Clay Hendrix's Era at Furman Will be Defined by Perseverance (Part 1 of 4)
Clay Hendrix Left a Lasting Legacy Unlike Any Coach Before Him
GREENVILLE, S.C.--Furman head football coach Clay Hendrix (62-49) announced that he would be retiring at the end of the 2026 season, which was flooring news for me even though I knew it was inevitable within the next few years. It still shocked me.
Over the final four weeks of the season, I will be taking a look back at the memorable moments that defined a decade of Elite becoming the Standard in Greenville. In the final of the four-part series of articles, I will take a look at some of the viable candidates to this most appealing job opening.
Hendrix is the last puzzle piece. He's the last from the Dick Sheridan coaching tree, which is essentially Furman football. Fifteen SoCon titles, a national title and three national title game appearances encompass the legendary collection of coaches, that helped establish Furman's winning tradition some 48 years ago.
Jimmy Satterfield (1986-93), Bobby Johnson (1994-2001), Bobby Lamb (2002-'10), Bruce Fowler (2011-16) and now, Clay Hendrix (2017-'26), all played for or coached under Sheridan, who is The Godfather of Furman football. No other coach in Furman's great lineage had to endure more change, adversity and even tragedy than Hendrix.
When I sat down to reflect on what his part of Furman's great football legacy would be, I found my spirits lifted by all of the wonderful memories he helped me form along this decade-long journey.
I guess the one thing that sticks out more than anything else is the fact that I don't think another coach could have handled all the adversity that this program had to endure over the past decade than Clay Hendrix.
Whether it was the loss of Bryce Stanfield to a tragedy, or it was the loss something as trivial as a football game, Hendrix always had his team ready for the tough circumstances and how to meet those adverse situations every step of the way.
It was just last December that we celebrated the retirement of one legendary Furman coach, with Doug Allison calling it a career prior to the fall of 2025 season, and his team would respond by having an unprecedented season, making all the way to NCAA Division I College Soccer's version of the Final Four, which is known as the "College Cup." It was a well-deserving crowning achievement for a career that spanned three decades, which is almost precisely as long as Hendrix has spent as a player, assistant and now head coach (29 years).
With four games remaining in the 2026 season, Furman head coach Clay Hendrix made one of the more difficult decisions of his coaching career, and after spending the better part of 48 hours talking it over with his wife, LeeAnn, Hendrix made the decision to retire at the end of the 2026 football season. The Paladins have lost five-straight and fell to 2-6 last week after a 13-6 loss to Samford.
Like Allison, Hendrix would have a crowning achievement of what was a great career, and it would be that that same crowning achievement that came in the final season for Allison, came three years prior to his announced retirement for Hendrix, with the Paladins fielding one of the greatest football teams in its storied gridiron history in 2023.
During that particular campaign, the Paladins won 10 games for a second-straight season and advanced to the FCS quarterfinals for the first time in 18 years, as Furman stood on the brink of getting back to the FCS final four before losing a 35-28 heartbreaker in overtime at Montana.
Furman won its first outright Southern Conference title in 34 years in 2023, as the Paladins finished 7-1 in conference play and rose as high as No. 2 in the country before losing in the regular-season finale, 19-13, at Wofford, which ultimately likely costs Furman a top four seed and meant that the Paladins would have to go on the road to Missoula instead of playing in the friendly confines of Paladin Stadium in the FCS Quarterfinals.
Over the course of two seasons in 2022 and '23, the Paladins experienced their greatest successes under the leadership of Hendrix, finishing a combined 20-6 overall, which included a 14-2 mark in Southern Conference mark. The Paladins picked up impressive playoff wins over Elon (W, 30-6) and Chattanooga (W, 26-7). Furman's outright SoCon title in 2023 was its first outright SoCon crown since 1989.
Overcoming Adversity and Tragedy
Perhaps no other coach in the history of Furman athletics had to encounter more adversity or tragedy within a tenure than both Allison and Hendrix. Both were forced to deal with situations that no head coach should have to deal with and nothing in their coaching training could have exactly prepared them for--the loss of a student-athlete.
Allison had to deal with the loss of seven years into his head coaching career at Furman, losing talented captain and member of the U-17 National Team, Gray Griffin, to a car accident on the way back from a music concert in Charlotte just before 3 AM on Oct. 12, 2002.
Griffin, who was the only one of the four people in the car to perish after their Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) swerved left to miss a car and overturned and was then struck by a an on-coming tractor-trailer truck in Spartanburg County, with US Men's Youth National Team teammates Jonathan Villalobos and Chefik Simo, and other friend and passenger, Sean Murray, who all suffered serious injuries in the crash, but survived.
Like Allison, Hendrix's would encounter such a tragedy, when Bryce Stanfield experienced a medical emergency during a voluntary workout in which he did not participate in early February of 2024, as the 21-year old rising senior defensive lineman would pass away two days later surrounding by teammates at Memorial Hospital in downtown Greenville.
The cause of death was later determined to be a pulmonary embolism, which occurred just a day for spring practice was to begin. Stanfield was a vital part of Furman's program for three seasons and was expected to be one of the leaders on a young, but talented unit in 2024. Stanfield logged action in all 13 games as a reserve defensive lineman on that 2023 team, finishing the season with 13 tackles, four tackles-for-loss and 2.5 sacks in the championship banner-winning campaign.
The Hard Struggle Since the Loss of Stanfield...
Sometimes tragedy, when it happens, can leave a subconscious psychological scar on a program. I learned this back in February of 2016 when Mercer's basketball team had a player--Jibri Bryan-- get murdered at a local convenience store. This was a program that was only a little less than two years removed from beating Duke in an NCAA Tournament game, but the loss of Bryan during the middle of that season was something that legendary head coach Bob Hoffman never really recovered from, and it's something I think that left a psychological scar for the program for years to come. In 2019 following a SoCon Tournament loss to Furman, Hoffman was unceremoniously fired.
While it's a different circumstance with Clay Hendrix and his retirement, I think I am correct in making the assumption that, when Bryce Stanfield passed way, something inside the program was collectively lost. Clay Hendrix has always been a good natured man with joy in his heart, but over the past couple of seasons, the countenance hasn't been quite the same on his face. I think that's true for all of us whether we realize it or not. The loss of Bryce Stanfield had an impact just as it did for Mercer's basketball program a decade ago.
The decision made by Hendrix to retire suddenly is classy in so many ways. I am not sure there was the fire there once had been before Bryce Stanfield, and that, combined with the direction of college athletics, and in particular FCS Football at a place like Furman, I think combined to make this job a much tougher and more laborious chore than it had been just a short three years ago.
In the aftermath of such a loss, the '24 team would also have to adapt to losing nearly all its contributing two-deep from the '23 championship team and graduated a total of 46 seniors in total, as the Paladins headed into a completely new beginning in 2024.
With the backdrop of the Stanfield, which hung over the program in 2024 like an ominous cloud, became harder to shake as the season progressed. Furman opened the season with one of its worst losses in program history, and worst as a scholarship program, dropping a 76-0 contest at Ole Miss to open the '24 season.
It was the perfect storm of events that would conspire to lead to Furman's ultimate demise that late August evening in 2024 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium-an Ole Miss team under the leadership of Lane Kiffin stacked with arguably as much talent as any in the history of the Ole Miss Rebels program, as well as a Furman program that was still very young at every position. With Kiffin's offense still running tempo late in the third quarter up by a substantial score at this point, it was the kind of thing that, for a team having to manage the loss of a teammate for the entire off-season, didn't really deserve to open the season following such a tragedy.
That perfect storm to open the season became a literal storm a month later when Hurricane Helene rolled through Western North Carolina, East Tennessee and Upstate South Carolina in late September of 2024, as the storm knocked out power throughout Greenville and Spartanburg, including rendering the entire campus of Furman, including Paladin Stadium, without a power source for the better part of a week, forcing the rare entire cancellation of a league game against Samford, as there would be no date to make up the game.
Back after three weeks off, Furman captured an emotional win at The Citadel, claiming a 17-16, win, showing the kind of character and integrity that has become emblematic Hendrix's players during his decade of leadership.
Furman's one-point win over its bitterest rival also marked Furman’s 299th Southern Conference win in the history of the program, as the Paladins improved to 299-225-11, as they commenced their 86th season of gridiron competition inside the nation’s fifth-oldest intercollegiate athletics conference a week later than expected due to the effects of Hurricane Helene.The Bulldogs outgained the Paladins 186-37 in the opening 30 minutes of football. However, in the second half, the Paladins would outgain the Bulldogs, 247-71 in the second half, which would allow Furman to end the afternoon with a slight 274-257 edge in total offense. The win marked Furman’s fourth-straight in the most-played rivalry in the Southern Conference, as the Paladins improved to 64-37-3 in the all-time series. Furman also improved to 5-1 overall in its last six SoCon openers. The Paladins also improved to 26-22-2 all-time at Johnson-Hagood Stadium.
Back-to-back home blowout losses to Chattanooga (L, 46-7) and Western Carolina (L, 52-28), would only add more frustration. If that wasn't enough, the Catamounts rolled up more than 800 of total offense, as Cole Gonzales led the Catamounts to the merciless display of both individual and team record-breaking offensive afternoon at Paladin Stadium.
After being battered by two of the league's best teams before home crowds on back-to-back Saturdays, a veritable low point was on the horizon at VMI, which if there were a onfield low point juxtaposed against the many points of pride in his decade at the helm, it would have to be Nov. 2, 2024, as the Paladins dropped a 21-17 contest against VMI at Foster Stadium. Over two years later, the Keydets have not beaten a Division I foe or defeated a SoCon foe since.
Following another 19-13 setback to Wofford, Furman headed into their final two road games of that '24 season staring a 2-9 record squarely in the face, facing back-to-back ranked foes, in No. 21 East Tennessee State and No. Mercer, who were two teams very much in the FCS Playoff and SoCon title mix. Had Furman lost both games, it would have marked the worst finish to a season in 52 years, with the 1972 Paladins having finished the season 2-9.
However, as we should have expected of Hendrix's team, they once again rose to the challenge in the face of adversity on the heels of four-straight defeats, the Paladins provided the highlight of that trying '24 campaign by going into William B. Greene Jr. Stadium.
No matter what adversity the '24 season brought, Furman's football team and its staff never wavered and never threw in the towel, and if all that hard work and dedication could pay off in one Saturday, it did in the penultimate Saturday of the 2024 football season, as Furman held off No. 21 East Tennessee State, 24-21, in front of 8,436 partisan Bucs fans on-hand at William B. Greene Stadium.
There were several plays that epitomized Furman's response of the face of another negative outcome, with none more prominent than fold under the pressure or cave to another defeat when victory, which had been more scarce than usual, seemed to look more and more like an improbability as the game wore on and ETSU settled in.
However, the Paladin offense would rise up and do the necessary. Furman put together maybe their most impressive non-scoring drive of the season to close out the road win over a ranked foe. The Paladins would snap the ball 14 times, with the final one being in the victory formation, as the Paladins celebrated in unison on their sideline at William B. Greene Jr. Stadium as the clock hit triple zeroes.
The biggest play of the drive and one of the gutsiest and most well-designed plays of the 2024 season was dialed up by Furman offensive coordinator Justin Roper, as the Paladins faced a 4th-and-3 play at the ETSU 31.
Rather than attempt a long field goal and allow the Bucs to get the football back with a chance to win the game with a touchdown, the Paladins took a timeout to talk things over. Instead of taking a shot downfield, the design was to get the ball to one of Furman's best playmakers in space, in Colton Hinton, who came free in motion underneath a short dump pass with space and some space to operate, and the sophomore wideout zigged one way to leave the first Bucs would-be tackler grasping for air, and then almost immediately zagged immediately to force a second to partially miss.
ETSU defensive back Jimmy Bowdry, who was the second defender to try and stop Hinton short of the sticks, was able to grab Hinton's ankle as he scampered past, but it was too late as the speedy and elusive wideout from Ashburn, VA., was able to lunge forward another yard and cover the needed distance to gain a first down with two minutes left. The two minute timeout was the final one of the day, and the Paladins were able to run out the remaining two minutes to clinch the road win. The win had also been a milestone win for the program, as Furman's win over the Bucs was its 300th in program history, which is more than any other SoCon program.
The Paladins would close the season with a 49-23 loss to eventual SoCon title winner Mercer, which won its first conference title of any sort in better than 90 years and its first since the restoration of its football program in 2014 following a 72-year hiatus.
The seeds were sewn in 2024 and it appeared that the '25 season for Hendrix and the Paladin football program was one that, at the very least upon outward appearance to a casual onlooker from afar, had taken an incremental step forward.
Furman finished 6-6 and 4-4 in SoCon play, which was a three-win improvement and there were plenty of positive vibes to build upon in 2026. Those positive signs came despite the fact the Paladins lost its top quarterback and top receiver to the transfer portal, with quarterback Trey Hedden--a dropback passer by trade--announcing he would enter the portal just after the season, ending up at Group of Five program New Mexico State chasing a trail once blazed not so long ago by Diego Pavia.
Evan James, who was Furman's rooking single-season record-setting wideout SoCon All-Freshman Team selection, decided to make his way to Iowa City, Iowa to play for Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The additions of a trio of talented quarterbacks--Connor Ackerley (Western New Mexico), FBS journeyman Jake Garcia (Michigan), and talented true freshman Trey Smith (), the Paladins appeared to be more than stocked with a cupboard full of talent to address the loss of quarterback Trey Hedden.
Coming into the 2026 campaign, the Paladins also returned the top defensive player in all of FCS football, in Joshua Stoneking, who led the nation in both sacks and tackles-for-loss last season returned to the fold, and was the runner-up in the Buck Buchanan Award voting, narrowly finishing behind
When Furman takes the field on Halloween Saturday against Western Carolina, it could be very well be Smith, who was not tabbed to see much time at all coming into the season, that could be the starter. With injuries to both Ackerley and Garcia keeping both less than 100%, it could be Smith that gets the call Saturday against the Catamounts.
Following a 20-13 win at two-time defending SoCon champion No. 14 Mercer--a team that had a 12-game winning streak against SoCon foes coming into the clash--things appeared to be very much on course for the Paladins to be back in that 2022 mould of challenging for a league title after two mediocre seasons prior.
The win over Mercer was the first of four ranked FCS foes the Paladins would face over the next five-week span, and in the aftermath, the outlook would be a much different one than it was a month-and-a-half ago.
Furman's offense has continued to struggle, which has offset a season for a defensive unit that continues to be among the best in FCS football. The Paladins rank 44th nationally in total defense (355.9 YPG) and 25th nationally in scoring defense (21.2PPG). The offense has been almost a completely 180 degrees in the opposite direction, having scored just eight offensive touchdowns this season, which includes two games in which the Paladins have failed to score even one offensive touchdown.
It's been a multitude of errors that have all combined to snowball into one major problem this season, whereas in the previous two seasons it was having a drop back passer in an era which that is no longer a thing in college football. You either have a mobile quarterback that can get yards on his own, or you essentially don't have an offense at all.
In terms of total offense, the Paladins rank 100th nationally in total offense (312.5 YPG) and 118th out of 124 teams ranked in scoring offense (15.1 PPG). This has unfortunately been a trend since the second half of 2023, and only that season it was masked some what by Tyler Huff's running ability under center, as well as Furman having one of the top defensive units in the country.
The Paladins, as a program, are now at that place which we like to philosophize as a "crossroads." This past January, Clay Hendrix lost his mother. As with any close-knit family, it was a tough thing for the Hendrix family, who can be seen in the Paladin Stadium stands at most games. Nearly all of them were at his welcoming press conference as the new Furman head coach a decade ago. On Saturday against Samford, there were there supporting him once again.
in many ways for Hendrix, this season has been a personal journey of sorts. It started with a game to open the season against best friend Bobby Lamb and someone he's known nearly his entire 63 years on earth. The two had resided together on Furman's sidelines for 177 of the now 195 wins inside the facility, as Hendrix's Paladins went on to defeat Lamb's Trojans, 20-3, on that evening in late August.
Both Clay's father--Hoss Hendrix--and Bobby Lamb's father--Ray Lamb--sat together to watch their sons coach football, which is something both fathers had to have taken great pride in. Just a little less than a month later, Ray Lamb passed away at the age of 90. He was a person that ended up having a significant impact on Clay to get into coaching in the first place.
Ray Lamb was a legendary high school football coach in the state of Georgia, and having grown up just across the street from the Lambs, Hendrix spoke about the big impact that had had on him as a coach growing up and even after he got into coaching.
It would prove to be a tough week for Hendrix personally, as he had to relieve Justin Roper of his duties as offensive coordinator in-season in the wake of a 13-9 loss at No. 21 Richmond, and then was present to be there for his friend Bobby Lamb and mentor Ray Lamb after getting back from the loss at Richmond.
Drew Dudzik was promoted to the offensive coordinator role and despite losing to Wofford, the Paladins had a better feel offensively and it was arguably one of the better games of the season on that side of the football.
More sad news arrived the following Thursday, as Furman would lose longtime journalist, Mate Dutton, who has faithfully covered the Paladins over the past five seasons and was a one-time assistant Sports Information Director under Rick Covington in the late 1970s. Hendrix would be the first to find out about Dutton's passing on Oct. 8, relaying the message to longtime Furman SID and good friend Hunter Reid.
Dutton was the kind of guy that Hendrix and the Furman community at-large has grown to love. Dutton, like Hendrix, was a graduate of Furman (class of '80) and also spent another life covering NASCAR for the Gaston Gazette, rubbing shoulders with the likes of the late Dale Earnhardt, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon during his time covering the sport for the Gaston Gazette.
With Dutton's passing, it was another loss that seemed to only add to the list of personal hardships that Hendrix and the Furman football program has had to endure over the first half of the season, and really, dating back a couple of years.
On the field, Furman's performance was strong at No. 16 Tennessee Tech, blocking a punt early in the second half for what looked like an apparent touchdown only to have that call overturned. to become a safety. Furman, though, once again fell short, losing 20-15.
Furman took good care of the football against the Golden Eagles, despite the wet conditions due to the effects of Hurricane Isaias, the Paladins won the turnover battle 1-0 and dominated the second half, allowing only the Golden Eagles just 85 yards in the second half, while gaining 163 yards on offense and outscoring Tech, 12-6. All told, Furman would end up with a 289-285 advantage in total offense.
That brings us to this past Saturday and the game that would ultimately lead up to the announcement of Hendrix's retirement, as Furman dropped a 13-6 contest on Homecoming against Samford, falling to just 2-6 overall and 1-3 in SoCon play.
A despondent Hendrix greeted media members in the press conference after the game, and he was for the first time visibly distraught and without words to describe the way he felt after another loss by a touchdown or less during the current five-game skid. A second game in 2026 without a touchdown, and yet it was another game of missed opportunities in the fourth quarter, and for the fifth-straight game, Furman had the ball late in the game and right at or inside the red zone only to fall short of a potential game-tying or game-winning score.
After talking it over with his wife, LeeAnn, it was less than 48 hours later when Hendrix announced his intention to retire at the end of the season. With that said, let's look back at some of the key moments of Hendrix's 10 seasons as the Paladins head coach.
A Decade of Memories: (Three SoCon titles and Four FCS Playoff Appearances)
One thing that hasn't been mentioned all too often about Hendrix and one of his real strengths I noticed from the outset of his coaching career was his ability to think outside of the box to give Furman the best chance to win. Whether it was adding a grad program to keep guys around for that extra COVID year following the pandemic, or getting Furman back to its identity of running the football in a creative manner, it was that wisdom and know-how that brought Paladin football out of the doldrums of a three-year span, which featured a 10-24 record, which included just a 7-15 mark in SoCon play, over a three-year span after breaking through and winning a SoCon title in Bruce Fowler's third season as the head coach in 2013.
That First Season...
Sept. 2, 2017-- Offensive Ingenuity and Innovation Defined Hendrix's First Season at the Helm
From the first game, it was clear Furman was going to be "different" under Hendrix, and it really started with the hiring of Drew Cronic to be the offensive coordinator and re-tool Furman's offense to become one of the more feared units in the SoCon.
That "different" would end up being a hybrid blend of several different schemes, and quarterback PJ Blazejowski's one season showed why he was the perfect dual threat for the jo, as he had really started to come into his own as Furman's signal-caller.
Furman lost a heartbreaking, 24-23, contest against Wofford in Hendrix's first game as head coach, which was also the first game of Mike Ayers' final season at the helm of the Terriers' football program
Though Furman struggled against the Terriers overall during the Hendrix era, game one in 2017 won't be soon forgotten by Paladin fans or players, as it represented more than just merely a game, but it was rather the beginning of a new era of Paladin football.
Though the Paladins would ultimately lose on a failed two-point conversion play in an attempt to score with just 46 seconds remaining, and Wofford would hang on for a memorable win, while handing Hendrix a bit of heartbreak in his first game as the head coach. The Terriers trailed for much of the night, as PJ Blazejowski led an efficient Furman offense that kept the Terriers on their toes for much of the night.
However, with that said, there were far more positives than negatives to come from the season-opening loss to the Terriers. Wofford, a prohibitive favorite to win not only the SoCon but against Furman coming into the game, the Paladins showed they were going to be one of the best teams in the SoCon from the outset of Hendrix's tenure as the head coach, and it also showed that the narrative was about to change in Greenville.
Wofford would go on to hand Furman its season-ending loss in Hendrix's first season, as the Paladins went on to an 8-5 season, which included a 6-2 mark in the SoCon, but the tone had been set for a bright future.
The First Win! Sept. 23, 2017 At Colgate
Furman would have to wait until the fourth game of the season for Clay Hendrix to capture his first win as a head coach, but it would be a sweet reward, as the Paladins got a strong performance from quarterback PJ Blazejowski, who passed for 251 yards and three touchdowns, and Furman also was opportunistic on the defensive side of the ball, creating three turnovers in the opening half and ended up turning those into scores, as Furman went on to the 45-14 road win.
It had been a long time coming to achieve the dream of coaching his alma mater, but after serving 19 years as an assistant (1988-06) and then coaching as a part of Troy Calhoun's staff at Air Force for a nine years, his long-awaited return to be head coach finally had the first result in the left column.
Elon: A Tough Loss, A Revenge Win and Curt Cignetti
It's strange that a team ever gets to play one team twice in the same season, but playing two almost rarely if ever happens. It would be the first of many strange and bizarre things that would happen over the course of Hendrix's career, whether it was strange refereeing decisions, COVID-19 or an inland Hurricane in the mountains, those are just some of the several strange occurrences to take place during the decade with Clay Hendrix at the helm.
Elon and Curt Cignetti had been part of the reason why Furman had started 0-3 in Hendrix's first season as the head coach. It was Cignetti's first season as the head coach at Elon, which is a program that had struggled under Rick Skrosky after leaving the SoCon.
The Phoenix and Cignetti would get the best of the Paladins in the first meeting between the two, winning 34-31 in early Sept at Paladin Stadium on a 36-yard game-winning field goal from Owen Johnson as time expired.
As fate would have it, these two star-crossed coaches beginning new eras at their top programs were on a collision course to meet once again in the FCS Playoffs, as the Paladins would come up with a 28-27 win in a thriller at Rhodes Stadium, ending Cignetti's first season at Elon, while extending Hendrix and the Paladins' campaign one more week.
Early in the fourth quarter, it looked as though the Phoenix were going to tie the game with 11:26 remaining after De'Sean McNair scampered into the end zone on a 28-yard run to make it a 28-27, but Furman linebacker Donovan Perryman broke through to block Owen Johnson's PAT, and the Furman defense made the lead stand up over the final 11:26 in what was a memorable playoff win for the Paladins.
To put a cherry on top pf a memorable first season back home, Hendrix was selected as the consensus SoCon Coach of the Year.
Stay tuned for part two coming up next week. Furman battles Western Carolina Saturday afternoon at Paladin Stadium, with kickoff slated for 2 p.m. EST. The Paladins have been outscored 104-35 in the past two matchups against the Catamounts.
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