Furman's Clay Hendrix says Paladins have chance, but have to play 'exceptionally well' |
Furman opened its season last Thursday with a 52-0 victory over North Greenville, but there's a completely different challenge awaiting them on Saturday when the Paladins travel to Death Valley.
Fifth-ranked Clemson (1-0) hosts the Paladins at 3:30 Saturday afternoon to open its 2022 home slate (ACCN). Furman head coach Clay Hendrix told the media earlier this week that his team has a chance, but they will have to play "exceptionally well" in all facets. "Totally, totally different opponent this coming week, but certainly great program. You watch them; we have a chance," Hendrix said. "Certainly, watch the game last night (Monday), came back and watched the tape this morning, saw kind of what you thought you would see—just really talented, really disciplined football team. And I just don't have any weaknesses. So, we'll need to have a great week of practice. We will have to play exceptionally well to have a chance, but that's what we plan on doing. So, we are certainly maybe a little more rested than we might be after our first game. And I think we've tried to have our kids in a situation where we could be rested. And really, for us, it's having our kid's ability to go play as fast as we can play and ability to be able to eliminate mistakes with having any kind of chance this coming week." The biggest difference between Clemson and what Furman faced in North Greenville is speed. "It's just the team speed and trying to simulate certainly the size and speed, all those factors. You can't do it," Hendrix said. "We do a ton of good on good, and we do as best we can. But I think at the end of the day, it's just being really sound in what you do and offensively is trying to get a hat on everybody and these forcing people to be blocked and have a chance to make because we've got some good players too. And then defensively, it's not giving up, certainly big plays, and you get a chance to create some negative plays you got to take advantage of. I think we're really good defensively, and how that will translate over, we'll see. Because certainly, they got guys at every position over there that can stress you. "Not everybody has people like that. So that's kind of maybe the biggest challenge of the entire week." Hendrix said there's not a lot of difference in past Clemson teams and what he saw Monday night with Wes Goodwin leading the defense and Brandon Streeter leading the offense. There's still elite talent at every position. I hope we won't (face this kind of speed). Hopefully, this will be the one time this week," Hendrix said. "But I think what's a little bit different for them, they've had a decent number of changes, a lot of staff changes. I know they're promoting. There's a lot of similarities, but you can see some distinct differences. I know the new DC, I think, called the ball game, that spring game that we have; it was on tape. We have it, and I know they're pretty basic. And then you watch it last night, so you could see some distinct differences just in the two guys calling the place, obviously got a new guy calling in on offense as well, who's been there, who kind of did the same thing. I learned a while back; I think the difference in these games when you talk about, I mean, they're elite. "They're elite talent, and just as you've asked people that have coached there and maybe what's the biggest difference? And the thing that always came out to me was just the ability to recover. Maybe they're out of place last Thursday and we run by them. If they're out of place Saturday and he recovers, he probably makes it for a two-yard gain."
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