By MONTE DUTTON

It’s inevitable. A team in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs must get a seed and a first-round bye. Then once that open week is used, observers wonder if the team will be flat and rusty from inaction.

It’s always something.

Goodness, gracious. To borrow the favorite cliché of the late Stuart Scott, Furman was “as cool as the other side of the pillow” in a gradual demolition of Chattanooga, 26-7, in the second round, but the seventh-seeded Paladins’ first, of the playoffs, at wet, foggy Paladin Stadium on Saturday afternoon..

The only rest from the gloom, principally Chattanooga’s, was the appearance of Paris Mountain in the second half. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For 8,117 who braved the elements, it could’ve been the Coast of Marseille.

The Paladins played like they’d been there. Furman (10-2) was rested, and it showed.

Tyler Huff was back at quarterback after missing most of four games due to injury. He was marvelous, as clean as stainless steel. The graduate student, lieutenant in the Army Reserve and Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year completed 18/29 passes for 192 yards and rushed seven times for 32 yards. He was his old, tactically proficient self, adjusting on the fly. Huff threw an interception, but occasionally that comes with the adventure.

“I got a lot of good guys around rallying me, patting me on the back,” Huff said. “They trust me, all that kind of stuff.”

Chattanooga head coach Rusty Wright described it aptly.

“We went out there and battled the village,” he said. “End of the day, that’s a whole team (Furman). They didn’t make mistakes.”

The Mocs were worn down by injuries. Furman’s defense granted Chattanooga no quarter. The Mocs rushed for 116 yards and passed for 84. The Paladins ran for 191 and passed for 192. Dominic Roberto rushed for two touchdowns, and Ian Williams kicked four field goals. It was efficient. It was workmanlike. Chattanooga took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on Reggie Davis’s 11-yard rush, and that was it. Furman (10-2) controlled possession for 29 minutes, 35 seconds of the final 45.

“I thought we played really well,” Furman head coach Clay Hendrix said. “We ran the ball well, and I told the team, ‘We’ll win this game if we run the ball well.

“And defensively, with the exception of some third downs in the first half, they played really, really well. We were really solid in the kicking game. That’s how we have to win games. We’re ‘knocked down and out of town with a lot of people.’ We’ve got to grind and find a way to win.”

Chattanooga (8-5) didn’t have much chance to do more. Furman soundly underscored its SoCon-winning, 17-14, victory in Chattanooga on Nov. 4. For the first 15 minutes, the outcome was in doubt.

An astonishingly experienced team, as familiar with one another as a herd, a pride, a flock, played a game that was – what else? – familiar. Travis Blackshear, grad student from Savannah, Ga., jumped a route and raced down the left sideline with a Luke Schomburg pass, and the only aspect that was unfamiliar was that he merely set up, not scored, a touchdown.

As Hendrix said, “He’s made plays like that forever.”

Blackshear took it 29 yards to the two. Dominic Roberto took care of those immediately, and with 11:14 remaining in the third quarter, Williams’ kick put Furman up, 17-7.

Three more Williams field goals followed, punctuated at fairly regular intervals the rest of the afternoon. The 26 points rose on the South End Zone scoreboard inexorably.

Grant Robinson, redshirt freshman from Plano, Texas, returned after missing eight games to injury and led Furman in rushing with 62 yards in 13 carries, followed by Roberto (15-51) and Myion Hicks, who reeled off a lone 40-yarder.

Now it’s on to Missoula, Mont., where the University there, the Griz, advanced via a 49-19 victory over Delaware. Furman takes on Montana on Friday night at 9 p.m. EST on ESPN2. The Grizzlies defeated the Paladins, 13-6, in the 2001 national championship game in … Chattanooga.

Take a look at the stats here.

Thanks so much for the recent contributions.

I used to list an address to send a check (DHK Sports, P.O. Box 768, Clinton, S.C. 29325). 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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