2023 Pre-season

[FUBeAR]

Also, scanning down the coaches, it would appear that Furman Paladin turned Mercer defensive line coach, Justin Brown, appears back with the program with title of Chaplain.

Yes - Back for about a year and a half, after coming over from North Greenville, where he had been since 2018. He left ball coachin’ after Mercer’s PFL season in 2013. Also, Coach Brown is now the proud Pop to beautiful twin young ladies, who arrived in the world a few months before he rejoined the Team @ FU.

FUBeAR is certain he is doing an outstanding job in his current dual role as Football Team Chaplain and as Associate Director of Alumni & Parent Engagement for Furman University. https://www.furman.edu/people/justin-brown

Probably will be VP/AD of Furman someday … or University President…or, hey, maybe he’d be up for another dual role.

[apaladin]

According to helmet project, it looks like at some point we had a knight/chess piece on the lid.

Yes I remember that purple helmet with the chess piece in the 70’s before the diamond F. It was ugly. I

[AllTimeFU]

Chrome dome

[AllTimeFU]

It's been interesting to hear Trent Dilfer on a few occasions talk about protecting his lineup from schools that might try and recruit them away to bigger schools. While we do have a slightly different cut of student athletes, the better the team gets year over year, the more they may be recruited to play in a bigger environment.

Jim Rome Podcast
https://omny.fm/shows/the-jim-rome-show ... st=podcast

[The Jackal]

It's been interesting to hear Trent Dilfer on a few occasions talk about protecting his lineup from schools that might try and recruit them away to bigger schools. While we do have a slightly different cut of student athletes, the better the team gets year over year, the more they may be recruited to play in a bigger environment.

Jim Rome Podcast
https://omny.fm/shows/the-jim-rome-show ... st=podcast

Furman has really done well in managing the transfer portal.

I think Furman's slide into mediocrity from 2007 until 2017 was in no small part due to an unwillingness to adapt. I got the impression that Furman's athletics/administration had a formula, and the formula had worked, and so why change it? By that point, our football program was lagging behind in facilities and recruiting and was playing constant catch up in the ever changing college football landscape.

You don't see that now. Furman is doing the things it needs to do to stay ahead in this game. Is Coach Hendrix on podcasts threatening to expose programs recruiting his players? No. It seems like Furman has genuinely become a place where (1) players want to come, and (2) players want to stay.

That's a culture shift more than anything else, in my opinion.

[fupaladin01]

Hero Sports SoCon preview is out. I think the first sentence is a YO. (Some of the media is starting to catch on)

"The SoCon looks ready to assert itself as the No. 3 FCS conference in 2023."

Article https://herosports.com/fcs-football-202 ... view-bzbz/

['Din Djarin]

Also, scanning down the coaches, it would appear that Furman Paladin turned Mercer defensive line coach, Justin Brown, appears back with the program with title of Chaplain.

Dude has gone from DL to PTL. Motion to bestow him with the title of "Minister of Defense".

[FUBeAR]

Hero Sports SoCon preview is out. I think the first sentence is a YO. (Some of the media is starting to catch on)

"The SoCon looks ready to assert itself as the No. 3 FCS conference in 2023."

Article https://herosports.com/fcs-football-202 ... view-bzbz/

It is good to see that…however FUBeAR believes the more accurate 1st sentence would be…

“The SoCon, having clearly passed the CAA, just may be better than the Big Sky as the No. 2 FCS conference in 2023.”

2nd sentence would be… “And the MVFC better check its mirror; SoCon is closer than they may appear.”

[The Jackal]

Running back write up: https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2023/8/ ... backs.aspx

Furman returns 7 of 8 at the position. The depth chart is probably 5 deep. Also looks like they'll return the bulk of the group next season too.

[The Jackal]

So, just putting the pieces together to this point and making some educated guesses:

QB: Huff, Jones
RB: Roberto, Thomas, Robinson, Hicks, Smith
OT: Toomey/Norman
OG: Hughes/Vollmer
C: Johanning
WRX: Harris, Harris
WRY: Dean, Shiflett
WRZ: Anderson, Ferguson
TE: Gissinger, Pline

NG: Stephens, Cook, Hernandez
DE: Barton, Johnson
DT: Sochovoka, Stanfield

MLB: Gilby, Kuzemka,
WLB: McCormick, Sciana
BAN: Clark, Maier, Adebayo
SPUR: Chizik, Miller
CB: Blackshear, Yates
CB: Robinson, Ingram
SS: Brinson, Williams
FS: Ryan, Rhodes

There are also a few guys that are probably going to play a lot that don't really have a clean fit on the depth chart, like Chizik, Achina, and Dimaggio.

[FurmanATT]

Thinking some about the offense and TE use.

I think you have to go back 10+ seasons to find a real vertical threat at TE…Miller was an excellent player for us, but would do most of his damage with quick route running…

Ryan Miller’s 4.46 might disagree with this assessment…

What an unquenchable thirst for the end zone. -- MD

Name: Ryan Miller
College: Furman Number: 82
Height: 6-1 Weight: 210
Position: WR Pos2: FB/H-back
Class/Draft Year: rSr/2023
40 Low: 4.46

Did we throw a lot of vertical to Miller? I honestly can't remember. I feel like he would take a short/medium pass and just out run everyone. Maybe that's what Jackal meant.

I feel like it's been at least since Schumpert since we'd see a TE "go deep." What was that 2017-18? Felt like maybe we saw a little more of it with Anderson and Schumpert. I don't remember Miller doing that often (although he certainly could have).

Sure we did some…not gonna search.

Find what you want in here. Some successful verts after 2 min mark. FUBeAR sees a lot of really deep Safeties that get run by anyway … after the catch.

But the key word is THREAT.

When your TE / Flex WR can easily outrun any LB, almost all, if not all, Safeties, and plenty of CB’s, the Defense has to respect that THREAT. Perhaps their respect of his speed led to so much being open underneath. And, there is the issue that you have to have 2 other things for vertical passes - time to throw and the right trigger-puller. Finally had the latter in 2022.

[FurmanATT]

We've trodden down this water before about the Diamond F.
I know its creator, Dennis Zeiger occasionally has jumped into some conversations on the forum.

Dennis and I have chatted a few times about the origin of the Diamond F.
I have no idea what or if Furman will do for an alternate helmet design.
If my memory is correct, I brought up the possibility of a silver helmet because the Dallas Cowboys helmet and Star were an example direction. The silver Dallas helmet IMO is a classic helmet that has stood the test of time.

Just bringing this up for the possible relevance of a silver helmet. Based on the Helmet Project site and Bear would know this better than I - the White Helmet introduced in 1978 had silver and purple stripes.

Yep - white helmet, purple facemasks, Diamond F (all purple), Center of helmet striping - Purple/Silver (double width)/Purple, white chinstrap, white earpieces, white front/back leather “bumpers,” “Bike” on front above facemask (no custom words) written in blue (maybe…not sure). Purple Stars on back for winning performances and such.

A small point. Silver helmets were of the Baker era. White arrived when Sheridan became head coach.
I know well those helmets. I striped several hundred of them. -- MD

[AstroDin]

Big Turnout for Fan Fest.

Who stood out on the Offense
Carson Jones looks ready to step in this season if needed—Carson threw three beautiful deep balls.
Our running backs all ran hard… was really impressed with Grant Robinson.
KT… appears to be number 2. He also had some nice runs.
J Harris is bigger and still explosive.
E Harris had a grab catch on a deep ball, and so did Nick Cannon.
Colton Hinton appears to be as fast as advertised.
Hamilton was getting a lot of reps - he looked good too.
Our TEs are tall—seeing 6-5 and 6-7 TE's out there running routes is impressive.

The Defense
At times our D was dominant, they were all over our offense, and Huff and Jones had no choice but to throw the ball away.
I think Furman can go three-deep on the DL this season. Our size and speed are impressive. JJ looks fully recovered.
Our rookie DBs I thought played well, Dalton-Moson-Holmes stood out to me.

[The Jackal]

Glad to hear Jones looked good. That QB2 role is really the only spot on the roster where you didn't feel confident about the depth chart (which is not unique to Furman - most programs don't know what they've got in a backup QB year to year).

On a positive note, if Jones did get pressed into duty, having a vetarn OL, deep running back group, and talented WRs makes life a lot easier on a young Qb.

[Bootie]

I had to leave before seeing any action on the field. What kind of runner is Jones? And also who is his back up if we have to?