2022 Outlook

[gofurman]

Even though not shocked, it is very surprising.

My only question is this. Isn’t PC non scholarship since Huff arrived 3 years ago?? Meaning he was a non scholly recruit ?? Is that true or was he offered when PC still had scholarships a while back ?

(A non scholarship QB scares ,me some but at least I know Jace is behind him so neither of them can do that 5-25 passing or whatever we did vs damn Citadel yr or so back. Good grief. With two good ones you would get yanked having that type day

Sam Wyche was a “non scholarship QB.” So if you become too “scared,” you can comfort yourself with that knowledge.

Good point. Just saying our most talented QB since 1990 has been Ingle Martin. The same guy offered to play at Florida etc. There is a direct correlation in big time offers and quality. I mean everyone wanted Trevor Lawrence and Peyton Manning etc. THAT SAID we have found some great ones with few or little offers - Louis ivory, etc. I know. Others like T Owens !!

As you said FUBeAR if he’s great you get all the credit. If he’s not

Anyway, Hope we are a great team !!!!!!! Believe me. I want nothing more than for Furman to win !!!!

Side note - if we do use both QBs it will be interesting to watch the redshirt play out. Is it number of plays or number of games you play in?? I think you get 4 games. If it’s 4 games will be interesting to see if it’s a good start to year and we are alternating QBs at times do we keep doing that and maybe use JW redshirt next year ? If we lose two or three early do we make a change at QB or maintain the redshirt?

What is the max on reps or games to keep a redshirt? One third of plays or does the fact you entered a game at all count as “one game played” even if only 3 plays ??? Thanks in advance

[AstroDin]

My hope is we finally get to have some balance with our Quarterbacks.

Huff is a grad student in a two-year program - officially a Junior.
Wilson is a true Sophomore. Jace can redshirt if he only plays in 4 games.
Jones is a true Freshman. Carson can redshirt if he only plays in 4 games.

My best-case scenario.

Huff and Wilson rotate at QB this season (JR has already commented that he's played two quarterbacks before).
You get Carson Jones some quality reps this season and redshirt him.

2023; Huff is a Senior, Wilson is a Junior, and Jones is a redshirt Freshman.
2024; Wilson is a Senior, and Jones is a redshirt Sophomore. Quarterback no. 3 is redshirted.
2025; Jones is a redshirt Junior, and the backup is a redshirt Freshman. There will need to be another QB in the wings, a full scholarship, or a PWO.

Furman has a couple of interesting PWO QBs on the roster right now - David Renard and Dixon Massingill.

[The Jackal]

It's also worth remembering that Coach Roper appears far more likely to use the QB as a designed runner than George Quarles was.

I think having two quality QBs in that sort of offense is a priority as the nature of the position in this offense is that they are going to get banged around a bit.

[JohnKX512]

College football players are allowed to compete (play a down) in up to four games and still qualify for a redshirt season, maintaining four years of eligibility under NCAA legislation in place since 2018.

[The Jackal]

A few other thoughts on offensive philosophy:

Furman fans have been accustomed to the two-back "ground and pound" offenses for years (probably decades). How often will Roper really try and spread teams out?

We are deeper at WR than we've been in a long time. Our base offense is a 3 WR offense. Our TE is arguably the best pass catcher in the SoCon. How willing will Furman be to really spread teams out?

I go back to the game a number of times, but you really saw us try to open up the offense against Western Carolina last season (we scored 40+ incidentally). We tried to spread them out more than we really did with any other team last year.

I'm a huge fan of this. WCU is forced to put 5 defensive backs on the field. Furman will automatically have an advantage on the inside run with Roberto/Abrams. I think what we saw against WCU is going to be a lot closer to what we see this year.

When you watch that play, look how much attention Miller diverts (two DBs). Deluca is blanketed by two guys. A LB picks up Abrams, but got lost on the first cut. No one apparently is assigned to pick up the QB.

By the time Sisson decides to run, I count 3 open Furman receivers.

[FUBeAR]

Looks like, with no particular plan, about 1/2 of WCU’s back 7 are playing some kind of zone and 1/2 are locked on man…with no one assigned to the QB or to the zone in the middle of the field.

Not sure the success of that play is due so much to how they were trying to defend a 4 wides formation with a back in the pattern as it was to how they blew their assignments.

[The Jackal]

Looks like, with no particular plan, about 1/2 of WCU’s back 7 are playing some kind of zone and 1/2 are locked on man…with no one assigned to the QB or to the zone in the middle of the field.

Not sure the success of that play is due so much to how they were trying to defend a 4 wides formation with a back in the pattern as it was to how they blew their assignments.

A typical Western Carolina defense. Just my read -

The strongside linebacker has the RB man-to-man. He looks pretty much lined head up on him.

It's hard to know what the plan was, but one or maybe both of the safeties aren't where they are supposed to be.

While, the formation didn't create the play, I'm almost less interested in the passing concepts. I love the idea of Roberto/Abrams looking at a 5 or 6 man box.

[FurmAlum]

My opinion (from a non-football playing background):

Huff being a former "non-scholly" player is irrelevant. There are a lot of former walk-ons that improved enough every year that by the time they were juniors and seniors they were great players. Some made to the NFL as FUbEAR pointed out. Jace showed a lot of ability last year. If Huff is a little better he must be pretty good.

I wouldn't be surprised to see us spread em out and then run it up the gut successfully. Teams can no longer stack the box with 9 players like the have the last two seasons. If they do I think we can beat them throwing the ball.

I am optimistic.

[Affirm]

College football players are allowed to compete (play a down) in up to four games and still qualify for a redshirt season, maintaining four years of eligibility under NCAA legislation in place since 2018.

By your saying that "compete" means "...(play a down) in up to four games...", I guess that you are saying the player can play any number of downs in the game and any number of minutes in the game, in up to four games.
Am I correct?
Or does "...(play a down) ..." mean literally only one down?
Sincere question. I really don't know, but I stated my guess above.
Acknowledging my ignorance.

[The Jackal]

If you play one down in the game, you play a game

[gofurman]

My hope is we finally get to have some balance with our Quarterbacks.

Huff is a grad student in a two-year program - officially a Junior.
Wilson is a true Sophomore. Jace can redshirt if he only plays in 4 games.
Jones is a true Freshman. Carson can redshirt if he only plays in 4 games.

My best-case scenario.

Huff and Wilson rotate at QB this season (JR has already commented that he's played two quarterbacks before).
You get Carson Jones some quality reps this season and redshirt him.

2023; Huff is a Senior, Wilson is a Junior, and Jones is a redshirt Freshman.
2024; Wilson is a Senior, and Jones is a redshirt Sophomore. Quarterback no. 3 is redshirted.
2025; Jones is a redshirt Junior, and the backup is a redshirt Freshman. There will need to be another QB in the wings, a full scholarship, or a PWO.

Furman has a couple of interesting PWO QBs on the roster right now - David Renard and Dixon Massingill.

Astro, I agree - the only thing I would "maybe" like to see is Wilson get a redshirt. If Huff doesn't get banged up perhaps we only use Wilson 4 games this year or next year? Hate not to redshirt a QB. Will be interesting to watch that playout. Do we fully commit to 2 QBs (Huff and Wilson) and never redshirt Wilson? We have 2 years with Huff to do get Wilson a 5th year. I love having redshirt junior and redshirt senior QBs !

Though there may be more to the story. Maybe coaches know a QB (any QB) will only stay 4 years prior to moving on so no need to RS

[gofurman]

If you play one down in the game, you play a game

thanks Jackal. I too was not sure.

[The Jackal]

Unrelated, but Adrian Hope made the two deep on Coastal Carolina's defense at BANDIT: https://goccusports.com/documents/2022/ ... pt._3_.pdf

The fit may not be super surprising considering Chad Staggs is the defensive coordinator and Josh Miller is the position coach.

[Affirm]

If you play one down in the game, you play a game

thanks Jackal. I too was not sure.

Same here. Thank you for the info!

[AstroDin]

My hope is we finally get to have some balance with our Quarterbacks.

Huff is a grad student in a two-year program - officially a Junior.
Wilson is a true Sophomore. Jace can redshirt if he only plays in 4 games.
Jones is a true Freshman. Carson can redshirt if he only plays in 4 games.

My best-case scenario.

Huff and Wilson rotate at QB this season (JR has already commented that he's played two quarterbacks before).
You get Carson Jones some quality reps this season and redshirt him.

2023; Huff is a Senior, Wilson is a Junior, and Jones is a redshirt Freshman.
2024; Wilson is a Senior, and Jones is a redshirt Sophomore. Quarterback no. 3 is redshirted.
2025; Jones is a redshirt Junior, and the backup is a redshirt Freshman. There will need to be another QB in the wings, a full scholarship, or a PWO.

Furman has a couple of interesting PWO QBs on the roster right now - David Renard and Dixon Massingill.

Astro, I agree - the only thing I would "maybe" like to see is Wilson get a redshirt. If Huff doesn't get banged up perhaps we only use Wilson 4 games this year or next year? Hate not to redshirt a QB. Will be interesting to watch that playout. Do we fully commit to 2 QBs (Huff and Wilson) and never redshirt Wilson? We have 2 years with Huff to do get Wilson a 5th year. I love having redshirt junior and redshirt senior QBs !

Though there may be more to the story. Maybe coaches know a QB (any QB) will only stay 4 years prior to moving on so no need to RS

I see a few problems with wanting to redshirt Jace…
The main reason - Jace wants to play - he has said as much.
We will need more than one QB this season. And we have no idea how JR plans to use his Furman quarterbacks.
The last thing is it causes another log jam at quarterback with two QBs being within one class of each other.
This can be good for competition, but I would hate to see us lose a quality QB to the transfer portal.

Maybe it's just pie-in-the-sky thinking, but for many cycles, Furman had an experienced senior QB leading the offense that year and a Sophomore QB waiting in the wings - ready to start as a Junior. Example Billy Napier.