and Hardin.

I do think we'll see some tweaks;
Porter #37 played very well at SPUR he gives us great size and athletic ability.
Neely played very well at center against the Clemson reserves, I might be alone in my thinking but I could see Kroeber moving back to guard - I trust Lusk and Hendrix to make the right move if necessary.
Ditto on GIlby.
Watkins looks good as does Bell… those two are going to make some plays, I'll be curious to see what kind of havoc Bell makes in the open field against FCS talent.
I agree with Jackal — our skill players are young — Lincoln and Grainger are the future — I'd get them reps and clean up timing and reads. We have two games for them to learn and grow before the real season starts at ETSU.

Elon and Colgate also are both VERY important - and VERY difficult, especially Elon away - though I of course realize why you say “real season”.

[sluggo]

It was a tough day to be a QB.
I can't imagine our QB's seeing anything as tough as that for the rest of the season.

If any of our players had the jitters, then it's understandable considering the competition.
But the jitters should be gone forever after facing probably the best team in the nation.

Based on the playing time of the QB's; I'm guessing that Lincoln will start but Grainger will be in tight competition.
Having the young QB's mature this season through playing time is a good bet for long term.

[The Jackal]

Paladin Dad… I think your words are wise. Us fans always pine for the backup quarterback, I have a long history of doing just that.

Furman's in a bit of pickle with quarterbacks… you have a redshirt senior who has been banged up for most of the pre-season. You have a redshirt freshman and two true freshmen.

We could rock the FCS this season but I'm looking forward to 2019. In 2019, on offense Gordo is a SR, Burnette is a JR, you'll have a seasoned o-line I would hate to see us back in the position of breaking in a quarterback, again.

It sounds like for Elon it's going to be Lincoln and Grainger based on Clay's comments, I guess we will have to wait and see what happens when Roberts is finally healthy.

I have no idea who the backup QB is. I'm just for whomever can go out, not make a bunch of mistakes, and win games.

I might speak for most Furman fans where I think we are at a point where we are weary of watching "growing pains" with a young QB. We've been doing that now for most of the last 5 years.

[Jasper]

My thoughts were that the defense played very well. I thought our corners and LB's were very impressive! Not concerned about the play calling because i think there was alot of variables this week. I am going to disagree with most of you guys when it comes to the qb situation. I will agree that if it was equal to go with one of the young guys, but the word i have gotten is that has not been equal day to day. I think if Roberts is healthy he is the starter, but i do think Grainger is closing the gap. We all sometimes see a guy make a great athletic play and think "man that guy is talented". What we don't realize as fans is the reason he continues to have to make athletic plays is because he made the wrong read, didn't make the throw he was suppose to, etc. Again i think all of these young men are great and really good people, but if i had to make the depth chart I would go Roberts, Grainger, Lincoln. Luckily i dont have to make that decision lol

I agree with you. I have been to quite a few practices and the offense looks crisper under Roberts than the other QB's. I don't think he has been discarded in favor of youth at all. It looks like he has one of those nagging, lingering injuries. I think CCH talks about using the 2 frosh QB's because they are what he has at the moment. Let's see what practice looks like this week. Roberts took as many snaps as any of the others last week but Clay must have felt he was not 100% and gave him a courtesy start.
And your comment about QB's scrambling is spot on. Many times it is not due to someone else's failure but is the result of his own mistake. Its exciting and fun when it is successful but there isn't a coach alive who would not prefer that the play be executed properly instead.

[JohnW]

Kind of baffled by some of the comments in the last two posts. Talk of "growing pains" for five years. My recollection is we graduated senior starters each of the last two seasons. Mistakes leading to scrambles. Against Clemson? Against that line? How could you tell? There wasn't time to throw to any receiver much less the wrong one. My recollection, again, is when given a little time both QBs made positive plays, as did some RBs and WRs. We could not, hardly at all, block that DL. That's the story of the Clemson game, not freshmen mistakes.

What I know is we have a fifth year senior (who has hardly played) and three freshmen at QB. Some of them have to play, from necessity, but also from a program growing standpoint. We have to develop our young talent. Might have to endure some mistakes, some misreads, even have to put up with the occasional athletic play turning a loss into a gain, but if we don't we'll be right back here next year.

[fufanatic]

I might have missed it in an earlier thread, but are we for sure that Lincoln and Grainger are the guys over Roberts? All we know from Saturday is that Roberts played one series, handed it off three times and exited. Apparently he's still injured according to CCH postgame. Does he have a shot once he's fully healed?