By MONTE DUTTON

The most inane stoppage in sport has spread to college football, which at least has the decency to call it “a two-minute timeout.”

The NFL’s “two-minute warning” dates back to a time when many stadiums didn’t have visible clocks. An official trotted to each sideline to say, “Hey, Coach, you got two minutes.”

Now stadium scoreboards are as big as entire high-school stadiums.

When I was a kid, announcers broke for commercials, they said, while “the two-minute warning is delivered to both benches.”

I’m old, but this wasn’t the Boston Redskins taking on the Decatur Staleys.

A timeout with two minutes to play in each half is fine by me. If the friendly folks at the ESPN Family of Networks need to squeeze in another Dr Pepper sitcom from Fansville, okay.

Just be honest. C’mon, man.

Meanwhile, at the Furman gridiron, the supports are solid. I’m reminded of a silly song.

The kickers are the kickiest. The snapper is the snappiest. Et al.

Several key performers return.

A Renaissance student-man, Ian Williams (6-3, 218, R-Sr.), leads the recital. He’s set to hold down three key duties this fall — placekicker, kickoffs and punter — and is already established as the best in the Southern Conference in two of the three roles.

“We’re looking for another big season out of Ian,” said head coach Clay Hendrix. “He’s coming off a great year, has a big leg and is consistent.”

The three R’s are resume, rocketry and reliability.

A preseason All-SoCon pick by league head coaches, Williams connected on 18/24 field goals in 2023, including a career-long 52-yarder in a win over East Tennessee State, and was a perfect 21/21 in shared PAT work to finish with a team-best 75 points.  Equally impressive was his performance on kickoffs, where he deposited 54/74 kicks for touchbacks (.729 percentage). In his two seasons as a Paladin, he’s provided 104 touchbacks on 158 kickoffs, with only one one going out of bounds (on an onside kick that should have been recovered).

Williams’ added role of punter this fall holds promise for more stellar results.

“He has a chance to be a difference maker as our punter,” Hendrix said.

Williams’ backup at placekicker and on kickoffs appears to be newcomer Nathan Chapman (5-11, 176, Fr.), with Noah Rios (5-10, 190, R-Jr.) also in the picture.

Competing for backup punting duties are Gray Gitter (6-0, 160, R-Fr.) and Dawson Jones (5-11, 178, R-So.).

Jones could also hold on placements, but the top candidate there is reserve quarterback Luke Hedrick (5-11, 190, R-Jr.).

Replacing graduated All-America snapper Julian Ashby is a challenge the Paladins look to meet from among a host of contenders, including Riley Smith (6-1, 195, Fr.), Jacob Hefner (6-2, 205, R-Fr.), and P.J. Meyers (6-6, 237, R-Jr.). The Paladins could also call on John Holbrook (6-4, 200, Fr.), who is set to see action at wide receiver this fall.

Furman sports experienced returners on both punt and kickoff units.

Joshua Harris (6-2, 198, Sr.), the Paladins’ preseason All-SoCon wide receiver, has averaged 7.6 yards on 24 career punt returns.

On kickoffs look for Colton Hinton (5-11, 175, So.) to be the primary threat after logging 10 returns (23.1 avg.) a year ago in a freshman campaign that saw him catch 34 passes for a pair of touchdowns.  He was a coaches preseason All-SoCon pick as a return specialist at last month’s SoCon media day.

After recording 10 blocked kicks (PATs, FGs) and punts in 2022, the Paladins combined to deflect four a year ago.

Lindsay Walch led Furman with 12 kills on Saturday afternoon as the Paladins completed their preseason volleyball schedule against the Lander Bearcats at Alley Gymnasium.

The teams played four sets in the exhibition with Furman capturing all four. The Paladins won the first set 26-24 and followed with a 25-14 win in set two. Furman closed out the exhibition with a 25-22 triumph in the third and 25-21 in the fourth.
Eleven different players recorded at least one kill in the contest.

Katie Miller posted a match high 16 kills for Lander. Lauren Dow compiled a double-double of 28 assists and 21 digs.
The Paladins open their regular season schedule next weekend hosting Charleston Southern, UTRGV and Charlotte in the Furman Invite. Furman is slated to play Charleston Southern and UTRGV on Aug. 30 and Charlotte on Aug. 31.

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