For the fourth time in Presbyterian College football history and third since the turn of the millennium, a 12-game regular season slate will be mapped out for the Blue Hose as opposed to the traditional 11. Beginning on Thursday, August 29, head coach Steve Englehart’s third season at PC will entail six home and road contests each.
Continuing their affiliation with the Pioneer Football League, Presbyterian will look to build off a three-win improvement from ’22 to ’23 with a standard eight-game league path starting on September 28.
“We are very excited about our 2024 schedule as we continue to build this program”, remarked Englehart upon the schedule’s release, heading into his third season in Clinton and 14th as a head coach overall. “Playing 12 games will be something new to this team, and we’re also excited to have half of those games at Bailey Memorial Stadium”.
“Similar to the last two years, we’ll begin the season with a big challenge as we travel to Georgia on a Thursday night to play Mercer. Another great opportunity for our program will come in our first conference game as we host Davidson”.
“The PFL is a great conference that is filled with talented players and coaches, and we look forward to the challenge that lies ahead. We’re eager to take another step upward and work on improving with each passing season.”
Presbyterian produced its first two league wins last fall over Dayton (in overtime) and Morehead State in the season-closing contest. Prior to that, the Blue Hose took down in-state rival Wofford with some late-game heroics, solidifying the first time in history that any university from the PFL defeated a member of the Southern Conference.
OPENING DAY + SEPTEMBER
- Team number 112 in PC history will pull back the curtain on their fall slate by traveling to Mercer on August 29. The Bears authored a 6-2 SoCon record last season while earning the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA FCS Playoffs.
- In the postseason, Mercer took down Big South champion Gardner-Webb (another one of Presby’s upcoming adversaries) by a 17-7 final tally, going on to lose in the next round opposite number one overall seed South Dakota State on the road.
- The season-opener in Macon will be the 16th all-time meeting between the two programs, although the first since PC joined the Pioneer Football League.
- Coach Englehart’s crew will stick to Saturday’s from then on, remaining on the road in Week 2 to face Palmetto State opponent Erskine on September 7. The Blue Hose have dominated the Flying Fleet more often than not, winning 29 of their 32 matchups against them and each of their last 10 in the series.
- The rest of September will feature three straight home clashes for the Scotsmen, the first time since 2019 that they’ll have that luxury. Virginia-Lynchburg will start that streak on September 14, a group that has been vanquished by Englehart in each of the last two years (including a 48-17 pummeling last fall).
- Gardner-Webb will then enter Bailey Memorial on September 21 for the non-conference finale, revisiting a former annual matchup back when both schools shared the same league. They’ve met on 43 prior occasions, with the Runnin’ Bulldogs offering up a 7-5 mark from the ’23 campaign.
- PC will put a bow on their three-game home sequence in the PFL opener when longtime rival Davidson comes knocking. Kicking off on September 28, spectators in Clinton will witness the next chapter in the “Carolina Border Clash”, the Battle for the 1919 Cup which spans back nearly 100 years.
OCTOBER
- Now at the midway point of a 10-game sequence without a BYE, Presbyterian will venture across the nation for their first PFL road outing against San Diego on October 5. Only the third time that PC will compete in the state of California, they’ll search for their first win in a brief history with the Toreros.
- PC will continue its second and final stretch of back-to-back road features by heading to Morehead State on October 12, another infant series that is currently tied at two games apiece after the Blue Hose picked up the aforementioned 31-27 thriller last November.
- Coach E’s gang returns to Bailey Memorial for the fourth time on the 19th for only the third-ever encounter against reigning Pioneer League champion Drake. The Bulldogs ran the table last season by going 8-0 in conference territory, although the closest of all those meetings came against PC, a 16-14 result in Des Moines during the penultimate week of the calendar.
- Drake will make its first-ever appearance in Clinton on that afternoon, a fact that they’ll share with Butler who will later make the trip in game number 12.
- Presbyterian finishes the month of October by traveling south to Stetson on the 26th, denoting the 15th all-time affair against the Hatters and seventh from the site of DeLand.
NOVEMBER
- Winning over Dayton with a go-ahead OT field goal in the middle of last fall, the Blue Hose will host the Flyers on the second day of November for their second-to-last home appearance. That brings them to the BYE with 10 games already passed, mirroring 2022 in that regard.
- After the hard-earned rest period, PC will go to Poughkeepsie to battle Marist on November 16, hoping to get the better of the Red Foxes for the first time in another still-young series.
- Beginning the PFL schedule against Butler last year in Indianapolis, Presby will get the exact opposite this time by closing the season against that same Bulldog adversary. Competing five days before Thanksgiving, PC’s Senior Day will coincide with their second-ever contest versus a squad that picked up seven W’s a year ago.
THREE-PLUS DECADES OF THE PFL
- The 2024 season marks the 32nd year for the Pioneer Football League – the nation's only non-scholarship, football-only NCAA Football Championship Subdivision conference. The winner of the PFL regular-season title earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I FCS playoffs.
2024 PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
| Date | Opponent | Series History |
| Aug. 29 | at Mercer | 16th Meeting; Mercer Leads 10-5 |
| Sept. 7 | at Erskine | 33rd Meeting; PC Leads 29-2-1 |
| Sept. 14 | Virginia-Lynchburg | 3rd Meeting; PC Leads 2-0 |
| Sept. 21 | Gardner-Webb | 44th Meeting; Gardner-Webb Leads 23-20 |
| Sept. 28 | Davidson* | 35th Meeting; Davidson Leads 18-14-2 |
| Oct. 5 | at San Diego* | 5th Meeting; San Diego Leads 4-0 |
| Oct. 12 | at Morehead State* | 5th Meeting; Series Tied at 2-2 |
| Oct. 19 | Drake* | 3rd Meeting; Series Tied at 1-1 |
| Oct. 26 | at Stetson* | 15th Meeting; PC Leads 9-3-2 |
| Nov. 2 | Dayton* | 4th Meeting; Dayton Leads 2-1 |
| Nov. 16 | at Marist* | 4th Meeting; Marist Leads 3-0 |
| Nov. 23 | Butler* | 2nd Meeting; Butler Leads 1-0 |
A LETTER here.
The way we see it here.
Newberry's Schedule here.
Anchored by a three-touchdown performance from incoming sophomore quarterback Collin Hurst (two passing TD’s along with another of the rushing variety), the Presbyterian College football team’s blue squad outlasted a feisty white-clad unit by a 21-19 final tally under the lights of Bailey Memorial Stadium on Friday.
In a strong candidate for the most gripping Spring contest that the Blue Hose have showcased, head coach Steve Englehart (awaiting year three at the helm) engineered a 48-minute contest that stayed within a 14-point window from start to finish.
Ahead by eight going into the abbreviated 4th quarter while seeing that margin trimmed further, Team Blue preserved the victory by blocking a Team White field goal attempt with 4:12 on the clock, a play that would have swayed the outcome for a White win.
Presbyterian officially announced its fall schedule for the university’s 112th football team yesterday, now turning their attention to upcoming summer workouts for Englehart’s third season that will begin on August 29.
Coach Englehart’s Thoughts
“Tonight was a great ending to our spring schedule”, commented Englehart, who guided PC to a three-win turnaround last fall with three All-PFL first-teamers returning to the fray in 2024.
“There were many explosive plays tonight for our guys, and they were amped up to go against each other. I thought that all of our quarterbacks played particularly well, as did our more experienced defensive players that have been a staple of this program for a few years now.”
“This game was a nice preview to what we’ll see when the new season rolls around.”
First Half; Team Blue Leads 14-7
A five-yard loft from Hurst to junior Wyatt Hodges broke open the evening’s scoring with nearly seven minutes gone by, capped off with a successful PAT by Phil Steele Freshman All-American kicker Mack Mikko.
At the 3:08 stamp of the opening period, Team White evened the odds courtesy of Jacob Deller who returned a blocked field goal 78 yards in the other direction for a special teams TD.
Hurst was responsible for the tie-breaking score at the 4:03 clip of the 2nd stanza, converting in the red zone on a designed QB rush.
End of 3rd; Team Blue Leads 21-13
On top by seven at the halfway point, Team Blue found its largest lead (21-7) once Hurst struck again from 10 yards out in the direction of tight end Nathan Levicki.
Three minutes later, Team White retorted with a 28-yard connection from Warner Bush to Hunter Satterfield, although unsuccessful on the follow-up kick to make the new tally 21-13.
4th Quarter; Team Blue Holds On
With 10:17 on the ticker, Bush registered his second passing touchdown of the night on the longest scoring play from scrimmage: a 38-yard arc to newbie Jamari Haynes.
Now trailing by a deuce, Team White opted for a two-point conversion attempt only to be thwarted by Team Blue’s stout D.
In scoring range once more with the game teetering in the balance, Team White’s comeback bid was denied with a 44-yard field goal try that was stymied.
That allowed Team Blue to hold on for the 21-19 final decision, closing the book on Presby’s fall layout.
