Last week Clay Hendrix said he thinks Furman has as good a chance as any of winning the Southern Conference football championship.

It’s true. No school has emerged as a favorite. All appear to have chinks in their armor.

The Paladins have defeated two Coastal Athletic Association schools, William & Mary and Campbell. The chink is an astonishing loss to Presbyterian, the non-scholarship wonder of the Pioneer Football League. The Blue Hose have also astonished Mercer.

Furman (2-1) is the only SoCon team with two victories to date.

Mercer is 1-1. The Citadel, Chattanooga and East Tennessee State are 1-2. VMI is 0-2. Western Carolina, Wofford and Samford are all 0-3.

In the conference, Mercer and The Citadel are 1-0. Wofford and Samford are 0-1.

Conferences can be valued in two ways. It can be top-heavy, with a group of powers widely favored over the rest, or it can be good, or at least competitive, top-to-bottom. The latter is the SoCon so far. Someone will emerge. No one has yet.

In the Paladins’ latest cliffhanger, Evan James caught a 30-yard touchdown pass to give Furman a fourth-quarter lead, and Joshua Stoneking made it stand up with a fourth-down sack with 16 seconds remaining to clinch Furman’s 28-24 victory over Campbell at Barker-Lane Stadium in Buies Creek, N.C., on Saturday.

 Furman trailed 24-21 in the fourth quarter before quarterback Trey Hedden engineered a nine-play, 80-yard drive that featured six consecutive completions, including the go-ahead 30-yard toss to James, who turned around his defender on the play to easily collect Hedden’s aerial in the end zone with 4:50 remaining. The Paladins’ game-winning drive was aided by an illegal substitution penalty on Campbell on fourth down that gave Furman a first down at its own 31.

 James, a freshman wide receiver from Apopka, Fla., caught 10 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown.

Hedden, a sophomore from Tampa, Fla., connected on 26/35 passes for 314 yards and two touchowns.  His first strike of the game covered 24 yards to tight end Jackson Pryor in the second quarter to give Furman a 9-7 lead. Campbell jumped offside on the PAT, and Furman elected to go for two, which it converted with a Jayquan Smith run that stretched the advantage to 11-7.

 Stoneking, a redshirt sophomore defensive end from nearby Raleigh, headlined the Paladin defense with six tackles and 2-1/2 sacks.

All three earned plaudits for their performances. James was national Freshman of the Week as determined by Stats Perform. Hedden and Stoneking were offensive and defensive Players of the Week according to the SoCon.

 Ja’Keith Hamilton finished with seven receptions for 104 yards, including a 28-yard catch and run on an inside screen play that set up a Smith one-yard scoring dive to help put Furman up, 18-17 late in the third quarter.

Campbell (0-3) went ahead 24-18 on a J.J. Cowan seven-yard scoring run on the second play of the fourth quarter, but Furman responded with the last 10 points of the game, beginning with Ian Williams’ second field of the game, from 28 yards, to make it 24-21 with 12 minutes to go.

 The Paladins’ game-winning drive featured three catches for 45 yards by James, an 11-yard grab by Hamilton, and 19-yard connection from Hedden to Devin Hester, Jr., that set up the 30-yard, go-ahead score by James on the next play.

Campbell’s final possession saw the Camels move from their 25 to the Paladin 10, but on fourth down, Furman’s defensive rush hemmed in Camel quarterback Kamden Sixkiller, and Stoneking put him on the turf at the Paladin 17-yard line with 16 seconds on the clock.

Furman has thus far won by two and four and lost by one in overtime.

This Saturday brings relief and a chance to take a breath after three tension-filled games to open the season. The Paladins visit Samford on Sept. 27 as their SoCon whirlwind begins in Homewood, Ala.

Only one of the next four games is at Paladin Stadium. East Tennessee State visits on Oct. 4.

Take a look at the stats here.

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