Chattanooga 10/29 - Homecoming

[FUBeAR]

If y’all want some close up views of Chatt, check out this video. Can get a preview of the opponent after Chatt also…

[The Jackal]

Interesting visual game.

UTC, I guess, had a home "white out." I can't remember the last time I saw Mercer wear orange on orange. Maybe it's an annual thing, but I like that look. It's loud, but unique.

[HB88]

Reminds me of OK State.

[AstroDin]

FuBear… posted the Verses Score Simulator on another board (Furman ranked 14).
I ran the simulator for the FU/CHAT matchup and came out with a 22-20 Moc win.
I didn't dig deep enough to understand the analytics -but the simulator only has a difference of 1 between the teams (Furman 95 – Chatty 96). The difference is Verses has Chatty's offense ranked higher than Furman's.

Let's compare rushing attacks…

CHAT
A Ford, 150 rushes, 847 yards, 8 touchdowns, 5.5 ypc
G Appleberry, 53 rushes, 311 yards, 2 touchdowns, 5.9 ypc
P Hutchinson, 41 rushes, 184 yards, 4 touchdowns, 2.1 ypc

FU
Roberto, 117 rushes, 797 yards, 8 touchdowns, 6.7 ypc
Abrams, 78 rushes, 3489 yards, 1 touchdown, 4.3 ypc
Huff, 48 rushes, 348 yards, 1 touchdown, 6 ypc
Thomas, 27 rushes, 116 yards, 1 touchdown, 4.1 ypc
(J Wilson, 24 rushes, 118 yards, 3 touchdowns, 4.0 ypc)

Head to Head
Furman 227 yards per game (tops in the SoCon)
Chatanooga 175 yards per game (#5)

One interesting note to me—comparing the two teams play against FBS this season.
Chatty got drilled by Illinois, 31-0. ILL is currently ranked 18th in the coach's poll.
Chatty's offensive numbers; were 93 rushing and 49 passing.

Furman was bested by Clemson 35-12. Clemson is currently ranked 5th in the coach's poll.
Furman's offensive numbers were 141 rushing and 259 passing.

Even though Furman lost — and left some points on the field, Furman played very well. This will be a similar matchup for our offensive line. The MOCS will line up with two on the Buchannan watch list.

The simulator lets you tweak offense and defense. Pushing Furman to 1 point higher than Chatty on offense greatly changes the simulation. I got a Furman win, 26-15.

[AstroDin]

Another thought about the rushing attacks and who has the advantage in this matchup.
RBs vs RBs - it's close, but Furman IMO has the edge in depth and versatility.
QB vs QB - Huff is far more productive rushing the ball, giving Furman the edge and the difference in this matchup.
We will see…

[gman84]

This match up is going to be a classic based on the info above. I'll keep it simple since that's about all my brain can handle now. Turnovers and penalties will decide this one. I can see a last second field goal for the W!

[The Jackal]

Some Monday morning views.

UTC's offense, I think, will be stylistically similar to what we faced against ETSU with one feature do-everything back. We are going to have to stop Aliym Ford like we stopped Jacob Saylors. Every yard he gains is going to need to be a hard-earned one.

UTC's defense has some real standouts. I'm still not sure we've really seen Coach Roper take the training wheels off the offense. The last two weeks, our offensive line just overwhelmed the opponents' defense in the run game. I'm not sure sledding will be that easy this week.

One sneaky area to watch - special teams.

UTC has only 8 touchbacks on 40+ kicks. Furman has the league's best return game and league's best returner (Wayne Anderson). So, there should be some opportunities for Anderson to spring a run or two.

Also, the Mocs are only 7-12 in field goals (.583). Furman is 12-15 (.800).

In what might be a tight game, Furman has the edge on paper in special teams. I expect Hendrix to be more than willing to take field goals and get points on the board where he can.

[The Jackal]

These are always well done, but it's worth watching to the end just to see Alex Maier do a backflip in full pads.

[FUBeAR]

Interesting visual game.

UTC, I guess, had a home "white out." I can't remember the last time I saw Mercer wear orange on orange. Maybe it's an annual thing, but I like that look. It's loud, but unique.

LOL - Mercer has worn All Orange exactly twice. This game @ Chattanooga and last year vs. VMI. Both games opened with a combination of Mercer throwing a Pick6 & fumbling deep in their own territory. They were down 2 scores in both games within 2 or 3 minutes of Kickoff.

If they ever roll out in those togs again,FUBeAR will be SHOCKED!

Since this is the ONLY thing you have “liked” about Mercer Football in 10 years, gotta think you knew these outcomes in All Orange and are just poking the Bears. You know what they say about poking Bears, don’t you?

[The Jackal]

Interesting visual game.

UTC, I guess, had a home "white out." I can't remember the last time I saw Mercer wear orange on orange. Maybe it's an annual thing, but I like that look. It's loud, but unique.

LOL - Mercer has worn All Orange exactly twice. This game @ Chattanooga and last year vs. VMI. Both games opened with a combination of Mercer throwing a Pick6 & fumbling deep in their own territory. They were down 2 scores in both games within 2 or 3 minutes of Kickoff.

If they ever roll out in those togs again,FUBeAR will be SHOCKED!

Since this is the ONLY thing you have “liked” about Mercer Football in 10 years, gotta think you knew these outcomes in All Orange and are just poking the Bears. You know what they say about poking Bears, don’t you?

Bears are known to have one of the thickest skins of any species.

Be more like a bear.

Not every statement has a hidden purpose. I appreciate that you think I keep a running chart of all of Mercer's weekly football uniforms.

[Roundball]

i thought this thread was about our big game against the Mocs.

[apaladin]

All this info is interesting and will have an impact but I think there is one big thing that will determine the outcome no one has mentioned. The UTC passing attack vs. the FU pass defense. Hold them to 250 or kess we have a chance. Anything over 250, not so much.

[The Jackal]

All this info is interesting and will have an impact but I think there is one big thing that will determine the outcome no one has mentioned. The UTC passing attack vs. the FU pass defense. Hold them to 250 or kess we have a chance. Anything over 250, not so much.

I posted a few of these thoughts on the other thread.

Furman is surrendering 19.4 ppg on defense. That's pretty good.

Our defense is surrendering 243 passing yards a game. Not standout - we can be better - but not garish. Notably, Furman has already faced the SoCon's top two passing offenses (WCU and Samford). UTC has faced neither.

While our pass defense has been susceptible to downfield throws, we grade out pretty well in efficiency (2nd in SoCon). We are 2nd in interceptions, 1st in pass completion percentage. So, while are giving up some big plays, sledding is not necessarily easy against us through the air.

VMI threw for nearly 300 yards Saturday, but I'm not entirely concerned. The Keydets trailed most of the game and tried over and over to throw the ball deep down the sidelines - a play that has worked against us the past few weeks.

While some of those passes found receivers, I believe all of them were contested (some required real acrobatic catches by VMI receivers). There wasn't a situation where a guy just ran by us like we saw against WCU. So, at least for a week, that appeared to be fixed.

[AstroDin]

Our two-deep defensive line rotation is getting IMO more dominant as the season goes on.
Coleman-Sochovoka-Barton-Clark
Johnson-Stephens-Stainfield-Maier
Ford is a lot to handle—going to be a fun battle to watch.

FYI… X Stephens seems to be getting more comfortable within our defense and when he's in he's making plays.
His sideline-to-sideline speed is impressive.

[FUBeAR]

Our two-deep defensive line rotation is getting IMO more dominant as the season goes on.
Coleman-Sochovoka-Barton-Clark
Johnson-Stephens-Stainfield-Maier
Ford is a lot to handle—going to be a fun battle to watch.

FYI… X Stephens seems to be getting more comfortable within our defense and when he's in he's making plays.
His sideline-to-sideline speed is impressive.

Ford makes his living running over / breaking tackles of LB’s & DB’s. If he’s stacked up & wrapped up by the DL, he can be held in check. Though he has very good speed, he’s not Barry Sanders doing jump cuts and creating a hole. He’s the definition of a “downhill runner.”

That said, his full-speed acceleration into the hole and/or once he puts his foot in the ground on IZ or OZ/Stretch gives DLmen little time to get off the OL blocks. He’s patient enough (usually) as a RB, but when he goes…he really goes. Maintaining Gap control responsibilities will be critical and the DLmen keeping an arm & 1/2 their bodies free to include some real mass at the point of attack vs. him being 1-on-1 with LB’s/DB’s is a must-do…every play.