GREENVILLE, S.C. — For the first time since 2017, FCS No. 15 Furman dropped a non-conference home game, as Charleston Southern came to Paladin Stadium and captured a 24-20 win ending what had been a 10-game home winning streak for the Paladins.
Sometimes in sports there is a funny thing that can happen. A complete role reversal of the two teams from the last time they met. In Saturday night's Charleston Southern win over Furman, it treasured Furman's turnovers and miscues to upset the 15th-ranked Paladins by four points.
Back in 2022, it was almost an identical score, but it was Furman that made the most of four turnovers and blocked a CSU field goal to come away from Ladson, S.C., with a 24-19 win. Should the Paladins have lost that game, it could have derailed what ended up being a restorative season to the Paladin tradition rich, as Furman won 10 games for the first time since 2005 and made it back to the postseason for the first time since 2019 in the process.
Two years later, however, four turnovers spelled doom for the Paladins in what was their first-ever loss to Charleston Southern in just the third meeting and Furman's miscues were costly and now puts the entire season in peril in terms of returning to the postseason as a potential at-large team and hurts the league's overall resume' for multiple bids to the 24-team field. The good news is that it won't affect the Paladins from defending their 15th league title, which will begin on Sept. 28 when Samford pays a visit to Paladin Stadium.
A Celebration Ceremony for No. 97 on 9-7
Despite the negatives, there were some positives, beginning with celebrating the short but meaningful life of a person that was the true personification of a Furman student-athlete in every way.
The player celebrated was No. 97—Bryce Stanfield. He was honored prior to kickoff of the 2024 home opener, as a plaque commemorating the young defensive tackle was unveiled in what was an emotional pregame ceremony for his parents, coaches and players alike. Stanfield passed away tragically just before the start of spring practice this past winter due to a pulmonary embolism. He was just 21 years old. He would have turned 22 on Sept. 19, 2024.
It was a fitting tribute that will ensure that Stanfield will never be forgotten and every Paladin team in the future will be reminded before they take the field, as they pass by the memorial plaque to play like Bryce did as a Paladin, and for a player that always played with plenty of energy and with a mega-watt smile on his face, it will serve as both a legacy left and standard required to meet to achieve the many goals that Stanfield accomplished both on and off the field in just 21 short years of life. Stanfield’s example is one that is the perfect personification of what a Paladin student-athlete should aspire to achieve.
Young 'Dins plagued by miscues
The Bucs, who came in off a one-point, 21-20, setback to The Citadel last weekend, came into the contest with a bad taste for teams in the Southern Conference hailing from the Palmetto State, however, this time it was the Bucs that locked up the most significant win of the Gabe Giardina era. The loss likely brings an end to a streak of 22-consecutive weeks in the STATS Perform FCS poll.
The win by Charleston Southern marked its first win over a ranked FCS foe since 2016 and was also the first in the series against Furman. The Bucs came to Greenville having lost 20 of their last 28 road games.
Conversely, Furman had won 28 of its last 35 under Clay Hendrix, including each of its last 10 and 13 of the last 14. The last non-conference opponent that came to Paladin Stadium and leave with a win was Elon back in 2017, handing the Paladins a four-point, 34-31, win on that occasion.
The loss, which drops Furman to 0-2 overall for the first time since 2018, sees the Paladins elixir that proved so vital the past two seasons in plenty of close wins work against them tonight. Turnovers.
The secret sauce for Furman’s 20-6 record over the previous two seasons was two-fold. They turned people over and didn’t turn it over. Saturday night, the Paladins were minus-4 in the turnover margin and through the first two games of the 2024 season are minus-5 in eight quarters of football. The Bucs improved to 1-1 after their season-opening loss to The Citadel.
In both the 2022 and ’23 seasons, Furman caused 56 turnovers (35 INTs, 21 FRs) in a total of 26 games. In 2022, the Paladins topped the entire FCS in total takeaways, with an FCS-best 29 turnovers (17 INTs, 12 FRs) led the FCS, while the 27 turnovers (18 INTs, 9 FRs) ranked third in the FCS last season.
Last season’s season and home opener against Tennessee Tech after dark, Furman caused six total turnovers, including a pair of pick sixes. Two years ago in the first addition of the FU After Dark themed home opener, Furman defensive back Cally Chizik picked off a pass and took it to the house to give the Paladins their first TD of the season.
There would be no well-timed route disrupters in the 2024 home opener, and no mistakes by the Bucs at all. It was only frustration for a defense that, for the most part, was solid all night, holding the Bucs to just 257 yards of total offense, which was 126 less than the Charleston was able to amass in its season-opening loss to The Citadel.
While Furman had an All-American like Travis Blackshear and other all-conference players like Cally Chizik, Hugh Ryan and Kam Brinson causing havoc in 2022 and '23, the unit this season on the back end is very green. As much as they were a part of helping the Paladins cause opponent miscues, it was the experience and leadership of a quarterback like Tyler Huff and a running back like Dominic Roberto that took great care of the football when the ball was in under their direct care.
While Huff displayed outstanding arm strength, his accuracy on the deep ball was truly lacking. Still, he was good enough and efficient enough to lead a Furman offense that made very few mistakes over the past couple of seasons, and that sometimes can be as good as an offense that is explosive. The Paladins finished the 2023 season with just 10 turnovers lost, with only two fumbles.
In Huff’s first season under center, the Paladins turned it over 20 times, with 11 fumbles lost and nine INTs. It was a remarkable trend in the right direction for the Paladins from 2022 to 2023. Through two games, the Paladins have five turnovers and have yet to cause one, including throwing three picks and losing a pair of fumbles.
Furman true freshman signal-caller Trey Hedden has all the tools. He has the arm strength, accuracy and overall grit that his predecessor Huff possessed, but his maturity of mind as a quarterback and the experience and comfort to read the defense like Huff are still behind. Those traits can only truly come with experience. There’s no other way to accelerate that process, unfortunately.
But it will come, and when it does, Hedden might well be the best quarterback in the SoCon. Some of his throws tonight had the zip of an Ingle Martin, and some of his unique scrambling and throws on the run resembled a Braniff Bonaventure (1993-96).
Hedden, who entered the game on the fifth series of the game for the Paladins late in the second quarter and would ultimately lead the Paladins to their first touchdown of 2024 after nearly six quarters without one to start the new campaing. The true freshman out of Tampa Catholic finished the night by connecting on 12-of-25 passes for 193 yards, with one touchdown and one INT. He was sacked four times and the Paladins have surrendered eight sacks through the first two games of the season.
The Paladins didn’t necessarily play bad, and if you saw the game, you’d understand that. The game was strange and the first two games to start the 2024 season have been strange. The opener for Furman delivered an expected result in a rather unexpected fashion. Furman is a program full of pride and tradition, and losing a game 76-0 can stagger any team, but even more if it's one of the worst losses a program has endured in the modern era.
But Saturday’s home opener against Charleston Southern was supposed to go differently. The Paladins at least dominated the stats sheet, finishing the contest with a 336-257 advantage in total offense.
The Paladins got 101 yards on the ground, but were out-rushed by the Bucs, 114-101. The Paladins have struggled to run the ball in the first two weeks of the 2024 campaign, 357-127 in the first two games of the 2024 campaign.
Leading the Paladins on the ground in the second game of the 2024 season was Myion Hicks, who finished the contest rushing for 68 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. Ben Ferguson hauled in three passes for 108 yards, which included the longest reception of the night, as he hauled in a second quarter pass of 62 yards from Hedden.
Sophomore Colton Hinton finished the contest with four catches for 20 yards and a score, while Grant Robinson hauled in five passes for 20 yards out of the backfield.
Defensively, the Paladins posted a couple of sacks, which both came in the opening half. Evan DiMaggio led the Paladins with nine tackles and a tackle-for-loss, while Luke Clark added seven tackle and a sack.
Charleston Southern was led offensively quarterback Rob McCoy for the second week in a row, as he finished the contest connecting on 12-of-23 passes for 143 yards and a pair of scores and no INTs. His favorite target was sophomore Noah Jennings, who hauled in seven passes for 97 yards and a pair of scores. Chris Rhone caught four passes for 15 yards, while Jamil Bishop finished out the contest with two catches for six yards.
On the ground, the Bucs were able to get 90 yards and a touchdown on 19 attempts from running back Autavius Ison.
Defensively, the Bucs were led by Darius Bell, who had seven tackles, which included one behind the line of scrimmage.
Safety Trayson Fowler also posted seven stops in the contest. Charleston Southern was able to get INTs from both 'bandit' Tylan Hollis and 'spur' Chandler Perry. Hollis' INT, which came midway through the third quarter, proved to be the costliest of the four all night, as he intercepted the Hedden pass at the 24 and was returned 15 yards to the Furman nine.
It took only two plays for Autavius Ison to gain the needed two yards to ultimately give the Bucs a 21-17 lead with 7:34 remaining in the third quarter, and it would be a lead the Bucs wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the game.
In many ways, this season has a strange resemblance of 2018. That season the Paladins started a true freshman under center, in Darren Grainger against a team that would go on to win the national title, in Clemson, losing 48-7. A week later, Grainger and the Paladins would get blasted on the road against an Elon team that was among the CAA favorites, 45-7.
It would be followed by a canceled game due to a Hurricane (Colgate) and a loss, which the Paladins blew a 27-6 third quarter lead at East Tennessee State only to lose 29-27. The Paladins would rally behind the leadership of Harris Roberts—a former walk-on quarterback—the young Paladins rallied to win six of their final seven games to tie with ETSU and Wofford for the SoCon title, however, would be left out of the 24-team FCS playoff field.
How It Happened
Furman’s third edition of "FU After Dark" looked more like a throwback to the first two seasons in Clay Hendrix's coaching tenure in 2017 and '18 rather than more recent seasons, however, the good news is both of those teams rebounded to go on and have pretty solid seasons.
Interestingly, Furman started both the 2017 and '18 seasons 0-3, as the Paladins would go on to make the FCS playoffs and avenge that '17 home-opening loss to Elon with a 28-27 win on the road over the Phoenix in that particular season. The 2018 season would see the Paladins recover enough to win six games and win a share of the Southern Conference, tying with Wofford and East Tennessee State for the regular-season league crown.
Furman would get the ball first, however, on just the third play of the game, starting quarterback Carson Jones was intercepted by Chandler Perry to give the Bucs at the Paladin 41. Furman’s defense would stand strong, however, as it would opt to go for it on 4th-and-7 at the Furman 33, however, Bucs quarterback Rob McCoy was sacked by Furman ‘bandit’ linebacker Luke Clark, for a loss of eight yards and the Paladins would have excellent field position at their own 41.
From there, the Paladins would move the ball 27 yards in six plays, however, had to settle for a long 50-yard field goal attempt for preseason All-SoCon place-kicker Ian Williams. The Williams effort had the plenty of leg, however, struck the right upright on the field house end of Paladin Stadium and bounced out no good. Those points left on the field would prove key, as they were at least 10 points that the Paladins could have obtained during the game but failed to do so.
The other points would come in late in the third quarter when Myion Hicks to have scored on a six-yard run, however, had the TD nullified by a holding penalty. Two plays later, the Paladins would fumble at the seven to squelch any opportunity of getting points, bringing what had been a promising drive to an end.
Charleston Southern drew first blood in the contest, as quarterback Rob McCoy found freshman Noah Jennings for a 27-yard scoring strike with 5:20 remaining in the opening quarter, however, Reid Montgomery missed the PAT leaving the score 6-0 in favor of the Bucs. The scoring drive covered 68 yards, as the Bucs needed eight plays to cover the needed yardage to find points.
Early in the second quarter, Furman put together its most promising drive of the season, and in turn, it would yield the first points of the season, as the Paladins had to settle for a field goal rather than a touchdown, as Ian Williams knocked home a 25-yard field goal to make it a 6-3 game midway through the second. The Paladins needed 10 plays to cover 54 yards, with a vast majority of the yardage coming on the ground.
Late in the opening half, Furman inserted true freshman Trey Hedden into the game, and he would in-turn engineer the first touchdown drive of the season, as he completed a 5-yard touchdown to Colton Hinton with 2:56 remaining in the second quarter. The true freshman made several impressive throws in the drive, displaying both arm strength and an uncanny pocket awareness for a quarterback still getting used to the speed of the game at the Division I level.
Hedden’s first pass of the night—a 30-yard connection with senior wideout Joshua Harris on a 3rd-and-14 play—helped jumpstart the Paladin offense. He would go on to complete two more passes on the drive, finding tight end Brock Chappell for a gain of 22 yards to the CSU 22 and then his final completion on the drive resulted in a 5-yard scoring strike to Hinton, giving the Paladins a 10-6 lead with just under three minutes left in the half.
However, Charleston Southern would have an answer, led by their veteran graduate transfer quarterback from Sacred Heart. In impressive fashion, McCoy would lead the Bucs right back down the field, and for the second time in the contest, would complete a similarly lofted pass to the corner of the opposite end zone is favorite target yard Noah Jennings for a 31-yard connection, who once again, went up to snag the ball over a Paladin defender for a score with 28 seconds ]left in the half.
On the two-point conversion attempt, the Bucs ran a gadget play on a muddle huddle and punter Gilbert Brown took the quick snap and found the end zone for the two-point play to make it a four-point lead, at 14-10. The Bucs used nine plays to cover 75 yards and gave the Bucs momentum going into the half. That would remain the score as the two teams headed to the halftime locker room.
After the Paladin defense forced a three-and-out to start the second half, the Paladins would re-take the lead on a 1-yard scoring plunge from Myion Hicks following the most impressive drive of the night, as Furman used seven plays to cover the needed 79 yards for the score, taking a 17-14 lead following the Ian Williams PAT with 11:08 remaining in the frame.
Following another stop by the Furman defense, which forced a Gilbert Brown punt that traveled 44 yards and went into the end zone for a touchback, and Furman took over at its own 20 with 8:21 remaining in the third quarter.
However, it would lead to Furman's most crucial of its turnovers of the evening. Facing a 3rd-and-16 from their own14, Hedden overthrew his receiver Colton Hinton, and the pass was picked off by Tylan Hollis at the 24 and returned 15 yards to the Furman nine. It would end up leading to a Charleston Southern TD, as two plays later Autavius Ison scored on a 7-yard scamper with 6:46 left in the third quarter, giving the Bucs a 21-17 lead following the PAT. It would be a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way.
Furman marched down the field on its ensuing possession and looked intent on re-taking the lead. The Paladins were aided by a pair of 15-yard personal foul penalties flagged against the Bucs, which helped keep the drive alive, but it was a holding penalty flagged against the Paladins, with the flag having been thrown behind the play and after Hicks had crossed the goal line on what looked to be the 6-yard go-ahead score, however, the infraction was holding against the Paladins and that brought the ball back to the 16.
Following a two-yard completion from Hedden to Hinton on second and goal, which advanced the ball to the Charleston Southern 14, the Paladins would jump offsides on the next play, taking the ball back to the 19. After another Hedden short completion and personal foul penalty by Charleston Southern on third-and-goal from the 19, the Paladins appeared to have all the momentum going forward.
However, on first-and-goal from the seven, Hedden rushed up the middle, but dropped the football and it was recovered by Edward Owusu with five seconds left in the third quarter. It would be a decisive turn of events for the Paladins.
The Paladin defense came up big on the next Bucs drive, however, forcing a 36-yard punt by Brown early in the fourth quarter.
Furman wasn't going to go quietly into the dark night, as the knights in very dark armor used almost five minutes to cover 37 yards in 11 plays to get within a point following an Ian Williams 30-yard field goal after the Bucs defense held strong in the red zone, trimming Charleston Southern's lead to 21-20 with 9:45 left.
Furman's defense again would force a Charleston Southern punt, however, Brown would make one of the biggest plays of the evening for the Bucs, as he launched a 63-yard punt to flip the field even though it resulted in a touchback.
At this point in the game, the Bucs defense was starting to apply pressure on Hedden it would lead to the final and fourth turnover of the night for the Paladins, and turning out the lights once and for all for Furman. Hedden was sandwiched and sacked on 3rd-and-7 at his own 23, and Tylan Hollis had his second big tide-turning play of the night, recovering the fumble to give the Bucs the ball and ultimately, the game.
The Bucs reached the Furman six before having to settle for a 23-yard field goal from Reid Montgomery, extending Charleston Southern's lead to four with 2:18 remaining.
Furman would turn it over on downs on its next possession, and the Bucs ran out the final seconds for arguably the biggest win of the Gabe Giardina era.
The Paladins will be back at home next Saturday for a 2 p.m. EST contest with Stetson. Charleston Southern will be on the road once again at No. 14 Richmond, with kickoff set for 2 p.m.
Notes
Furman’s 0-2 start marks the 18th time the program has started 0-2 in its last 111 seasons. The Paladins are in their 119th campaign as a football program.
Furman's previous two 0-2 or 0-3 starts to a season have resulted in either tying for the league title, or FCS playoff appearances. In 2017, the Paladins recovered from an 0-3 start to finish the regular-season 7-5 and made the playoffs with a 6-2 league mark. In 2018, the Paladins recovered from an 0-3 mark to finish 6-4 and tie for the regular-season league title with both Wofford and ETSU but would be the odd team left out of the postseason because of playing only 10 games. In 2013, Furman started 0-2 with losses at Coastal Carolina and at Gardner-Webb to finish 7-5 and 6-2 in the league, tying with Samford and Chattanooga for the SoCon regular-season title. The Paladins gained access to the postseason via the automatic bid, which was decided by a coin flip.
