Astro, I too think the roll out plays helped. UTC was getting some pressure on our QBs with 4 or 5 guys rushing (not an extreme blitz package or anything) on some of our straight drop back passes. Credit to UTCs front in that regard. That was some of the better QB pressure I have seen from an FCS team vs us. Credit to us for changing it up once that was happening.AstroDin wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 10:18 amA few accolades and thoughts…
Coming into the season not sure anyone thought Devin Abrams would contribute at the level he's contributing.
through nine games, 496 rushing yards gained, six rushing touchdowns, 56 receiving yards, one touchdown catch.
Ryan Miller is averaging a whopping 23.5 yards per catch. Get that man the damn ball
Grit. The first quarter and the early part of the second was rough. This team kept churning and chugging and beat a good team, playing it's the best ball of the season on the road. Not easy to do.
Savvy. Sisson was a three-year starter at Mountain Brook. Stepping into a bad situation isn't easy for any quarterback much less a redshirt freshman that has only seen mop-up duty. I was very impressed with Sisson's handle of the running offense. His quickness threw the Moc defense off, Hamp's ability to make quick cuts and surgical pitches after coming in to replace Grainger is noteworthy. And IMO changes things from here on out.
I could be way off here - need some ex-players to step in here - my take Quarles called his best game at OC yesterday. After Sisson came in Quarles tweaked the game plan a bit, put Sisson in plays to roll out and take advantage of his quickness. Maybe my biggest take is how aggressive we played on offense in the second half. And how crisp we can be on offense. The Dins have now proven they can run a two-minute offense.
The early part of the season Furman scored on a lot of explosive plays, my concern was can we just gut-out drives? The last two scoring drives of the game were just that, man on man.
Post UTC Game Thoughts
After watching this tape, this play was even better than I thought. This is the stuff of legends. Sisson really was the prime pusher on the play. This is one tough kid to stick his nose in there like that.
Some thoughts:
Grainger. Kudos to the coaches on making the change instead of going with the “Citadel game” plan. It appears Grainger has a good case of the yips and will need to work it out. What I don’t understand is why this is only evident in games and not in practice throughout the week? Is our scout D just playing too easy in practice? Seems Grainger would be making the same poor choices in practice we are seeing in these last several games.
Sisson. While I don’t like the uncertainty of a two QB system, it’s comforting to know we have a “plug and play” offense that just needs a QB to not make mistakes and move the sticks. I assume Sisson gets the 1st team snaps this week. No time to get cute, we’re leaving no doubt this season.
Defense. They get all the credit this season for keeping the team in the tracks while the offense it’s finding itself. I did not think this would be the top strength of the team coming into this season, so I’m pleasantly surprised. They’ve given up a total of 11 points in the second half of SoCon games this year (remove Citadel bc that’s more convenient). That’s a recipe for success.
Grainger. Kudos to the coaches on making the change instead of going with the “Citadel game” plan. It appears Grainger has a good case of the yips and will need to work it out. What I don’t understand is why this is only evident in games and not in practice throughout the week? Is our scout D just playing too easy in practice? Seems Grainger would be making the same poor choices in practice we are seeing in these last several games.
Sisson. While I don’t like the uncertainty of a two QB system, it’s comforting to know we have a “plug and play” offense that just needs a QB to not make mistakes and move the sticks. I assume Sisson gets the 1st team snaps this week. No time to get cute, we’re leaving no doubt this season.
Defense. They get all the credit this season for keeping the team in the tracks while the offense it’s finding itself. I did not think this would be the top strength of the team coming into this season, so I’m pleasantly surprised. They’ve given up a total of 11 points in the second half of SoCon games this year (remove Citadel bc that’s more convenient). That’s a recipe for success.
^^ to the point above - we need to give kudos to Duane Vaughn and the staff. The moves made in the off-season at DC, corner, and safety were stellar.
agree; 100% agree. check my math ( I don't see how you "discount" Citadel - it aint WAL MART... no discounts here ) but I have us at 101 points vs 7 FCS teams. Thats an average of 14.5 points allowed per game.
A former player told me the only real weakness he sees is we did have trouble w option decisions on back 7. same as FUBeAR pointed out with his awesome description of what VMI did vs CItadel and, in his description, you see a few things we need to alter. Specifically , we need to learn to make the reads so as to get downhill faster from the LB and safety spot vs option scheme.
I think overall our D is far better right now though. love it! 14 points a game .. wow. told a buddy it we score 21 its a high chance we win. that's awesome
Citadel scored more in 2nd half than the 1st half. They were messing with the point I was making about how insanely good the defense has been in the 2nd half in conference play. So I excluded them so I didn’t have to explain that outlier away. Lol.
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I know, Stumpy used to heckle people about saying "well, if you take the one 50 yard run away we only averaged X"... he was big on Not dismissing outliers. anyway, yeah, other than a little option hesitation our D has been PHENOMENAL. including all FCS games (CSU also) we are giving basically 14 points a game.FUpaladin08 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 4:51 pmCitadel scored more in 2nd half than the 1st half. They were messing with the point I was making about how insanely good the defense has been in the 2nd half in conference play. So I excluded them so I didn’t have to explain that outlier away. Lol.
If we score mid 20s we prob win. that is a really powerful statement and huge kudos to the team and coaches when you stop and think about that. in this day and age of PAC12 scores
(I hate those.. and you don't see them winning titles) its really something to hold people to 14 a game !!! (and yes, had our O helped more v Citadel our D wouldn't have given 27 to them). the D is truly ouutstanding. one of my things is you ask most fans and they couldn't name a D player but can name QB and RB... Its a TEAM game. D is a huge part of Furman success !
and now... On to VMI = because you aren't as good as you think you are when you win.. and you aren't as bad as you think you are when you lose. THAT is truth
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As to practices. They are generally very light these days. Not much contact at all and most especially on the QB. I assume that's to cut down on the number of practice injuries. I didn't see much contact on the QB's even in camp. I don't see how coaches are able to really grade a player w/o game conditions present. This is the first time I have seen Hamp in meaningful game conditions and was obviously very impressed. I think the OC was as well. He seemed to open the play book as time went on and Hamp could well have completed two more long passes that could have been caught. He even did the right thing by taking a short sack instead of throwing the ball up for grabs.FUpaladin08 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 2:41 pmSome thoughts:
Grainger. Kudos to the coaches on making the change instead of going with the “Citadel game” plan. It appears Grainger has a good case of the yips and will need to work it out. What I don’t understand is why this is only evident in games and not in practice throughout the week? Is our scout D just playing too easy in practice? Seems Grainger would be making the same poor choices in practice we are seeing in these last several games.
Sisson. While I don’t like the uncertainty of a two QB system, it’s comforting to know we have a “plug and play” offense that just needs a QB to not make mistakes and move the sticks. I assume Sisson gets the 1st team snaps this week. No time to get cute, we’re leaving no doubt this season.
Defense. They get all the credit this season for keeping the team in the tracks while the offense it’s finding itself. I did not think this would be the top strength of the team coming into this season, so I’m pleasantly surprised. They’ve given up a total of 11 points in the second half of SoCon games this year (remove Citadel bc that’s more convenient). That’s a recipe for success.
The Defense? Just outstanding. The two D captains are doing a fantastic job. Jordan Willis, the Spur, is all over the field each week and Donavan Perryman, the MLB, made a sensational play late yesterday by smothering their RB on a circle route with coverage back in the end zone. Great read and execution. Landon Lawrence on the D line made three tackles at or behind the line as well. Okeh made two saving tackles as well. Heck, the whole unit played great.
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also, I saw Dejaun Bell yesterday ! Good for him - glad he is back.
Interested to see if he plays 4 games or ... personally I wouldn't burn anything on POINT . meaning UTC, VMI ,maybe?, Woff and then if we get in he can play at least one playoff game and then it would get interesting if you have another possible playoff game... burn a redshirt for possibly one game?
still haven't see Trapp out there in a few weeks - he was really impressive in coverage before getting hurt in off week
Interested to see if he plays 4 games or ... personally I wouldn't burn anything on POINT . meaning UTC, VMI ,maybe?, Woff and then if we get in he can play at least one playoff game and then it would get interesting if you have another possible playoff game... burn a redshirt for possibly one game?
still haven't see Trapp out there in a few weeks - he was really impressive in coverage before getting hurt in off week
I was told Trapp will be back against VMI> He was dressed for Chatty, but apparently the coaches didn't see a reason to use him. with a couple of exceptions, our defense was pretty stout.
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Anyone who says money can't buy happiness never had season tickets.
QUick note - I just wanted to say how impressed I was the decision making in option game of Sisson yesterday. To come in 'cold' and do that is very impressive. I may be wrong but on that first play where we got 20 yards with Fullback (RB) I think that was a read and not a called play. In any case, I was impressed with Sisson's decisions.
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My understanding is we were running the MID LINE, option, and he made the right read to give the FB and the rest is history. We run a lot of good option stuff out of many different formations. I would hate to game plan for FU. I think we are better when we have a FB.
Very good point. We run a lot of option reads and the correct read is critical to the success of the play. A few years back, Blazejowski was great at it and we wound up with a bunch of big plays. He did the same with his receiver options but he was a senior and experienced QB when he took over this offense. We cant realistically expect either of these 2 freshmen QB's to have that as yet - although Sisson did it very well vs. UTC and Grainger did likewise vs. GSU earlier in the season. In our offense, I think the ability to see the field well is more important than many of the other qualities.DeepPurple wrote: ↑Tue Nov 05, 2019 9:19 amMy understanding is we were running the MID LINE, option, and he made the right read to give the FB and the rest is history. We run a lot of good option stuff out of many different formations. I would hate to game plan for FU. I think we are better when we have a FB.