Five-game streak has Paladins thinking playoffs
It has been a tale of two seasons for the Furman football team. The Paladins are much happier with the second one.
They gained their fifth consecutive win Saturday, defeating Mercer 28-21 in Greenville, S.C. They had a three-game losing streak to start the season, with a onepoint loss at eighth-ranked Wofford and a three-point loss to 10th-ranked Elon in addition to a loss to Football Bowl Subdivision 14th-ranked North Carolina State.
The current streak has been keyed by solid play on both sides of the ball, and the Paladins needed that against Mercer. They were outgained 435-340 and trailed by a touchdown twice but scored the final 14 points to claim the big win.
“I though we had a good week of practice,” Furman coach Clay Hendrix said postgame. “We probably didn’t play our best football at times, but that’s what happens when you play good teams. Whether we needed a stop or to move the football, we did a good job of looking after each other.
“It was a complete team win, no question about that.”
Two of the Paladins’ remaining three regular-season games are against teams tied with them at the top of the Southern Conference, starting with a trip to 18th-ranked Western Carolina (6-2, 4-1). After a bye week comes a game against The Citadel (4-3, 2-3) before the season finale at Samford (5-2, 3-1).
The top teams have games with each other in the final month of the year. Furman just hopes to be part of the playoff picture when the smoke clears.
“Our goal is to win. We don’t know how we’re going to do it, but we’re going to go try to execute,” Furman quarterback P.J. Blazejowski said after the win over Mercer. “We didn’t play our best game, but we won and that’s the big thing.”
Big win for Samford
Samford has seen other SoCon contenders earn big wins this season, such as Mercer’s win over The Citadel on Oct. 7 and Furman’s 28-21 win over that same Mercer team last week. The Bulldogs had even claimed a big win of their own, defeating then 11th-ranked Citadel 35-14 at home.
Yet their biggest victory came last Saturday, when they held on to defeat then fifth-ranked Wofford 24-21 in Spartanburg, S.C. The Terriers, who have five wins by a touchdown or less this season, looked like they might steal another one, driving deep into Samford territory late, but Omari Williams intercepted a pass in the end zone to seal the win.
“This was a big one,” Williams, the SoCon defensive player of the week, said postgame. “They were the top team in the conference and top-five in the country. We needed this one to come back up in the conference and make sure we get a playoff spot.
“We’ll celebrate like it’s a big one because every game is a big one.”
Only three SoCon teams currently are projected to make the 24-team FCS playoff field, and Samford is one of them, joining Wofford and Western Carolina.
Players of the week
Along with Williams, Samford’s Devlin Hodges and Western Carolina’s Joshua Gibson were named SoCon players of the week.
Williams had nine tackles and a pair of pass breakups in addition to his game-sealing interception. Offensive honore Hodges threw for 427 yards and three touchdowns, completing 37 of 54 passes for his second 400-yard passing game this season and sixth of his career.
Kicker Gibson accounted for 14 points in the Catamounts’ 26-7 win over Virginia Military Institute, going 4-for-4 on field goals from 22, 40, 38 and 43 yards and adding a pair of extra points.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.