By MONTE DUTTON

What comes to mind when the football programs of Furman and Samford tee off?

Southern Conference championships. The last two. The Paladins last season and the Bulldogs in 2022.

It’s the opening SoCon game at Paladin Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m. Furman is 1-3. Samford is 1-2. Below-.500 records are irrelevant in relation to this year’s title and an automatic berth in the FCS playoffs.

“We’ve got standards we live by here,” Furman head coach Clay Hendrix said. “[Samford is] the same way. … We just need to make the plays when we’ve got the opportunity.”

Furman and Samford are 14-2 (7-1, 7-1) and 12-4 (8-0, 4-4), respectively, in the SoCon over the past two seasons. Chris Hatcher is 57-43 at Samford, where he is in his 11^th season. Hendrix, in his eighth year at Furman, is 52-32.

“We’re going to fix the things we can fix,” said Hendrix. “There’s a saying, ‘we’ve got get the right guys on the bus and the wrong guys off the bus.’ I think we’ve got the right guys on the bus.

“I like this team. We’ve got some talent, but we’ve got to do some things better than we’re doing them.”

The Paladins wrapped up their non-conference schedule with a 34-24 road loss against 12th-ranked William & Mary on Saturday. Idle last weekend, Samford claimed its first win of the season two weeks ago with a 12-7 home triumph over Alabama State.

Furman owns a slight 14-12 edge in a series characterized by dramatic finishes and the visitor enjoying notable success. The Bullldogs are 8-6 in Greenville, having earned a 34-27 win in Paladin Stadium in 2022, while Furman has won the last three clashes in Birmingham, including last year’s 27-22 decision.

The Paladins’ loss at William & Mary was not without its encouraging aspects.

Making his second start, freshman quarterback Trey Hedden passed for 264 yards and two touchdowns, including an 84-yard connection to sophomore Colton Hinton for the ninth longest pass in program history. Sophomore tight end Brock Chappell had four receptions, punctuated by a one-handed 14-yard touchdown grab. His understudy, Jackson Pryor, another freshman, made his career debut with two catches for 88 yards.

Less encouraging was the Furman defense’s inability to stop the run game in Williamsburg, where the Tribe ran up 384 yards.

Three sacks and a pair of forced turnovers helped keep the game’s outcome in question until the closing minute, and that followed a pair of unlikely field-goal misses from 27 and 29 yards that could have put the Paladins in front late.

Samford quarterback Quincy Crittendon has completed 65/97 passes for 636 yards and three touchdowns. He has been intercepted twice. Four targets – E. Jai Mason (13),  Brendan Jenkins (12), Iaan Cousin (12) and D.J. Rias (10) – are in double figures in receptions.

The leading rusher is Damonta Witherspoon with 180 yards and two scores. He is the only Samford rusher averaging more than four yards per carry.

Sponsored by BMW, Saturday’s Family Weekend game, is to be streamed via ESPN+ and aired over flagship The Fan Upstate and its four stations: 97.7 FM/1330 AM in Greenville, and 97.1 FM/950 AM in Spartanburg. Broadcasts can be secured via Audacy.com, as well as through FurmanPaladins.com.

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