The Furman Paladins of the FCS are 0-2 and coming off of a blowout loss to Virginia Tech, but appearances can be deceiving and the Knights cannot look past them on Saturday.
Staring down the barrel of a 0-3 start, the Knights and the Paladins enter the matchup in very different positions. The Knights didn’t expect to be winless at the start of the season and have a lot to lose going into the Furman game. Furman, on the other hand, is playing one of the toughest early season schedules in program history, has nothing to lose and will give it their all to hand UCF another loss.
Head Coach Bruce Fowler, while only entering his fifth year as head coach, has spent a quarter of a century at Furman with his time as a player and assistant coach. Fowler led the Paladins to a Southern Conference championship in 2013 including a win over Appalachian State, but the FCS team experience a down year in 2014 going 3-9 overall.
The Paladins bring an experienced defense to Brighthouse Networks Stadium that is led by a pair of linebackers, senior Cory Magwood and redshirt junior Carl Rider. Magwood led the Paladins with 123 tackles last season while Rider is coming off a missed season due to torn labrum following a monstrous 2013 campaign where he registered 136 tackles.
Furman’s defensive starters are all upperclassmen and 8 of them have registered at least ten starts with the team as of last week. However, the Paladins secondary has allowed two consecutive 300+ yard passers and they have been vulnerable to giving up long passes. The Knights and newly anointed starter Bo Schneider should take advantage of Furman and fare much better this week then they did against Stanford.
Defensively, for the third time this year, the Knights will once again have to take on a team that leans heavily on its tight end in the pass game. Junior Duncan Fletcher anchors the Paladin offense and provides a safety blanket for junior quarterback Reese Hannon, however due to a hamstring injury Fletcher has not yet been able to suit up this season. If he can play on Saturday, he could help smooth out the turnover-prone offense the Paladins have been struggling with this season.
Reese Hannon also missed the 2014 season when he fractured his ankle in the first game last year against Gardner-Webb. Hannon has had more trouble protecting the football than seasons prior, throwing two picks each in games against Coastal Carolina and Virginia Tech respectively.
The biggest surprise and bright spot in the first two games for the Furman offense has been true freshman running back Triston Luke. Luke is not the starter for the Paladins, but totaled the most carries in their game against Virginia Tech last week. It was a breakout game for the true freshman as he managed 79 yards over 10 carries against the Hokie defense and he may see a larger role in the offense going forward into the season.
Of note on Furman’s special teams is sophomore J.C. Hollingsworth who takes on the role of both kicker and punter. Hollingsworth was named to the All-Freshman Team for the Southern Conference as a punter and has range as a kicker with a career long of 51 yards.
This game has interesting ties involved to it as well as it is the second time that UCF has played Furman and the first time that the game will take place in Orlando. UCF head coach George O’Leary’s first career victory came against Furman in 1995 when he was coaching Georgia Tech and at the time Furman head coach Bruce Fowler was a defensive backs coach. Just a year later, the Knights joined the FBS and have not lost to an FCS program since with a record of 20-0.
Photo Credit: Nick Russett
