By MONTE DUTTON

It’s doubly hard for winners to process it when they don’t win.
Clay Hendrix and Luke Clark are winners many times over. They expect to win. For both the Furman head football coach and the graduate bandit – how’s that for a misleading term? – the Paladins’ season has taken a toll.
Things have been happening that don’t happen. Furman takes a 2-6 record into Saturday’s home game against a bitter rival, Wofford, that upset the Paladins last season against all odds.
The Paladins must beat those odds this time. Kickoff is 2 p.m.

Furman has lost three consecutive Southern Conference games. Young and injured is no way for a football team to thrive.
“It’s a little bit of a broken record at this point,” Hendrix said Monday, adding, “The story of the year has been turnovers. … Critical mistakes, especially in the red zone. It continues to haunt us.
“We’re not going to accomplish a championship this year, but we’re building toward our next conference championship.”

From a statistical viewpoint, the 21-17 loss at Virginia Military seemed inconceivable. Furman dominated the stats from third-down conversions (10/18) to time of possession (39:35) to total yards (417). The Keydets’ corresponding numbers were 1/9, 20:25 and 177.
Games are not played on paper.
Wofford won on paper, too, on Nov. 18, 2023. That game was a 19-13 aberration, but the Terriers richly deserved it. This year Wofford (4-5, 2-4 SoCon) is better. Furman (2-6, 1-3) is worse.

The Terriers defeated VMI, 31-16, in Spartanburg on Oct. 12. Wofford defeated Samford on the road, 17-14, last week. Hurricane Helene won this year’s Samford game at Furman, canceled on Sept. 28.
“Some of it’s youth,” said Hendrix, “but I’m not going to talk about youth anymore because we’ve played way too many games now to be making the mistakes we’re making.”

Clark, from Louisville, Ky., is set to return from injury against the Terriers. This year’s ship can’t be righted. Three games are salvageable because three games are left.
“We’ve got to come back,” he said. “I’ve got an opportunity to be a leader, we’ve got an opportunity to develop. … We’ve got a lot of ball left to play.
“It’s my last three games of college football, probably football ever.”

When the season began, judging from all that paper, from all the fine players lost and inexperienced ones asked to step up, this figured to be a struggle, but consecutive 10-3 seasons bred a confidence that no obstacle was insurmountable.
“I haven’t had many seasons like this,” Hendrix said, “but there have been a few years when I was kind of glad to get to the end of the year.

“I have not felt that way this year at all. I told my wife (LeeAnn) that the other day. [Sunday] we had a really good practice, getting better. It’s still frustrating when we don’t do some things I think we should do, but it’s not for a lack of effort.”

There’s an old country saying: Chaps love to play. Sometimes it cuts both ways.
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