The FCS Preseason All-American is a yearly award given to the projected impact players from the FCS. This year’s 2020 Stat Perform FCS Preseason All-American Team was released earlier this month featuring 101 players from 56 teams and all 13 FCS conferences. Eight Southern Conference athletes were given the preseason award. Most notably, two of Furman’s own were given the honor. Senior running back Devin Wynn and Redshirt Junior, outside linebacker Adrian Hope were both awarded 2020 Stats Perform All-America Team honors.  

When football does resume, it is safe to say that the All-American team will not be last time either name is mentioned. Wynn has been a workhorse for Furman’s ground and running game. Impressively, he is coming into his senior season ranked 15th all time on Furman Football’s career rushing leaderboard with 1,957 rushing yards. In his junior year alone, he was ranked 5th in the Southern Conference for rushing and 2nd in the conference for rushing touchdowns.  

When asked about their relationship with each other and their newfound responsibilities as leaders of Furman’s football program Wynn said, “Adrian is my brother and we have been friends since we stepped on campus at Furman. It is an honor to be selected alongside him... his work ethic is unmatched. He and I have competitions daily and we both drive each other to be the best player and leader that we can be.” For Hope, he realizes that “Devin’s and my roles have changed significantly since freshman year and as we enter our senior year, I realized there are not any older guys to look up to, and now we are regarded as those guys for younger players to look up too for guidance and leadership.”  

Like Wynn but on the other side off the football, Hope has been a powerhouse at Furman. Hope looks to continue his dominant campaign with the Paladins and to best the historical season that he had in 2018, when he was awarded AP second team All-American awards along with placing 4th in votes for the Jerry Rice Award, which is given annually by STATS to the top freshman in the FCS. He led the FCS with 15.0 sacks, recording takedowns in eight of Furman’s 10 games, and ranked second nationally with five forced fumbles. His 15.0 sacks rank as third highest season tally in Furman history and already place him sixth among career leaders. He tallied 32 tackles on the season and 16.5 going for-loss.  

Both Wynn and Hope are important pieces crucial to the success of Furman Football. The program itself finished last year with an 8-5 record overall, going 6-2 in the Southern Conference and receiving an at-large bid to play in the FCS playoffs. This year, Wynn and Hope are hungry for more.