2018 Furman Paladins football team
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.
2018 Furman Paladins football | |
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SoCon co-champion | |
Conference | Southern Conference |
2018 record | 6–4 (6–2 SoCon) |
Head coach |
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Offensive coordinator | George Quarles (1st season) |
Defensive coordinator | Chadd Staggs (2nd season) |
Home stadium | Paladin Stadium (Capacity: 16,000) |
2018 Southern Conference football standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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]
Predicted finish | Team | Votes (1st place) |
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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 |
Predicted finish | Team | Votes (1st place) |
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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 |
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September 1 | 12:20 p.m. | at No. 2 (FBS) Clemson* | No. 23 | ACCN | L 7–48 | 80,048 | |
September 8 | 6:00 p.m. | at No. 15 Elon* | No. 25 | CBSI Digital/CBS SportsLive | L 7–45 | 8,058 | |
Cancelled[lower-alpha 1] | |||||||
September 22 | 7:30 p.m. | at East Tennessee State | ESPN3 | L 27–29 | 8,453 | ||
September 29 | 2:00 p.m. | Western Carolina |
| WYCW | W 44–38 | 7,201 | |
October 13 | 1:00 p.m. | No. 6 Wofford |
| WYCW | W 34–14 | 7,006 | |
October 20 | 2:00 p.m. | Samford |
| WYCW | L 25–38 | 6,016 | |
October 27 | 2:00 p.m. | at The Citadel | ESPN+ | W 28–17 | 8,574 | ||
November 3 | 1:00 p.m. | Chattanooga |
| WYCW | W 16–10 | 4,332 | |
November 10 | 1:30 p.m. | at VMI | ESPN+ | W 49–13 | 3,922 | ||
November 17 | 3:00 p.m. | at Mercer | ESPN+ | W 35–30 | 8,811 | ||
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- Source: Schedule
- This game has been cancelled in anticipation of Hurricane Florence.
Game summaries
at Elon
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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No. 25 Paladins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
No. 15 Phoenix | 14 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 45 |
at East Tennessee State
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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Paladins | 7 | 6 | 14 | 0 | 27 |
Buccaneers | 3 | 3 | 7 | 16 | 29 |
Western Carolina
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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Catamounts | 7 | 3 | 14 | 14 | 38 |
Paladins | 14 | 17 | 7 | 6 | 44 |
Wofford
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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No. 6 Terriers | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 14 |
Paladins | 14 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 34 |
Samford
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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Bulldogs | 10 | 0 | 21 | 7 | 38 |
Paladins | 3 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 25 |
at The Citadel
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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Paladins | 7 | 7 | 0 | 14 | 28 |
Bulldogs | 3 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 17 |
Chattanooga
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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Mocs | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 10 |
Paladins | 7 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 16 |
at VMI
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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Paladins | 21 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 49 |
Keydets | 7 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 13 |
at Mercer
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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Paladins | 7 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 35 |
Bears | 7 | 3 | 14 | 6 | 30 |
Ranking movements
Week | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Poll | Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Final | |||||||
STATS FCS | 23 | 25 | RV | RV | NR | NR | NR | RV | NR | NR | RV | RV | RV | ||||||||
Coaches | 21 | 21 | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | RV | RV |