Two weeks ago, the Paladins improved their record to .500 in conference play with a 17 point victory over the Appalachian State Mountaineers. 2013 is App State’s final season as a member of the Southern Conference before making the jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as 1-A, to join the Sun Belt Conference. However, the Mountaineers are having one of the worst seasons in school history, falling to 1-6 on the year. Their lack of success can be attributed to the many players who have been redshirted this season so they don’t lose a year of eligibility before the team makes the move to the Sun Belt. But for this year, their struggles continued against Furman, as the Paladins made the most out of five App State turnovers to improve to 3-4 in front of a crowd of over 7,300.
After trading field goals early in the game, the Paladins jumped out to a 13-3 lead on a 98-yard interception return touchdown by defensive lineman Gary Wilkins. It was by far Furman’s longest defensive return of the season. Wilkins’ big game continued with a fumble recovery deep in App State territory that led to another Paladin score.
After missing two games due to injury, sophomore starting quarterback Reese Hannon returned to the starting lineup. He was 13 for 19 for 164 yards and threw a 25-yard touchdown to Ryan Culbreath following Wilkins’ fumble recovery in the third quarter.
Once again Hank McCloud led the Furman rushing attack with 89 yards on 13 carries. McCloud improves to 604 rushing yards on the season, putting him at fourth in the conference. On the defensive side of the ball, four Paladins had double digit tackles.
Even with 100 more total yards, and a greater time of possession, the Mountaineers could not overcome all of the turnovers. The Paladins took advantage and moved into sole possession of fourth place in the SoCon. In his post game comments, head coach Bruce Fowler said he was proud of the team but that they still had a lot of areas where they needed to improve if they wanted to fulfill their potential.
This past weekend, the Paladins travelled to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers in Furman’s annual game against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent. After strong showings a couple of years ago at South Carolina and then Florida, we lost 41-7 to Clemson in 2012.
This year against no. 13 LSU, the Paladins hung tough for the first two quarters, only trailing by four at the half. Reggie Thomas’s 74-yard interception return for a touchdown was the key play in the first half. Unfortunately, the Tigers just put too much pressure on the Paladins in the second half and managed to pitch a second half shutout, taking the game 48-16.
Hannon went 16 of 28 for 104 yards, and yet again Hank McCloud led the Paladins on the ground with 79 yards on 16 touches. Furman managed to hang around in a game where one of the top teams in the country played many of its first string players for most of the game. Zach Mettenberger, one of the better pro-style senior quarterbacks in the nation, was picked off twice by Paladins defenders. Although the Tigers finished with 672 total yards, the Paladins played hard and hopefully the results will be seen in the team’s last four SoCon games of the season. Nov. 2 Furman travels to Georgia Southern in the final meeting between these two schools, as GSU will be joining App State in the jump to the Sun Belt. After that game, Furman returns home to host Samford for Homecoming weekend.
