The Current Top Of The SoCon

[DungeonRealm]

I remember a time not very long ago at all when Mercer and ETSU did not even have football and UTC and VMI were two of the worst teams in the country

Now in 2021 we can barely even score on these teams

Painful to watch

[The Jackal]

Duke and Army used to be the best teams in the country too.

[Furmanoid]

OK but Army was last on top about 70 years ago. SoCon has become a beginners’ football conference over the last 15 years or so. I was a little bummed about adding Howard, uh, I mean Samford, Mercer and ETSU but I figured, well, at least that’s three wins. Oh well.

[FUBeAR]

We all have our own perspectives - FUBeAR was excited about bringing VMI & ETSU back into the SoCon fold, as well as adding a school like Mercer that aligned well on the ‘privates’ side AND had already demonstrated a strong willingness to invest in the success of their Athletics programs AND gave the SoCon ‘re-entry’ into Georgia. Wasn’t paying as much attention when Samford was added, but seems to be a good fit.

Adding programs FUBeAR had always viewed as NAIA-level (Elon, Wofford) and adding non-SoCon Football-playing schools (Davidson, College of Charleston, UNCG) seemed to be much more icky-icky to FUBeAR.

[apaladin]

Times do change. Remember the main reason VMI left the SoCon was they couuldn’t compete and rarely won a game? Now they are top tier. Have they gotten that much better or has the SoCon declined? Judging by VMI’s ooc results I think it’s the latter.

[Furmanoid]

FUBeAR makes some sense. I’m just saying that the conference has 2 startups (ETSU and Mercer), a former DIII (Samford) and a former NAIA/DII. It has two respected military schools nobody wants to play for. That should be 6 wins every year for a program like Furman. Make it 7 because WCU has been playing like WCU for years. When you look at it like that, it’s pretty bewildering to see where we are. At least we aren’t at the bottom, but damn.

[DungeonRealm]

Hopefully we will never have to witness another Furman coach give up like last Saturday, no matter the score and regardless of having zero faith in your own teams capability to score

I hope coach Hendrix feels ashamed by that in hindsight, I fear for the programs future if he does not as I don't see us getting ride of him anytime soon

One must never give up

[FUBeAR]

Times do change. Remember the main reason VMI left the SoCon was they couuldn’t compete and rarely won a game? Now they are top tier. Have they gotten that much better or has the SoCon declined? Judging by VMI’s ooc results I think it’s the latter.

VMI has lost exactly 1 regular season FCS OOC game in the past 4 calendar years. They also lost a Playoff game to the #3 seeded (FCS) Team…by 1 score. If they had recovered their onside kick with 2:09 to play…mighta pulled off that upset.

Are you “judging” the Keydets for their OOC FBS losses? The Playoff Committee doesn’t.

Nope - they probably don’t have any clear ‘statement’ FCS wins over that time frame either, but the discernment required to assess the aggregate strength vector of a 9 team conference over an indefinite period of time via assessment of the ‘quality’ of the OOC wins of 1 of those Teams over another indefinite period of time, far exceeds FUBeAR’s capability to do so. Seems making such a judgement would certainly require the capability of a bona fide Football savant.

[Furmanoid]

We’ll it would be useful for some savant or regular person to really investigate this drastic improvement at VMI. Is it real or is the conference bad? If it’s real, how the heck have they done it? Any recruiting impediments we have pale beside theirs. Maybe they’re cheating. If so we can either turn them in or copy them.

My guess is they have improved enough to be lower middle of the old(er) version of the SoCon.

[FU3]

I believe they are successful for the the same reasons little Woffy was successful under their previous regime, really good coaching and a clear plan to recruit the kinds of kids that would fit their scheme.

[FUBeAR]

We’ll it would be useful for some savant or regular person to really investigate this drastic improvement at VMI. Is it real or is the conference bad? If it’s real, how the heck have they done it? Any recruiting impediments we have pale beside theirs. Maybe they’re cheating. If so we can either turn them in or copy them.

My guess is they have improved enough to be lower middle of the old(er) version of the SoCon.

Dramatically improved. Defense is now sound & aggressive where it was previously aggressive & the opposite of ‘sound.’ Offense not throwing the ball every play - 54% run / 46% pass this year - and ‘like’ to do both. Seem to have ‘invested’ scholarship $’s to Specialists (PK, LS, P), whereas they previously could barely execute a scrimmage kick.

[FurmAlum]

I think the SoCon has improved this year. There are four teams that have legitimate chances for a play-off bid. I doubt there will be 4 bids, but 3 is not impossible.

Chatty - almost beat an SEC team. Beat ETSU. Only bad loss so far was APSU.
ETSU - beat an SEC team. No FCS OOC losses.
Mercer - showed up decent vs. Alabama. No FCS OOC losses but hasn't played a Div 1 OOC. Bad loss to VMI. Needs to beat ETSU and Chatty to make the playoffs. Or at least 1 of them.
VMI - no FCS OOC losses. Beat Mercer and Chatty.

I guess the true measure will be how the SoCon teams perform in the play-offs, assuming there are 2 -3 teams in.

We'd be there too if we could have had more O.

[gofurman]

I know there are some fans who lose interest once we can’t make the post season. I am seriously interested to watch the next few weeks. Both in terms of Furman (offense? team effort? Clues to next year?). And the SoCon - how do Chatty and ETSU or Mercer do in the playoffs ? I hope they (whomever it is) kill the playoffs !!!

[Furmanoid]

We’ll it would be useful for some savant or regular person to really investigate this drastic improvement at VMI. Is it real or is the conference bad? If it’s real, how the heck have they done it? Any recruiting impediments we have pale beside theirs. Maybe they’re cheating. If so we can either turn them in or copy them.

My guess is they have improved enough to be lower middle of the old(er) version of the SoCon.

Dramatically improved. Defense is now sound & aggressive where it was previously aggressive & the opposite of ‘sound.’ Offense not throwing the ball every play - 54% run / 46% pass this year - and ‘like’ to do both. Seem to have ‘invested’ scholarship $’s to Specialists (PK, LS, P), whereas they previously could barely execute a scrimmage kick.

I read an article from the Richmond paper this afternoon. According to VMI’s coach, their recruiting is about as difficult as ever. They can only afford about 20 out of state scholarships. Sure, VA is a big state, but the population is concentrated in the north where I’ll bet it’s way more of a lax crowd than a football crowd. And if you’re a VA recruit, you will probably rank UVA, VaTech, Liberty, JMU, Richmond and W&M ahead of VMI on your wish list. Frankly W&L and Christopher Newport might be more appealing. So they are making do with guys we probably wouldn’t even want. They haven’t opened up some new portal to awesomeness.

Their HC has had several awful years including losses to sub 500 DII teams. Nothing in his long resume screams “Genius!” But a couple of years ago they stopped sucking. The change I see is that they promoted a young guy to OC 2 years ago. Did that do it?

[FU3]

It is a very tough sell for VMI in Va.Lots of good in State schools with far better sports facilities, top that with Lexington being pretty isolated and the military school angle this current staff has done a great job in recruiting. You are wrong though about Northern Virginia, it has always been a great area for HS football and is recruited heavily by Va schools and for that matter everyone else.