New OC

[FUBeAR]

the football scoop article had interesting wording:

Multiple sources tell FootballScoop that Roper, a former University of Oregon quarterback who finished his career by leading Montana to the Football Championship Subdivision title game, has accepted a prominent offensive assistant coaching position at Furman University, where Roper will have a key role on Clay Hendrix’s Paladins staff.

Maybe it's just peculiar wording, but "prominent offensive" assistant leaves open a few different avenues of what the staff may eventually look like.

Good catch & prolly a good call.

The vague terminology doesn’t mean nothing.

[Afurmanfan]

He is the OC.

[apaladin]

It’s official.
https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2022/1/ ... nator.aspx

[The Jackal]

Good pick up for the Paladins. Checks a lot of boxes.

[Jasper]

On paper at least, this guy checks all my boxes. FU has a lot better kids than the Cross. He will love that. I hope his first duty is to burn the current play book and start afresh. Smells like the AC had a hand in this hire.

[The Jackal]

I watched some Holy Cross.

First, I do not believe Roper is going to change the DNA of the football program (not that he necessarily would, of course). While the Crusaders ran a lot more shotgun/spread type of looks than Furman fans will typically see, a lot of that is based on a run heavy attack.

It should be noted that the Holy Cross QB was very much a runner. The QB led the team in rushing. He was a big dude and obviously coached to run hard. A lot of their offense was designed for him to carry the ball.

They didn't use much in the way of a traditional fullback or a lot of two back sets that I saw. They do utilize the TE both in line and in an H Back role, and Furman has more recently been using the fullbacks to fill in the latter.

Most of the offense was out of the shotgun with a single back offset to the QB. To gain extra blockers, the Crusaders utilized a lot of pulling OGs and OTs. There are some examples where they use the pistol formation, especially in short yardage situations.

For comparison sake, Holy Cross' current roster has six players listed as "Running Back." Furman had 12 players similarly identified in the fall (6 TB, 6 RB). So, it will be interesting to see what Furman does there.

Positively, even with the spread look, Holy Cross' primary running back was a big guy - 6' 220+ lbs. So, Roper's got experience with dealing with some beef in the backfield, which Furman has.

[cavedweller2]

I remember Holy Cross coming to Sirrine Stadium back in the 70's.

[DeepPurple]

Big time hire, big time for Furman.

[Sad Din]

Roper Mountain Choo choo O

[apaladin]

Asking this question because I don’t know. When a new oc is hired does he come in and just plug into the system already in place or does he try to make major changes?

[The Jackal]

Asking this question because I don’t know. When a new oc is hired does he come in and just plug into the system already in place or does he try to make major changes?

I guess it depends on the guy.

In my view, there are some systems that take philosophical buy in. For instance, it's difficult to be half-way invested in an air raid or "triple option" scheme. If that's what you've hired a guy to install, that's what you're going to run.

At the same time, offensive football is largely about taking what teams have done for decades and matching it to personnel and disguising what you intend to do. The concepts are similar, but how you design and execute them may be different. A lot of college offenses are doing the same things, they just look slightly different in how they do them.

I expect Roper will have a different mix of talent at Furman than he had at Holy Cross. For instance, the Crusaders frequently used their 6'3 215 lbs QB as a key component of the running game. Furman doesn't have a QB that's built like a linebacker, but we do have a lot of running backs. How does Roper then take his favored run concepts and install them with different personnel?

I think you saw this with Cronic. Cronic's offense at Mercer looks different than his offense did at Furman. The concepts are similar as is the offensive philosophy, but the personnel is different. I think good coaches will create a system that fits the personnel available instead of forcing the personnel into an ill-fit system.

[Furmanoid]

At most of his stops he’s probably had to work with only a handful of full scholarship players. So hopefully he’s learned how to use the team he’s got instead one he wants to have. And hopefully he learned a new wrinkle or two in how to do that at each stop. He would appear to have gotten a pretty good coaching education. And he wouldn’t keep moving up if he stunk too bad. So we’ll see.

[Afurmanfan]

The HC has an overall philosophy of what he wants to see from his team. But as mentioned earlier, every good coach looks at his talent year to year and adopts.
Look at Bama- with the incredible running backs they have had the last 7-8 years and great OL, they ran the ball down your throat.
But look how they beast UGA 3 weeks ago- passing to receivers that Bulldogs couldn’t cover. Bama, like everyone else, couldn’t run with any consistency against UGA- so they went to where their best mismatches were.
CCH and CJR will make the same decisions week by week, but will have an overall philosophy of what basic approach they believe provides the best chance of success.
Terminology is the other part that can take some time to work out with a new coordinator.
I know when Coach Cronic left, CCH felt that we needed to come up with better terminology on offense. They will have that worked out before spring practice.

[gofurman]

Asking this question because I don’t know. When a new oc is hired does he come in and just plug into the system already in place or does he try to make major changes?

I guess it depends on the guy.

In my view, there are some systems that take philosophical buy in. For instance, it's difficult to be half-way invested in an air raid or "triple option" scheme. If that's what you've hired a guy to install, that's what you're going to run.

At the same time, offensive football is largely about taking what teams have done for decades and matching it to personnel and disguising what you intend to do. The concepts are similar, but how you design and execute them may be different. A lot of college offenses are doing the same things, they just look slightly different in how they do them.

I expect Roper will have a different mix of talent at Furman than he had at Holy Cross. For instance, the Crusaders frequently used their 6'3 215 lbs QB as a key component of the running game. Furman doesn't have a QB that's built like a linebacker, but we do have a lot of running backs. How does Roper then take his favored run concepts and install them with different personnel?

I think you saw this with Cronic. Cronic's offense at Mercer looks different than his offense did at Furman. The concepts are similar as is the offensive philosophy, but the personnel is different. I think good coaches will create a system that fits the personnel available instead of forcing the personnel into an ill-fit system.

I think this last statement isakey. Do you make the current guys fit your 'system' or do you find the players strengths and work with that. I agree with Jackal - after years of watching it appears the better coaches take what they have (the talent available) and make the system around that talent.. now, that said, they may have a longer term approach to get to a different system but for the time being you don't force a round peg in a square hole. Once we let Jace come in and do some running our offense improved.

[The Jackal]

Noticed on the online roster that Bratton is listed as "co-offensive coordinator" and Antonio Wilcox picks up the recruiting coordinator gig now that Lamendola is gone.

Not sure what that all means, but it's a change.