2018 Furman Paladins football team

2018 Furman Paladins football
2018 Furman Paladins football
SoCon co-champion
Conference	Southern Conference
Record	6–4 (6–2 SoCon)
Head coach	Clay Hendrix (2nd season);
Offensive coordinator	George Quarles (1st season)
Defensive coordinator	Chadd Staggs (2nd season)
Home stadium	Paladin Stadium; (Capacity: 16,000)
	Seasons ← 2017 2019 →

2018 Southern Conference football standings
v t e
Team	W		L	W		L
No. 13 Wofford +^	6	–	2	9	–	4
No. 22 East Tennessee State +^	6	–	2	8	–	4
Furman +	6	–	2	6	–	4
Samford	5	–	3	6	–	5
Chattanooga	4	–	4	6	–	5
The Citadel	4	–	4	5	–	6
Mercer	4	–	4	5	–	6
Western Carolina	1	–	7	3	–	8
VMI	0	–	8	1	–	10

+ – Conference co-champions ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

The 2018 Furman Paladins football team represented Furman University in the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by second-year head coach Clay Hendrix and played their home games at Paladin Stadium. They were a member of the Southern Conference. They finished the season 6–4, 6–2 in SoCon play finish in a three way tie for the SoCon championship with Wofford and East Tennessee State. After tiebreakers, they did not receive the SoCon's automatic bid to the FCS playoffs and they did not receive an at-large bid.

Previous season

The Paladins finished the 2017 season 8–5, 6–2 in SoCon play to finish in a tie for second place. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs where they defeated Elon in the first round before losing to Wofford in the second round.

Preseason

Preseason media poll

The SoCon released their preseason media poll on July 25, 2018, with the Paladins predicted to finish in second place.^[1] The same day the coaches released their preseason poll with the Paladins predicted to finish in third place.^[2]

Media poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Samford	204 (20)
2	Furman	174 (2)
3	Wofford	163 (1)
4	Mercer	133
5	Western Carolina	114
6	Chattanooga	88
7	The Citadel	83
8	East Tennessee State	53
9	VMI	23

Coaches poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Samford	63 (7)
2	Wofford	53 (1)
3	Furman	52 (1)
4	Western Carolina	39
5	Chattanooga	34
6	Mercer	32
7	The Citadel	28
8	East Tennessee State	15
9	VMI	8

Preseason All-SoCon Teams

The Paladins placed seven players on the preseason all-SoCon teams.

Offense

1st team

Kealand Dirks – RB

2nd team

Reed Kroeber – OL

Jake Walker – TE

Thomas Gordon – WR

Defense

1st team

Elijah McKoy – LB

Aaquil Annoor – DB

2nd team

Jaylan Reid – DL

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 1	12:20 p.m.	at No. 2 (FBS) Clemson*	No. 23	Memorial Stadium Clemson, SC	ACCN	L 7–48	80,048
September 8	6:00 p.m.	at No. 15 Elon*	No. 25	Rhodes Stadium Elon, NC	CBSI Digital/CBS SportsLive	L 7–45	8,058
~~September 15~~	~~1:00 p.m.~~	~~Colgate~~*		~~Paladin Stadium~~ ~~Greenville, SC~~	~~WYCW~~	Cancelled^[a]
September 22	7:30 p.m.	at East Tennessee State		William B. Greene Jr. Stadium Johnson City, TN	ESPN3	L 27–29	8,453
September 29	2:00 p.m.	Western Carolina		Paladin Stadium Greenville, SC	WYCW	W 44–38	7,201
October 13	1:00 p.m.	No. 6 Wofford		Paladin Stadium Greenville, SC	WYCW	W 34–14	7,006
October 20	2:00 p.m.	Samford		Paladin Stadium Greenville, SC	WYCW	L 25–38	6,016
October 27	2:00 p.m.	at The Citadel		Johnson Hagood Stadium Charleston, SC (rivalry)	ESPN+	W 28–17	8,574
November 3	1:00 p.m.	Chattanooga		Paladin Stadium Greenville, SC	WYCW	W 16–10	4,332
November 10	1:30 p.m.	at VMI		Alumni Memorial Field Lexington, VA	ESPN+	W 49–13	3,922
November 17	3:00 p.m.	at Mercer		Five Star Stadium Macon, GA	ESPN+	W 35–30	8,811
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Source: Schedule

^ This game has been cancelled in anticipation of Hurricane Florence.

Game summaries

at Clemson

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 23 Paladins	0	0	0	7	7
No. 2 (FBS) Tigers	10	17	14	7	48

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
10–42–4	2012	CLEM, 41–7

at Elon

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 25 Paladins	0	0	0	7	7
No. 15 Phoenix	14	14	10	7	45

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
12–7	2017 FCS Playoffs	FUR, 28–27

at East Tennessee State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Paladins	7	6	14	0	27
Buccaneers	3	3	7	16	29

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
25–7	2017	FUR, 56–35

Western Carolina

	1	2	3	4	Total
Catamounts	7	3	14	14	38
Paladins	14	17	7	6	44

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
30–12–2	2017	FUR, 28–6

Wofford

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Terriers	0	7	7	0	14
Paladins	14	7	6	7	34

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
52–32–7	2017 FCS Playoffs	WOF, 28–10

Samford

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulldogs	10	0	21	7	38
Paladins	3	9	7	6	25

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
10–10	2017	SAM, 26–20

at The Citadel

	1	2	3	4	Total
Paladins	7	7	0	14	28
Bulldogs	3	7	7	0	17

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
59–35–3	2017	FUR, 56–20

Chattanooga

	1	2	3	4	Total
Mocs	0	0	3	7	10
Paladins	7	6	0	3	16

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
27–19	2017	FUR, 41–17

at VMI

	1	2	3	4	Total
Paladins	21	14	14	0	49
Keydets	7	0	0	6	13

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
26–9	2017	FUR, 42–10

at Mercer

	1	2	3	4	Total
Paladins	7	13	9	6	35
Bears	7	3	14	6	30

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
8–6–2	2017	FUR, 28–21

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
— = Not ranked RV = Received votes
	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	23	25	RV	RV	—	—	—	RV	—	—	RV	RV	RV
Coaches	21	21	RV	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	RV	RV

References

This college football 2010s season article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[3] This game has been cancelled in anticipation of Hurricane Florence.

[1] ttp://www.soconsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=21895&SPID=1781&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=211735859&DB_OEM_ID=4000

[2] ttp://www.soconsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=21895&SPID=1781&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=211735863&DB_OEM_ID=4000

[1]

[2]

[a]

v t e Furman Paladins football
Venues	Manly Field (1919–1936) Sirrine Stadium (1936–1980) Paladin Stadium (1981–present)
Bowls & rivalries	The Citadel Wofford
Culture & lore	Marching Band Miracle on the Mountain
People	Head coaches NFL draftees
Seasons	1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897–1899 1900 1901 1902 1903–1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943–1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
National championship seasons in bold

v t e Southern Conference football champions
Pre-SEC	Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech & North Carolina (1922) Vanderbilt & Washington and Lee (1923) Alabama (1924) Alabama & Tulane (1925) Alabama (1926) Georgia Tech, Tennessee, & NC State (1927) Georgia Tech (1928) Tulane (1929) Alabama & Tulane (1930) Tulane (1931) Tennessee & Auburn & LSU (1932)
Pre-ACC	Duke (1933) Washington and Lee (1934) Duke (1935) Duke (1936) Maryland (1937) Duke (1938) Duke (1939) Clemson (1940) Duke (1941) William & Mary (1942) Duke (1943) Duke (1944) Duke (1945) North Carolina (1946) William & Mary (1947) Clemson (1948) North Carolina (1949) Washington and Lee (1950) Maryland & VMI (1951) Duke (1952)
Post-ACC	West Virginia (1953) West Virginia (1954) West Virginia (1955) West Virginia (1956) VMI (1957) West Virginia (1958) VMI (1959) VMI (1960) The Citadel (1961) VMI (1962) VPI (1963) West Virginia (1964) West Virginia (1965) East Carolina & William & Mary (1966) West Virginia (1967) Richmond (1968) Davidson & Richmond (1969) William & Mary (1970) Richmond (1971) East Carolina (1972) East Carolina (1973) VMI (1974) Richmond (1975) East Carolina (1976) Chattanooga & VMI (1977) Chattanooga & Furman (1978) Chattanooga (1979) Furman (1980) Furman (1981)
I-AA/FCS	Furman (1982) Furman (1983) Chattanooga (1984) Furman (1985) Appalachian State (1986) Appalachian State (1987) Furman & Marshall (1988) Furman (1989) Furman (1990) Appalachian State (1991) The Citadel (1992) Georgia Southern (1993) Marshall (1994) Appalachian State (1995) Marshall (1996) Georgia Southern (1997) Georgia Southern (1998) Appalachian State, Furman, & Georgia Southern (1999) Georgia Southern (2000) Furman & Georgia Southern (2001) Georgia Southern (2002) Wofford (2003) Furman & Georgia Southern (2004) Appalachian State (2005) Appalachian State (2006) Appalachian State & Wofford (2007) Appalachian State (2008) Appalachian State (2009) Appalachian State & Wofford (2010) Georgia Southern (2011) Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, & Wofford (2012) Chattanooga, Furman, & Samford (2013) Chattanooga (2014) Chattanooga & The Citadel (2015) The Citadel (2016) Wofford (2017) East Tennessee State, Furman, & Wofford (2018) Wofford (2019) VMI (2020) East Tennessee State (2021) Samford (2022) Furman (2023)
National championships in bold