Season Ending Thoughts

[purplehorse]

1)-About the only positive from the season was we got in the playoffs.

2)-Not sure I have seen many Furman teams where our strongest game was at the beginning of the season (GA State) and we seemed to have a downward trajectory as the season progressed.

3)-Our offense really faltered against Citadel, Wofford and AP (the good teams).

4)-Unfortunately as a program right now we do not know how to win the big game. We laid an egg in all of our big games.

5)-We have a lot of work to do. I am still cautiously confident CCH can get it done.

6)-So much for Furman making the Southern Conference look better.

7)-We need to get over this “weather” mental deal and the dual QB deal. Do we have a team psychologist like Clemson?

[furpep]

Some good points. By the way, when was the last time we have won a BIG game?

[MNORM]

Some good points. By the way, when was the last time we have won a BIG game?

Last season when we laid an ass whooping on #6 Wofford.

[gofurman]

Agree with purplehorse/

Positives
- Good year. Pre-season I picked us to go 7-5 with the Freshman QBs etc.
- Phenomenal Early QB play by Grainger and then Sisson QB play at Chatt to lead us to a comeback ! Wonderful
- OL and running game v Mercer and Samford.
- Ability to step on throat if we have a lead (Samford, Mercer, CSU) - some teams let up.. we don't. If we get a lead we continue to build that lead.
- Overall trend of our team ! from 3 wins under BF to .. 8 wins in 2017 to ... SoCon Champs in 2018 to .. 8 wins and Playoffs in 2019.
- HAVING CH AS OUR COACH. No doubt the difference !!!

Improvements I hear from others and myself:
- We must get CONSISTENT passing game (not great, just some Consistency. Just 14-20 would do it vs most teams)
- Safeties need to get downhill faster to help vs run teams
- DL needs to get tougher / bigger on interior at NG DT - it isn't coincidence it was Citadel and Woff and AP that pushed us around
- ***This is biggest one. Yes, better QB play might have helped beat Citadel and Woff but our D was just out of sorts - Our D coordinators have us playing better vs the pass and that is great but we need some "consulting" on how to stop running teams. We do. No matter our O, Woff getting 25 yards on 1st and 25 w 3 straight running plays would not have happened with Bobby J or Staggs at DC... (Austin Peay was the only FCS team that passed well on us - all of Citadel and Woff and Austin Peay ran well on us)
- OL is good but needs a little more physicality - push the opposing DL straight off the line. Right now we are good (we are) but not near elite and need eye candy and passing game to keep other D honest. I fully trust CH will get this going so this is least of my concerns. CH will get this fixed having more time to work with guys
- need SPEED. I felt this was true but today confirmed it. Speed. Speed. Speed
- similar to speed we need more Playmakers on offense. Especially dangerously fast receivers.
- can we please TACKLE better. Man our announcers on radio were hammering us on this. And today was the worst. We had no answer for the small quick guys in space. Several of our guys had their ankles broken and just whiffed

[purplehorse]

Some good points. By the way, when was the last time we have won a BIG game?

I would say when we beat Elon in the first round of the playoffs in 2017. But overall the big wins have been few and far between-beat SC State in first round of 2013 playoffs and otherwise it might go back to beating Richmond in the quarters before the App State loss in 2005 (we need another Ingle Martin).

[Bootie]

I could deal with a 0-win season as long as we are competitive in the games. Hard to understand how we can play against Ga State and Va Tech like we did and lay eggs in big FCS games.

[gofurman]

I could deal with a 0-win season as long as we are competitive in the games. Hard to understand how we can play against Ga State and Va Tech like we did and lay eggs in big FCS games.

It is odd to see us whipped by Austin Peay and push GSU and VTech so hard.. hard to reconcile those things

[dornb]

Hard to understand how we can play against Ga State and Va Tech like we did and lay eggs in big FCS games.

It is very puzzling!

I think Clay needs to find a coach who is a specialist in teaching tackling techniques and have them come do a clinic with the defense. Our tackling is pathetic. We must improve in this area if we are going to beat physical teams.

[Paladin91]

I could deal with a 0-win season as long as we are competitive in the games. Hard to understand how we can play against Ga State and Va Tech like we did and lay eggs in big FCS games.

It is odd to see us whipped by Austin Peay and push GSU and VTech so hard.. hard to reconcile those things

Va Tech was an awful team early in the season. They benched their QB and are playing at a much different level. We were lucky to play them early in the season. GA State was coming off an upset win against Tennessee - they weren't playing their best ball against us. Doesn't matter though, both of those games were losses. You play the game to win - no points for being competitive. You can lose by 1 or lose by 100 - it's the same loss.

[saltyshaker]

I think we definitely need to improve our tackling..and we need to settle on a starting qb.i cannot see an offense able to develop any consistency shuttling qb's in and out.we need to make a decision and if the loser of the competition decides to transfer....so be it.

[FUpaladin08]

We’ll be ranked to start next season. That’s good. Need one QB next season. Hate to lose like we did today. Wish it could have at least been competitive.

[apaladin]

We’ll be ranked to start next season. That’s good. Need one QB next season. Hate to lose like we did today. Wish it could have at least been competitive.

I think we may have played our way out of a 2020 preseason ranking today.

[apaladin]

In the 3 biggest games of the season we were outscored 93-23 and scored 2 TD's in those 3 games.

[purplehorse]

We’ll be ranked to start next season. That’s good. Need one QB next season. Hate to lose like we did today. Wish it could have at least been competitive.

I think we may have played our way out of a 2020 preseason ranking today.

Isn’t it largely just based on the season-ending ranking?

[FUPlayer74]

Lots of piling on today in reading these posts, and understandable. No one wants to see us go out this way. I suppose its healthy that we have as many folks as we do who care. I don't know. Can't really put my finger on what happened with this team that started out so promising. You don't see many teams that go this way, peaking around the Samford game and downhill from there. I'm sure CCH and the staff are also wondering. Good season, made the playoffs, lots of young players, recruiting looks good, all good, BUT, we've got to get better in so many areas to compete with physical teams. And we've got to find a way to build some fire and take that to the field.