Date: Saturday, Oct. 5
Contest: W. Carolina (3-2, 1-1) at No. 5 Furman (3-1, 1-0)
Time: 2 p.m.
Place: Paladin Stadium in Greenville, S.C.THE GAME: Western Carolina will face Furman for its third SoCon contest of the year … The Paladins lead the series that dates back to 1971 by a count of 18-9-2… FU currently owns a four game winning streak over the Catamounts and has won six of the last seven … WCU’s last victory was a 17-16 victory in Cullowhee in 1997 … At Paladin Stadium, Furman leads by a 9-5-1 count and has won three straight and five of the last seven.
THE COACHES: Kent Briggs (Western Carolina ”79) is in his first season at Western Carolina and has a career record of 3-2 … Briggs was a Catamount assistant coach from 1980-88 and was most recently the defensive coordinator at Connecticut … Furman head coach Bobby Lamb (Furman ’86) is in his first season as head coach with the Paladins and has a record of 3-2 … The SoCon career passing efficiency leader, Lamb spent 16 years as a Paladin assistant after earning league Player of the Year honors in 1985.
GAME NOTES: This will be the first SoCon matchup of the year between first year head coaches … Furman is coming off a 55-28 win at VMI while Western was beaten by ETSU, 27-7, on Sept. 28 … It will be brother against brother as Western NT Jeb Hall is the younger brother of Furman TE coach Ben Hall … Jeb is coming off a career-best 11 tackles against ETSU last week … Ben was an All-SoCon offensive guard in 1999 for the Paladins … Furman has won nine straight at home, 13 consecutive home league games and 18 straight home regular season games … The Paladins have scored first in three straight games … This game will feature the top two pass offenses … Furman averages 260.5 yards per game through the air while the ‘Cats are second in the league at 241.8 … The Paladins also lead the league in total offense at 480yards per game … Furman is the least penalized team in the SoCon (12 for 95 yards) while WCU is the most penalized (48 for 445).

Author