Oct. 12, 2007

By Willie T. Smith III, The Greenville News

Furman University senior Scott Beckler is moving up the Paladin all-time football scoring list.

Entering Saturday's road game against arch-rival The Citadel the Anderson resident is tied with former running back Stanford Jennings for fourth place on Furman's all-time scoring list with 262 points. That includes this season when Beckler has made six of nine field goals, including a career best 54-yarder against Presbyterian and converted 12 of 13 extra points, giving him 30 points.

While happy about his success, scoring lists have never entered the mind of the former T.L. Hanna standout.

"I didn't really know about it until I read it in the newspaper this week," said Beckler. "That's one of those stats you get because your team scores a lot of points. Part of it is being accurate, but I think a lot of that can be attributed to how good Furman has been the last few years and how good we've been as a team.

"I don't see that as an individual stat, at least as a kicker. As a running back or a wide receiver that might be a little different. But I don't really keep up with it."

A long time soccer player, who didn't begin placekicking until his sophomore year in high school, Beckler still managed to play in the Shrine Bowl as a placekicker and punter.

After entering Furman on a partial scholarship, he has kicked well enough to transform that into a full ride.

Better yet for Furman, he seems to have rebounded from a junior slump when he made only seven of 13 field goals and 33 of 35 extra points for a career low 54 points, which broke his string of two straight years of being named All-Southern Conference.

Thanks to a new technique, Beckler appears to be back on stride.

"Freshman year, statistically, was better than my last couple of years," said Beckler. "But I feel I have progressed with my technique each year. This year they have allowed me to go back to my form from my freshman year where I take three steps back on my field goals which allows me to kick it a little further. I think the reason we did that was to give the operation a little more time.

"(Placekicker/punter) Coach (Bob) Price has shown he's confident in my accuracy this year."

Beckler's distance varies from day-to-day. He says in pregame practice sessions this season he has usually been good from about 60 yards. With the exception of the Paladins opener against Presbyterian, however, the team has not attempted any long field goals.

As long as the team is winning, that's good with Beckler.

"I've enjoyed my time at Furman," said Beckler. "It's been a lot of fun. It's been a privilege to be able to play with some of the players I've played with and be able to win as many games as we have while being around the quality guys and coaches.

"The beginning of the year was a pretty big surprise to me, the team and everyone that watches. But we're definitely back on track and we're going to finish the season having fun and doing what we like to do."