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| Landyn James makes a leaping, one-handed catch in Furman's 31-13 loss at Wofford Saturday. Photo courtesy of Furman |
SPARTANBURG - As any of my fellow Cleveland baseball fans can attest, a lack of home run hitters make it hard to win in October. Furman's football team is finding out the same.
A couple of trends continued for the Paladins at Wofford Saturday - catastrophic turnovers and injured leading receivers watching from the sideline. Those two factors greatly contributed to Furman's 31-13 loss, which continued other trends. It's the Paladins' third consecutive loss to the Terriers and they've been held to exactly 13 points in each of those games.
"I certainly wasn't happy at halftime. I was proud of how our guys played in the second half, but we're not good enough to not play four quarters," Furman coach Clay Hendrix said Saturday. "I'm not sure we've played a full four quarters this year. We just played awful in the second quarter today.
"Offensively, that's eight turnovers in the last two games. That's eight lost possessions. I don't know how you ever overcome that. We've just got to quit making terrible decisions."
Freshman Evan James, who's been unarguably Furman's best offensive player this season, hasn't played since injuring his shoulder against Samford on Sept. 27. The Paladins won a thriller the next week against ETSU thanks to a huge performance by Ja'Keith Hamilton. Four plays into a blowout loss at Western Carolina the next week, Hamilton injured his ankle and hasn't played since. After Hamilton went down, Ethan Harris stepped up and was Furman's top performer against Western. Harris, who missed time earlier this season with an injury, got hurt during practice last Wednesday and missed the Wofford game.
So Furman went into Saturday's game against a solid Terriers' defense down its top three receivers, who've combined to average 205 yards receiving per game, as well as tight end Jackson Pryor. Pryor, who's proven to be the best deep threat among Furman tight ends, hasn't played since the Samford game. Additionally, Furman's fourth-leading receiver Kerry King has been pushing through a nagging ankle injury.
"It certainly didn't help (quarterback Trey Hedden) that we were missing 80 catches Saturday. ... We actually haven't been bad health-wise outside of that one group," Hendrix said during Tuesday's weekly press conference. "You've just got to control what you can control. ... So we will look at what we're doing."
King started Saturday, along with Devin Hester and Landyn James. It was the second collegiate game for James, whose college career began at Clemson as a student only - not on the football team, and his first start since his senior season at JL Mann in 2022.
Every team has to deal with injuries, but teams typically don't get hit like this in one position at this rate. It started back in the spring with the season-ending loss of John Holbrook, who was set to have a much bigger role this fall, and veteran Ben Ferguson, whose lingering back issues have likely ended his career. All told, Furman was without six scholarship wide receivers Saturday.
The injuries, particularly to guys who've proven to be those home run hitters on offense like Evan James, Hamilton and Pryor, cause a trickle-down effect. Defenses can stack the box even more against a running game that has struggled much of the season. Those in the secondary can play tighter coverage without the same level of fear of getting burned.
Still, Furman managed to move the ball somewhat Saturday. The Paladins actually outgained the Terriers, 329-325, but mistakes proved monumental for the second week in a row. When Hedden was good, he was really good, especially considering how far down on the depth chart his weapons were. But a few bad throws were really bad as two of the sophomore's three interceptions hit Wofford linebackers right in the gut. The Terriers scored 17 points off those three picks.
After going three consecutive games with just one turnover, which came on some kind of miscommunication on a pass that was intercepted by ETSU, Hedden's thrown six interceptions and a lost fumble over the past two weeks. He's also been sacked eight times over the past two games after not being sacked at all over the prior three.
"It (the receiver injuries) probably slows down the clock on routes. Maybe he's standing there holding it a little longer because a guy's not quite where he needs to be. I know it has an effect," Hendrix said Saturday. "When we knew we weren't going to have any of those three after Ethan got hurt Wednesday at practice, we tried to tweak the plan as best we could. We just can't turn the ball over. I said the same thing last week. It's frustrating."
Furman got on the board early in the second quarter Saturday when Hedden hit Hester in the end zone for a 10-yard score to cut Wofford's lead to 7-6. Hedden went 4-for-4 on the drive and the score was set up by a 15-yard run by Gavin Hall on the play before. After Wofford was flagged for offside on the PAT, the Paladins' offense came back out to try for two. Furman's play-action pass out of a power I-formation fooled no one and Hedden's pass was incomplete.
The Paladins looked to keep momentum after forcing a three-and-out on Wofford's next possession. A 29-yard run by CJ Nettles got the ball in Terriers' territory and Furman ended up driving to the 34. On third down, Hedden's pass went straight to Wofford's Logan McCloud. McCloud returned it 16 yards to the Wofford 46. On the Terriers' first third down of their ensuing drive, JT Fayard threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Terrance Honeywood.
After Furman's offense responded with a three-and-out, Wofford took over at its own 30-yard line with 2:15 left in the first half. The Terriers got chunks of yards never facing a third down on their way to a first down at the Furman 23. For the second week in a row, a non-reviewed fumble didn't go the Paladins' way. Isaiah Scott caught a short pass and the 5-foot-10, 180-pound receiver broke six tackles on his way to the goal line. Before he crossed though, Furman's Billy Lewis knocked the ball free and it bounced through the end zone and out of bounds. The side judge looking right at the play never made any call. Instead, he rushed to talk to the back judge in the end zone.
That's supposed to be a touchback and Furman's ball at its own 20, but there was a flag for illegal hands to the face against the Paladins at the line of scrimmage more than 20 yards away. That returned the ball back to Wofford. Officials explained to Hendrix that the penalty means the ball goes back to where it was fumbled and the penalty marked off rather than marking off from the spot of the foul. After retaining possession inside the one with 47 seconds left, Ihson Jackson-Anderson scored to push the lead to 21-6 at the half.
"I knew they got to keep the ball. I just didn't understand why it was from that spot," Hendrix said. "The bigger issue on that play was our horrendous tackling. We tackled pretty good for the game but on that play, it was horrendous.
"I think the old saying is, 'the harder you work, the luckier you get.' I guess we've got to work harder, because we haven't had a lot of luck."
Defenses ruled the second half as all of the scoring after halftime came off turnovers. Midway through the third quarter, Furman's Marc Hernandez tipped a pass and AK Burrell picked it off. He returned the interception 37 yards to the Wofford 18. Hall then carried four consecutive times, the last of which resulted in a four-yard touchdown run to help cut the lead to 21-13.
Another chance for the Paladins to maintain momentum was there after forcing a three-and-out, but the Terriers' Cavan Craig unleashed a 64-yard punt that went out of bounds at the two.
"That was a huge play in the game," Hendrix said. "We weren't deep enough with our alignment. We should've caught that ball."
In the shadow of their own end zone, the Paladins played it extremely safe and Ian Williams produced a 50-yard punt. That long effort plus an illegal block in the back penalty pushed Wofford back to its own 33.
Furman's next possession began at its own 40 early in the fourth quarter. After Landyn James turned a 3rd-and-8 pass into a 19-yard gain on an incredible leaping grab with his left hand, it appeared that the Paladins may be headed for a potential game-tying score. But two plays later from the Wofford 37, Hedden's pass went right to the Terriers' Javario Tinch. Tinch returned it 66 yards for a touchdown to help push the lead to 28-13 with 11:59 remaining.
Furman drove to midfield on its ensuing possession, but Hedden was sacked which led to a punt Hedden was sacked again on the Paladins next drive, but once again James came through with a 17-yard gain on a 3rd-and-14 play.
"I couldn't be more proud of Landyn James," Hendrix said.
On the next play though, Hedden's pass went through the hands of Joshua Burrell and right to Wofford's Cole Walker. Walker returned the interception 41 yards to the Furman 25. That led to the Terriers (2-5, 1-2 Southern Conference) putting the final nail in Furman's coffin with a 42-yard field goal by Sam Spence.
In the second half, Furman's defense allowed just three first downs and 59 yards on 23 plays. For the game though, the Paladins had no sacks for just the second time this year. The other time was the Presbyterian fiasco. Last week at Western, Furman had two sacks in a scoreless first quarter and then had none over the rest of that 52-7 loss.
"We are a very good half football team. We play a very good half or a very bad one. Consistency is the biggest thing we've got to work on," defensive tackle Caldwell Bussey said Tuesday. "For us (on the defensive line), teams have really started to focus on Josh Stoneking because he's having a great season. So it falls back on us as a group. We've just got to get more production in the pass rush."
Hedden finished with 257 yards on 27-of-41 passing with the one touchdown and three interceptions. Hall had 61 yards on 17 carries and also caught seven passes for 49 yards. Hester caught six passes for 82 yards. Nettles finished with 34 yards on just four carries before leaving with an injury in the fourth quarter. While Hedden being sacked five times - which resulted in 26 yards lost - had a lot to do with it, Furman still managed just 72 yards rushing and only 2.6 yards per carry as a team.
Furman (4-3, 2-2) will return to Paladin Stadium Saturday for just the second time since Sept. 6 and first time since Oct. 4. The Paladins host The Citadel at 2 p.m.
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