The Unofficial Furman Football Page

This commentary relates somewhat to the currently on-going "Today's Attendance" thread, but I wanted to make it a separate topic. It relates to that thread because the school that cancelled the 9/15/18 game due to hurricane Florence is highly ranked and successful so far this season. Perhaps our attendance this year would have been considerably higher if we had played Colgate, but that is far from certain. Also, it is far from certain, in my mind at least, that we would have beaten them.
Colgate is presently 8-0.
Sagarin has Colgate ranked #107.
Sagarin has Furman ranked #147.
Sagarin has the following teams ranked below Colgate and above Furman: Samford, Navy, Oregon State, Akron, Jacksonville State, Delaware, Elon, Coastal Carolina, Wofford, Idaho State, etc.
For those who will say (have said) "Furman would definitely have beaten Colgate", I hope they are right. I also hope that whether or not we would have beaten Colgate, we will be able to somehow beat VMI (#225 in Sagarin) and Mercer (#182 in Sagarin).
Yes, I do realize the game is played, is won, or is lost on the field and not in the Sagarin ratings; and that the Sagarin ratings are often not a reliable indicator.
CORRECTION/EDIT: I now have been reminded that Colgate lost their first game, vs. Syracuse, and they are 8-1, not 8-0. (When looking that up, I am also reminded that Colgate has a great schedule. In addition to the cancelled game vs. Furman, their schedule included Syracuse, Army West Point, one Ivy League university, plus their conference games that include relatively well-known and "somewhat highly-recognizable" schools.)

I concur that beating Colgate on 9/15 would not have been a given. We were still searching for offensive consistency at that time. That said, the Patriot League, other than Colgate, is atrocious. We would hammer every single team in that league.

Yadkin wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 05, 2018 9:02 pm

I concur that beating Colgate on 9/15 would not have been a given. We were still searching for offensive consistency at that time. That said, the Patriot League, other than Colgate, is atrocious. We would hammer every single team in that league.

I concur as well.

However we beat them by THIRTY in New York at Colgate last year with many of the same players.

Two - and THIS IS WHAT I THINK SO MANY PEOPLE ARE MISSING is maybe playing and LOSING to Colgate would have been a great thing !! Why? Simple. Because we have a young team. We needed game reps. Colgate immedeialty preceded us playing ETSU where we choked a 27-6 lead and lost 29-27. Maybe. Maybe if we play Colgate and lose we discover a few things to improve on and use those to beat ETSU. because all we needed to beat ETSU was a few more first downs. Maybe playing Colgate we would have learned and improved and been able to use that and beat ETSU

And THAT would have us in first place all alone in SoCon. Everything in our control.

Affirm , you were correct the first time. Colgate is 8-0. They did not play Syracuse. Their only FBS game is at Army the last game.

I think Hurricane Florence was the best thing to happen to Colgate football in the last 10 years. THey were THRILLED to get out of that game.

Justice would be squeaking into the playoff and drawing Colgate in round 1.

Agree PC and that would be too good to be true getting Colgate in the playoffs.

I have no doubt we would have beaten Colgate. We've smoked them every time we've played them.

2008 - 42-21 on road
2010 - 45-15 at home
2017 - 45-14 on road

It's obvious they were thrilled to get out of that game. It's obvious that it was a big miss for us and could have major implications on playoffs. I also believe we beat ETSU if we had played the Colgate game. I'm not as impressed with the wins over New Hampshire and William & Mary as some are. One is 3-5, the other is 3-6. I am impressed with this Colgate D, given up 6 points in last 7 games. Remarkable stuff. Have only allowed 2 TDs all year and that was in week 1. Five shutouts in last 6 games. I don't care the quality of opponent, that's impressive. I believe we would have had some trouble against that D, especially with our young QBs, but I feel confident we would have found a way to win.

They were also thrilled to save that $150,000.00++ in travel expenses.

The idea that a fine university like Colgate would somehow use the presence of a major hurricane in this area to avoid a contractual football contest with Furman is preposterous. Institutions like that have the moral determination to fulfill their obligations irrespective of the relative athletic merits of the teams involved; which, by the way, is very debatable. The decision not to fly into a well publicized and anticipated danger zone was made at a pay grade much higher than the supposedly trembling Colgate football coaching staff. To imply another motivation is insulting. If FU does not make the FCS playoffs, it has nothing to do with Colgate University. It has everything to do with Furman's team and staff suffering an incredible implosion in the second half of their game with ETSU.

Paul C wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:47 am

I think Hurricane Florence was the best thing to happen to Colgate football in the last 10 years. THey were THRILLED to get out of that game.

Justice would be squeaking into the playoff and drawing Colgate in round 1.

Careful what you wish for; "Justice" can be a very fickle lady.

apaladin wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 05, 2018 11:01 pm

Affirm , you were correct the first time. Colgate is 8-0. They did not play Syracuse. Their only FBS game is at Army the last game.

Sorry for my confusion. Their Syracuse loss was a previous season.