By MONTE DUTTON

Wofford stunned Furman, 19-13, on Saturday. No one knows why. Clay Hendrix doesn’t know. What toll the Terriers took on the Paladin’s post-season prospects remains to be seen.

Such upsets happen seldom. Usually they are between rivals. Give Wofford (2-9, 2-6 SoCon) credit. The Terriers hit the Paladins where it hurt, right in the gut.

What happened at Gibbs Stadium didn’t erase what Furman (9-1, 7-1) has achieved to date, but it undermined the Paladins at a time when their playoff credentials and those of the Southern Conference are inclined to be undermined, anyway. The brackets are to be released on Sunday.

It was inexplicable that a team that had passed so many tests – at Samford, at Western Carolina, at Chattanooga – couldn’t pass the last one.

At Wofford? Who’d’ve thought?

“Give [Wofford] credit,” Hendrix said. “They did what they had to do to win the game. They outcoached us, outplayed us. I don’t know that we could play worse than we played offensively. I thought we really played well defensively other than a couple plays we shouldn’t have given up.

“We just got chance after chance. We couldn’t take advantage. We couldn’t complete throws.”

Furman sacked Wofford quarterback Amari Odom three times (Luke Clark, Sirod Cook and Xavier Stephens). Braden Gilby and Evan DiMaggio combined for 23 tackles, 12 by the former.

A coach I know is fond of saying, “Football is hard, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

Wofford’s victory made a credible case.

“It all starts with me,” Hendrix said. “Ultimately it’s my responsibility.

“It doesn’t diminish anything we’ve accomplished this year. Our group will get to play again. I don’t know when it’s going to be, but we left it in somebody else’s hands now. It’s frustrating.

It could be a benefit. Awareness of mortality can prevent its recurrence. Another coach I know thinks losing is too high a price to pay. He’s against mortality in all its forms.

Wofford never trailed again after Ian Williams’ 44-yard field goal put the Paladins up 6-3 with 8:45 remaining in the first half.

Redshirt freshman sensation quarterback Carson Jones had the kind of game most freshman sensations eventually have. He completed 18/38 attempts for only 99 yards with an interception. Jones’ longest completion was 17 yards.

“Carson played really well last week, and he obviously didn’t play great today,” Hendrix said.

The Paladins only rushed for 89 yards, 70 of them by Myion Hicks in 11 carries. Dominic Roberto didn’t dress. Hendrix said he’d been “banged up all year” and needed some recovery time for the FCS playoffs.

It wasn’t a yardage game. It was a big-play game. Wofford’s Amari Oden only passed for 92 yards (9/18, interception). Ryan Ingram rushed for 111 yards, 19 more than Wofford netted.

Cally Chizik’s interception was his fifth of the season.

Furman was 3/15 in third-down conversions and 1/3 in fourths. It was hellishly bad. The law of averages caught up on a season’s worth of big plays.

As Hendrix said, Wofford had a lot to do with it.

The Paladins had a penchant for disaster. Seven plays after Williams’ second field goal gave Furman the lead, on fourth down and one, Ingram squeezed past the line of scrmmage and found no further resistance on a 53-yard sprint with 5:09 remaining in the half.

With 45 seconds on the clock, Williams tried a 32-yarder that hit the right upright.

The second half consisted of the Paladin defense keeping them in it and the offense failing to take advantage of opportunities. With 10:44 remaining in the third quarter, again on fourth-and-one, Hicks fumbled, and Wofford’s Maximus Pulley scooped it up and scored from 64 yards away. The extra point failed, but Wofford led 16-6.

Hicks finally found the end zone for Furman with an 11-yard rush early in the fourth quarter.

Furman had two more possessions, a three-and-out and an incompletion on fourth down with 1:15 to play. It would have taken an acrobatic catch by Joshua Harris, tightly guarded by Wofford’s Jalen Marshall.

It was a game of little offense, but what little that worked, worked for the Terriers.

Few saw it coming.

“[Wofford] had challenges, too,” Hendrix said. “The difference is their mistakes didn’t hurt them.

“We made some catastrophic mistakes.”

Take a look at the stats here.

Many have said they intended to make a contribution to keep the site alive. I reckon they just don’t get around to it. I always list an address to send a check. I finally got it through my thick head that not that many people write checks nowadays. For example, me. A more convenient means might be sending a reasonable amount to DHK Sports on Venmo.

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