The Unofficial Furman Football Page

Anyone know or have thoughts on who W&M will get, and whether it will impact Furman or other SoCon programs?
To what extent, if any, are the FB head coach and assistant jobs at W&M better than those at Furman and other SoCon schools.
Laycock has been in the job 39 years ! They were already gone from SoCon when he started. 1976 was their final SoCon year. 1980 was his first year as HC at W&M, going their from Clemson where he served as an assistant. (2 separate stints at CU.) Laycock played at W&M under Levy and under Holtz. Laycock’s is the winningest coach in W&M history.
(By the way, we need 10 wins this year for Hendrix to surpass Lamb’s overall winning percentage at Furman.)

Lamb took over a program at the top of FCS, Hendrix took over a program near the bottom of the FCS

Lamb has some things to prove down in Macon this season, since joining the SoCon Mercer has gone 6-6, 5-6, 6-5, 5-6
That will only get you so far, as Lamb found out at Furman going 6-5, 7-5, 6-5, 5-6 his last 4 years at FU

DungeonRealm wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:51 am

Lamb took over a program at the top of FCS, Hendrix took over a program near the bottom of the FCS

Lamb has some things to prove down in Macon this season, since joining the SoCon Mercer has gone 6-6, 5-6, 6-5, 5-6
That will only get you so far, as Lamb found out at Furman going 6-5, 7-5, 6-5, 5-6 his last 4 years at FU

I don’t disagree that this is an important year for Coach Lamb. President Underwood expects excellence in every endeavor in which Mercer elects to engage. I have no reason to believe that he expects anything less from Mercer’s Football program.

That said...Mercer has gone from playing Ave Maria & Carnegie Mellon to playing Alabama & Auburn in out of Conference games. In the SoCon, they have made steady progress...
2014 - 1-6
2015 - 2-6
2016 - 4-4
2017 - 4-4
...until flattening out that curve last season. During that time, they have been ‘reasonably competitive’ to ‘very competitive’ in 30 of those 31 games (the 1 exception is Wofford 2014), while playing the 1st 2 years at a significant scholarship-level disadvantage. While compiling those 10 SoCon & 22 other wins, they have only lost 1 game (ETSU 2017) that they were truly expected to win. I don’t believe “almost always being competitive” & “hardly ever losing games that were supposed to be wins” can be cited as hallmarks of Coach Lamb’s nor Coach Fowler’s tenure at Furman.

So, again, while I agree that 2018 is important, I don’t agree that drawing parallels between Coach Lamb’s record during his tenure as Head Coach at Furman with that of his record at Mercer is relevant.

One additional comment. Mercer made a change in their Offensive Coordinator position in the off-season after not progressing with more SoCon wins for the 1st time. Given there have been very few changes in the Mercer staff since 2012, I don’t think that change was made lightly or without signaling clear expectations of general improvement & improvement in consistency on that side of the Football. I also would seriously doubt that change was made without President Underwood’s involvement. We’ll see how this all plays out in 2018. Should be fun to watch!

The previously unspoken underlying questions:
In light of W&M keeping Laycock 39 years, does Furman pull the trigger too soon in letting go of certain FB & basketball coaches?

affirm wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 07, 2018 4:32 pm

The previously unspoken underlying questions:
In light of W&M keeping Laycock 39 years, does Furman pull the trigger too soon in letting go of certain FB & basketball coaches?

No.

DungeonRealm wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:51 am

Lamb took over a program at the top of FCS, Hendrix took over a program near the bottom of the FCS

Lamb has some things to prove down in Macon this season, since joining the SoCon Mercer has gone 6-6, 5-6, 6-5, 5-6
That will only get you so far, as Lamb found out at Furman going 6-5, 7-5, 6-5, 5-6 his last 4 years at FU

Mercer has peaked in football.

gman wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:09 pm

DungeonRealm wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:51 am

Lamb took over a program at the top of FCS, Hendrix took over a program near the bottom of the FCS

Lamb has some things to prove down in Macon this season, since joining the SoCon Mercer has gone 6-6, 5-6, 6-5, 5-6
That will only get you so far, as Lamb found out at Furman going 6-5, 7-5, 6-5, 5-6 his last 4 years at FU

Mercer has peaked in football.