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Post by The Cats on Jun 17, 2024 21:28:08 GMT -5
Preseason predictions for the @soconsports football race, courtesy @lindyssportsmag 1. Furman 2. Chattanooga 3. Western Carolina 4. Mercer 5. Samford 6. East Tennessee State 7. VMI 8. Wofford 9. The Citadel 🏈 Preseason Offensive MVP: QB Cole Gonzales (WCU) 👇
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Post by FLCATAMOUNT on Jun 18, 2024 4:25:14 GMT -5
Firman lost 41 players off of last years team. Also, their starting QB transferred out. Did they do that well in recruiting and replacing all those players? There must be something to their high rankings because just about every preseason ranking has them one or 2.
in my opinion, we will be better than we were last year. I think we will be close to the same or the same on offense and much better on defense. This means that Forman and Chatt will be much improved over last year if they have us ranked 3rd. Our schedule is very tough early on with N.C. State, Campbell, Elon and Montana as the first 4 games. I could see a scenario that we go 0-4 to start the season and still win the conference. If we come out of the first 4 games with a 2-2 record, we will be fine. If we are 3-1 after the first 4 games and stay healthy, we will be hard to beat by any team in the SoCon. Beating Campbell and Elon would really help our in state recruiting. Those 2 games are both winnable but it will be tough. Montana at their place is like playing a G5 team in my opinion and will be a great test to see where we are. We are lucky to have the best head coach in the SoCon.
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Post by wcugrad95 on Jun 21, 2024 9:10:02 GMT -5
Furman has played a lot of underclassmen the last 2 or 3 years, and rotate a ton of guys at key positions. I'd guess a high ranking has a lot to do with how good they were the last 2 years, and is most likely very tied to how good and deep they have been particularly on defense. Recency bias and how good they played in the playoffs often help out tremendously in pre-season rankings.
That being said, I expect them to be plenty good. Their backup QB got a little playing time and looked more than capable, and they play Chatty, Samford, and us all at home. If they beat William & Mary they'll head into SOCON play probably 3-1 and possibly a top-5 team. I would expect them to be 5-1 when they play UTC, and either 5-2 or 6-1 when they play us. I'd guess they are predicted to have a floor of 8 wins and a ceiling of 10 by the prognosticators.
To me the good news is lots of these rankings have the SOCON looking like a 3-bid or even more league. Now all of us need to earn those rankings.
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