By MONTE DUTTON

I thought well, gee whiz, why not just start the season?

Saturday was the first one in the autumn when it’s not too hot. Except it was March 16.

Fluffy clouds slowly crossed the sky, northeast, as if they constituted an armed armada on the High Seas. The sky was blue, the field was emerald green, extra bright, the Paladins and their stadium were purple and white, and, naturally, it was the Purple-White Game, which is more of a football presentation.

Paris Mountain lacked only leaves changing.

I have no idea what the score was. I spent a lot of time trying to find familiar faces and identify new ones. Many replacement slots are being filled. I can’t say if it’s still the case, but Furman began holding spring practices pre-spring during the Dick Sheridan era because it allowed more time to recover from injuries.

The Paladins have 91 players this spring. The total on the field competing was 75-80, by head coach Clay Hendrix’s estimation. Early springs work. Was that a book? No. That was Silent Spring.

Furman is coming off a Southern Conference championship and consecutive 10-win seasons. It is passing a will to win down year to year, but the challenge next fall is stern.

“We made a point to get them all reps,” Hendrix said. “We made sure we did that. We wanted to make some continuity. We’re trying to get everybody on tape, and I told them, in a game, there’ll be noise. There’ll be people. They’ve got to be able to handle it.”

Oxford, Miss., in the first game comes to mind. A stately smattering at Paladin Stadium seemed to be having a delightful time enjoying the brave young lads perform, the kids roughhousing about and pregame music on the grounds.

It was wonderful, but it’s not the SEC. The Magnolia State. Natchez Trace.

Furman, I expect, is as genteel as Ole Miss will ever be, if only because gentility and madness do not often mix.

Among the top returning mainstays is 6-3, 250 Luke Clark, bandit, redshirt senior from Louisville, Ky.

“Coach Hendrix says all the time that the greatest ability is dependability,” Clark said. “If you line us up in SoCon games in 40-yard dashes, we might lose, but there’s a reason why we win. I think it’s because we’re tougher and we’re more consistent.

“That’s something we’ve been preaching to young guys: just getting to that level of consistency. We’re not there yet, but there are a lot of flashes.”

Hendrix said the fundamental teaching and evaluation are rewarding.

“It’s hard till you go back and watch it on tape,” he said. “In the first seven, eight days, we gave up too many deep balls. I think we played a little better on the back half [Saturday]. We pressured a little better even than we did in practice.

“The best we’ve done is throw the ball down the field in the first eight days. We’ll have to go watch it.”

Giving up too many deep balls means throwing well down the field.

Five quarterbacks saw action.

“You want somebody to make a good play, not because it’s a bust,” Hendrix added. “It’s just the other guy running through.

“It’s been a good nine days. We’ve made some good progress. We’ve tackled more than we have in three or four years.”

It’s not over. The team has six more sessions, having been delayed by the tragedy of Bryce Stanfield’s death. Only sorrow lingers of such a senseless demise, but it can steel his teammates dedication to his memory.

Over 190 high-school prospects were guests. I spent an ordinate amount of time talking NASCAR with one of them’s father. I doubt the powers that be could quibble with the story of a strange occurrence on the occasion of Ernie Irvan’s devastating crash at Michigan. Perhaps it was on my mind because one of my best NASCAR chums and colleagues died Friday morning.

Too much of my time is spent arranging, rearranging and tracking down records and stats behind a laptop.

I don’t get out enough. It was good to be out in the sunshine. I’m looking at a long dry spell. The baseball field sits figuratively fallow. I’m going to fill some space with tales from the past, of Stanford Jennings, Al and Mel Daniel and Jerry Martin, or maybe names completely different.

When the times comes, I’ll be ready for some football.

Will work for food, but contributions would be better. They’re both good and good for me.

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