Furman v Western Carolina Game Thread

[gofurman]

We got lit up by a freshman QB playing in his 6th college game. 12-16, 259 yds, 2 tds averaged 20+ yds completion all in less than a half. Bad news VMI is down to its 3rd QB so better watch out.

Let's give Gonzales some credit - doesn't matter what class you are in when you can throw dimes like he did. You don't hit two deep passes like that with luck.

Gilby's hit on Davis, which knocked him wobbly ended up being the source of life for Western's offense. I would start Gonzales over Davis based on what I saw. A few other things to consider; Western has a ton of weapons at receiver the most speed I've seen in a long time.

Yep

And SPEED KILLS. I maintain we need more of it on the outside. WCU showed you can get more than we have at this level. The TV announcer recently agreed saying “this Furman run game and Miller are strong! If they had a little more speed outside at WR that would be the next piece…

I would agree

[gofurman]

Give credit where credit is due. Western is up and coming. They have some serious speed and I liked the look of that Freshman QB. Offenses in college football are progressing faster than the defenses can keep up. Look at the number of track meets/shoot outs with 40 + points on Saturday. It am pure horror show!

So, I certainly think from what I saw Saturday that WCU clearly had some serious speed, size, and depth at WR. Hendrix mentioned that in the pre-game, and it was pretty obvious in the game that they were a real offensive problem.

WCU has put up yards on everyone. Where they struggle is in scoring in the red zone where their vertical routes and speed are somewhat mitigated by the shortened field. We just kept playing right into what they do well offensively.

As I have thought more about it, I think that the style of defense we are trying to run is a more high pressure style with a lot of cover-3. To some degree, that is going to cost us every now and again. It's going to lead to more defensive turnovers. Both of those things have been true this year.

It strikes me that Saturday we didn't make a lot of adjustments to accommodate for WCU's size and speed at receiver. If our young CBs are struggling with covering their vertical routes, we need to give them help. On the long TD on the slant route, we had no apparent inside help - basically the WR just had to beat the man to the inside and then he was going to run for a while.

Our staff is going to rotate defensive players. While our CBs are talented, most of them are sophomores (Robinson, Yates, Morris). Best I could tell, WCU was making a concerted effort not to throw the ball anywhere near Travis Blackshear. In most of these long passes, they were picking on our younger DBs who were frequently left without safety help.

Bottom line, I don't think we made enough adjustments on defense to accommodate for what WCU was throwing at us.

Yes. This is so true. WCU went at the same DB twice for big TDs. He had no help.. either time!

Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on US!! . I am still completely baffled at this. With a huge lead?? No help?? And as you say we just kept giving this with NO ADJUSTMENTS. And that was the ONE THING we didn’t want to allow - quick scores … make them use clock at least. That was probably our worst quarter of defense all year and just baffling. Football 101 - up 24, quarter 4, keep everything in front of you or at least help !!!.

[gman84]

So when we play press coverage and get no safety help, as some have articulated, and get torched people get upset. When we play a soft zone, prevent defense, as some have articulated in previous seasons, and give up chunk plays people are upset. Which is it ? So many brilliant football minds here. I think the coaches should visit this forum for weekly advice. One of the defensive starters was in my office today. I congratulated him for the win and his individual award. He was grinning from ear to ear and stoked that they control their own destiny. Bottom line, he is a 20 year old really enjoying the season to this point. Sure hope he doesn’t read what some “ supporters” have to say.

[dornb]

I had not seen this yet.

[apaladin]

Just finished watchng the replay. WCU receivers were like men against boys especially in thd second half, just running right by our guys. Their receivers were wide open partly because their QB had all day. We rushed 4 all day and correct me if I am wrong I don’t think we ever blitzed. If we did was only one or twice. We were so close to blowing this game. 44 passes and zero sacks. I am not a fan of the sit on a lead, play the clock type team we have become. Very unfurmanlike. It almost bit us on the butt Saturday.

[tim]

So when we play press coverage and get no safety help, as some have articulated, and get torched people get upset. When we play a soft zone, prevent defense, as some have articulated in previous seasons, and give up chunk plays people are upset. Which is it ? So many brilliant football minds here. I think the coaches should visit this forum for weekly advice. One of the defensive starters was in my office today. I congratulated him for the win and his individual award. He was grinning from ear to ear and stoked that they control their own destiny. Bottom line, he is a 20 year old really enjoying the season to this point. Sure hope he doesn’t read what some “ supporters” have to say.

So your point is that we will either give up chunk plays or get torched.....choose your poison. Got it. With a 24 point lead in the 4th quarter, I choose chunk plays.

[The Jackal]

Just finished watchng the replay. WCU receivers were like men against boys especially in thd second half, just running right by our guys. Their receivers were wide open partly because their QB had all day. We rushed 4 all day and correct me if I am wrong I don’t think we ever blitzed. If we did was only one or twice. We were so close to blowing this game. 44 passes and zero sacks. I am not a fan of the sit on a lead, play the clock type team we have become. Very unfurmanlike. It almost bit us on the butt Saturday.

The lack of pressure, in my opinion, was probably just as much a contributing factor to the pass defense issues as anything going on in the backfield.

Offensively, there's a risk of sitting on a lead and being conservative, but it's hard to fault the coaches too much in their approach. We rushed for 400+ yards. WCU was having a real tough time stopping our offense without us remotely trying to disguise much of what we were doing.

[The Jackal]

So when we play press coverage and get no safety help, as some have articulated, and get torched people get upset. When we play a soft zone, prevent defense, as some have articulated in previous seasons, and give up chunk plays people are upset. Which is it ? So many brilliant football minds here. I think the coaches should visit this forum for weekly advice. One of the defensive starters was in my office today. I congratulated him for the win and his individual award. He was grinning from ear to ear and stoked that they control their own destiny. Bottom line, he is a 20 year old really enjoying the season to this point. Sure hope he doesn’t read what some “ supporters” have to say.

So your point is that we will either give up chunk plays or get torched.....choose your poison. Got it. With a 24 point lead in the 4th quarter, I choose chunk plays.

At some point, you have to give credit to WCU's staff. They seemed to know what we were going to be doing defensively and found ways to exploit it.

On a positive note, we don't play any other team the rest of the way that can throw the ball like they can or will move as fast as they do.

[gman84]

So when we play press coverage and get no safety help, as some have articulated, and get torched people get upset. When we play a soft zone, prevent defense, as some have articulated in previous seasons, and give up chunk plays people are upset. Which is it ? So many brilliant football minds here. I think the coaches should visit this forum for weekly advice. One of the defensive starters was in my office today. I congratulated him for the win and his individual award. He was grinning from ear to ear and stoked that they control their own destiny. Bottom line, he is a 20 year old really enjoying the season to this point. Sure hope he doesn’t read what some “ supporters” have to say.

So your point is that we will either give up chunk plays or get torched.....choose your poison. Got it. With a 24 point lead in the 4th quarter, I choose chunk plays.

My point is…. no matter what we do, people complain. And it is a game played by 18-22 year olds.

[Furmanoid]

Yes 18-23 year olds. Not 8-13 year olds. I hope they aren’t as emotionally fragile as you seem to think. Normal HS kids aren’t. If they play crappy, they know it. If they are just physically out matched, they know that. I would imagine they think it’s kinda cool to have a forum like this at an FCS school. They’re smart enough to recognize that there is probably no kinder gentler football forum anywhere.

[gman84]

Yes 18-23 year olds. Not 8-13 year olds. I hope they aren’t as emotionally fragile as you seem to think. Normal HS kids aren’t. If they play crappy, they know it. If they are just physically out matched, they know that. I would imagine they think it’s kinda cool to have a forum like this at an FCS school. They’re smart enough to recognize that there is probably no kinder gentler football forum anywhere.

Wow! My reference to 18-22 year olds has nothing to do with their emotional stability. Its that they don't, and should not give a rip what a bunch of knuckle heads like US type on a message board.

[Davemeister]

I watched the replay last night and let me tell you the 4th Quarter doesn't look any better on ESPN+ than it did in Real Time. Woeful as our D was, if the O had scored a TD on any of our final 3 possessions (which went Punt-Fumble-FG), we could have iced the game and avoided the last-minute drama.

[Furmanoid]

Yes 18-23 year olds. Not 8-13 year olds. I hope they aren’t as emotionally fragile as you seem to think. Normal HS kids aren’t. If they play crappy, they know it. If they are just physically out matched, they know that. I would imagine they think it’s kinda cool to have a forum like this at an FCS school. They’re smart enough to recognize that there is probably no kinder gentler football forum anywhere.

Wow! My reference to 18-22 year olds has nothing to do with their emotional stability. Its that they don't, and should not give a rip what a bunch of knuckle heads like US type on a message board.

Oops my bad. I thought you were expressing the view I’ve seen here many, many times that the UFFP is so mean and negative that it causes all sorts of angst and sadness amongst our players. Glad you don’t buy into that nonsense.

[Affirm]

So when we play press coverage and get no safety help, as some have articulated, and get torched people get upset. When we play a soft zone, prevent defense, as some have articulated in previous seasons, and give up chunk plays people are upset. Which is it ? So many brilliant football minds here. I think the coaches should visit this forum for weekly advice. One of the defensive starters was in my office today. I congratulated him for the win and his individual award. He was grinning from ear to ear and stoked that they control their own destiny. Bottom line, he is a 20 year old really enjoying the season to this point. Sure hope he doesn’t read what some “ supporters” have to say.

So your point is that we will either give up chunk plays or get torched.....choose your poison. Got it. With a 24 point lead in the 4th quarter, I choose chunk plays.

At some point, you have to give credit to WCU's staff. They seemed to know what we were going to be doing defensively and found ways to exploit it.

On a positive note, we don't play any other team the rest of the way that can throw the ball like they can or will move as fast as they do.

Look at the WCU coach’s impressive background.
Rates very highly among the top players in the first 100 years of Florida Gators football.
Has impressive previous coaching experience.
His son Kade Bell is the OC.
I expect he and his staff are on the way UP at WCU.

[tim]

Attention! All due credit is hereby given to the WCU staff.