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| Furman hosts William & Mary in the season opener Saturday at Paladin Stadium. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. Photo courtesy of Furman |
At long last, the 2025 college football season has arrived. For Furman, it's been a long offseason literally and figuratively. After 10-win seasons that stretched into December in 2022 and 2023, all of the Paladins' gear was packed up by Thanksgiving last year after a disappointing 3-8 season. It was Furman's worst record since going 3-8 in 2016.
Three hallmarks of Furman football seemingly forever have been running the ball, stopping the run and protecting the ball. The Paladins didn't really do any of those things last season. Of course, as Furman coach Clay Hendrix has bluntly assessed about the 2024 season, "we just weren't very good at anything." A mix of inexperienced youth had a lot to do with that and injuries just compounded it.
"We've looked at all those things on both sides of the ball and made a lot of changes," Hendrix said at SoCon Media Day just before preseason camp opened the last week of July. "I think the average person may not see us look very different, but we are doing a lot of things different that will help us."
Furman kicks off its 120th season of football at 2 p.m. Saturday at Paladin Stadium. It will be trying to avenge one of those tone-setting losses from last year. By the time the Paladins arrived at William & Mary in week four last year, chaos had already ensued.
Losing your two starting safeties to season-ending injuries just before facing an SEC semi-pro team is less than ideal. Furman found that out in its 76-0 season-opening loss at Ole Miss. That loss would shake the most headstrong player and the Paladins seemed to still be in a daze a week later when they had four turnovers in a home loss to Charleston Southern.
Things seemed to get back to normal the next week. Furman soundly defeated Stetson, 48-7, behind a big game from senior captain Joshua Harris that earned him Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors. But when the Paladins made the trip to Williamsburg days later, Harris wasn't with them. Little did anyone know then that Harris' days as a Paladin were done - as an athlete and student.
That distraction didn't seem to faze Furman as it jumped out to a 14-0 lead. But the Paladins somehow couldn't manage to hit 100 yards rushing as a team that evening, while the Tribe ran wild. William and Mary had 384 yards rushing as it rallied for a 34-24 win. To go along with the other oddities of that game, all-American kicker Ian Williams missed field goal attempts of 27 and 29 yards, respectively. Those two kicks, which Williams seemingly tried to boot out of the stadium, are the only ones 30 yards or less that he's missed in his career.
The following week, Furman's problems were put in perspective when the devastation of Hurricane Helene hit. It cancelled the Paladins' home game against Samford as an abnormal season only grew stranger. That probably cost Furman a win as the Bulldogs seemingly beat good teams and lost to bad ones on their way to a 4-7 season.
When it comes to bouncing back this year, history is on Furman's side. Hendrix is about to begin his 40th season as an assistant or head coach. During those four decades, he only experienced back-to-back losing seasons once and those came at Air Force in 2012 and 2013. Of course, a key there is to not have many losing seasons to begin with. In 31 years as a player and coach on the Furman sideline, he's only been through four of those - one of which was the seven-game schedule in the spring of 2021.
"I'm really pleased with where we are. ... I'm pleased with the progress of some things we changed. I think we've got a little more team speed than I remember having around here in a long time," Hendrix said earlier this week. "I'm not sure it's ever perfect, but we're pretty healthy. ... We've been putting our guys in the best position they can be to go execute. Execution has been our main focus."
Offense
Furman is confident that memories of last season have been left in the past. A quarterback's biggest improvement often is found in the transition from his freshman to sophomore season and Hendrix has been thrilled to watch Trey Hedden's work this offseason. He said Hedden's lost weight, but gotten stronger.
"Trey continues to get better and better and (backup) Carson (Jones) has had the best fall he's ever had.," Hendrix said. "Trey was ahead of the game mentally for a guy his age as a baby-faced freshman a year ago, but he wasn't quite ready for what he got into. That's really how our whole team kind of was. ... I did a poor job of the adjustments we should've made."
Hendrix said it's been "heartwarming" to witness the return of running back Jayquan Smith, who's been sidelined since October of 2023 with a horrific knee injury. If he has just a fraction of the explosiveness he showed as a freshman, it should help a Furman team that averaged 2.6 yards a carry last season. Sophomore Gavin Hall, who came on strong down the stretch in 2024 and averaged 5.0 yards per carry, is slated to be make his first career start on Saturday.
"Jayquan's maybe ahead of where I thought he'd be," Hendrix said. "I haven't really seen anything that makes me think he's not ready to go. ... He's big and strong and has done a great job on special teams."
Paving the way for Hall and Smith and protecting Hedden will be four returning starters on the offensive line: left tackle Eli Brashier, left guard Luke Petit, center Chris Luna and right guard Ryan Lamb. Jaydon Collins, a grad student from Wake Forest and a Greer native, is set to start at right tackle. Also back at tight end are Jackson Pryor and Joshua Burrell, who started the first two games before his season ended due to an injury suffered four plays into the Charleston Southern game.
"Joshua and Jackson give us two guys who are truly hybrid kind of guys," Hendrix said. "They can stretch the field."
Perhaps the biggest unknown going into this season is the wide receiver group. Hendrix is excited about some of the playmakers that the group has though, even with the loss of Colton Hinton, who transferred to Coastal Carolina. While Ben Ferguson is the leading returning receiver, he's dealing with a lingering back injury. Slated as starters on the depth chart this week are sophomores Devin Hester and Ja'Keith Hamilton, and freshman Evan James. East Carolina Kerry King should also see plenty of work at receiver.
Anyone who's been a casual observer of Furman football over the years knows that if a true freshman is listed as the starter in a season opener, coaches think that is a special player.
"Evan James is going to play this year," Hendrix said with a smile. "Kerry and Devin are probably two of the fastest guys on our team. ... I just really, really like that group."
Defense
Hendrix believes some of the defensive issues last year came from doing the same things Furman had successfully done in the past when that side of the ball had a deeper well of talent.
"We got so used to rolling three deep the previous couple of years," Hendrix said. "We probably tried to do some of that last year and it was just too big of a drop. Some of it was out of necessity."
While technically listed as a 3-4 defense, Furman is essentially going to have a 4-2-5 this season. Tackle Caldwell Bussey and noseguard Ty Kauserud are returning starters on the interior line. They'll be flanked by defense end Joshua Stoneking and bandit Dylan Chiedo, who are each slated to make their first career starts.
Furman has a pair of returning starters at inside linebacker in sophomores Raleigh Herbert and Ryan Earl. They will have to step up in place of graduated all-American linebacker Evan DiMaggio, who had 120 tackles last season.
The Paladins have two returning starters in the secondary in safety Caleb Williams and spur Brandt Babin. They look to be joined in the starting lineup by a trio of grad transfers: safety Taylin Blaylock (Division II Lindenwood) and cornerbacks Keon Jones (Prairie View A&M) and AJ Seay (North Alabama).
"The corner position is not even close to where we were a year ago," Hendrix said. "Then we were really inexperienced. Now we've got some guys that have played a lot of football."
While Furman's defense struggled to stop the run much of last season, it's pass defense also had issues. That was typically due to allowing big plays. The results last season have motivated the Paladins in the spring and preseason.
"We want to make sure there's no satisfaction in where we're ever at. It's never good enough," Williams said. "It's always 'where can we get better?' and 'what areas can we improve to make sure that we don't have any sort of replication of last year.' "
Special teams
Williams is back for his fourth season of placekicking and kickoffs and second as punter. He's coming off an all-American season in which he made 14-of-20 field goals, including a school record 57-yarder - twice. Of his 49 kickoffs, 43 went for touchbacks and he averaged 40.6 yards per punt with 17 downed inside the 20.
"He's the best kicker in the country," Hendrix said. "I mean, just the fact that guy's back. That kid could've gone anywhere. ... What a difference maker he is."
Long and short snapper Riley Smith is back this season and if you don't think that's an important position, check out what Julian Ashby is up to these days down below. Punter Gary Gitter will be the holder. Hester and Blaylock will be the kick returners and Blaylock will also return punts.
Captains
As voted on by teammates, Petit, Williams and Herbert have been selected as team captains. Petit and Williams are seniors, while Herbert is a sophomore.
After having his 2023 season cut short by a knee injury, Petit returned last season to start all 11 games - six at left guard, four at center and one at left tackle. He earned All-SoCon second team honors. Williams had 53 tackles, including 4.5 tackles-for-loss, five pass breakups and two interceptions last season.
Not many Paladins can say they were a season captain as an underclassman, but Herbert can. As a freshman last year, he had 30 tackles and made the SoCon's All-Academic Team and Academic Honor Roll.
Pros
Former Paladins Ryan Miller, Micah Robinson, Julian Ashby and Mason Pline have made NFL rosters this season.
After catching 12 passes for 128 yards and two touchdowns last season, Miller is back for his third year with Tampa Bay. Williams, who appeared in 42 games with the Paladins before spending last season at Tulane, is a cornerback on Green Bay's 53-man roster after being drafted in the seventh round.
During his four years at Furman, Ashby was a long snapper and an incredible student who earned the Dr. John M. Block Academic Award, which is annually presented to the male student with the highest GPA. After spending his final playing season at Vanderbilt last year, Ashby is now a snapper for New England.
Pline played tight end for Furman in 2023 after transferring in from Ferris State. He spent last season on San Francisco's practice squad before signing with New Orleans this offseason. He's currently on injured reserve after suffering a season-ending injury in a preseason game.
