Coming off a 37-20 victory over Marshall, the NC State football team returns to Carter-Finley Stadium to take on the Furman Paladins at 12:20 on Saturday afternoon.
The Paladins play in the Southern Conference of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
Furman has a brand new coach and is off to an 0-2 start this year, but both losses have been nailbiters. They lost to No. 9 (FCS) Wofford 24-23 after missing a 2-point conversion with 46 seconds left. Last week, the Paladins lost 34-31 against Elon after the Phoenix made a field goal with five seconds left.
Furman’s head coach is Clay Hendrix, who played for Furman in the 1980s. Hendrix is in his first year leading the Paladins. Current NC State assistant and Furman alum, Des Kitchings, was offered the head coaching position at Furman during the offseason and appeared to take it, before reversing course and returning to the Pack.
The Paladins balanced offensive attack is led by senior P.J. Blazejowski behind center who has only completed 18 passes through two games, but has 362 yards. He has also shown the ability to be a dual threat quarterback, with 103 rushing yards so far. As a team, the Paladins average 208.5 yards on the ground, led by redshirt freshman Darius Morehead. Sophomore Thomas Gordon has been Blazejowski’s top target through the air so far.
Defensively, redshirt senior linebacker Adekunle Olusanya and redshirt sophomore bandit Chris Washington are tied for the team lead with 21 tackles. They have five sacks so far as a team, have recorded one interception and recovered one fumble.
As many teams with new coaches are, Furman is extremely young across the board. Fifteen freshmen are on the two-deep depth chart, to go along with 11 sophomores, 10 juniors and eight seniors.
The defense in particular is young, as Olusanya is the only senior who starts. The youth has shown, as they are allowing nearly 400 yards per game, but have managed to hold opponents to 29 points per game.
For the Paladins to be successful on Saturday, their rush defense will need to take strides from the first two games. If the Pack is moving the ball on the ground, it will be tough for Furman to get off the field on defense, because State is extremely dangerous moving the ball through the air. Offensively, Furman needs to continue to take care of the ball, only two turnovers through two games, and give Blazejowski manageable third downs where he can make plays with his feet or his arm.
The Paladins’ biggest advantage is throwing the ball downfield, which is something the Pack has struggled with. Blazejowski averages 20 yards per catch made, while Gordon averages 28.9 yards per catch. This is a duo that the Pack will have to contain, after they allowed a stadium record for yards in a game for a wide receiver last week.
The last time these two teams met was in 1985, and Furman defeated the Pack 42-20, after also winning the previous year 34-30. Surprisingly, Furman leads the all-time series with eight wins in 16 games, but there have been four ties and only four wins for the Pack. Furman holds an impressive 7-2-1 record when the two teams play in Raleigh.
