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| Furman's Joshua Harris had seven receptions for a career-high 164 yards and two touchdowns in the Paladins' 48-7 win over Stetson. Photo courtesy of Furman |
As Furman coach Clay Hendrix watched his team practice this spring and summer, he was confident that the Paladins could be more explosive on offense this fall. On Saturday, Furman showed why. The Paladins had more pass plays of 50-plus yards than they did in the entire 13-game season last year - and as many as they did in the 13-game season of 2022 - in a 48-7 victory over Stetson.
Making his first career start, freshman quarterback Trey Hedden threw two touchdowns and ran for another. Joshua Harris had a career-high 164 yards receiving and the offense didn't have a turnover after suffering four in last week's loss to Charleston Southern. After not forcing a turnover in back-to-back games for the first time in six years, the Paladins (1-2) also had three interceptions on defense Saturday.
"I'm happy for our kids. I'm most proud of how we responded after the last two weeks. We've come out and had really good practices and our focus has been really good," Hendrix said. "We got better today. ... We certainly still have a long way to go, but we got better.
"Confidence does wonders - if you handle it the right way. We've been humbled and I've told them to remember that feeling. You'd better keep some humility when you've had some success and I think they will. That's what I've enjoyed most about this team. They're a good practice team and they want to be a great practice team."
The game started how you might expect from one team hungry for its first win facing a team from the non-scholarship Pioneer Conference. On his first play of the game, Furman backup strong safety Billy Lewis ended the game's opening possession with an interception at midfield. It was the first of two picks Saturday for the redshirt freshman who's the grandson of former East Carolina coach Bill Lewis.
Hedden then directed a scoring drive that ended on a one-yard touchdown run by Grant Robinson as Furman took a 7-0 lead less than five minutes in.
From that point until late in the second quarter, Furman offense disappeared while its defense was plagued by penalties. Two of those were very questionable roughing the passer flags in which Furman defensive linemen basically had what would be the textbook definition of a pancake block if it had been an offensive player striking a defender.
After that 50-yard drive on the Paladins' opening possession, they had just seven yards the rest of the quarter. Meanwhile, Furman held Stetson to only 50 yards but the Paladins also had 53 yards worth of penalties over the first 15 minutes. Hendrix believes that was a big reason for a lull that lasted until late in the second quarter.
"I wasn't happy at all with the two roughing the passer calls. They were huge and changed the whole tempo of the game. We're up 7-0 and fixing to get the ball back (after the first penalty on a third-down incompletion), probably at midfield," Hendrix said. "I saw the replay about three times and I'm not sure what you can do (differently)."
After nearly a full half of dinking and dunking the ball left and right, Hedden's big arm was finally turned loose with 3:39 left in the half. That's when he found a wide open Ben Ferguson for a 51-yard touchdown to push Furman's lead to 17-0.
The Paladins got the ball back at their own 40 with 1:51 left after Stetson (2-1) was stopped on fourth down. Four plays later, one of the prettiest throws you'll ever see took place when Hedden hit Harris in stride down the right sideline for a 50-yard touchdown to send Furman into halftime leading 24-0.
"I think we wanted to do the easy things well to start the game and create those bigger plays later," Hedden said. "I think it's really important to establish the run and get some easy completions to try to start moving the sticks and get some rhythm."
Furman got the ball to start the second half, but a block in the back on the kick return backed the Paladins up to their own 10-yard line. That didn't stop the big play momentum from carrying over from the last four minutes of the first half though.
On the first play, Hedden threw another deep ball to Harris down the right sideline again. This time, the defender managed to ride Harris out of bounds as Hedden was preparing to throw. Harris didn't give up on the play though and came back in bounds to haul in the 58-yard pass. Since he was driven out of bounds by the defender, it was a legal catch.
"On that first (touchdown), he called it and it was one-on-one. I was like 'this is an opportunity I have to take advantage of.' I can't leave plays like that out on the field," Harris said. "When Trey threw it, I knew I could run under that one. We've been working on that during practice and after practice, just working on the trajectory of the ball and me running under it.
"The second one (deep ball) was crazy. I got pushed out (of bounds), but I knew I could keep going. If it's in my area, I've got to go get it."
Just like that, one play into the third quarter, Furman had its third pass play of at least 50 yards Saturday. The Paladins had two of those all of last season and three in 2022. Two plays later, Harris caught a 17-yard pass to the Stetson 13. That set up a beautifully designed play in which Hedden faked one of those dink and dunk passes to the right, then turned back to his left where he found a nearly empty swath of fake grass in front of him. He rumbled 13 yards for the touchdown withstanding hits by a pair of defenders at the goal line to push the lead to 31-0.
Later in the third, Furman was faced with a 3rd-and-27 at its own 46. Hedden completed a short pass to Ferguson, who managed to get 15 yards to the Stetson 39. While he was well short of the first down, anyone who's seen the Paladins the last couple of years and can do math quickly knew what was coming next. On a day with 51- and 50-yard touchdowns, Ian Williams provided the game's longest score when he drilled a 57-yard field goal right down the middle with plenty of distance to spare.
Williams' booming kick put his name atop the Furman record books for longest field goal in school history. It broke the previous mark of 55 shared by Grayson Atkins and Jon Croft Hollingsworth, whose kick beat Central Florida in 2016.
"I've always said I wouldn't hesitate to let him try one from 60 if the conditions are right," Hendrix said. "It's funny, he had been struggling a bit at practice early on, but the last couple of weeks he's kicked it really well in practice. I was thrilled for him today and thrilled for us to have a chance to be a part of that."
That scoring drive wrapped up Hedden's day, as he finished with 267 yards on 20-of-27 passing with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He had 16 yards rushing on three carries, which included an eight-yard loss on the Hatters' lone sack.
"With this being our third game, I felt pretty comfortable. I was ready (to start)," Hedden said. "I was very confident and happy to have the guys around me to be able to go over the top and make big plays."
Sophomore Carson Jones came in at quarterback on Furman's next possession, but the Harris show continued. On third down, Jones hit Harris for a 30-yard touchdown. After that 57-yard first quarter, Furman posted 372 yards of total offense over the second and third quarters.
The Paladins went deep down the depth chart the rest of the way, but Gavin Hall's performance may have earned him more carries in the future. The true freshman was the fourth running back to touch the ball Saturday, but he ended with twice as many rushing yards as any of his teammates. Hall had with 72 yards on 10 carries, including a 12-yard touchdown run less than two minutes into the fourth quarter to push the lead to 48-0.
"We played a bunch of guys in the second half who probably didn't practice for Stetson last week. They were actually probably being Stetson (in practice)," Hendrix said. "Gavin Hall came in and showed what he can do. We've got a good group of backs and I think it's going to be a 'by committee' group."
Hall just missed another touchdown run as he was tackled at the one with 1:17 left. Furman then took two knees to run out the clock.
The Paladins finished with a 510-244 edge in total offense. Furman also ended up with nine penalties for 108 yards. While a few of those were questionable, multiple pass interference calls in which the Paladins didn't play the ball were clearly correct.
"We've got to play the ball in the air better ... but that's stuff we can fix," Hendrix said. "I'd be really concerned if we were getting beat, but I don't see us getting beat. We've been in really good spots, we just have to play the ball better."
Harris' 164-yard day tied him with Donald Lipscomb for 10th place on Furman's single-game receiving chart. His seven catches moved him past Bear Rinehart (126) and Luther Broughton (123) into eighth place on the Paladins' career receptions list with 128.
Furman will wrap up non-Southern Conference play with a trip to No. 13-ranked William & Mary next Saturday at 6 p.m. The Tribe (2-1) scored a touchdown with 3:40 left to snap a tie in their 28-21 win at Wofford Saturday.
"That will be a challenge next week, but we will have a bunch of challenges moving forward," Hendrix said.
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