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| Furman's Caldwell Bussey sacks Anderson's Wilson Edwards during the Paladins' 20-3 win Thursday. Photo courtesy of Furman |
Running the football and stopping the run. That's Football 101 for many coaches and certainly would be chapter one in the textbook of Furman's Clay Hendrix. While the final score may not have lived up to expectations Thursday night, those two basic principles were aced by the Paladins in a 20-3 season-opening victory over Division II Anderson.
Furman rushed for 268 yards as a team, while holding Anderson to six yards on 23 rushing attempts. It's the fewest rushing yards allowed by Furman since NAIA member Point had one yard on 35 attempts on Nov. 23, 2019.
"I'm always happy to get a win and we always celebrate victories. There's certainly a lot that we've got to get better at, but I also thought we did a lot of things really well," Hendrix said. "Defensively, we played really well all night. ... We will certainly be challenged in more ways moving forward, but we kept their quarterback running the whole night.
"Give Anderson a bunch of credit. (Coach) Bobby (Lamb) and his staff had a good plan and his kids played really hard."
One major goal for Furman this season is to have more of a team effort across the board defensively, as opposed to the one-man show that All-American Joshua Stoneking put on last season. You're not going to determine if that goal has been met by one game. Certainly not by one game against a Division II opponent, nor by next Saturday's game when the Paladins face a team from the SEC - the major leagues of professional college football - in Tennessee.
You could say that at least the blueprint was created on Thursday.
While the Trojans obviously double-teamed Stoneking on one end throughout the game, new Furman bandit Eli Lipscomb cleaned up on the other side. The Wingate transfer had six tackles, including three tackles-for-loss, a sack, two quarterback hurries and a fumble recovery.
"Coming into tonight, I'd already played Anderson and I knew they were a physical team. I think most people overlook the D2 teams, so I just told our team all week that they're just like us," Lipscomb said. "I came out wanting to play against them like I did last year (seven tackles, two sacks and two hurries in a 30-3 Wingate win). I played as well as I did because Josh Stoneking took the double and the chips. It's a testament to how great he is and it really freed me up on some plays."
Lipscomb wasted no time in making his Paladin debut a night to remember. On the first play of the game, Anderson hit a 15-yard pass play, but new starting cornerback Caleb Easterling forced a fumble that Lipscomb pounced on at the Trojans' 40.
Furman's offense could not take advantage though as new quarterback Jake Garcia and new placekicker Nathan Chapman each had more of an uneven start. Garcia's first pass was an incompletion on third down. That led to a 42-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide right.
Anderson drove from its own 25 to the Furman 30 on its next possession before Lipscomb came up big once again. His sack on second down resulted in a seven-yard loss back to the 37. Lipscomb's quarterback hurry on the next play forced an incompletion that led to a Trojans' punt.
Garcia's first five passes were incomplete. His sixth was a screen pass to Ben Croasdale on 3rd-and-20 that resulted in a four-yard gain early in the second quarter of a scoreless game.
After Lipscomb's third-down tackle forced an Anderson punt on its first possession of the second quarter, Furman's offense finally got a much needed big play. CJ Nettles' 47-yard run led to a 40-yard field goal by Chapman for the first points of the season.
Finally cracking the scoreboard seemed to give the Paladins momentum. Anderson's next possession was a three-and-out thanks to a second-down sack by Caldwell Bussey and a tackle-for-loss by Stoneking on third down.
Three plays later, Garcia threw a deep pass to Dartmouth grad transfer Daniel Haughton for a 49-yard gain to the Anderson four-yard line. Croasdale ran for Furman's first touchdown of the season on the next play to help push the lead to 10-0.
The Trojans got 64 of their 160 yards for the game on their ensuing possession. The only really big play for Anderson all night came on a 37-yard deep ball from Wilson Edwards to Kenneth Brown down the right sideline on a 3rd-and-4 play. That led to a 28-yard field goal by Ross Burnette with 1:16 left.
Garcia followed with his best drive of the night in the two-minute offense. He completed his first four passes of the drive for 40 yards before Croasdale ran for 12 yards to the Anderson 21-yard line with 22 seconds left. Two plays later, Garcia had a terrific scamper where he withstood a hit near the goal line for what was initially ruled a 21-yard touchdown run.
After video review, the ball was placed inside the one. It appeared that Croasdale took a shotgun snap into the end zone on the next play, but he was ruled down short of the goal line and Furman took a timeout with four seconds left. On the next play, Croasdale got in as the clock expired and the Paladins took a 17-3 lead into halftime.
"Our guys can tell you how many two-minute drills we did in camp and I thought we did a great job of executing there before the half," Hendrix said. "Obviously, getting a touchdown there was huge."
Coming out of halftime, Furman appeared to be poised to keep up the momentum. On the opening possession of the third quarter, the Paladins marched to Anderson's 19. On 3rd-and-9, Garcia threw to a wide open Jackson Pryor in the end zone but Anderson's Carter Wit made a fantastic leaping interception at the four.
Furman's next possession went from the Paladins' 10 to the Trojans' 12. It ended when Chapman's 29-yard field goal went straight but unfortunately for the Paladins, the snap came on the right hash mark.
The Paladins had 132 yards on 23 plays in the third quarter and no points to show for it.
The lone points of the second half came on a 30-yard field goal by Chapman with 9:05 remaining.
"Leaving points out there was a little frustrating. We had three really good drives to start the second half and we get three points," Hendrix said. "But it did just feel different offensively tonight. I told our running back group that they played really well, as did the guys up front. ... I think the pieces are there and our group is going to keep working to do things they have to do to get better."
Furman outgained Anderson 451-160 for the game, including 215-30 in the second half.
Nettles led the Paladins' rushing attack with 99 yards on 10 carries. Croasdale had 67 yards on 11 carries, while Garcia finished with 51 yards on nine attempts. Garcia completed 15-of-28 passes for 183 yards. Haughton led Furman's receivers with 87 yards on five catches, while Ethan Harris had three receptions for 49 yards.
"I think the biggest thing for Jake was the toughness he showed and the ability to go make plays with his feet. I know he'd like a couple of those throws back, but he also made some terrific throws," Hendrix said. "You know, Jake hadn't played football in two years. Until that first run he had, he probably hadn't been tackled in two years because didn't tackle our guys at all (in the preseason). ... We had 25 practices in August and that's all he's been with us.
"Tackling was a concern I had coming into the game because of not doing it in a team setting, but I thought we tackled pretty well defensively."
The last time the Paladins held an NCAA opponent to single digits in rushing was Oct. 7, 2017 when Chattanooga had seven yards on 17 attempts. The most impressive part of Thursday's rushing total allowed was the fact that Furman had just two sacks. More times than not, a rushing total of something like six yards comes as a result of a sack total of seven or so. The overall defensive numbers could've been even better if not for third down penalties that gave the Trojans an automatic first down three different times, one of which was complete buffoonery on the part of officials.
Lipscomb and captain Raleigh Herbert led the defense with six tackles apiece. After leading the country with 23 tackles-for-loss last season, Stoneking had one Thursday as well as a quarterback hurry. Trevor Short had four tackles and two hurries also for the Paladins. True freshman safety Braylon Peebles helped set a tone with a couple of big plays early on and he had two of Furman's four pass breakups.
"I think collectively as a group, we were just itching to hit all fall," Lipscomb said. "When we finally got the chance tonight, we took it."
Furman returns to action Saturday at Tennessee. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.
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