By MONTE DUTTON

Few football teams ever happened into a better open date than the one representing Presbyterian College.

It won’t be hard to recall where I was on Sept. 16 when the Blue Hose stunned Wofford, 23-20, because I was there, along with, oh, 1,000 Blue Hose partisans, about 10,000 of whom will tell their children they were.

Steve Englehart and his team needed a week to settle down, savor and get ready for the trail head of the Pioneer Football League schedule. Presbyterian (2-1) is off to take on Butler University (3-1), coached by Mike Uremovich, at the Bud and Jackie Sellick Bowl in Indianapolis, Ind. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Wofford was already having a rough season. The Terriers have scholarships, 63 of them. PC does not. Such an upset doesn’t often occur in nature, much less an enclosed arena.

“You always worry when you feel like you’ve got something, and you kind of caught lightning in a bottle,” Englehart said. “Now you need to be able to replicate that. Our guys have been down for so long, and now they know what it’s like for us to be on the winning side of things.

“They crave that now, and feed on it, and that’s what it takes.”

All games in the far-flung PFL have an air of unfamiliarity, even through Presbyterian is in its third year of full membership. PC has played Wofford 86 times. This is the first meeting with Butler. From here on out, the Blue Hose have only one road game, Davidson on Oct. 28, within reasonable driving distance. They’ll make trips to Dayton, Ohio, and Des Moines, Iowa. San Diego is coming here.

What a victory over Wofford of the Southern Conference did is turn Presbyterian from a team being nursed back to health into a possible contender for the PFL title. Expectations changed. Confidence rose. Winning. What a concept.

“This conference has such parity in it,” Englehart said Monday morning. “I think any team, if [it] plays with great discipline, and emotion and passion, like we did, can beat any team, and if you don’t, any team can get beat.

“It was good to have a bye week. It was good to let [the team] reset mentally, emotionally and physically.”

Presbyterian and Butler have more in common than differing shades of blue. They are resurgent. The Bulldogs made a good accounting of themselves in a season-opening visit to Montana, where they succumbed, 35-21. Then followed conquests of Taylor (Ind.), 41-13; Wabash (Ind.), 47-21; and, in the PFL opener, Stetson, 28-18.

To upend Butler, the Blue Hose defense will have to do something about Jyran Mitchell, who rushed for 238 yards in 28 carries at Stetson. The quarterback, Brett Bushka, passed for 54 yards and rushed for 50.

Big plays made the difference for PC versus Wofford. Englehart counted eight by his definition. Tyler Wesley, the quarterback, embodies this. He has completed less than half (47/86, .477) his passes but for 660 yards and five touchdowns while being intercepted only once. PC has quite the receiving tandem in Worth Warner and Dominic Kibby, each with 10 catches.

Wesley leads a relatively sparse running game with 137 net yards. The Blue Hose are, however, averaging four yards a carry as a team.

Linebacker Alex Herriott leads the tacklers with a total of 24.

The average score of Presbyterian’s three games, only one of which was close, is 27-26 in the Blue Hose’ favor.

Butler began its upswing under Uremovich with a 7-3 record last year.

“They are a very disciplined team, well coached,” Englehart said. “They have very good players, but I think, more importantly, you look at the film and you can tell they’re very well coached.

“They don’t give up the big play, and it’ll be a big challenge for us.”

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