By MONTE DUTTON

To understand where Presbyterian College football has come, one has to consider where it’s been.
Saturday’s 30-27 upset of Butler (9-3, 5-3 PFL) was the Blue Hose’ fourth in a row. They went from 2-6 to 6-6 and, in the Pioneer Football League of extraordinary gentlemen, from 0-4 to 4-4.
So … Steve Englehart’s three years at the helm have been 1-10, 4-7 and 6-6. PC has gotten gradually better under his watch.
It’s more than that. One needs to know the rest of the story.

It was Englehart who sifted through the ashes left by Kevin Kelley, the Sage of Arkansas. It was all Englehart and his staff could muster to keep a team on the field in 2022. They were way better in year two. This year they were way better still.

Comparatively and in inadvertent concert, Presbyterian became the Kansas of the PFL. Or, in reverse, Kansas became the PC of the Big 12.
The Blue Hose lost the first four league games by 11, 6, 7 and 3, then won the last four by 28, 21, 19 and 3.

Perhaps the odds caught up, or perhaps, at some basic level, the Blue Hose learned how to drive nails and tie loose ends.
“We went through some hard times,” Englehart said. “After that second win in a row, I told them in the locker room that the confidence was there, believe it, and we weren’t going to lose again. I think they took that to heart.”

PC lost the first 18 PFL games it ever played. Butler came to Clinton ranked No. 23 in FCS and brought a decent crowd with them from Indianapolis. As I left Bailey Memorial Stadium after a famous final scene, I spoke to several of them. Nice people. Holding up as best they could.
The Presbyterian triumph was tinged with a bit of regret. What might have been? If the storm had allowed playing Davidson at home on Saturday instead of away on Sunday … if two overtimes had fallen the other way, or even one … if they’d pushed it in on fourth down at Morehead … ands and buts aren’t candy and nuts.

“Those guys didn’t run away from anything,” Englehart said. “They didn’t run away from a challenge, didn’t run away from me being their third head coach in six months. They didn’t run away from any of that.”
The Hose turned it around. They turned it around.
Ah, enough gas-station philosophizing. On to the game.
Closers were important. Quante Jennings, running back of Cartersville, Ga., closed out his career with his best game. Graduate tight end Worth Warner of Raleigh, N.C., scored two touchdowns.
Presbyterian finished with a break-even season but won six games for the first time in a decade.

The Hose hustled through November without a loss for the first time since the stadium opened in 2002 and won four straight for the first time since 2007. They scored 27 of their 30 points in the second and third quarters, then held on to end Butler’s four-game string of wins.
Jennings rushed for 190 yards in 15 carries, scoring a tie-breaking touchdown with 4:43 remaining in the third quarter.
“We put in a lot of hard work,” he said, “and it feels very rewarding.

“I love my brothers here. It’s a family.”

Warner caught an eight-yard scoring pass from Collin Hurst in the second quarter and a 17-yarder that that put the cap on a 20-point Butler rally.

“We learned how to talk with one another when stuff was going bad,” Warner said. “We learned how to figure it out and push through. Resilience is the word to use for this team.
“Losses can pile up on you, but you can fight back against adversity and the adversity is what makes you great.”

Yet another senior, linebacker Alex Herriott of Hanahan, ended his career with 368 tackles, second in the mostly lean years since PC joined FCS in 2007. Zach Switzer, senior product of Spring Hill, Tenn., finished the season with 1,298 yards in rushing, receiving and kick returning combined.
Safety Anthony Thornton, Missouri City, Texas grad, set up the first score after Bradley Russ-Martin – he and twin Brooks ended their tenure as starters in the secondary – tipped it up in the air for Thornton’s convenience. The twins are from Travelers Rest. A week earlier, they each intercepted passes in the same game.
They had joy. They had fun. They had seasons in the sun.

Both teams fielded fine, smallish quarterbacks. Butler’s Reagan Andrew is 5-7. He hit 20/36 passes for 220 yards and three touchdowns. Hurst is 5-10. He went 16/24 for 172 and two TDs, both directed at Warner. Andrews had one more score but also one more interception. Hurst threw none.
Ahead by eight to start the third quarter, PC withstood two touchdowns in the first four minutes.
PC answered its only deficit by driving 75 yards, capped by Warner’s latter score. Both teams missed PATs, and the score was 20-20, but Jennings’ 10-yard rush gave the Blue Hose the lead for good.

Peter Lipscombe’s 18-yard field goal put the Blue Hose ahead, 30-20, but the Bulldogs tightened it after PC failed on a fourth-down gamble. Butler scored on a 42-yard … with 1:04 remaining, but Nathan Levicki recovered the Bulldogs’ final, desperation onsides kick.
Take a look at the stats here.
“And all the time she’s been waiting on him, she’s been waiting on you and me” – Tom T. Hall, “Ravishing Ruby”

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