2 outstanding Football Teams that do a lot of things right are going to face off in this de facto SoCon Championship Game. Losing RB Ford is a tough blow for the Mocs (and for him), but his former understudies can certainly do enough (at least) to keep Defenses from risking light boxes to focus only on covering their 3 outstanding waterbug type receivers. The KaliforniaKid gunslinger the TrainBirds hired to clean up this SoCon town is a slick dealer. He makes quick, fearless decisions and the ball flies out with pace. That has given the Chatt O a different look this year. And the D has looked different too. Not better though. Talented, yes...but a little 'off' somehow. Maybe meshing in so many new Players comes with challenges. Anyway...Furman is just solid everywhere. Sure, their Kicking Team may have an off-game in Cullowhee or their O may not be clicking on Homecoming, but another unit just picks up the slack and the Paladins put together another victory. FUBeAR thinks Chatt is going to be challenged to stop Furman's running game and the game is gonna get shorter because of that...and then FU is gonna toss it around a little bit to the 6-7 TE or the RoBerto out of the backfield or Shiflett or Harris or Ferguson or the other Harris or....well, you get the point. And, I think FU has enough talent and D-Front Depth that Artopeous is gonna feel some of that 9-sack heat that Hiers felt and that double the number of previous total sacks that Gonzales felt. It's gonna be a war and it's not gonna be easy for either Team, but the Paladins, currently alone in 1st place in the SoCon, pull away and clinch the AutoBid...and at least a share of the SoCon Championship.
FINAL SCORE: Furman 33 - Chattanooga 21
HISTORICAL NOTE / LONG TALE (for those who might be interested in such):
In early November of 1981, the Paladins played a game on the road that was a defacto SoCon Championship game. Our opponent that day, VMI, was playing their final SoCon game against the Paladins with only an FBS-level game remaining on their slate at VaTech. Furman still had part of our SoCon schedule remaining and we were playing a differing number of SoCon games than VMI, but a win that November day ensured the Paladins would win their 2nd consecutive (3rd in 4 years) SoCon title on percentage points and a Furman loss would ensure that VMI would win their 1st SoCon title since 1977. This seems very familiar / similar. Huh?
So....It was a hard-fought game. Your Paladins jumped out to an early lead and pulled away to 20-7 in the 2nd quarter on the strength of 2 Stanford Jennings TD's and a highly reliable (<---- this is known as foreshadowing) Tim Sorrells to TE Terry Clark connection, but the Keydets would not be thwarted and closed the gap to 20-14 with a long bomb pass from Raber to Radle (2 tough Keydets and excellent Players) only seconds before halftime .
At halftime, your Paladins found out our locker room had been broken into during the 1st half and ALL of our valuables (including 1978 and 1980 SoCon Championship rings) had been stolen. Now this was pre-NIL days, so the only 'valuables' most of us had was a couple of bucks (maybe) in our wallets and those rings, which were made of "lustrium" with fake amethyst / purple resin stones. Somehow, when VMI's insurance adjusters interviewed FUBeAR's Teammates though - it seems many of them had (virtually) 'acquired' very expensive watches, full-length expensive leather coats (John Shaft's coolness was still fresh in our young minds), and had stuffed their wallets with hundreds before heading to the GSP Airport on Friday. But FUBeAR digresses...
While the Paladins were angered by the robbery that had taken place, we were also distracted by it. We didn't move the ball effectively in the 3rd quarter and we allowed VMI's All-Everything RB, Floyd Allen (FUBeAR's HS Teammate and Best Friend, who FU didn't want to recruit - but that's yet another digression) to score and take the lead 21-20 early in the 3rd quarter. FUBeAR won't digress too far, but Furman had lost a game @ VMI in 1979 by that same score of 21-20...and let's just say we believe, to this day, that loss was supernaturally decreed as a result of a direct transgression that day by a previous Specialist...and we had failed on an XP in the 2nd quarter of this Championship game to get to that EERIE, HAUNTING score...just after Halloween...and they had a graveyard (REALLY!) with crosses with our names on them set up just behind the endzone (but that's another digression).
But your Heroes, your very Paladins were not to be denied. We shook off the mental and emotional effects of the villainous larcen, said our chosen prayers of penance and for protection from evil to get spiritually right, and then, physically, kicked some Keydet a$$ in the 4th quarter. Early in the 4th, Sorrells to Clark again (you saw it coming, didn't you?), on a great sliding catch in the back of the end zone, put us in the lead for good at 26-21 (2 point try failed...Were we afraid lightning might strike our Kicker (even though he was not the '79 transgresser)? Possibly...we very well may have been). The strong Paladin Defense, now feeling positive about the new watches and leather coats they would soon have, kept VMI scoreless in the 4th...and for a little icing on the Championship Cake...with under 2 minutes to play, Standiford Jenkins scored his 3rd TD of the day and we kicked the XP without any lightning strikes.
FINAL SCORE: Furman 33 - SoCon Championship Hopeful, but NAH....21
https://furmanpaladins.com/documents/20 ... _Stats.pdf - DIG IN!
Ooops - Just realized that FUBeAR has mis-remembered part of this. The locker room theft was in '79...the 21-20 loss...on the missed XP. Oh well, the story is better this way.