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Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Sun Sep 23, 2018 4:37 am
by Paladin91
Upon Cronic's departure last year, I mentioned that Furman football would be impacted. The up tempo pace that we played last year was due to Cronic, and as we have seen, it's slowed immensely this season. In the last 3 games at Lenoir Ryhne, Cronic has put up 51, 59, and 31 points. Most UFFP'ers denied his departure would have any impact, but it's probably the biggest factor on the team this season. Obviously the loss of PJ is huge since many thought we could just plug and play at QB. Let's face it, Roberts is a serviceable QB, but CH knows that he's not going to carry the team to a conference championship or the playoffs. Roberts knows the system well, and on this alone, he should probably remain the starter because I think it's going to be a really long year for the Paladins (and not in a good way). Grainger has raw potential, but that's all it is at this point. He would have been best served by a redshirt year to understand the system.
For an OL that CH has been high on, I've really been disappointed. They played better yesterday for 3 quarters, but something is still missing here. One crucial component is Matthew Schmidt - he was a beast at Center, and we can attribute much of the inside running success of Dirks last year to Schmidt and Bush. Kroeber moving to Center was a complete disaster as evidenced by his play in the Clemson and Elon games, so at least the coaching staff was smart enough to start Neely and move Kroeber back to his natural position. Obviously, part of this move was made because of the sudden departure of OL Jacob Conrad - awfully strange that this happened 2 games in to the season. Conrad was a real bright spot his freshman year - not sure what happened here if we take an injury out of the situation.
On defense, the middle linebacker play of Reynard Ellis has also been missed. We've seen a lot of missed tackles this year, and losing a returning All SOCON player hurts. He was going to be a mega player for Furman - it was unfortunate to lose him.
Our DB's have actually played quite well this season, in part due to the Trapp transfer. Perhaps fatigue was an issue for the Q4 meltdown, but we were also missing Weems who played quite well in the Clemson game.
The most concerning issue with the team is that it has no rythm and is out of sync. There is no gel at all. The OL is not a very cohesive bunch, our play calling is substandard at best, and there is no clear leader at QB to take charge. Part of the latter is likely due to the staff wanting to see a freshman savior emerge. Well, it's not going to happen this year. Either way, we will be sub .500 team this year - just too many problems. I was hoping we'd see more from Lincoln, but it's clear that he's not a pure passing QB.
We are 0-3 to start the season. Our defense will keep us in most games. If there was ever a time for a transfer QB, the offseason would have been the time. But with the current play calling and OL performance we've seen this season, even the likes of Ingle Martin would be destitute. We can only hope for improvement over the remainder of the season because there will always be next year.
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:57 am
by Davemeister
Very good post.
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Sun Sep 23, 2018 10:05 am
by Jasper
Excellent post. We are a totally different team offensively since Cronic left. That was evident at the intra-squad scrimmage and I have mentioned it several times since then. His up tempo variation of the old wing T confused the hell out of opposing defenses and resulted in a lot of easy scores. His play calling was exceptional. You can see the difference in the way the team lines up for the play. The 2017 offense LOOKED alert and dangerous. This squad seems confused, uncertain and listless. Last night's play calling and QB switches was downright bizarre. But Cronic did not coach the defense and they spit the bit pretty good last night and against Elon. That has to be more than the loss of Ellis. I believe he is buried in the Georgia Southern depth chart right now. The ETSU receivers were wide open in the second half. Their coaching staff obviously saw something in our zone that they exploited very well. It feels like the program has taken a huge step backwards. I truly hope I am wrong about that.
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Sun Sep 23, 2018 10:17 am
by FU3
Last year LR was 3 -7. This year they are 3 - 1 and averaging 450 yards on O and 43 points a game. The idea that we could lose the architect of our hybrid O (as well as a top flight play caller) and not have issues was wishful thinking. We have enough talent to win games this year in a bad SoCon. The open question is whether we can find ways ,like we did last season ,to utilize what we have.
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Sun Sep 23, 2018 10:24 am
by PurplePower73
Great post. There is an obvious difference in the play calling and the tempo this year.
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Sun Sep 23, 2018 11:02 am
by furman88
Drew Cronic's son played on our grandsons youth team last year. Talked with him at their games last year trying to steal plays from him for the team. He would just smile and say they were doing well without him. Super nice guy and yes he was a diffrence maker, great football mind. He left a hole we have yet to fill.
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Sun Sep 23, 2018 11:26 am
by apaladin
Passing against ETSU:
Mars Hill 249
VMI 305
FU 149
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:12 am
by gofurman
apaladin wrote: ↑Sun Sep 23, 2018 11:26 am
Passing against ETSU:
Mars Hill 249
VMI 305
FU 149
W O W - look at those numbers
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:56 am
by gofurman
Jasper wrote: ↑Sun Sep 23, 2018 10:05 am
Excellent post. We are a totally different team offensively since Cronic left. That was evident at the intra-squad scrimmage and I have mentioned it several times since then. His up tempo variation of the old wing T confused the hell out of opposing defenses and resulted in a lot of easy scores. His play calling was exceptional. You can see the difference in the way the team lines up for the play. The 2017 offense LOOKED alert and dangerous. This squad seems confused, uncertain and listless. Last night's play calling and QB switches was downright bizarre. But Cronic did not coach the defense and they spit the bit pretty good last night and against Elon. That has to be more than the loss of Ellis. I believe he is buried in the Georgia Southern depth chart right now. The ETSU receivers were wide open in the second half. Their coaching staff obviously saw something in our zone that they exploited very well. It feels like the program has taken a huge step backwards. I truly hope I am wrong about that.
This is my biggest concern. The loss of Cronic. Players change from year to year (and I love some of our current players). But coaches are longer-term and the changes that happen when they leave are huge. I hope this is an aberration and not directly coorelated to the loss of Cronic. That would stink. I believe CCH is a great coach and knows OL but dang we need some more offense - in a hurry
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Mon Sep 24, 2018 10:25 am
by FUPlayer74
I think folks are putting too much emphasis on the loss of Cronic. Sure he's a good coach but he doesn't line up and take the plays. I think the loss of offensive production lies primarily with the loss of PJ and the all american center. I always thought PJ was a lot better than people thought.
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Mon Sep 24, 2018 10:45 am
by DeepPurple
PJ was a huge piece of the offense. PJ was a very experienced Senior player. Coach Cronic is a fine football coach and a fantastic OC. Our starting QB Saturday had taken 3 snaps this entire football season with 0 attempted passes. The menu this season looks a lot different than it did last year.
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Mon Sep 24, 2018 11:27 am
by gofurman
FUPlayer74 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 10:25 am
I think folks are putting too much emphasis on the loss of Cronic. Sure he's a good coach but he doesn't line up and take the plays. I think the loss of offensive production lies primarily with the loss of PJ and the all american center. I always thought PJ was a lot better than people thought.
74, I hope you are right ! QBs can be replaced a lot easier than OCs in my opinon. I agree with you that Schmidt was a HUGE loss. I worried about that. Especially the way that CCH likes to start the offense with FB runs up the middle .. the center and OGs are huge in that equation (Bush was a guard I think?).
I think we will know more next year - with the entire OL returning next year if we still are stinking on offense then it's more probably the loss of Cronic. If we are looking good on O again then it was just the sophomore OL lack of experience. I think we start 4 Sophomore and 1 junior at best now? that's crazy.
We were told by some that you could plug any QB into this system and it run just fine.... but c'mon.. QB matters, A LOT. As does OL obviously. It's tough right now because A) the OL is young and B) our QB has taken very few snaps. That's not a recipe for success.
As I posted elsewhere here are the stats that scare me - last year we put up 609 yards of offense on ETSU. This year? 288. That's a scary difference. More to the law of averages.. our BEST offensive output this year was ETSU - 288 yards. That's horrific for the best output in 3 tries (granted, one was CLemson)
Re: Cronic was a successful piece of the puzzle
PostPosted:Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:01 pm
by dinhead
Paladin91 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 23, 2018 4:37 am
Upon Cronic's departure last year, I mentioned that Furman football would be impacted. The up tempo pace that we played last year was due to Cronic, and as we have seen, it's slowed immensely this season. In the last 3 games at Lenoir Ryhne, Cronic has put up 51, 59, and 31 points. Most UFFP'ers denied his departure would have any impact, but it's probably the biggest factor on the team this season. Obviously the loss of PJ is huge since many thought we could just plug and play at QB. Let's face it, Roberts is a serviceable QB, but CH knows that he's not going to carry the team to a conference championship or the playoffs. Roberts knows the system well, and on this alone, he should probably remain the starter because I think it's going to be a really long year for the Paladins (and not in a good way). Grainger has raw potential, but that's all it is at this point. He would have been best served by a redshirt year to understand the system.
For an OL that CH has been high on, I've really been disappointed. They played better yesterday for 3 quarters, but something is still missing here. One crucial component is Matthew Schmidt - he was a beast at Center, and we can attribute much of the inside running success of Dirks last year to Schmidt and Bush. Kroeber moving to Center was a complete disaster as evidenced by his play in the Clemson and Elon games, so at least the coaching staff was smart enough to start Neely and move Kroeber back to his natural position. Obviously, part of this move was made because of the sudden departure of OL Jacob Conrad - awfully strange that this happened 2 games in to the season. Conrad was a real bright spot his freshman year - not sure what happened here if we take an injury out of the situation.
On defense, the middle linebacker play of Reynard Ellis has also been missed. We've seen a lot of missed tackles this year, and losing a returning All SOCON player hurts. He was going to be a mega player for Furman - it was unfortunate to lose him.
Our DB's have actually played quite well this season, in part due to the Trapp transfer. Perhaps fatigue was an issue for the Q4 meltdown, but we were also missing Weems who played quite well in the Clemson game.
The most concerning issue with the team is that it has no rythm and is out of sync. There is no gel at all. The OL is not a very cohesive bunch, our play calling is substandard at best, and there is no clear leader at QB to take charge. Part of the latter is likely due to the staff wanting to see a freshman savior emerge. Well, it's not going to happen this year. Either way, we will be sub .500 team this year - just too many problems. I was hoping we'd see more from Lincoln, but it's clear that he's not a pure passing QB.
We are 0-3 to start the season. Our defense will keep us in most games. If there was ever a time for a transfer QB, the offseason would have been the time. But with the current play calling and OL performance we've seen this season, even the likes of Ingle Martin would be destitute. We can only hope for improvement over the remainder of the season because there will always be next year.
Spot on analysis. You pretty much summed it up. Why we didn't pick up a transfer QB for "this year" is a mystery to me. What an opportunity it would have been for a kid who wants to play right away. He would just have to best out a 3 year backup with very little experience and a true freshman and red shirt freshman with zero experience. I wonder if they're playing Grainger more because they're planning on redshirting him and then Lincoln (after the 4th game) will get more reps.