September 6, 2003
CLEMSON HOLDS OFF FURMAN 28-17
CLEMSON, S.C. - Charlie Whitehurst passed for 301 yards and two touchdowns to lead Clemson to a 28-17 win over NCAA I-AA nationally seventh-ranked Furman Saturday in front of 70,000 fans at Memorial Stadium.
The victory marked Clemson's 28th consecutive victory over Furman but proved to more difficult than several recent verdicts over the Paladins, the Tigers' oldest football rival. Trailing 28-7 at intermission, Furman battled back with two scores and shutout Clemson in the second half for its closest loss in the series since a 28-21 setback in 1949.
"I am pleased with the effort of our team," said Furman head coach Bobby Lamb. "We came here to win the game. I'm not going to sugarcoat it all; we came in here to try to win the football game. We felt like we could, and we got a good effort in the second half. If we had gotten some execution in the first half, then there is not telling what would have happened."
"We
didn't underestimate Furman," said Whitehurst, a sophomore from Atlanta, Ga.,
and the son of former Furman and NFL quarterback David Whitehurst. "They played
real hard and made less mistakes than we did. We needed to come out and put
them away in the second half, but we just let them hang around it seemed like."
Whitehurst completed 23-of-31 pass attempts, and connected on a 72-yard strike to Airese Curry in the first quarter to stake the Tigers to a 14-0 lead. In addition, he was credited with a freakish nine-yard touchdown pass to Duane Coleman with less than a minute to go in the first half to stretch the Tigers' advantage to 28-7.
On the play Whitehurst's pass was batted by Furman defensive end Travis Jones and gathered in by Clemson offensive tackle William Henry, who advanced the ball five yards before fumbling at the Furman nine. At that point Coleman scooped up the ball and ran it into the end zone with 41 seconds to go in the half. Coleman's score capped the game's decisive stretch for the Tigers, who earlier took advantage of a Furman fumble to extend their lead to 21-7 lead when J.J. Howard picked up a fumbled option pitch by Furman quarterback Bo Moore and returned it 17 yards for a touchdown at the 4:58 juncture of the second quarter.
After a scoreless third period, Furman made it a 28-14 game with a 12-play, 66-yard drive that ended when Brian Bratton took a quick pitch from Moore and beat the Clemson defense to the corner of the end zone for a three-yard touchdown run at the 12:10 juncture.
After denying the Tigers a first down on the ensuing possession, Furman covered 26 yards on seven plays but on a fourth-and-seven play settled for a 40-yard Danny Marshall field goal with 7:50 remaining in the game to make it 28-17.
"In our game play we were running screen passes and draw plays on third and long situations, and we thought that we really wanted to go ahead and try for the points," added Lamb. "We thought that we could get the points better than we could get the first down because of their strong pass rush and their two ends."
A
Derrick Hamilton 66-yard kickoff return gave Clemson the ball at the Furman
32, but the Paladins' defense stiffened and Clemson's Aaron Hunt missed a 48-yard
field goal with 6:40 to go. Furman, however, couldn't maintain its offensive
momentum after a 13-yard pass from Moore to Bratton gave the Paladins a first
down at their 47.
After losing yardage on first and second down, Moore had to cover a bad snap over his head on third down for a 16-yard loss back to the Furman 25, forcing a punt.
Clemson outgained Clemson 425-174 in total offense, but the Tigers were penalized 11 times for 111 yards in the contest. The Tigers managed only 124 yards on the ground on 40 rushing attempts.
Furman broke a 42-year touchdown scoring drought against Clemson midway through the second quarter when Moore connected with Bratton on a 20-yard scoring strike to cut the Tigers' lead to 14-7. Bratton, who later scored Furman's second touchdown, finished the game with two receptions for 33 yards and a team high 41 rushing yards on 11 carries.
Cedrick Ritter paced Furman's defense with 10 tackles and a sack, and Mike Killian added nine tackles and an interception. Cam Newton also contributed nine stops for the Paladins, and nose guard Michael Burant recorded a career high seven tackles, including two for loss.
Furman is off next Saturday but will return to action on Sept 20 when it hosts Richmond at Paladin Stadium in a 7:00 p.m. game. The Paladins edged the Spiders last year in Richmond, 17-7.
Pictures:
Top: Quarterback Bo Moore
Bottom: Tight End John Rust