Football Team Reports to Campus Today

[samfordcircle]

The 2018 Samford Bulldogs report to campus today, thus the Football season begins. Exciting times ahead this year.

Short list of Key items to watch -
1. D. Hodges and Senior class have this year to finish strong. Offense will set new records.
2. Offense and defense will have new wrinkles for the season. Going to be exciting to watch.
3. Preseaon rankings have them riding high early.
4. Oline and Secondary will surprise a lot of folks this year....in a good way.

[The Cats]

The 2018 Samford Bulldogs report to campus today, thus the Football season begins. Exciting times ahead this year.

I assume you mean by this, that those players that are participating in summer school and want to participate in voluntary summer workouts (in the weight room) can come to campus today.

It's way, way too early to report for football practice.

https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/NCAA%20D%20I%20FB%20Summer%20Conditioning%20and%20%20Access.pdf

[samfordcircle]

Right "The Cats". Thanks for the clarification. I guess the war between cats and dogs is starting early this year.

[SU DOG]

'Voluntary workouts' - Yeah right.


I think all of us, certainly including myself, are rightfully excited for this season. I do, however, have a short list also of things that are NOT meant to be negative, but of concern to me.

1. How will we react to all the expectations? This is really some new ground for us. Will we handle being the hunted instead of the hunter? Every SoCon team has us marked, and we will get their best week after week.

2. While the offense should be without many questions, I shutter to think how many times Shaheed made tackles when the opponent had 3rd and whatever. He was a beast of a LB. Also, maybe to a somewhat lesser degree, Omari made some spectacular plays in the secondary - see Wofford and KSU games for example. Big Marks in that middle of the DL was a good one also. Those 3 are going to be hard to replace.

3, Do we realize what a weapon Austin Barnard was?

4. After the Shorter Hawks, this schedule, especially early, is BRUTAL.

[sudog03]

We will need the offense to carry us some, especially first part of the season. There is a reason our defense last season was the best in the conference on a yard per play basis (using league games only). We had a NFL caliber player in Gooden on one side and a guy currently on a NFL roster on the other side of the defense in Shaheed. I think the biggest way we will miss Omari is he played our single safety in our option defense most of the time, a very important position in that setup. I still think we have a chance to have a very good defense, I like the roster on that side, for the most part. But, I'm not expecting anything like we saw the last half of the regular season last year, especially early.

[AP]

Guys, SU DOG is already thinking the Kool-Aid tastes funny and it's only 7/9. Something could be very, very wrong.

[samfordcircle]

We have a lot of strength returning on defense. We still have some good (some young) players returning. Obviously Horace Roberts, Ahmad Gooded, and Aaron Harris if he returns. But watch for these names this year....Jamond Glass, Darius Harvey, Koi Freeman, Brett Granger, Christian Stark, Jalen Nash, Aaron Atkinson and Armond Lloyd. Could have named more but didn't want a mass list. A lot of tackles made from these guys last year in a platoon or 2nd team role. A lot of quality players in that group.

On offense, expect the unexpected this year, meaning an improved running game and the OL is another year older, stronger and faster. We also picked up a strong running back from Juco. WR core is strong and lightning quick to go with one of the top 3 QB's (another All american mention or two) in the country. Our offensive play calling should continue to improve with another year under our prodigy OC's belt and now understanding the division defenses. This will be a break out year for our OC and HC.

SU Dog makes great points as always, especially about Bernard and the schedule. The big question/s will be special teams play and getting our young players to assume the mantle. The talent is there to back up the ranking. The future is bright for Samford football.

[FUBeAR]

We have a lot of strength returning on defense. We still have some good (some young) players returning. Obviously Horace Roberts, Ahmad Gooded, and Aaron Harris if he returns. But watch for these names this year....Jamond Glass, Darius Harvey, Koi Freeman, Brett Granger, Christian Stark, Jalen Nash, Aaron Atkinson and Armond Lloyd. Could have named more but didn't want a mass list. A lot of tackles made from these guys last year in a platoon or 2nd team role. A lot of quality players in that group.

On offense, expect the unexpected this year, meaning an improved running game...We also picked up a strong running back from Juco.

Will the running game be more improved than the improved it was last year or more improved than it was improved the year before that or the year before that?

Will the strong JUCO transfer running back be as strong as the strong SEC running back transfer of last year (50 att., 120 yds, 1 TD, 2.4 YPC), a Jr, who is no longer on the roster, or not quite as strong?

[samfordcircle]

On offense, expect the unexpected this year, meaning an improved running game...We also picked up a strong running back from Juco.

Will the running game be more improved than the improved it was last year or more improved than it was improved the year before that or the year before that?

Will the strong JUCO transfer running back be as strong as the strong SEC running back transfer of last year (50 att., 120 yds, 1 TD, 2.4 YPC), a Jr, who is no longer on the roster, or not quite as strong?

Yes more improved than "the improved" it was last year and more improved than it was improved the year before that or the year before that. {Mercer grammar/english?) You will be surprised and yet sad.

Yet to be seen on the Juco running back, two really good athletes coming in as freshmen that can fill that bill soon. Were gonna be big, fast, and getting our SoCon hunting license renewed. #FunFastPhysical Hunting that Trophy this year. On the rise.

The defense has brought in some additional talent as well. Going to be a fun year.

[FUBeAR]

On offense, expect the unexpected this year, meaning an improved running game...We also picked up a strong running back from Juco.

Will the running game be more improved than the improved it was last year or more improved than it was improved the year before that or the year before that?

Will the strong JUCO transfer running back be as strong as the strong SEC running back transfer of last year (50 att., 120 yds, 1 TD, 2.4 YPC), a Jr, who is no longer on the roster, or not quite as strong?

Yes more improved than "the improved" it was last year and more improved than it was improved the year before that or the year before that. {Mercer grammar/english?) You will be surprised and yet sad.

Yet to be seen on the Juco running back, two really good athletes coming in as freshmen that can fill that bill soon. Were gonna be big, fast, and getting our SoCon hunting license renewed. #FunFastPhysical Hunting that Trophy this year. On the rise.

The defense has brought in some additional talent as well. Going to be a fun year.

Good deal. Looking forward to seeing the improvement over the improvement over the improvement over the improvement in that running game - 2.9 ypa & 80 ypg are clearly within reach now!

BTW - Furman & Clemson Alum. Never had the privilege of attending grammar classes at Mercer, but I know when I do want grammar lessons, internet message boards are always the 1st place I look.