By MONTE DUTTON

In itself, Furman’s 17-16 victory at The Citadel last Saturday was not a precursor of further success.

It was an aversion of disaster and an escape from a rival’s ambush. A switch flipped in the fourth quarter at Johnson Hagood Stadium. Man, was it sweet. Man, was it needed.

“We made enough plays down the stretch,” head coach Clay Hendrix said. “I think the true character of our young men came to the forefront. We made some plays and kind of played Furman football in the fourth quarter.”

The goal at Paladin Stadium on Saturday afternoon at 2, when Chattanooga visits, is to keep the switch flipped. The Paladins showed they could come off the deck. Now they have to stay off it.

When Hendrix convened his Monday media conference – and brought the bandit Luke Clark and the offensive tackle Eli Brasher along – all three felt about the same as everyone else. The Paladins showed they could hang in there and grab victory from the yapping jaws of defeat, emitting a collective “Whew!” at the end.

Everyone had studied the tape. For three quarters plus, they played pretty rotten.

“There’s nothing easy in any aspect of football, especially winning,” said Clark. “Going down there and getting a win is huge for us, and sometimes we’re still our own worst enemies.

“When we play good, we play really good, and when we play bad, we play really, really bad.

The defense was never bad but got ornery in the fourth quarter, even while being on the field for 74 plays and 37 minutes, 47 seconds. It forced five straight three-and-outs when it had to have them.

“I’m really proud of the way we went out and finished the game,” added Clark, a senior from Louisville, Ky. “We didn’t handle our business for the first three quarters.

“It was a great opportunity to display what you want to be. … It’s crazy watching film and seeing that we can be so much better.”

The offense played up-tempo and managed to expose fatigue in The Citadel’s defenders.

Brasher, a sophomore, is from Black Mountain, N.C., struck severely by Helene.

“It’s honestly been a gift, having football here as a distraction from what’s gone on back home,” he said. “It helped a lot.”

In the fourth quarter, Brasher said the Bulldogs “definitely were tired. Especially, pass-rush-wise, as we kept going more tempo, they weren’t able to sub and were really worn down.”

For three quarters, fans were wondering why Hendrix didn’t give Carson Jones a try. In the fourth, Trey Hedden, in his all-white duds, looked like the young Johnny Unitas (on NFL Films).

Either it’s the above, or the Great Paladin in the Sky really did flip a switch, or wave a wand, or pull a sword from a stone.

The winning touchdown was from one freshman, Hedden of Tampa, Fla., to another, Jackson Pryor of Boone, N.C. Hedden completed 23/33 passes for 246 yards.

Now Furman must move on and build on the legacy of a miraculous victory, albeit against a struggling foe. The Citadel struggles on.

To date, the parity of the Southern Conference is dramatic.

Four schools – Mercer (3-0), Furman (1-0), Samford (1-0) and Western Carolina (1-0) – have yet to lose a conference game. Every school has at least two victories overall except Virginia Military, which is 0-5.

It’s wide open. Chattanooga (2-3, 1-1) and Furman (2-3, 1-0) were picked 1-2 in the SoCon coaches’ preseason poll. The current leader, Mercer (5-0, 3-0), was picked fourth.

Furman and Chattanooga, class of the Southern Conference last season, are set to clash for the third time in a span of 343 days on Saturday at Paladin Stadium.

“They’ve got talent, they’ve got size and length and they do a good job coaching,” said Hendrix. “They know who they are, and we’ll have to be absolutely at our best.

“We’ve got our hands full. … It’s a huge challenge, but I think it’s one we’ll be up for, too.”

The game is to be streamed via ESPN+ and aired over The Fan Upstate and its four stations: 97.7 FM/1330 AM in Greenville, and 97.1 FM/950 AM in Spartanburg.

(But … for gosh sakes, go.)

Furman, the SoCon champion, and Chattanooga, an FCS at-large playoff qualifier, squared off twice in 2023 in high-stakes clashes. The Paladins edged the Mocs last November in Chattanooga, 17-14, to claim the program’s 15th SoCon championship, and beat UTC a month later, 26-7, in FCS second-round playoff action in Greenville.

The Mocs, coming off a 17-10 league win at East Tennessee State, enter Saturday’s matchup ranked 23rd in the Stats Perform FCS Poll.

Chase Artopoeus, Chattanooga’s veteran quarterback, has completed 82/146 passes for 1,309 yards and seven touchdowns, yielding five interceptions. Reggie Davis has 362 yards in 93 carries.

Furman, which has won the last three meetings and six of the last eight, holds a 33-21 edge in the all-time series, though UTC’s eight wins in 22 games at Paladin Stadium are the most by any foe.

Wellpilgrim.com is back in my dingy living room, where there is both electricity and wi-fi again. For now, I have closed my offices at Zaxby’s and Bojangles’, and I wish to acknowledge restaurants and, for one day, the public library, for keeping me minimally in business.

I hate to ask for help because there are so many more needy than I, but …

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