During my senior year at Furman, we made announcements through a pre-recorded bit called Tuesday Update. In addition to blurbs about progressive dinners and mission trips, we started making predictions for the upcoming football game. I continued to write blog posts previewing the match ups for the Fighting Football Paladins for years after that. But over time, I eventually dropped the practice.
Well, you can totally call it a comeback because I'm going to try to resurrect the practice. Two rules: No predictions (it's a fool's errand) and keep it short (because otherwise I will ramble on and on). So here we go.
The Game: #5 Coastal Carolina at Furman
Last Week: Furman finished the 2014 season with a 3-9 record.
Are We Any Good? I have no idea. Probably? Better than 3-9. Two years ago, Furman made a surprise run at the Southern Conference championship. Last year was so injury plagued that it is really hard to get an idea of what kind of team we had. Role players that were out most of the season are back. So...I still don't know. That's why they play the games.
Opposing Team's Mascot: The Chanticleer, a rooster best known for its appearance in Chaucer's The Nun's Priest's Tale which is one of the Canterbury Tales. The Chanticleer goes toe to toe with a fox, both the chicken and the fox make errors of pride, and we all learn, per Wikipedia, "to be careful of reckless decisions and of truste on flaterye." Ah, olde English spellings.
Suggested Hashtag: #kickcanterburytail
Et cetera: This is probably the last time Furman will play Coastal for some time (Correction: the two teams will play each other one more time next year in Conway) as it was recently announced that the Chanticleers are making the jump to Division I FBS and the Sun Belt Conference after next season where they will compete for the opportunity to play bowl games in Mobile, AL. Coastal is rightfully favored but Furman did beat the last two teams that found themselves humming the theme to The Jeffersons (Appalachian State and Georgia Southern in 2013).
Anything else? Go Paladins!