Is Furman mounting another charge to the playoffs?
It was just a season ago that a Furman team with an 0-3 record and a disappointing early-season Southern Conference loss reeled off seven consecutive wins to qualify for the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
The same thing could be happening again.
After back-to-back wins over Western Carolina (44-38) and Wofford (34-14), the Paladins stand at 2-3 and 2-1 in the SoCon. Their league loss was a two-point defeat at first-place East Tennessee State, a game in which the Paladins lost a 27-6 lead.
Before that were losses at Clemson (487) and at Elon (45-7) when they were trying to figure out the quarterback situation as well as a struggling defense.
But after piling up 477 yards against WCU for its first win of the season on Sept. 29, Furman held Wofford’s nation-best rushing attack to 241 yards. In addition, quarterback Harris Roberts, who missed the Elon game due to injury, has settled in as the team’s top signal-caller. He had 235 yards on 16-of-19 passing with three touchdowns in the win over Wofford and was named the SoCon offensive player of the week.
“Hats off to our (coaching) staff. They just did an unbelievable job prepping our kids for this. We had a tough bye week and went at it pretty hard,” Furman coach Clay Hendrix said. “The kids prepared well and gave themselves a chance to go play well. I’m pretty pleased with their execution.
“Other than a couple of plays where we popped an assignment and allowed long runs, I don’t know if we could’ve gotten after them much better on defense.”
The wins keep the Paladins’ playoff hopes alive, but it will take — much like last season — a lot of winning. Furman had a Sept. 15 home date against 17th-ranked Colgate (6-0) canceled due to Hurricane Florence. It was a matchup the Paladins won 45-14 last season in Hamilton, New York, starting the run to the playoffs, but because of this season’s cancellation it will take another seven-game streak to qualify, as it would potentially mean the SoCon regular-season championship and automatic bid.
For that to happen, the Paladins would need 21st-ranked ETSU (6-1, 4-0) to lose two games in league play. The Buccaneers travel to 12th-ranked Wofford this week.
It hasn’t been the best of seasons for the league in terms of nonconference wins, with the best probably being the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s 34-24 victory at the Ohio Valley Conference’s UT-Martin on Sept. 15. In total, the league has six nonconference wins over FCS teams. The Mocs also have a win over winless Tennessee Tech of the OVC. ETSU, Western Carolina and Wofford have beat one-win Gardner-Webb of the Big South, and Mercer defeated nonscholarship program Jacksonville 45-3 on Sept. 10.
ETSU and Western Carolina also have wins over NCAA Division II programs — the Bucs over Mars Hill and the Catamounts over Newberry.
So while the league’s national respect might be enough to get three teams into the playoffs — which is the latest projection by the national FCS STATS (media) bracket — it will take a lot of help for that to happen.
Which is why the Paladins are hoping they can recreate last season’s run: If the playoffs are their goal, they may not have a choice.
Players of the week
In addition to Roberts, ETSU defensive back Tyree Robinson and kicker J.J. Jerman were named players of the week by the league office.
Robinson intercepted a pair of passes, including one for a touchdown, in the Bucs’ 26-23 win over The Citadel. He also had eight tackles — seven solo — and was named the STATS FCS national defensive player of the week. Jerman was 4-for-4 on field-goal tries and made both of his extrapoint kicks in the win.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@ timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.