Wednesday September 12, 2007

Furman Comes To Town

Why Furman?
There has been a movement in college football where the powerhouses and big budget programs have changed their scheduling practices. This has happened for several reasons. First, a 12th game was added because this was a great way to create revenue. Big-time programs pay coaches millions of dollars and build facilities that the king of Saudi Arabia would be proud of. Someone has to pay for this so the 12 game was added.

Also, it is difficult to see why you should take a payout from a school to come to their home field instead of you making the money on the tickets, parking, concessions, etc. generated by a home game.

We have seen two things happen since the 12th game was added. First, several teams have added an eighth home game. This year Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Michigan are among the schools that have scheduled eight home games in 2007.

Also we have seen the Pac-10 add an additional conference game. Last year was the first in which the conference scheduled nine conference foes for each team. I like this idea and think this is a great idea instead of a league championship game in their conference. This means all 10 teams in the league play each other.

The ACC like many leagues have a title game and schedule eight conference games each year for each league member with four being home and four away. Clemson travels to South Carolina this year and decided to schedule three home games (Louisiana-Monroe, Central Michigan and Furman).

I loved the Texas A&M series. I lived for the Clemson-Georgia series in his prime. I can hardly wait for Auburn and Clemson to get it on. I can’t keep up with who is on and who is off and I know contracts are signed and broken but even the idea of Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Pittsburgh and Alabama are exciting.

But then you have Furman out there. I may be in the minority here but I don’t mind the Furman game. We all know your four out of conference opponents can’t be South Carolina, Georgia, Notre Dame and Tennessee. We all know that you have to schedule some wins in there so I say why not Furman? I would rather play Furman and have a little local interest than play Louisiana-Monroe again.

Keep the local interest and keep Furman coming to Tigertown.

The Rivalry
Believe it or not this was a rivalry at one time. Going into the 1938 game Clemson led the series 12-10-4. It should be stated that Clemson has won 28 straight in the series and the Tigers have not dropped a game to Furman since 1937 but Clemson still played at Furman until 1962.

Clemson last faced the Paladins in Greenville during the 1962 season when Furman still played its home games at Sirrine Stadium. In fact 30 of the first 46 games between the schools took place in Greenville.

Clemson and Furman ended their rivalry game in 1964 and the two schools did not play each other again until 1979. The Paladins have visited Tigertown just once since 1998 when a Furman team that finished the year 6-5 lost to Clemson the only time it has faced Tommy Bowden 28-17.

The teams shared some other history. Both won national titles in the 1980s. Clemson of course in 1981 and Furman won their I-AA title in 1988. Also the schools shared uniform pants. In a weird story, Clemson wore water repellant pants on October 8, 1960 and beat Virginia 21-7. After the game the pants were sent over to Greenville for a night game between Furman and William & Mary, a game in which the Paladins won 25-23. The pants were worn by two Palmetto State teams in victories over two teams from Virginia on the same day.

The Game
Furman was ranked ninth in the I-AA poll last week until then suffered a loss at Hofstra Saturday. The Paladins had a sizeable halftime lead but turnovers and poor defense led to the come-from-behind upset.

Renaldo Gray is the more experienced quarterback Clemson expects to face Saturday. Gray is very athletic and has thrown the ball well completing 70% of his passes for 422 yards. Jordan Sorrells is more of a pocket passer and has completed 76% of his passes for 150 yards after two games.

A powerful running attack is led by NFL-prospect Jerome Felton. Felton, who might be the most talented fullback the Tigers see all season, is the school record holder for touchdowns and scoring. Cedric Gipson is a talented tailback that is back for his senior season.

Furman returns three starters and seven lettermen along its offensive line including 6-7 318-pounder Joel Bell. Look for wide outs Patrick Sprague and R.J. Webb to be the main targets in the passing game for the Paladins this Saturday,

The Paladins have turned the ball over seven times in two games.

Defensively, Furman gave up 32 points this past weekend. Nose guard Justin Brown was an all-conference performer as a freshman last year and the linebackers are all back including FCS All-American candidate Andrew Jones.

Bobby Lamb’s group will bring in a nice game plan on both sides of the football Saturday and I expect Furman to be very excited to play in Death Valley. In the past 25 years the Paladins have defeated South Carolina, NC State, Georgia Tech and North Carolina and Clemson does not want to be added to that list. I would also expect a decent crowd from Furman to attend the game.

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