By MONTE DUTTON

It wasn’t pretty. Okay, the day was. It didn’t look much like a rivalry. Furman just took care of business – no more, no less – in a 28-14 victory over The Citadel at Paladin Stadium in front of 12,157 fans on Saturday.

The Paladins led, 28-0, late in the third quarter, didn’t scintillate anyone with their virtuosity, and were never in remote danger of losing.

But no one – certainly not head coach Clay Hendrix nor the two Nos. 6, quarterback Tyler Huff and free safety Hugh Ryan, he brought with him to the post-game media conference – seemed particularly pleased.

Hendrix, once an Air Force assistant, improved to 5-2 against the instate military.

“We did a lot of good things, but we couldn’t put them in a line,” he said.

Huff passed for 146 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 94.

“We had some explosive plays and had some shots and didn’t hit on any of them. It’s frustrating,” he said.

Ryan made six tackles — five of them by his lonesome — broke up a pass, hurried a passer, etc., etc.

“I’ll give everybody 14 points a game and take my chances. … We’ve got to tighten our coverage a little bit. It’s stuff you work on every week,” he said.

They all looked strangely unfulfilled. Furman (4-1, 2-0 SoCon) is ranked fourth in FCS. The Citadel (0-6, 0-3) is down. The Paladins apply high standards to themselves, and they all felt as if they should have done better. The schedule is about to get tough. The tough are about to get going.

“We didn’t play our best,” Hendrix said. “It was kind of an odd game.”

The question the head coach posed regarding the first half was, “How many ways can you shoot yourself in the foot?”

Furman enjoys cherished rivalries with The Citadel and Wofford, but this year the Southern Conference wars are more likely to be fought at Samford, at Western Carolina and at Chattanooga. Three of the Paladins’ next four games, against the aforementioned Bulldogs, Catamounts and Mocs, are on the road, broken by an Oct. 28 home date with East Tennessee State. The road to the championship requires bountiful travel.

“We’ve got to clean up,” Hendrix said. “We’re happy to be where we are, but we’ve certainly got a challenging road ahead, without any question.”

The victory was Furman’s 63^rd against the Bulldogs, with 37 losses and three ties.

Huff, the grad transfer from Orange Park, Fla., completed 19/24 — he was intercepted once – and distributed his largesse to 10 receivers, led by Kyndel Dean and Wayne Anderson Jr. with three catches apiece. His counterpart, Graeson Underwood, threw for 226 yards and hit 18/33 – to 11 receivers – but failed to produce a score with his arm and was intercepted twice, by Cally Chizik and Travis Blackshear.

How the Bulldogs have changed. They netted 39 yards on the ground.

Furman didn’t score until the final six seconds of the first quarter, when Huff found Luke Shiflett for a 14-yard score, and led, 14-0, at halftime on Myion Hick’s yard plunge.

Dominic Roberto, who rushed for 77 yards, boosted the lead with a five-yard, third-quarter rush, and Huff’s eight-yard connection with Nick Cannon marked the Paladins’ final touchdown with 4:48 to go in the third quarter. Axel Lepvreau and Ian Williams alternated the extra points. Williams missed a 43-yard, second-quarter field-goal attempt.

The Citadel, which averaged 1.4 yards per rush, got on the board that way with a five-yarder by Johnny Crawford III (1:12, third quarter) and a one-yarder by Underwood (8:13, fourth).

The Paladins visit Samford’s Homewood, Ala., home for a 1 p.m. game next Saturday. The Citadel visits Virginia Military.

“We talk all the time [about how we have] a standard that we play to and hold to. We weren’t quite that standard today.

“We’ll learn. We’ll learn much from this game.”

Take a look at the stats here.

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