By MONTE DUTTON

Most everyone who watches sports overreacts.

When I wrote about NASCAR for a living, occasionally I drew the ire of a famous driver (or owner, family member, sponsor, PR rep, etc.) for something I wrote.

“You think I’m tough? Read my mail,” I’d say. “I’m Fans Light.”

Back then, I wrote the copy for a nationally syndicated page that ran in hundreds of newspapers every week. I read hundreds of letters, a few of which ran on the page. I still get lots of letters. They offer me credit cards, storm windows, gutters that won’t require cleaning, etc.

Social media is about the same. Occasionally a lie fools me. I’m getting better at discernment.

Last year the Kansas City Chiefs got hammered in the Super Bowl, which caused much of America to forget they made it to the Super Bowl. I watched them play Detroit Sunday night. They’re still pretty good.

Gradually reaching the point, I was astonished on Saturday when Western Carolina clobbered Furman, 52-7. I was astonished earlier when Presbyterian College, located in my hometown, upset the Paladins in overtime. Several times I’ve thanked the Almighty for making me otherwise occupied that day. (I was commemorating the 50^th anniversary of a high-school football team on whose roster I was listed.)

Go Big Red.

Remain calm. All is well. Relatively. Furman has won its other four games, all close, against William & Mary, Campbell, Samford and East Tennessee State.

Clay Hendrix is a straight talker. Ask him a question, and he’ll give a straight answer. He’s as Furman as the Bell Tower.

“Hat’s off to Western Carolina,” he said right off the bat. “They just beat us every way possible. They outplayed us, out-physicaled us and outcoached us.”

Everything piled up. Furman (4-2, 2-1 SoCon) committed five turnovers. The second half was one of missed opportunities by the Paladins and one big play after another for Western Carolina (4-3, 3-0).

“It is just one game,” Hendrix said. “It’s about how you respond. We didn’t all of a sudden become a bad football team. We played really poorly, as poorly as I can remember. We’ve got to fix some things. When we get a chance to make a play, we’ve got to make a play.

“We’ve done some really good stuff, and I thought we were continuing to make progress until Saturday.”

Wofford (1-5, 0-2) has lost four games by a total of eight points. It doesn’t make much difference in the rivalry of Paladins and Terriers. Wofford was 5-7 last year, 2-9 the year before, and the Terriers beat Furman 19-13 both times.

The Paladins aren’t as bad as Saturday seemed. Erskine isn’t as bad as Saturday seemed.

“It’s about every game, every practice,” said linebacker Raleigh Herbert. “You want to have that mindset where you go out there with that mindset where you put everything into it. You learn from the good. You learn from the bad. At Western, there was a lot of bad, but there was some good we can build on.”

Guard Luke Petit said, “This team has a lot of talent. We’ve just got to take that talent and put it to good use. We’ve got to grow each and every day. It’s going to take the next level of detail and execution to win.”

“We’ve got the right guys in our program,” said Hendrix. “We’ve got to become a better fundamental team. We’ve left points on the field all year long.”

“The best teams are player-led teams,” said Herbert, who is one of the captains. “Leadership is everything. Short-term memory means nothing. We’ve just got to move on.”

“It’s easy to get down on yourself,” Petit added, “but it’s never acceptable.”

Crazy things happen. Sometimes a player tells himself he’d better be ready, and himself just doesn’t believe it. It can be a collective thing. I’ve been seeing it since that high-school team a half century ago. It happens in middle schools. It happens in the pros.

It happened in Cullowhee. The Catamounts took no prisoners. Storms never last. Hard times pass with the wind. Jessi Colter wrote it. It’s got to be true.

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