In the Past

[Furmanoid]

NDSU is a top program not because it gets the pick of the litter in sparsely populated states. They have been better than we are in terms of talent identification, recruiting, development, and coaching.

Yes, having a lot of football programs makes recruiting more difficult, but we have to get better. For a good bit of the last 15 years Furman acted as if they were going to continue high levels of success by saying "we're Furman" and doing the same thing over and over again while the rest of the FCS landscape flew past us.

Fortunately, we've got a coaching staff now that sees the fallacy of that approach.

Around 2006 or so we got South Aiken’s coach to come to North Augusta. He had done pretty decent at that perennially bad program. The demographic there was more suited to golf and tennis. At North Augusta we went on an 6 year tear of destroying pretty much everybody we played. We had a very different demographic. I asked Coach Pippen if FU ever came around. He said the weird thing was that they did when he was at South Aiken, but now that he had talent to show them, he never heard from them anymore. Through that stretch it almost seemed like FU had a list of acceptable schools they recruited from. Really weird that NA was snubbed considering the Sheridan connection. Any they finally took Dejuan Bell so I guess we are off the naughty list.

[Furmanoid]

NDSU is a top program not because it gets the pick of the litter in sparsely populated states. They have been better than we are in terms of talent identification, recruiting, development, and coaching.

Yes, having a lot of football programs makes recruiting more difficult, but we have to get better. For a good bit of the last 15 years Furman acted as if they were going to continue high levels of success by saying "we're Furman" and doing the same thing over and over again while the rest of the FCS landscape flew past us.

Fortunately, we've got a coaching staff now that sees the fallacy of that approach.

Around 2006 or so we got South Aiken’s coach to come to North Augusta. He had done pretty decent at that perennially bad program. The demographic there was more suited to golf and tennis. At North Augusta we went on an 6 year tear of destroying pretty much everybody we played. We had a very different demographic. I asked Coach Pippen if FU ever came around. He said the weird thing was that they did when he was at South Aiken, but now that he had talent to show them, he never heard from them anymore. Through that stretch it almost seemed like FU had a list of acceptable schools they recruited from. Really weird that NA was snubbed considering the Sheridan connection. Anyway they finally took Dejuan Bell so I guess we are off the naughty list.

[fufanatic]

Gonna sound mean but I would be all for some programs getting dropped or falling to D2 w COVID. way too many programs in southeast - too much saturation of scholarship offers. As many have said this allows Eastern Washington and NDSU and SDSU to be top programs. That said I do give NDSU credit for talent identification - Carson Wentz, the current QB! won the Payton as a freshman, Jabril Cox left NDSU for LSU. Good grief. They can find the kids. They say “we develop em” but you can’t make me be Carson Wentz. LOL. There is a lot of talent there. How do Minnesota etc keep missing in these kids?

I'm not going to go back and look, but I bet NDSU won its first couple FCS titles with regional talent and excellent coaching and then used that success to recruit nationally, which they do exceptionally well. A few years ago their elite RB was from Florida. I can't imagine going up there purely because of the weather, but if you're a notch below starting at the Power 5 level, why not go to NDSU? You go there you'll start and win between 12-15 games every year, or you could go to a Group of 5 and play in a crappy bowl game or be on the bench at the Power 5 level.

[The Jackal]

Gonna sound mean but I would be all for some programs getting dropped or falling to D2 w COVID. way too many programs in southeast - too much saturation of scholarship offers. As many have said this allows Eastern Washington and NDSU and SDSU to be top programs. That said I do give NDSU credit for talent identification - Carson Wentz, the current QB! won the Payton as a freshman, Jabril Cox left NDSU for LSU. Good grief. They can find the kids. They say “we develop em” but you can’t make me be Carson Wentz. LOL. There is a lot of talent there. How do Minnesota etc keep missing in these kids?

I'm not going to go back and look, but I bet NDSU won its first couple FCS titles with regional talent and excellent coaching and then used that success to recruit nationally, which they do exceptionally well. A few years ago their elite RB was from Florida. I can't imagine going up there purely because of the weather, but if you're a notch below starting at the Power 5 level, why not go to NDSU? You go there you'll start and win between 12-15 games every year, or you could go to a Group of 5 and play in a crappy bowl game or be on the bench at the Power 5 level.

It's an interesting analysis with NDSU.

One thing that has jumped off the page with the Bison is QB play. During their run, they've had excellent QBs.

Earlier on, I think they hit on some guys. Carson Wentz is from Bismark, ND, which is basically the middle of nowhere and probably a 7 hour drive to the closest major metro area (Minneapolis). He missed much of his junior year to injury, and so would have been largely off the radar for major programs in an area where it would be really difficult to personally recruit him.

They also hit on guys like Brock Jensen, Easton Stick, and now Trey Lance. With Lance, it seems very much a case where a guy from Minnesota could have gone and played at Boise State or Western Michigan, but if you are going to do that, why not NDSU?

I think one area that just separates NDSU right now from everyone else is they are able to recruit and develop one excellent QB after another. It'd be like having Ingle Martin under center, but for most of a decade.

[AstroDin]

To Jackal's point about NDSU developing talent. In the past, Furman had excellent depth at QB and that led to QBs stepping in as juniors replacing departed Seniors. My take is we started getting upside down after Ingle Martin.

Furman has several positions that appear to have solid depth currently. Running back, offensive line, and if they continue to develop at quarterback. With the Jace Wilson commitment - that sets up Furman to have Jace redshirt and not be expected to be a starter until his redshirt sophomore year.

[fufanatic]

Gonna sound mean but I would be all for some programs getting dropped or falling to D2 w COVID. way too many programs in southeast - too much saturation of scholarship offers. As many have said this allows Eastern Washington and NDSU and SDSU to be top programs. That said I do give NDSU credit for talent identification - Carson Wentz, the current QB! won the Payton as a freshman, Jabril Cox left NDSU for LSU. Good grief. They can find the kids. They say “we develop em” but you can’t make me be Carson Wentz. LOL. There is a lot of talent there. How do Minnesota etc keep missing in these kids?

I'm not going to go back and look, but I bet NDSU won its first couple FCS titles with regional talent and excellent coaching and then used that success to recruit nationally, which they do exceptionally well. A few years ago their elite RB was from Florida. I can't imagine going up there purely because of the weather, but if you're a notch below starting at the Power 5 level, why not go to NDSU? You go there you'll start and win between 12-15 games every year, or you could go to a Group of 5 and play in a crappy bowl game or be on the bench at the Power 5 level.

It's an interesting analysis with NDSU.

One thing that has jumped off the page with the Bison is QB play. During their run, they've had excellent QBs.

Earlier on, I think they hit on some guys. Carson Wentz is from Bismark, ND, which is basically the middle of nowhere and probably a 7 hour drive to the closest major metro area (Minneapolis). He missed much of his junior year to injury, and so would have been largely off the radar for major programs in an area where it would be really difficult to personally recruit him.

They also hit on guys like Brock Jensen, Easton Stick, and now Trey Lance. With Lance, it seems very much a case where a guy from Minnesota could have gone and played at Boise State or Western Michigan, but if you are going to do that, why not NDSU?

I think one area that just separates NDSU right now from everyone else is they are able to recruit and develop one excellent QB after another. It'd be like having Ingle Martin under center, but for most of a decade.

You're right. It is so remarkable that they've hit on so many QBs consecutively. NFL level guys. How many other FCS programs have had multiple QBs make the NFL in the last decade? Probably none. And NDSU has had multiple guys drafted, including Wentz at No. 2 overall. And now Lance is a projected first rounder by many ... and he's just a sophomore. Just stunning. Whether it's lucky, good or a combo of both, they've figured out the secret sauce.

[The Jackal]

Gonna sound mean but I would be all for some programs getting dropped or falling to D2 w COVID. way too many programs in southeast - too much saturation of scholarship offers. As many have said this allows Eastern Washington and NDSU and SDSU to be top programs. That said I do give NDSU credit for talent identification - Carson Wentz, the current QB! won the Payton as a freshman, Jabril Cox left NDSU for LSU. Good grief. They can find the kids. They say “we develop em” but you can’t make me be Carson Wentz. LOL. There is a lot of talent there. How do Minnesota etc keep missing in these kids?

I'm not going to go back and look, but I bet NDSU won its first couple FCS titles with regional talent and excellent coaching and then used that success to recruit nationally, which they do exceptionally well. A few years ago their elite RB was from Florida. I can't imagine going up there purely because of the weather, but if you're a notch below starting at the Power 5 level, why not go to NDSU? You go there you'll start and win between 12-15 games every year, or you could go to a Group of 5 and play in a crappy bowl game or be on the bench at the Power 5 level.

It's an interesting analysis with NDSU.

One thing that has jumped off the page with the Bison is QB play. During their run, they've had excellent QBs.

Earlier on, I think they hit on some guys. Carson Wentz is from Bismark, ND, which is basically the middle of nowhere and probably a 7 hour drive to the closest major metro area (Minneapolis). He missed much of his junior year to injury, and so would have been largely off the radar for major programs in an area where it would be really difficult to personally recruit him.

They also hit on guys like Brock Jensen, Easton Stick, and now Trey Lance. With Lance, it seems very much a case where a guy from Minnesota could have gone and played at Boise State or Western Michigan, but if you are going to do that, why not NDSU?

I think one area that just separates NDSU right now from everyone else is they are able to recruit and develop one excellent QB after another. It'd be like having Ingle Martin under center, but for most of a decade.

You're right. It is so remarkable that they've hit on so many QBs consecutively. NFL level guys. How many other FCS programs have had multiple QBs make the NFL in the last decade? Probably none. And NDSU has had multiple guys drafted, including Wentz at No. 2 overall. And now Lance is a projected first rounder by many ... and he's just a sophomore. Just stunning. Whether it's lucky, good or a combo of both, they've figured out the secret sauce.

I did a little reading on Jabril Cox's recruitment. He's from Missouri and primarily played QB in high school (due to being the best athlete on the field), but like Wentz, suffered an injury his junior year and was largely ignored by bigger schools.