Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Critics Abound, but the "Homer" is still blogging

It is not a surprise that there have been a lot of critical comments posted by readers since the loss to Emory and Henry. While I still have not seen the game ( cannot get the video to play on the E&H website), it was quite evident from the stats that Ferrum has a huge hill to climb to get ready for conference play.
Frankly, I was not surprised at the fact that they loss, but it was the disproportion of the game that really concerns me. In short, Ferrum struggled in all aspects of the game.

Ferrum was not in this one much past the coin toss, and this was a bit of a shock. I was more surprised by the inability of the offense to score, rather than the defense's inability to stop the Wasps. So I am curious as to what happened since last year?

1. Offensively, Ferrum is without Derrick West, Makaya Jackson, Avery Long, Cam Bailey, Joe McDonagh, and Tyler Brubaker (all of those started in game one last year)
2. They are without Scott Puschell
3. No replacement hired for last years running backs coach Chris Warren.
4. New Offensive Coordinator.

These are not excuses, these are facts. Of course there will be people that will not want to hear that, and look to blame everyone including the guy wearing the Panther costume. The loss Saturday was troublesome, and I am sure that there are going to be quite a few wake up calls in practice this week, but one must realize that this is a young team, and this was just the first game.

OK I am a "Homer" (I am assuming that this must indicate that I am not balanced in my reporting. That I should be calling for Harper's head, Adams head, and Bache's head....probably even the Panther mascots head.) I don't see it that way. Have we forgotten that Ferrum was Co Champion last year? Have we forgotten that they have been 14-6 over Harper's first two seasons? I am a strong supporter of what Dave Harper is doing, and while Ferrum did not win its opener, they have not done that in either of the last two seasons. In fact, in 2011, the Panthers started 0-2, before ending 7-3.
This may be a more difficult year. The next two weeks will show me a lot as to what Ferrum may do in the conference. I feel confident that Ferrum will get their ship righted, and while it may not always be smooth sailing, Ferrum's process of building a winner is continuing. In my preseason predictions, I picked Ferrum to again be 7-3, but seriously considered them to possibly be 6-4, or even 5-5. I will stand by my 7-3 prediction, but this means (in my opinion) that they have to win the next 2 for this to be a possibility.

If being a "Homer" means that I am a fan Ferrum, its a moniker I will gladly wear.

Go Panthers!

3 comments:

  1. I have no problem with you being a Homer- and appreciate you putting this site together.
    But let's get real with the "co-championships" and won/loss records. What is Ferrum's record against E&H and Christopher newport in the last 7 years? You guessed it- All lossses. How did they do against Hampden-Sydney? Blownout. When it comes to playing good competition Ferrum not only consistently loses, they lose
    big.

    E&H and Ferrum are in the same D3 recruiting predicament- both schools are in the sticks and competing with a huge amount of new D3 programs in the last 10 to 15 years for players. Why does E&H seemingly get better recruits?

    Ferrum WAS one of the leading schools in all divisions in knowledge/execution/expertise in the triple option/wishbone. Why go away from that especially when it appears the kids you are recruiting on offense are a good fit for that attack? You can win championships with that offense but you must have a good defense which has ALWAYS been the problem at Ferrum in the last 10 years. Ferrum's defense is consistently bad and consistently appears unprepared with no identity at all of what it wants to do.

    There's one and only Coach Norton- but did he have a problem getting freshmen and sophmores ready to play in the JUCO days? He would probably tell you a lot of that was due to his assistant coaches.

    Get an identity on offense and defense (whatever was run in the late 80's would probably be a good start).
    Get quality, hungry assistant coaches in here. I'm all for Coach Harper but that unpreparedness on Saturday was about as ugly as it gets- hopefully.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Keep doing what you do homer,your insight is better than these whiners complants,keeping it real thanks Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have no problem with you being a Homer- and appreciate you putting this site together.
    But let's get real with the "co-championships" and won/loss records. What is Ferrum's record against E&H and Christopher newport in the last 7 years? You guessed it- All lossses. How did they do against Hampden-Sydney? Blownout. When it comes to playing good competition Ferrum not only consistently loses, they lose
    big.

    E&H and Ferrum are in the same D3 recruiting predicament- both schools are in the sticks and competing with a huge amount of new D3 programs in the last 10 to 15 years for players. Why does E&H seemingly get better recruits?

    Ferrum WAS one of the leading schools in all divisions in knowledge/execution/expertise in the triple option/wishbone. Why go away from that especially when it appears the kids you are recruiting on offense are a good fit for that attack?
    You can win championships with that offense but you have to have a good defense which has ALWAYS been the problem at Ferrum in the last 10 years. Ferrum's defense is consistently bad and consistently appears unprepared with
    no identity at all of what it wants to do.

    There's one and only Coach Norton- but did he have a problem getting freshmen and sophmores ready to play in the JUCO days? He would probably tell you a lot of that was due to his assistant coaches.

    Get an identity on offense and defense (whatever was run in the late 80's would probably be a good start). Get quality, hungry assistant coaches in here. I'm all for Coach Harper but that unpreparedness on Saturday
    was about as ugly as it gets- hopefully.

    ReplyDelete