New coach trying to restore Furman’s winning culture
Clay Hendrix remembers the culture from his time as both a player and a coach at Furman.
So when he got an opportunity this offseason to become the new head coach at the Greenville, S.C., university, he jumped on it with intentions of bringing back a similar culture.
A much easier early-season schedule than the Paladins had last year should help.
They finished last season 3-8, with all wins coming in Southern Conference play. They started the season 0-6, with losses to then-ranked Football Bowl Subdivision team Michigan State and then The Citadel, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Coastal Carolina, Kennesaw State and Samford — all teams that spent at least one week in the Football Championship Subdivision Top 25 last season.
Furman was impressive at the beginning, falling by two scores to the Spartans and then by single digits to both the Bulldogs and Mocs. But then came double-digit losses in the next three games. The Paladins did rally for wins in three of three final five games, but they’re looking for much better overall results in 2017.
“We came out with great momentum last season,” noseguard Jaylan Reid said at SoCon media day. “We faced some adversity, and things didn’t fall the way we wanted it to fall, but in the end we learned from it. We’ve got a new coaching staff, which is something that happens in college football, but we came in the offseason ready to go, ready to work and turn this thing around. … We didn’t finish how we want to, but the guys are ready to turn it around this year.”
So is the head coach. Hendrix came to Furman after 10 years as the offensive line coach at Air Force, the last seven of which he spent as the associate head coach. The Falcons run the
triple-option, but the Paladins under Hendrix are expected to run a multiple offense, with some option elements added to the mix.
Center Matthew Schmidt said the biggest change has just been trying to get adjusted to the new calls at the line.
“With it being new, sometimes you think about it a little bit more, and thinking on the field is not a great thing to do,” Schmidt said. “The adjustment is going well, though. Once we get into fall camp, we’re going to rep those things thousands and thousands of times, and it’ll be like nothing once we get out there the first game of the season.”
Hendrix and the Paladins were selected sixth in one SoCon preseason poll and seventh in the other, so expectations aren’t very high. The biggest challenge for the new head coach is just trying to relay his concepts to the team in trying to revive the once-proud tradition of the program.
“We can’t win the conference championship today, but we can do things we need to do to continue to prepare,” Hendrix said. “Our kids have done a phenomenal job from the time we got here to now. Are we where we need to be talent-wise? No, but we have who we have and I like our football team, I really do.
“In the past, we won with high-character guys that love playing football, that were also high academic achievers and appreciated what Furman could do. We have a bunch of those kinds of guys; it’s just a matter of helping a bit with X’s and O’s. It’s just getting the mindset of doing things we’ve got to do to win games, and hopefully we can help them with that.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.