Harris wins QB Job??

[DungeonRealm]

Good insight guys, thanks!

[AstroDin]

From my observations at practice yesterday and conversation with my two player dinner guests, a starter has not been name at QB. Harris took "first" snaps as he has all week but Lincoln had as many reps. The two starters I spoke with were very ambivalent on the topic. There are comfortable with either one and felt they had somewhat different skill sets with Harris a slightly better passer and Lincoln the better runner. I agree with BeAR, I think CCH will make the right decision and would not be surprised at all if he used them both.

Dujuan Bell was the star of the practice at WR. Lots of people I was watching with took notice of his burner speed in beating the defender and some sensational catches. As a matter of fact our receiving corps looks great. Teams was in pads but not full contact. Couple of early but minor injuries so far; most hamstrings and turned ankles. Enthusiasm very high. One of my guests, a RB, confirmed that Deon Sanders looks to be back to his pre injury form. That could be very big for us.


Good thread with a bad title. I agree with Bootie.

If Bell comes as advertised, he could help elevate our offense.

Bell isn't a big guy. He's listed at 5'9 160. You watch his high school film, though, and he's an incredibly dangerous runner in the open field. One of those guys that can cut back across the defense and has enough in the tank to beat defenders to the spot.

Watching his film, the immediate comps that come to mind are GSU's Jayson Foster and App's Davon Fowlkes. Those were undersized players who were incredibly slippery and had great field vision. Those are two of the greatest offensive players in this conference over the last 20 years, and if Bell is a fraction as good as either of them, Furman will have found a big time playmaker.

Big picture, Furman could create a lot of mismatches with a WR trio of Burnette, Gordon, and Bell. It will spread defenses out, create favorable matchups, and open things up for the fullbacks.

also doesn't hurt that Morehead and Deon Sanders are very good receivers out of the backfield.

[The Jackal]

From my observations at practice yesterday and conversation with my two player dinner guests, a starter has not been name at QB. Harris took "first" snaps as he has all week but Lincoln had as many reps. The two starters I spoke with were very ambivalent on the topic. There are comfortable with either one and felt they had somewhat different skill sets with Harris a slightly better passer and Lincoln the better runner. I agree with BeAR, I think CCH will make the right decision and would not be surprised at all if he used them both.

Dujuan Bell was the star of the practice at WR. Lots of people I was watching with took notice of his burner speed in beating the defender and some sensational catches. As a matter of fact our receiving corps looks great. Teams was in pads but not full contact. Couple of early but minor injuries so far; most hamstrings and turned ankles. Enthusiasm very high. One of my guests, a RB, confirmed that Deon Sanders looks to be back to his pre injury form. That could be very big for us.


Good thread with a bad title. I agree with Bootie.

If Bell comes as advertised, he could help elevate our offense.

Bell isn't a big guy. He's listed at 5'9 160. You watch his high school film, though, and he's an incredibly dangerous runner in the open field. One of those guys that can cut back across the defense and has enough in the tank to beat defenders to the spot.

Watching his film, the immediate comps that come to mind are GSU's Jayson Foster and App's Davon Fowlkes. Those were undersized players who were incredibly slippery and had great field vision. Those are two of the greatest offensive players in this conference over the last 20 years, and if Bell is a fraction as good as either of them, Furman will have found a big time playmaker.

Big picture, Furman could create a lot of mismatches with a WR trio of Burnette, Gordon, and Bell. It will spread defenses out, create favorable matchups, and open things up for the fullbacks.

also doesn't hurt that Morehead and Deon Sanders are very good receivers out of the backfield.

When you start drawing out options on paper, the possibilities are sort of endless.

Furman generally runs a two-back set. One back is the FB. The other is the TB, who hangs out on the wings. Especially with Morehead, Furman will often split the TB out as a slot receiver.

Furman then typically is either in a 3 WR set or a 2WR/TE set. The third receiver (usually DeLuca or Armstrong last season) often would come inside at the wing opposite the TB. Sometimes, in a two WR set, Gordon would come in as the wing. The TE, as we saw a bunch last year, can also split out as a receiver or play on the line.

The advantage here, of course, is that Furman can use the same personnel to shift their offensive looks. Our ability to do this is set up by the constant pounding from the fullbacks. Defenses have to respect the middle of the field because Furman is perfectly content slamming the ball up the gut 40 times a game.

One thing you rarely (ever?) saw last season was Furman in a three-back set; that is, the two wing-backs both being TBs at the same time (say, Morehead and Wynn). That distinguishes Furman from virtually all other three back offenses (like Wofford and the Citadel) who almost always have three running backs on the field. It's why folks are usually wrong calling Furman a "triple option" offense - they aren't.

At bottom, I think you will see Quarles take last year's very good offense and build on it. There are a bunch of ways to deploy these guys and with some more depth, you can really keep the pressure on a defense.

[AstroDin]

Jackal - thanks for going into the details… the first time I saw Bell's film I was licking my chops at him also in the wing position.

I'm excited to see what a Quarles offense will look like… maybe Bear can elaborate more on what he was doing at Maryville.

[FUBeAR]

I'm excited to see what a Quarles offense will look like… maybe Bear can elaborate more on what he was doing at Maryville.

Winning...OFTEN

I really don’t have any idea what his offenses looked like at Maryville, but I’ll share this anecdote, that may be of interest and, at least, somewhat elucidating...

A little over 10 years ago, I attended a Coaching Clinic and saw that Coach Quarles was speaking. I don’t remember the exact title of his session but I know it contained the phrase, “5 Wides.” So, I had to attend in order to see how far this Child of All that is Pure, Good & Right about Football had fallen in league with Satan’s Game.

After protecting myself with a garlic bagel, putting several silver cross(bars) around my neck, and grabbing a ‘stake’ biscuit to-go, I entered the darkened hotel ballroom just after the presentation had begun, positioning myself by the bank of light switches, prepared to flip them all on in an instant and flood the room with artificial sunlight, if necessary. Well, to my great pleasure, I watched as Coach Quarles flashed video after video of his Maryville Teams, using his cowboy clicker to describe, in great detail, what was, essentially, the same Offense we ran at Furman in the 80’s...but he was running out of “5 wides” instead of The I-Formation.

So...I’m assuming he didn’t change things too much since that time. I would expect he was EXTREMELY creative with formations & motions, ensuring his opponents could not ‘stack the box,’ were forced to defend the field from sideline to sideline, and had to remain ever-alert to defending it vertically. Then, I would bet he focused on using these spread formations & motions to execute ‘tried-and-true’ running schemes, including an option attack with a reasonably athletic QB, getting key blocking at the Point of Attack, both from Backs/WR’s & athletic OLmen able to block LB’s & DB’s ‘in space.’

Ancillary anecdote: One year, at the HS where I had been Coaching as a “Community Coach” (but had to, that year, due to a job change, ‘re-classify’ as a ‘Consultant’), which had always, very successfully, run a VERY traditional I-Based Power running game, found ourselves without a true FB and no real TE’s on the roster. But, we did have 7 or 8 Players who were either good WR’s/OK RB’s or good RB’s/OK WR’s. So, using the handouts that I had retained from Coach Quarles’ session that I had attended 3 years prior, as a template, the OC & I created what we called “The Baller Offense,” using those “hybrids” as interchangeable “ballers” in a variety of (mostly) spread formations, but getting them, through complex shifts & motions, back to where we were, for the most part, running our ‘traditional’ Offense with only a few changes to the O-Line schemes to account for no FB & no TE. I believe (not 100% sure - I was only a ‘Consultant,’ remember) the brand new HC there nixed installing our “Baller-O” though and stayed with what had ‘always worked.’ They went 0-10 that year. That Head Coach, who is a great guy, BTW, is now, I believe, out of Coaching. That OC, succeeded that HC, took them to 2 State Championship games, and then took, what is, probably, the highest paying HC gig in GA...all the while using, IMO, his adapted version of the “Baller-O.”

Back to Furman Football: So, to summarize....we might see a little more ‘spread-type’ of formations this year. We may see a bit less of some of the wing-T concepts (fake handoffs to multiple backs, misdirection, etc.), which was hard-wired into Coach Cronic’s DNA...AND for those of us old-timers, if we look REALLY closely, through all of that window dressing, we may be able to see 48 sweep, 28 base, 40 base, 26 rip, 32 veer, and some of the others on the “Oldies Hit Parade!”

[AstroDin]

thanks, Bear for the stories and the ed-u-cation.


Just read the latest position update, http://www.furmanpaladins.com/sports/m- ... 0812ql98qn

Also, true freshman Dejaun Bell (kudos to Jasper) got major accolades from Coach Hendrix,
http://www.furmanpaladins.com/sports/m- ... 0811vtlvma

Based on those two news releases and practice updates, Furman will have some true freshmen getting serious PT in 2018.

Dejaun Bell WR
Taylor Hodge DT
Braden Gilby ILB
Jax Hackett ILB
Corey Watkins TB
Devin Abrams RB

[The Jackal]

Jackal - thanks for going into the details… the first time I saw Bell's film I was licking my chops at him also in the wing position.

I'm excited to see what a Quarles offense will look like… maybe Bear can elaborate more on what he was doing at Maryville.

From some of what I read last season, Quarles spent a good bit of time utilizing the runn-pass-option (RPO) at Maryville. I'm no offensive guru, but the general concept is to basically force a defense to commit and then do the opposite.

In our offense, Furman needs a way of getting a defense out of the box against the running game. We can do this with presnap reads. With one play call (no audible), the QB can make the decision based on numbers whether to hand the ball or quick throw to the WR. Wherever the defense wants to deploy on a given play, Furman can go the opposite direction.

I think Bell, for instance, could really thrive in this sort offensive set. If a defense wants to stack the box against Dirks & Co., the QB can turn and quickly throw to the slot, who then has space to run. If a defense gets tired of chasing the slot receiver all over the place, maybe they deploy their safety or linebacker out there. In that instance, Furman will have numbers inside and can run the ball with the fullbacks.

That's an element we didn't really see much of last season, but I would expect it this year.

[The Jackal]

I'm excited to see what a Quarles offense will look like… maybe Bear can elaborate more on what he was doing at Maryville.

Winning...OFTEN

I really don’t have any idea what his offenses looked like at Maryville, but I’ll share this anecdote, that may be of interest and, at least, somewhat elucidating...

A little over 10 years ago, I attended a Coaching Clinic and saw that Coach Quarles was speaking. I don’t remember the exact title of his session but I know it contained the phrase, “5 Wides.” So, I had to attend in order to see how far this Child of All that is Pure, Good & Right about Football had fallen in league with Satan’s Game.

After protecting myself with a garlic bagel, putting several silver cross(bars) around my neck, and grabbing a ‘stake’ biscuit to-go, I entered the darkened hotel ballroom just after the presentation had begun, positioning myself by the bank of light switches, prepared to flip them all on in an instant and flood the room with artificial sunlight, if necessary. Well, to my great pleasure, I watched as Coach Quarles flashed video after video of his Maryville Teams, using his cowboy clicker to describe, in great detail, what was, essentially, the same Offense we ran at Furman in the 80’s...but he was running out of “5 wides” instead of The I-Formation.

So...I’m assuming he didn’t change things too much since that time. I would expect he was EXTREMELY creative with formations & motions, ensuring his opponents could not ‘stack the box,’ were forced to defend the field from sideline to sideline, and had to remain ever-alert to defending it vertically. Then, I would bet he focused on using these spread formations & motions to execute ‘tried-and-true’ running schemes, including an option attack with a reasonably athletic QB, getting key blocking at the Point of Attack, both from Backs/WR’s & athletic OLmen able to block LB’s & DB’s ‘in space.’

Ancillary anecdote: One year, at the HS where I had been Coaching as a “Community Coach” (but had to, that year, due to a job change, ‘re-classify’ as a ‘Consultant’), which had always, very successfully, run a VERY traditional I-Based Power running game, found ourselves without a true FB and no real TE’s on the roster. But, we did have 7 or 8 Players who were either good WR’s/OK RB’s or good RB’s/OK WR’s. So, using the handouts that I had retained from Coach Quarles’ session that I had attended 3 years prior, as a template, the OC & I created what we called “The Baller Offense,” using those “hybrids” as interchangeable “ballers” in a variety of (mostly) spread formations, but getting them, through complex shifts & motions, back to where we were, for the most part, running our ‘traditional’ Offense with only a few changes to the O-Line schemes to account for no FB & no TE. I believe (not 100% sure - I was only a ‘Consultant,’ remember) the brand new HC there nixed installing our “Baller-O” though and stayed with what had ‘always worked.’ They went 0-10 that year. That Head Coach, who is a great guy, BTW, is now, I believe, out of Coaching. That OC, succeeded that HC, took them to 2 State Championship games, and then took, what is, probably, the highest paying HC gig in GA...all the while using, IMO, his adapted version of the “Baller-O.”

Back to Furman Football: So, to summarize....we might see a little more ‘spread-type’ of formations this year. We may see a bit less of some of the wing-T concepts (fake handoffs to multiple backs, misdirection, etc.), which was hard-wired into Coach Cronic’s DNA...AND for those of us old-timers, if we look REALLY closely, through all of that window dressing, we may be able to see 48 sweep, 28 base, 40 base, 26 rip, 32 veer, and some of the others on the “Oldies Hit Parade!”

I don't chart every play, of course, but the last time I can really remember Furman running a 47/48 sweep was 2011 (Bruce Fowlers' first season) against Wofford.

1st & 10 at WOF 48
(13:09 - 4th) Jerodis Williams rush for 8 yards to the Woffd 40, tackled by Alvin Scioneaux.
2nd & 2 at WOF 40
(13:09 - 4th) Tersoo Uhaa rush for no gain to the Woffd 40, tackled by Mike Niam and Jeremy Holt.
3rd & 2 at WOF 40
(13:09 - 4th) Jerodis Williams rush for 9 yards to the Woffd 31, tackled by Josh Holt and James Zotto for a 1ST down.
1st & 10 at WOF 31
(13:09 - 4th) Jerodis Williams rush for 3 yards to the Woffd 28, tackled by Mike McCrimon and Mike Niam.
2nd & 7 at WOF 28
(13:09 - 4th) Hank McCloud rush for 13 yards to the Woffd 15, tackled by Josh Holt and Alvin Scioneaux for a 1ST down.
1st & 10 at WOF 15
(13:09 - 4th) Hank McCloud rush for 1 yard to the Woffd 14, tackled by Mike Niam.
2nd & 9 at WOF 14
(13:09 - 4th) Jerodis Williams rush for 11 yards to the Woffd 3, tackled by Blake Wylie and James Zotto for a 1ST down.
1st & Goal at WOF 3
(8:59 - 4th) Tersoo Uhaa rush for 3 yards for a TOUCHDOWN.

We did not see Furman in the I-formation much last season except on the goalline with both Wilcox and Dirks in the game. I would love to see the Paladin offense start adding back some powers and sweeps with the TBs this season.

[Jasper]

Many thank to FU BeAR and Jackal for doing a great job of "splainin" the complicated "looks" our offense shows. I love lots of formations and deception in offensive schemes. Why not take advantage of the type of players we get at FU who have the ability to comprehend & execute complex sets? The more a defense is thinking about what is going on, the less they are quickly reacting. However, it appears to me that what they are both saying is that the whole thing is predicated upon a big back pounding the ball inside the tackles with significant effect. And that seemingly simple concept (but isn't) is based upon the O line moving the guys in the black hats off the line of scrimmage. When that is accomplished, all else comes from it and the dazzle plays have a lethal effect. (See Andy Schumpert) catching the ball w/o a defender in his zip code repeatedly last year. I assume that is why CCH moved his best lineman into the center position this season and it is essential to develop depth at what I perceive as the FB slot. It is very beneficial to have such knowledgeable and willing commentators on this board. It adds a great deal to the enjoyment of the game for the rest of us fans.

[Paul C]

thanks, Bear for the stories and the ed-u-cation.


Just read the latest position update, http://www.furmanpaladins.com/sports/m- ... 0812ql98qn

Also, true freshman Dejaun Bell (kudos to Jasper) got major accolades from Coach Hendrix,
http://www.furmanpaladins.com/sports/m- ... 0811vtlvma

Based on those two news releases and practice updates, Furman will have some true freshmen getting serious PT in 2018.

Dejaun Bell WR
Braden Gilby ILB
Jax Hackett ILB
Corey Watkins TB
Devin Abrams RB

Don't forget 5-9/255 DT Taylor Hodge. He seems to have attracted CCH's attention.....and not sure about Abrams, not sure where you're getting that?

[soconjohn]

No one has won the job yet...In fact, it won't matter which QB wins the job, both likely will play.

[AstroDin]

thanks, Bear for the stories and the ed-u-cation.


Just read the latest position update, http://www.furmanpaladins.com/sports/m- ... 0812ql98qn

Also, true freshman Dejaun Bell (kudos to Jasper) got major accolades from Coach Hendrix,
http://www.furmanpaladins.com/sports/m- ... 0811vtlvma

Based on those two news releases and practice updates, Furman will have some true freshmen getting serious PT in 2018.

Dejaun Bell WR
Braden Gilby ILB
Jax Hackett ILB
Corey Watkins TB
Devin Abrams RB

Don't forget 5-9/255 DT Taylor Hodge. He seems to have attracted CCH's attention.....and not sure about Abrams, not sure where you're getting that?

oops… my bad on Hodge - will add him - I thought I read/heard Abrams mentioned - I could have also made it up.

[The Jackal]

A word on Hodge. He’s certainly not a prototype DT in terms of size, but when you watch his film he’s got a big repertoire of skills to use, especially in the pass rush.

Noticeable is quickness and power. He’s got an explosive first step and can change direction on a dime. That forces offensive linemen to lose their footwork trying to react to him. If you can get a big man taking bad steps and unsure of his footwork, you can drive him back and collapse the pocket. I wouldn’t be surprised at all this season to see Hodge on passing downs.

[Flagman]

I had three players for dinner last Saturday; Chris Washington(OLB), Devin Abrams(RB), and Taylor Hodge(DT). Hodge was the smallest (height) of the three, but solidly built. I didn't (wouldn't) challenge him.

[apaladin]

I didn't realize that HR attends Clempson and drives back and forth to attend practice at FU. I also didn't know that FU was the only D1 school to offer him a scholarship.