A Tale Of Two Coaches

MACON, GA.–Saturday night will be a big night for Mercer football, and a night which will be yet another milestone moment which has seemingly been a couple of years filled with such moments worthy of mention and savoring.

The Bears will play their first Southern Conference game as a program, and fittingly, that matchup comes against the Furman Paladins. When I interviewed former head coach Jerry Moore for a piece I was doing for 247Sports.com, covering Appalachian State, i asked him what is was like the first time he got a taste of the league and the teams in the league.

Moore went on to talk about how when he and his staff got to Boone in the spring prior to his first season as the head coach, which would have been the 1989 season, he said he remembered inviting the other coaches over to his hotel room, and the staff proceeded to break down projector film of Furman, who had won the 1988 national title.

He acknowledged that Furman was the program the Mountaineers wanted to emulate in every way, including little things such as how they warmed up and how practices were designed. Moore would later go on to say that he and former Furman coach Jimmy Satterfield would strike up a good friendship, frequently going on golf outings together during the off-season.

He went on to say that Satterfield was the first person to contact him and congratulate him on his Hall-of-Fame induction into the Southern Conference Hall-of-Fame. It was also a time when the Furman-Appalachian State rivalry would begin to heat up, and towards the latter part of Moore’s career, the Mountaineers had caught up with and even surpassed the team they started out wanting to beat more than any other in the SoCon better than two decades prior.

Moore would later be asked to step down at the end of the 2012 season, which would create an awkward ending to his career in the High Country, although Moore can still be seen from time-to-time at the place where he spent 24 years as a head coach after coming from Texas Tech, where he was fired after four seasons. He spent a year as a volunteer coach at Nebraska before matriculating to Boone.

For Mercer head coach Bobby Lamb and the Mercer Bears, the scenario is in some ways the same, and in some ways opposite rom that of Moore’s. Lamb, who was asked to step down after 29 years at Furman as a player, assistant coach and head coach, would end up landing in his home state in 2011, as he was selected to help Mercer rebuild its dormant football program from the ground up.

From that day, Lamb had a vision, and his vision involved getting back to what he knew, which was life in the Southern Conference as a player, assistant coach and head coach. It was an emotional Friday back in 2010 when Lamb’s life would change forever, and the dominoes began to fall into place for the Commerce, GA native.

Fittingly, in his final act as the head coach in Greenville, the Paladins would face Georgia Southern in a game the Eagles needed to win to make the FCS postseason. It appeared that from the outset the Paladins were going to play the role of spoilers and emerge with a win over one of the Paladins’ most bitter of rivals, as the Paladins would jump out to a 14-0 lead, and got a huge play on the very first play from scrimmage, as Adam Mims hauled in a 71-yard pass for a score from Cody Worley on the game’s first play, giving the Paladins a 7-0 lead.

In the fourth quarter, Furman even led 28-17, but the Eagles, just like the 1985 title game, in which Lamb was the quarterback and led the Paladins to a 28-6 lead before Georgia Southern would storm back for the 44-42 win and the program’s first national title game, as 25 years later, would also steal against the Paladins and a playoff bid, with a 32-28 win.

Furman fans left Paladin Stadium dejected and feeling of having to deal with missing out on yet another postseason. The program was in a clear decline, and it was not clear how the whole scenario had actually gone down, but what was known was Lamb on the Friday before the final game of the regular-season had been asked to step down by Furman Director of Athletics Gary Clark.

The 2010 season was one which had started so promising Lamb and the Paladins, playing toe-to-toe with No. 13 South Carolina in the second week of the campaign, dropping a 38-19 contest.

The previous February, I remember going to Wild Wings in downtown Greenville to the Signing Day party for the Paladins. The coaching staff was as excited about the 2010 class as he had been of any he had brought in as the head coach.

When the Bears take field on Saturday night against the Paladins, some of those same players will be in a Purple and White uniform. Players like Hank McCloud, who didn’t play Furman’s season-opening win, was one of those players and he is slated to start Saturday night.

Lamb’s last signing class featured some talented players, such as Marcus McMorris, Shawn Boone and Gary Wilkins, who are all vital components of Furman’s success last season and potential success this fall. Wilkins, McMorris and McCloud were all All-SoCon picks last season, while Boone claimed All-SoCon Freshman honors in 2010.

In the summer of 2010, it was a hot, early July day when some shocking news came across the wire out of Nashville. Vanderbilt head coach Bobby Johnson retired as the head coach of the Commodores, leaving the Commodores in a bit of a tough situation less than two months out from the season and only a few weeks from the start of drills.

Johnson of course led Furman for nine seasons before leaving for Nashville, posting a 60-36 record as the Furman head coach, while posting a pair of Southern Conference tites and led the Paladins to four FCS playoff appearances.

Some nine years earlier, the Fowler and Lamb’s journey to head coaching jobs would begin. In 2001, Johnson would lead the Paladins all the way to the national title game, where the Paladins would drop a 13-6 decision to Montana in what was the third trip to the national title game for Furman, and first appearance in the title game in 13 years, when the Paladins claimed their only title as a program with a 17-12 win over Georgia Southern.

Robbie Caldwell took over as the interim head coach, and Bruce Fowler would move from defensive coordinator to linebackers coach, as well as assistant head coach, with the knowledge that the Vandy job could be a one-year experiment. Fowler had been Johnson’s defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt. Johnson and Fowler had been in Greenville just the summer before (2009), as Johnson was being inducted into the Furman football Hall-of-Fame.

When Johnson left for Vanderbilt in 2001, Fowler wanted the Furman job, but he was not in the mix as one of the final candidates. Though distraught because of his genuine love for his alma mater, Fowler would join Johnson, who left the door open to join him in Nashville when it was determined he was on the outside looking in when it came to being considered for the Furman head position.

For Fowler, the experience of being a defensive coordinator in the SEC was invaluable and some of his Vanderbilit defenses would produce some considerable results, such as helping the Commodores to a win over a Top 10 foe for the first time in 33 years, when Vanderbilt knocked off No. 6 South Carolina, i7-6 in 2007. It was the highest ranked opponent Vandy had defeated since 1937.

Fast-forward to 2010, and Lamb had the Paladins back in the national rankings, and were ranked No. 25

Adam Mims Had Over 200 Yards Receiving Against South Carolina In 2010

heading into the game against South Carolina. One of the memorable moments of that game with the Gamecocks, who the Paladins will face Oct. 18, was an INT returned for a TD by Shawn Boone, as he made the first big play of his career. The redshirt senior will be a reserve along the defensive line on Saturday night against Mercer and the coach that recruited him out of Lithia, FL.

But as the calendar turned from September to October, the season would head into a downward turn for Lamb and the Paladins, who headed to Wofford for a key Southern Conference showdown with between Furman and Wofford on Oct. 2, 2010, at Gibbs Stadium. The 18th-ranked Paladins were no match for Ayers’ Terriers, who rode the burly shoulders of Eric Breitenstein for 230 rushing yards and four scores to suffer the Paladins’ first Southern Conference loss.

The Paladins would drop to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in league play, thus beginning the tailspin for Furman. With a pair of wins over Howard (56-14) and at Samford (27-10) appeared to have Furman’s season back on track heading into a huge game with Chattanooga on Oct. 23. The Paladins got out of the gates quick against head coach Russ Huesman’s Mocs, who was in his second season coaching his alma mater in the Scenic City.

The Mocs came to Greenville ranked in the Top 25, and Chattanooga had not beaten the Paladins since the 1994 season, which also occurred in Greenville. It certainly didn’t appear that would be the case, as the Paladins held a 28-10 lead with 9:19 remaining in the third quarter, however, the Mocs would begin to turn the game from that point.

The Mocs would begin their unbelievable fourth quarter comeback with a five-yard TD from J.J. Jackson, capping what was an 11-play, 45-yard drive following a 19-yard punt by the Paladins.

With the score 28-17, the Paladins would fumble the ensuing kickoff, and things would begin to unravel for the Paladins, as the Mocs went on for a 36-28 win, handing the Paladins a 36-28 loss. The frustration of that loss would weigh heavily on Lamb and staff, who knew there was no margin for error following the loss to the Mocs, as the Paladins had dropped their third game of the season.

UTC had been dominant in every way on that fall afternoon in Greenville, out-gaining the Paladins, 568-227, in total yards and adding even more salt to the Paladin wounds was a new stadium receiving mark set by Mocs wideout Joel Bradford, who posted 274 receiving yards which accounted for a new Furman opponent record. The previous standard set by a Paladin opponent had been 247 yards set by Nevada’s Ross Ortega in the 1990 Division I-AA Playoffs.

Unfortunately for Lamb, he would likely have his coaching fate sealed somewhere during the final four weeks of the season, and possible as soon as the following week in Boone, as the Paladins faced the top-ranked Mountaineers in a key Southern Conference clash. For Furman, it needed its first win in Boone since 1996 to keep its FCS playoff hopes alive, while the Mountaineers were looking to complete the league slate unbeaten for a third-straight season.

The Mountaineers came into the contest 7-0 overall and 5-0 in Southern Conference play, and came into the contest with 25-straight Southern Conference victories, which dated back to Oct. of 2007, in a loss to Georgia Southern. For the second-straight week, Furman failed to get any kind of consistency on the offensive side of the football, posting just 266 yards of total offense on the day, which was 71 yards fewer than the 337 yards the Paladins came into the contest averaging per game.

The game was tight at the half, with the Paladins trailing just 14-6, however, early in the second half, a Paladin miscue led to the turning point of the game, which allowed the homestanding Mountaineers to gain momentum for good. A botched hand-off between Paladin quarterback Cody Worley and running back Tersoo Uhaa would be scooped up by ASU defensive end Jabari Fletcher and returned 40 yards for a TD.

The loss in Boone dropped Furman to 4-4 on the season and 2-3 in Southern Conference play. Appalachian State continued to provide Furman and Lamb plenty of nightmares, winning a sixth-straight contest–the longest streak in the storied rivalry for the Mountaineers–and Lamb’s record dropped to 1-9 against Appalachian State.

In somewhat of an ironic twist, Lamb’s son Taylor, who ended up being a three-star recruit and Gatorade Player of the Year in Georgia, ended up signing a National Letter of Intent to play for the Mountaineers, and just last week saw his first game action in a loss at Michigan, leading the Mountaineers on a 96-yard drive in the loss, which included completing 5-of-9 passes during the impressive drive.

With the strength of the Southern Conference, however, there was a chance that winning out against Western Carolina, at Elon and vs. Georgia Southern could yield an at-large playoff invite. The Paladins would get past Western Carolina, with a 31-17 win over the Catamounts. Lamb had made a change under center, and it seemed to have worked, as Dakota Derrick accounted for 193 yards of total offense and a TD in what was his first collegiate start.

The Paladins headed to Elon to take on a Phoenix team, which was projected to do some big thigs in the SoCon, however, got off to a 1-5 start and never recovered. But Elon still had quarteback Scott Riddle, who was the SoCon’s all-time leading passer and as a freshman, set a Southern Conference single-game passing mark against the Paladins, throwing for 542 yards in a loss at Paladin Stadium.

Lamb would call on Derrick once again, however, the young signal-caller would struggle early on in the contest, and the Paladins fell behind 14-3 before Cody Worley was inserted into the lineup.

Derrick had looked good on the opening drive of the football game, however, Elon responded with 14 unanswered points and the offense once again looked shaky. Furman opened with a 13-play, 78-yard drive, settling for a 22-yard field from Ray Early.

Elon would eventually take a 17-10 to the break, and would increase its advantage to 24-10 heading into the final quarter. Worley would cap a six-play, 61-yard drive with a 16-yard scoring pass to wideout Ryan Culbreath with a little over 11 minutes to play, making it a 24-17 game. Then, Furman would add a safety when Shawn Boone tackled Elon running back Brandon Newsome in the end zone, making it a 24-19 contest with about 10 minutes left.

On the ensuing possession following the safety, Furman would actually take a 25-24 lead on a Tersoo Uhaa short scoring plunge with 8:57 left, while the two point conversion attempt failed.

But the Phoenix would put together what proved to be the game-winning drive, as Elon drove 70 yards in eight plays, as A.J. Harris found paydirt around the right side, making it a 30-25 game with 5:21 left, but the two-point conversion failed to leave the Phoenix with just a five-point edge.

The Paladins had one more chance, but Worley’s hail mary fell incomplete and Furman’s playoff hopes were dashed. Elon would out-gain the Paladins, 430-313, in total offense in the contest.

The news about Bobby Lamb and his resignation would come down on Nov. 19, 2010, following a meeting with Furman Director of Athletics Gary Clark and former Furman President Rod Smolla. Here is what Lamb had to say in his own words. He finished with a 67-40 record as a head coach in Greenville.

“I am resigning my position as head football coach at my school tomorrow (Saturday),” said Lamb.

“Since walking on this campus as a freshman in 1982, it has indeed been an honor beyond measure to play with the finest teammates and for a model head coach; work alongside coaches of impeccable character, integrity, and ability; and recruit and direct the most outstanding players, students, and young men any coach, at any level of this great sport, could possibly seek. I have been truly blessed, and for that I am eternally grateful.

“The last few years have been very difficult for me, for my staff, our families, our players, and the many loyal fans who love Furman football. We have not won as many games as we had certainly hoped to win, but it is not for lack of effort, especially those of our coaches and players. I am very proud of our accomplishments, both on and off the field, and the manner in which we attained them.

“Furman football has enjoyed many great moments, a number of which I have been fortunate to experience as a player, assistant coach, and head coach over the past 29 years. I’m confident that with new direction, supported by a renewed commitment to competitiveness and excellence from the university, Paladin football will again experience many more bright moments, which this great football program so richly deserves.”

Lamb conducted himself with the type of class he always had during his career as a Paladin, player, assistant and head coach. The Paladins would go on to lose the regular-season finale, with a 32-28 loss to Georgia Southern, as the Paladins finished 5-6–the first losing season for the program in 12 seasons.

The last couple of seasons under Lamb’s leadership, there was a clear decline in recruiting, but not in effort. The disconnect might have been in getting the players the Lamb and staff wanted because of some of the unrelenting and rising academic requirements.

It’s hard to say what went on, or how it all went down, but I would venture to say that the responsibility to win football games falls at the feet of the head coach, however, I think it was more that Lamb was feeling the stress and getting burned out more than anything else. The reason Lamb was fired was not because he was a bad football coach, but rather because the program kind of plateaued off.

Personally, I feel Lamb could have potentially been given more in the way of facilities upgrades etc to help the program and maybe some lee-way when it came to academics, however, despite all that, it was still the responsibility to maintain Furman’s level of excellence and winning. Missing the playoffs for five-straight seasons and not even sniffing a conference title at a place that had won more than any other school probably spelled his demise more than anything.

I don’t think it was a question of effort, but sometimes too much effort can be a bad thing, and I think Lamb tried to do everything he could to save the ship, but the more he did, the more Furman got away from the familiar.

Granted, I don’t know much about football and X’s and O’s, but it was clear Furman had a different identity on both sides of the ball than earlier in Lamb’s  career when he and Furman had experienced so much success. But it wasn’t as if he just sat back and let the program go into decline like is the case at some programs, but a lot of different problems were going on simultaneously, and I think it would have been tough for any coach in Lamb’s situation. But that’s my opinion of it, and it could be totally off-base, but it’s the way I perceived it with what I knew about those last few years.

Change is not always as bad most of us think it is, but I can understand how someone wouldn’t exactly be ready to send Christmas cards and candy to a place that told him they were ready to move on after he had spent nearly three decades as a player, assistant and head coach, helping build Furman into the Southern Conference power that it remains to this day.

Ultimately, I believe that sometimes situations are easier to see and understand the further removed from the situation we become, but I also think when you love anything–it could be a person, place or job–and it is taken from you suddenly, or that person breaks up with you, it’s a harsh reality and realization and every human being on earth has experienced that unfortunate emotion, but one day down the road, it’s much easier to see why a thing happened.

It progression that happens out of man’s control no matter how much we try to control what happens to us, we cannot (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8), as an order or timing exists beyond what we can actively touch or effect, but when something happens, we think we could have controlled that event or thing that happened to us to makes us mad or we feel wronged, however, ultimately, it’s only in the moments closest to that event that seem that we could have controlled those circumstances. But when we find a new exciting adventure, we see the order and complete picture of the invisible hand that we can’t control, directing us in some sort of chaotic order that only it sees and has perspective of in the moment.

But back to the subject matter. Furman needed to make itself an attractive place for a coach to come and want to coach. There was a national search conducted, but one of the old names remained as a leading candidate, in Bruce Fowler. The former Paladin defensive coordinator had left for Vanderbilt with Bobby Johnson where he coached eight seasons before taking a year off.

On Dec. 13, 2010, Current Furman Head Coach Bruce Fowler Was Hired As The 22nd Head Coach of the Football Program

On Dec. 13, 2010, Bruce Fowler would be hired as the Furman head football coach, and he would chosen for the job over former William & Mary defensive coordinator and current defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt Bob Shoop, current Alabama offensive assistant Billy Napier and current Clemson Offensive Line coach Robbie Caldwell.

Fowler’s first season would be in 2011, as he would return a good amount of talent, and the

Paladins would surprise many, knocking off No. 5 Wofford (26-21) and No. 3 Appalachian State (20-10), which help Furman rise as high as No. 17 in the FCS polls in Fowler’s first season as the head coach of his alma mater.

Furman would be led by a veteran unit on both sides of the football in 2011, with senior speedster Chris Forcier under center, as the Paladins continued to run the spread offense in Fowler’s first season in order to play to Forcier’s strengths, which was his tremendous speed.

In an early-season clash with Presbyterian, Forcier and the Paladin was on display for all to see, as the Paladins would down the Blue Hose, 65-21, in Greenville, as Forcier tied a Southern Conference mark and set a new Furman record, with seven TD passes in the lopsided win.

A home loss to Samford was a disappointing way to begin Southern Conference play, but it would be a day that would see Forcier tied the school’s all-time mark for passing yards, completing the contest with 356 passing yards.

After a 50-20 loss to Georgia Southern–the most lopsided loss in the history of the series–the Paladins headed into the final portion of the schedule with plenty of challenges remaining yet on the slate, including games against Top five foes, in Wofford and Appalachian State, as well as a game remaining at Chattanooga, and at SEC East member Florida.

The Paladins would return home to face Wofford on Oct. 22, and at a time when confidence should have been low after having lost to a team that ran a similar offense by 30 points a week earlier, head coach Bruce Fowler managed to help resurrect the fight in his Paladin football team in the game against arch-rival Wofford–a team that handed Furman a 34-17 loss a year earlier.

But the Paladins would come to life, especially on the defensive side of the football and on offense, were powered by a strong ground attack, which saw Jerodis Williams rush for 155 yards in the win. Meanwhile, the Paladins would also get the job done on the defensive side of the football, holding a Wofford ground game that came into the contest averaging 353 yards to just 284 total ground yards in the contest.

The win improved the Paladins to 4-3 overall and 3-2 in Southern Conference play, and more importantly, remained alive in the race for an at-large playoff bid. The loss marked the first in Southern Conference play for the Terriers, who dropped to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the SoCon.

The next week offered a different test for Fowler and the Paladins, who would be on the road in the Scenic City, as Fowler faced off against his old friend, Russ Huesman, who had the Chattanooga Mocs a talented force once again in the Southern Conference. The Mocs had nearly beaten Georgia Southern in Statesboro, and that was without All-America starting quarterback B.J. Coleman, who went out with a shoulder injury early in the contest.

Both teams entered the contest fighting for a playoff bid, with the Mocs entertaining slim hopes of keeping dwindling playoff hopes alive with a win over Fowler’s Paladins.

Over the next 60 minutes, the Paladins would put together a defensive effort reminiscent of some of those good old fashioned Paladin games back in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, as Fowler’s Paladins held the Mocs to just 169 yards total offense, including just three passing yards, as the Paladins won a second-straight game, with a 14-7 win over the Mocs.

The Mocs were again without Coleman, and the Furman defense swarmed UTC starter Terrell Robinson all day, and in particular, linebacker Mitch McGrath, as he garnered Sports Network National Defensive Player of the Week honors, after posting nine tackles, four sacks, a fumble caused, a fumble recovery and an INT, in what was one of the more memorable performances by an individual defensive player in the history of Furman football. The six sacks for the Paladins were the most by a Furman team since 2001.

Furman returned home to face No. 3 Appalachian State, and a win over the Mountaineers would get the Paladins one step closer to the postseason, but more importantly, halt a series record six-game winning streak by the Apps.

The Paladins and Fowler would once again have the right recipe for success, as the Paladins would come up with a 20-10 win over the Mountaineers, and with two wins over top five foes in the regular season for the first time in program history. The Paladins would ascend to No. 17 in the Sports Network poll, heading into the regular-season Southern Conference finale against Elon.

Elon had been a thorn in the side of the Paladins since the Paladins last defeated them in 2007, and had knocked the Paladins from the postseason in Lamb’s final season as head coach. The exact same thing would happen in Fowler’s first season at the helm in 2011, as the Phoenix came to Greenville and stunned the Paladins, getting a 42-31 win.

The loss, which dropped the Paladins to 5-4 overall and 5-3 in Southern Conference play proved to be a devastating loss for the Paladins, as it meant Furman needed to beat FBS and SEC East member Florida to make the FCS playoff field, and even a win in that game would only give the Paladins the remotest of chances of making the postseason.

The Paladins would finish out Fowler’s first season in charge with a valiant effort in Gainesville, FL, as the Paladins would jump out to a 22-7 lead before eventually succumbing to the FBS Gators, 54-32.

The 24th-ranked Paladins weren’t reeling from the loss to Elon, but instead came out hitting on all cylinders, desperately trying to make their first FCS postseason appearance since the 2006 season, including trick plays, which saw tight end Colin Anderson toss a 47-yard scoring pass to senior wideout Sederrik Cunningham, which proved to be the first of his career. The Paladins racked up 446 yards against the Gators’ defense, including 233 yards on the ground.

Forcier set a new single-season mark for TDs by a Paladin quarterback, as his 31-yard scoring strike to David Hendrix gave the Paladins an early 15-0 lead, gave him 23 scoring passes for the season.

More evidence of the return of Fowler and the dedication to the Paladin ground game can be found with the numbers put up by Jerodis Williams, who rushed for 1,055 yards on the season, became the first Paladin to rush for 1,000 yards in a campaign since Hindley Brigham in 2003.

Williams’ 2011 rushing total was 666 yards more than the 389 yards, which he amassed in Lamb’s final season as the head coach in 2010. The 389 yards rushing in 2010 was the lowest total for a leading Paladin rusher since 1958, when Hicky Horton led the Paladins with 381 rushing yards.

The Paladins would finish the season with a 6-5 record and a 5-3 mark in Southern Conference play, which was good enough for a fourth-place finish in the league after having been predicted to finish sixth at the league’s preseaosn media outing. It was an improvement over the 5-6, 3-5 marks the Paladins posted in 2010.

While Fowler had renewed some optimism in Greenville, Lamb had already started putting the pieces together to build a football program in Macon, hired on Jan. 20, 2011 as the man to head up the Mercer football program.

On Jan. 21, 2011, Bobby Lamb Would Become The Man Selected To Resurrect Mercer’s Football Program After A 72-year Hiatus. He Officially Was Installed As The 19th Head Coach Of The Program On July 1, 2011

Lamb, who was born in Augusta, GA, and grew up in Commerce, GA, was offered a unique

opportunity when hired at Mercer, and a chance that few football coaches ever get the opportunity to do, which is build an entire football program from the ground up. Lamb certainly had the background, and his success and his familiarity with a program that had a high academic standard, and one at the same time, was serious about remaining competitve on the gridiron. Also attractive to the Mercer administration was the fact that Lamb had posted success as a player, assistant and head coach during his time in Greenville. Though hired on Jan. 20, 2011, his status as the head coach wouldn’t be official until July 1, 2011.

“Bobby Lamb embodies the goals and direction we set for the reinstatement of football at Mercer University,” President William D. Underwood said. “His track record in recruiting and coaching young men who are serious student-athletes is well established. He brings the kind of integrity and character that will mold young men into leaders.”

Lamb would hit the ground running in Macon, and the original plan for Mercer was to play non-scholarship football, while considering making the jump to scholarship football in the future, but it wouldn’t take much convincing to vote to move to scholarship football quicker than anyone, including maybe Lamb himself, would have foreseen.

Perhaps one of the deciding factors was where Lamb had come from–the Southern Conference- and the fluidity of Division I football at the time–because it was a window of opportunity that would have been hard for Mercer to pass up, especially if Georgia Southern and Appalachian State were indeed going to leave the Southern Conference, which had become one of the important talking points in Macon, and there were as many folks as interested in the final decision by each of the two programs in the “478” as there were in Boone or Statesboro.

The other good thing about the rumors, which appeared to be strong ones that both of the aforementioned SoCon powerhouses were on the move, is it gave time for Mercer to fully commit to an already impressive facilities upgrade, which already included a state-of-the-art basketball arena–Hawkins Arena–which opened in 2006.

Lamb seemed to almost see that the timing was right, and that Mercer felt like the right fit with the following statement on that exciting day for he and his family back in 2011. “God has provided this tremendous opportunity for me to assist in the reinstatement of football at Mercer. I look forward to leading Mercer football to the top.”

Lamb was getting the kind of support and enthusiasm and support he had requested during his time at Furman. But Lamb also seemed excited to be at Mercer, and the last few years at Furman, it appeared the stress of the job was wearing on him, and though he might not admit it, what happened at Furman might have been the best thing for his well-being as a person and for his health. Sometimes we can’t see our own best interests, but the man upstairs always sees what we can’t.

Meanwhile, coming off an exciting 2011 season, which yielded a pair of wins over top five foes, left Furman fans with optimism and an expectation of excellence that they had lost in the latter years of Lamb’s tenure at Furman.

When Fowler took over, one of the biggest thing the veteran coach and former Paladin defensive back had to address was the program’s obvious identity crisis. Fowler would begin building the foundation back on the same tenants which Dick Sheridan, Jimmy Satterfield and Bobby Johnson had once worked so hard to instill, which were a power running game and a stout defense.

No doubt Furman did some amazing things offensively under Lamb, especially when it came to putting up some record-setting campaigns offensively, which included the 2005 Paladins, which set a program record for total offensive average in a single-season (470.0 YPG).

Lamb had also presided over two of the top five passers in school history, and three if you count the final season with Billy Napier leading the Furman offense. In fact, Lamb had found Ingle Martin, who passed for 5,751 yards and a program career-tying mark of 42 TDs in just two years as the Paladin signal-caller.

Jordan Sorrells, who quarterbacked the Paladins from 2006-09 and is now the Furman Director of Football Operations, is the program’s all-time leading passer, having thrown for 6,278 yards and 42 TDs. Sorrells certainly benefitted from the Paladins’ change to the no-huddle, spread offense prior to the 2009 season.

The change signaled that Lamb was feeling the heat after a pair of unsuccessful 2007 and ‘08 seasons, which saw the Paladins miss out on the playoffs in both campaigns, which was particularly disheartening for the Paladin faithful in 2008 after Furman started with wins over No. 21 Colgate (42-21) and No. 3 Delaware (23-21). A home loss to Georgia Southern (17-10) and a road loss at Wofford (35-10) to close the ‘08 season kept the Paladins out of the postseason.

The switch to the spread saw the Paladins increase their yardage total by 11 yards and point total by five points, which were obviously both positives, however, it the 431.3 YPG and 31.5 PPG on the defensive side of the football that had fans concerned. The 431 yards were the most yards given up by a Furman defense since stats began being kept in 1973, while the 31.5 points surrendered per game were the second-most given up by a Paladin defense, bested only by the 2007 club, which gave up 31.8 PPG.

Somewhere along the way, Furman had lost its identity, which Lamb had kept intact early in his career in Greenville. Remember how dominant the 2003 and ‘04 defenses were for the Paladins? Those were two of the best in the history of the program. And what about the running game, which saw the Paladins post a 1,000-yard rusher in ‘03, in Hindley Brigham, and the Paladins had a quartet as good as any in 2004 and ‘05, with Daric Carter, Brandon Mays, Jerome Felton and Cedrick Gipson sharing the rushing load.

However, slowly but surely, the Paladins saw a change after Jerome Felton graduated, the Paladins shifted away from a physical running game, and after the ‘04 season, the Paladins were suspect on the defensive side of the ball in five of Lamb’s final six seasons, with the only exception being the 2006 defense, which largely responsible for the Paladins getting to the postseason in that particular season, surrendering just 296 yards per game and 21 points per game.

The defensive woes had become frustrating over the years to many who followed the program, which had been used to seeing those physical defenses under Johnson, Satterfield and Sheridan. Furman seemed to have lost its swagger in a four-year period from 2007-10, which might have something to do with the rise in academic standards during that particular period, handcuffing the recruiting efforts of Lamb.

Fowler had to re-instill that mentality and personality back to the program. It’s not to say that Lamb’s particular way of winning football games, with a high-octane offense and a defense that was opportunistic and took chances can’t be successful, it’s just didn’t work out at Furman. However, it might be the right recipe in Macon and it certainly saw the Bears successful in 2013, as the Bears ran an un-conventional offense (the Pistol) with plenty of success.

With the age of switching to the latest offensive craze, Furman has gotten back to principles that had made it so successful in the late 1970s through the early 1990s, which was the Paladins’ original run of tremendous success, which Lamb and Fowler both played a major role in.

The 2012 season certainly would be a forgettable one for Fowler and staff, and as had been the case with Lamb, fans didn’t hesitate to throw their opinions about Fowler and his coaching style into the mix. Some even calling for him to be removed after the 3-8 season, which included just a 2-6 record in SoCon play. Positives in a 3-8 season are usually missed until refelction a couple of years down the road and after a successful run.

Consider this. The Paladins brought in Jimmy Lindsey to coach the defensive line, and slowly but surely, he began to mold the Paladin defensive line into one of the most athletic and dominant in the FCS, which Gardner-Webb found out about last Saturday night. For the first time since the late 1980s and early ‘90s, the Paladins were regularly getting pressure with the front four. Furman also found a QB, in a young Reese Hannon in 2012.

But the negatives seem to always out-weigh the positives–even at a place like Furman ,where the fan base is not near as large or outspoken as it is at a place like say Clemson, Georgia or even Appalachian State, however, at a place that has experienced success like Furman has, there’s always a microscope and a standard which has been set.

In some ways, Lamb was the victim of the program he helped build, and that’s sometimes the sad part about college football. When a coach spends 29 years at one place and one that wins 12 SoCon titles, in which the coach had a hand in as a player, assistant and head coach, fans, alumni and administration sometimes lose sight of that, especially a group of new fans or a new administration not as familiar with the Paladin football tradition.

The same was likely true for Fowler after that 2012 season, with many fans saying that Furman’s brand in the late 1980s and early ‘90s couldn’t work today because of the evolution of the game and its athletes. Some in the media even went as far as to say Furman ran a “1950s offense.” But steady, disciplined and staying the course, and doing what he believed in have always been characteristics to describe Fowler, as well as his mentor, Johnson.

Furman’s three wins in 2012, which came against Presbyterian (31-21), Western Carolina (45-24) and Elon (31-17), were against teams that finished the season with a combined 6-27 overall record. Furman finished with its worst home record (1-4) in the 31 seasons that Paladin Stadium has played host to Furman football games.

Meanwhile, Mercer would sign its first recruiting class in February of 2012, signing players like quarterback John Russ, WR J.T. Palmer, RB Peyton Usher and LB Ty Ward all signed as a part of that non-scholarship class back in 2012.
Lamb would also begin to assemble his coaching staff in the spring of 2012, bringing in Casey Vogt (O-Line Coach/Offensive Coordinator) from Colgate as one of his very first hires, and then Mike Kolakowski (Defensive coordinator) and Justin Brown (Defensive Line Coach 2013/Team Chaplain 2014). Brown now serves as the team chaplain after serving as the defensive line coach in 2013.

It would be a staff that would serve Lamb well in his first season as the head coach, as the Bears would do something no other start-up program had done, which is win 10 games.

Schedule setting was also something that would be put together in the spring and summer of 2012, and the spring would also begin tryouts for walk-on players. The decision to put a plan together to join the Southern Conference was also formulated in the spring of 2012, and the clear aim was the Southern Conference, with the Big South also a target should the SoCon plans fall through. But the goal and vision all along was the SoCon.

A second signing class in Feb of 2013, and a month later commenced the first spring practice, and the Bears staff began to evaluate talent and install the offense and defense to ready themselves for their first football season.

And what a season it would turn out to be for Lamb and the Bears, who claimed a thrilling 40-37 in the very first game in school history against Reinhardt on a game-winning field goal from senior Josh Shutter.

The Bears would out-score Warner and Berry 104-0 over the next two weeks before preparing for their first conference matchup in the Pioneer League against Drake. The Bulldogs would fall victim to an opportunistic Bears club, which forced an astounding seven turnovers, including an Alex Avant TD returned 34 yards for a score, in which he ran about 70 yards total on the play, completing the unbelievable score, making SportsCenter’s Top Play in the process.

At 4-0, the Bears headed to perennial Pioneer power San Diego, who illegally played with scholarship players in a non-scholarship league, and defeated the Bears, 45-13. The Bears would four more in a row over Carnegie Mellon (54-21), Campbell (38-31), Davidson (51-26) and Jacksonville (45-42) before the Bears suffered their only other loss of the season, which was a 33-7 loss at Marist, in which was the lowest scoring output of the season for Lamb’s high-octane Bears.

The record-setting 10th win for the Bears came in the regular-season finale came against Stetson in Macon, with the Bears dominant in a 41-14 win. The 10th win was the most ever by a

Meanwhile, in Greenville, Furman’ s season didn’t start much better than the 2012 season ended, as Fowler’s third season in the Upstate got off to an inauspicious start, and it seemed far from a campaign that would end with a 13th Southern Conference title, as the Paladins would get off to an 0-2 start.

The Paladins had a revolving door at quarterback during the 2013 season, with five as many as five quarterbacks playing for the Paladins during the 2013 season, including starting a true freshman under center for the first time. After starting league play 0-2, the Paladins turned around to win the Southern Conference title–a 13th crown, which was unprecedented and the most in program history.

It was one of the more remarkable coaching jobs by Fowler and staff, and it was a testament to the positive nature of the program, and the atmosphere promoted by Fowler and staff. With the adjustments that had to made, coupled with the fact that Furman had 46 freshmen in 2013, Furman came out of nowhere to win the league title.

Wins over Appalachian State and Georgia Southern in the same season happened for only the second time in program history, and for the first time since 1996.

Fowler’s influence was evident last season, as the Paladins forced 29 turnovers, which included six turned directly into scores . The Paladins had a tough, hard-nosed mentality, which helped them finish 8-6–the most wins since 2006, and the Paladins 30-20 win over SC State was the first since 2005, when the Paladins won at Richmond.

In conclusion, the personalities of each coach fit the respective program which they are now currently at the helm of. But both Fowler and Lamb have played a huge role in building what Furman is today, which a Southern Conference power.

The Paladins have won more league titles than any program (13) past or present, and are the only remaining league member with a national title. Lamb and Fowler had a hand in all three title appearances, one national title and were present for 12 of 13 Southern Conference championships, making Saturday’s matchup even more intriguing.

It’s a touchy subject when talking about the whole situation, however, the one thing that is known about both men is they are men of great character, humility and two coaches that run their respective programs the right way, and oh yeah, two of the best coaches in the FCS.

I maintain a good relationship with both men and I consider both friends. In the media, maybe we aren’t supposed to admit that, but these are two coaches I grew up watching hone their skills in their profession, as well as men of character, perfected their craft enough to carve out successful careers. If I ever have a son that plays football, it would be an honor for either to recruit him.

In the end, that’s all that matters, wins and losses are secondary but the effect they have on young people’s lives is why college football coaches should be praised. For all the bad things that go on and we hear about in the media concerning head coaches, Lamb and Fowler shine as beacons to what college coaches should about, rather than the stories we often hear at big programs like Alabama and Arkansas.

Saturday evening offers a chance to see two great coaches that emerged from one program, with now one trying to build a program to beat the power he helped create. It makes for an intriguing rivalry in the years to come. Stay tuned for a complete preview of the matchup on SaturdayBlitz.com tomorrow.