Southern Pig Predicts The SoCon

[SU DOG]

Not surprised at the #1 pick, but some of the others are xrolleyesx

http://www.southernpigskin.com/socon/spring-socon-predictions-1/

[FUBeAR]

Not surprised at the #1 pick, but some of the others are xrolleyesx

http://www.southernpigskin.com/socon/spring-socon-predictions-1/


Agreed on who should be #1....but IMO 2-8 really is a toss-up with as much change as has occurred in the off-season. New Coaches for Sammy & the Keydets. How will the Catamounts deal with 1 season of prosperity after so many in the wilderness? FU...was it really all about the injuries? Mercer - how much will improvement from SoCon 1.0 to SoCon 2.0 and can they learn to close the deal? Several new Key Asst's @ Woffy (I think) and can they become consistent again? Always a question mark when there's a new QB in a T/O O...will El Cid be better, same, or worse? I really have no idea....gonna be fun though....and I liked what they said 'bout them Bears...

"5. Mercer:
Mercer, in its second season in the SoCon, will return all 22 starters from a 6-6 team in 2014. The Bears' offense will be led by All-SoCon second-team performer Alex Lakes at RB, along with Wilson Heres anchoring the offensive line. Austin Barrett and Kyle Williams will lead the defense, with both being named to the SoCon All-Freshman team in 2014. FCS All-American return specialist Chandler Curtis also returns for Mercer, which opens its season at Austin Peay on September 5th."

[centennial]

Agree for the most part. The mocs will be the ones to beat. I expect the SoCon to have one at large this year. The rise to previous prominence will take a few years, if ever. Not easy to replace 2 teams with multiple NC's.

[PaladinFan]

Agreed on who should be #1....but IMO 2-8 really is a toss-up with as much change as has occurred in the off-season. New Coaches for Sammy & the Keydets. How will the Catamounts deal with 1 season of prosperity after so many in the wilderness? FU...was it really all about the injuries? Mercer - how much will improvement from SoCon 1.0 to SoCon 2.0 and can they learn to close the deal? Several new Key Asst's @ Woffy (I think) and can they become consistent again? Always a question mark when there's a new QB in a T/O O...will El Cid be better, same, or worse? I really have no idea....gonna be fun though....and I liked what they said 'bout them Bears...

"5. Mercer:
Mercer, in its second season in the SoCon, will return all 22 starters from a 6-6 team in 2014. The Bears' offense will be led by All-SoCon second-team performer Alex Lakes at RB, along with Wilson Heres anchoring the offensive line. Austin Barrett and Kyle Williams will lead the defense, with both being named to the SoCon All-Freshman team in 2014. FCS All-American return specialist Chandler Curtis also returns for Mercer, which opens its season at Austin Peay on September 5th."

Mercer should be improved. Will be interesting to see if it shows up in the standings. Scheduling was tweaked up again this year, so I think that adds to the overall difficulty.

Biggest question for me with Mercer is how they handle the schedule. Played 8 home games in 2013. 7 in 2014. Now 6.

Last year they played back to back SoCon games only once (VMI and Samford). This season they will have five straight conference games as part of seven games in eight weeks in conference. No small task.

I agree with your general observations, though. UTC is tops and then a bunch of "who knows." Lot of teams have a lot of question marks.

[OL FU]

I agree that the Citadel should be on the bottomxnodx


No matter what their record is:p

[tenNesseeCat]

"Western Carolina returns nine starters on defense and all 11 starters on offense, including 10 All-SoCon performers from 2014."

- UTC is #1 until they are knocked off.
- I think WCU is in the best spot to take a shot at #1. Noting the above quote, I see the #2 mark for them as about right. Gill and Clark took a lot of experience and play making with them, but the team as a whole will be a little richer in talent and experience this year.
- It looks like VMI is at the bottom. Even though Cobb and co. could trip up some ranked higher.
- In between you have Furman, Samford, Wofford, Mercer, and The Citadel. My gut tells me FU and Sammy will be a step ahead of WC, MRCA, i mean Mercer, and The Citadel. Some of the questioning factors, like how well can FU put the pieces back together that fell apart last year? How well will Sammy transition to a new coach? How good are The Citadel's young QB's going to be? How far will Mercer progress against a tougher schedule? Will the QB flip flop continue this year at WC?

[PaladinFan]

If this does not tell you how bad Furman's year was, the guy who started four games at QB last season (Dillon Woodruff) was moved to linebacker this spring.

Furman definitely has some question marks. Hard to over-emphasize what having Reese Hannon back will do for the offense, though.

[PaladinNation]

Wasn't hard to see that Reese at the helm in the spring speed everything up. I chalk Woodruff moving to LB as well as the brilliant move of moving Warren to DE, is Fowler's coaching beliefs. Get the best players on the field, and he's not afraid to do some moving. Woodruff is a big kid over 6-0 and well over 210. Warren will be about the same size as Wilkens was last season… and TJ brings some attitude. IMO the other not mention spring move is T Robinson from wildcat QB to running back. He's not a typical Furman player, he's reminds me of a classic GSU slot back, very elusive and damn quick.

Will be curious to see if Furman redshirts some of the talent they signed this season. Gessner, Voyles, and Washington are IMO ready to play, also Furman's building a barn full of big horses at OL, will they redshirt or be needed for depth this season?

[Lehigh Football Nation]

I'm just surprised citdog is actually predicting the SoCon this year.

[PaladinFan]

Wasn't hard to see that Reese at the helm in the spring speed everything up. I chalk Woodruff moving to LB as well as the brilliant move of moving Warren to DE, is Fowler's coaching beliefs. Get the best players on the field, and he's not afraid to do some moving. Woodruff is a big kid over 6-0 and well over 210. Warren will be about the same size as Wilkens was last season… and TJ brings some attitude. IMO the other not mention spring move is T Robinson from wildcat QB to running back. He's not a typical Furman player, he's reminds me of a classic GSU slot back, very elusive and damn quick.

Will be curious to see if Furman redshirts some of the talent they signed this season. Gessner, Voyles, and Washington are IMO ready to play, also Furman's building a barn full of big horses at OL, will they redshirt or be needed for depth this season?

Fowler's philosophy certainly seems to get the best player on the field regardless of position. If you are a good athlete but getting buried on the depth chart, he moves you to a position of need and gives you a shot.

Perhaps more so than anything, I am looking forward to seeing what the Paladins do with the stable of TEs they have accumulated. If those guys pan out, I can see a lot of creative uses in both the running and passing game. I think there is at least 5 players in that group (Fletcher, Mall, Bryant, Williams, Gessner) that are 6'3-6'4 225-235.

[parr90]

Man things sure have changed in the SOCON.

[kdinva]

Fowler's philosophy certainly seems to get the best player on the field regardless of position. If you are a good athlete but getting buried on the depth chart, he moves you to a position of need and gives you a shot......

I think Coach Wach may do the same with VMI's defense.........

[FUBeAR]

Wasn't hard to see that Reese at the helm in the spring speed everything up. I chalk Woodruff moving to LB as well as the brilliant move of moving Warren to DE, is Fowler's coaching beliefs. Get the best players on the field, and he's not afraid to do some moving. Woodruff is a big kid over 6-0 and well over 210. Warren will be about the same size as Wilkens was last season… and TJ brings some attitude. IMO the other not mention spring move is T Robinson from wildcat QB to running back. He's not a typical Furman player, he's reminds me of a classic GSU slot back, very elusive and damn quick.

Will be curious to see if Furman redshirts some of the talent they signed this season. Gessner, Voyles, and Washington are IMO ready to play, also Furman's building a barn full of big horses at OL, will they redshirt or be needed for depth this season?


Fowler's philosophy certainly seems to get the best player on the field regardless of position. If you are a good athlete but getting buried on the depth chart, he moves you to a position of need and gives you a shot.

Perhaps more so than anything, I am looking forward to seeing what the Paladins do with the stable of TEs they have accumulated. If those guys pan out, I can see a lot of creative uses in both the running and passing game. I think there is at least 5 players in that group (Fletcher, Mall, Bryant, Williams, Gessner) that are 6'3-6'4 225-235.

Dang, you FU fans are starting to sound a little like you're channeling Chattown....hey, it worked for him....might be a good stategery.

[PaladinFan]

Dang, you FU fans are starting to sound a little like you're channeling Chattown....hey, it worked for him....might be a good stategery.

Never accused of not being an optimist.

2013 we were picked second to last in the SoCon, finished in first. 2014 we were picked second, finished near the bottom. 2015 who knows.

Not sure how any of that equates to chattown, though. No one is predicting Furman to run over the SoCon.

[Smitty]

Well until we can score some points against UTC, I guess it is fitting to be behind them.

[PaladinNation]

Fowler's philosophy certainly seems to get the best player on the field regardless of position. If you are a good athlete but getting buried on the depth chart, he moves you to a position of need and gives you a shot.

Perhaps more so than anything, I am looking forward to seeing what the Paladins do with the stable of TEs they have accumulated. If those guys pan out, I can see a lot of creative uses in both the running and passing game. I think there is at least 5 players in that group (Fletcher, Mall, Bryant, Williams, Gessner) that are 6'3-6'4 225-235.


Great point about Furman tight ends.
Fletcher 6-4 222 JR
Mall 6-2 237 JR
Bryant 6-3 232 RSFR
Williams 6-4 239 RSFR
then you have a Riley Gessner 6-4 235… rated a three-star recruit by Scout.com and 24/7 Sports, and two-stars by Rivals.com...had 13 scholarship offers.

I'd expect we will see a bunch of two tight end sets, outside of Mall these guys have a bunch of length, AJ Williams in the spring game looked massive against some big offensive linemen. Not sure 2015 will be the year for the Paladins but 2016 shapes up very nice for who Furman will have returning compared to whom others will lose after this season.

[PaladinFan]

Great point about Furman tight ends.
Fletcher 6-4 222 JR
Mall 6-2 237 JR
Bryant 6-3 232 RSFR
Williams 6-4 239 RSFR
then you have a Riley Gessner 6-4 235… rated a three-star recruit by Scout.com and 24/7 Sports, and two-stars by Rivals.com...had 13 scholarship offers.

I'd expect we will see a bunch of two tight end sets, outside of Mall these guys have a bunch of length, AJ Williams in the spring game looked massive against some big offensive linemen. Not sure 2015 will be the year for the Paladins but 2016 shapes up very nice for who Furman will have returning compared to whom others will lose after this season.

I have made this comment a few times,but Furman seems to want to run an offense akin to Alabama's. Lots of TEs in both the running and passing game, multiple rotations of running backs with different skill sets, creative use of fullbacks, lots of play action off the running game getting the ball to receivers in space. Truthfully, that was the Furman offensive set up of 10 years ago.

Only a few times last year did you really see Furman implement this offense (Coastal and Wofford come to mind). Fletcher was not a great blocker, and Mall is not a good receiver. I think with the addition of those three other TEs (Bryant, Williams, and Gessner), Furman can really affect both the run and passing game. Furman just could not keep enough players on the field and had too little of experience at QB to do much.

[catamount man]

Looks about right. WCU's game at The Citadel on September 12 will be huge. We win that one then the sky, or UTC, is the limit. And we play them in Nooga on Halloween. GO CATS!

[SU DOG]

If I had to predict right now, I say that the Mocs will lose their SoCon opener on Sept. 19. I really like what I have seen at Samford this spring. Kids really like Coach Hatcher. Offensive line is much better, the QB is much more comfortable in the pocket and checks down far better. The offense isn't changed - just tweaked. Hatcher has left the defense totally in Coach Billy D's hands, and they will be deeper and more experienced than last year. Guess we all can dream big this time of the year.

[PaladinFan]

The 11 game calendar also adds an interesting wrinkle to predicting the season, I think.

The last several seasons, SoCon teams have been fond of scheduling several actual and de facto "bye weeks" into their season. You put an actual bye week (maybe two) in with a few little sisters that have no business playing FCS competition, and the season gets a little less onerous. This year, pretty much every team had to put out a decent schedule.

For most teams, the schedules require quick turnarounds in the conference. No long stretches of the season where teams can sort of put it in neutral for a few weeks.

[SU DOG]

Extremely good points Paladin Fan. The champion this season might not run the table, but the overall strength of the league will, IMO, be considerably better. So many teams, including my own Dogs, expect to be improved. I hope this is reflected in the OOC games that the SoCon hasn't fared too well in lately. I especially hope those Big South matchups will go our(SoCon) way - for the most part anyhow. My Bulldogs have what looks to be a really tough opener with UCA. Apparently those Bears have reloaded, and will be tough. Expressing high expectations, however, can just be fun.

[FCS_pwns_FBS]

There's a lot of wild cars, here...not convinced El Cid is a doormat, Wofford can never be counted out (especially with the recruiting they have done recently), we haven't really got to see what Furman can do with the actual players on their team in a while, and Samford has Hatcher coming in (see below).

The only things I can be confident about is that UTC will finish first and VMI will finish last, and I'm not super confident with either of those.


If I had to predict right now, I say that the Mocs will lose their SoCon opener on Sept. 19. I really like what I have seen at Samford this spring. Kids really like Coach Hatcher. Offensive line is much better, the QB is much more comfortable in the pocket and checks down far better. The offense isn't changed - just tweaked. Hatcher has left the defense totally in Coach Billy D's hands, and they will be deeper and more experienced than last year. Guess we all can dream big this time of the year.

Despite what certain Georgia Southern posters might say, Hatcher is a BCS-caliber game day coach and is also a very good QB coach. He should put you in contention at least for second place.

I think he has learned from his mistakes at Georgia Southern and is ready for the Samford job.

[PaladinFan]

There's a lot of wild cars, here...not convinced El Cid is a doormat, Wofford can never be counted out (especially with the recruiting they have done recently), we haven't really got to see what Furman can do with the actual players on their team in a while, and Samford has Hatcher coming in (see below).

The only things I can be confident about is that UTC will finish first and VMI will finish last, and I'm not super confident with either of those.



Despite what certain Georgia Southern posters might say, Hatcher is a BCS-caliber game day coach and is also a very good QB coach. He should put you in contention at least for second place.

I think he has learned from his mistakes at Georgia Southern and is ready for the Samford job.

I like Hatcher. He is an interesting hire. Obviously had success as a head coach, though he has not seemed to be as comfortable at the FCS level as he was at the DII level. Samford will have increasingly more recruiting restrictions than he had at any previous stop.

I do think he will inherit a better QB than he had either at GSU or Murray (we can set Jayson Foster arguments aside for the moment).

Defense will be an interesting questionmark. Murray State was abysmally bad defensively. Regardless of what offense you run, it is hard to win when you surrender 540 yards and 43 points per game. Sure, Hatcher can turn over those reigns, but there have been more than a few air raid-type teams that carry around extremely soft defenses.

[FCS_pwns_FBS]

I like Hatcher. He is an interesting hire. Obviously had success as a head coach, though he has not seemed to be as comfortable at the FCS level as he was at the DII level. Samford will have increasingly more recruiting restrictions than he had at any previous stop.

I do think he will inherit a better QB than he had either at GSU or Murray (we can set Jayson Foster arguments aside for the moment).

Defense will be an interesting questionmark. Murray State was abysmally bad defensively. Regardless of what offense you run, it is hard to win when you surrender 540 yards and 43 points per game. Sure, Hatcher can turn over those reigns, but there have been more than a few air raid-type teams that carry around extremely soft defenses.

His defenses at Georgia Southern were not as bad as a lot of Georgia Southern folks will tell you they were. In 2007 we were paper thin on the back 7 and the SoCon that year had an absolutely absurd amount of offensive firepower (I believe every team in the conference gave up over 30 points a game in conference games that year).

At Murray I would argue Hatcher had the offensive production he had in spite of his team and defensively the numbers were more a reflection of his players (though you are right that last year's defense was very bad). It's not like Murray State is a football power.

Hatcher does not get enough credit for what he has done offensively. People like to say Jayson Foster was the whole team in 2007, but Hatcher got out of his comfort zone and found the right blend of designed runs and pass plays that would work for Foster and the offense. It worked and we would've won the automatic bid if we could've kicked that short field goal at the end of the Furman game.

And as completely silly as it might sound, it was really remarkable that we were able to win 5 games in 2009. Our pass protection that year was comically bad if you are not a Georgia Southern fan and just about all of our starting receivers that year were true freshmen. Our offense that year was basically consisted of running up the middle, swing passes, and WR or halfback screens. We got sacked every time we tried to throw the ball more than 10 yards down the field. It was very hard to watch.

[PaladinFan]

Hatcher impressed me with what he did with Jayson Foster. He, unlike Van Gorder, understood what he had and got him the ball as often as possible.

I've often referred to those Georgia Southern teams as though they were drawing up the plays in the sand. I'm sure it was more complicated, but from an opposing fan's perspective, it certainly seemed like the play calls were "Foster" and then "Direction."