GREENVILLE, S.C. – Furman safety Taylen Blaylock has been selected Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Week, the league announced today.

Blaylock, a graduate transfer seeing his first action as a Paladin, played a pivotal role in Furman's 23-21 season opening victory over William & Mary on Saturday, recording six tackles, including two for-loss, an interception that he returned for a touchdown, and a pivotal pass breakup late in the fourth quarter.

He was joined on the SoCon honor list by placekicker/punter teammate Ian Williams, who landed league special teams player of the week laurels after earlier today being named national special teams player of the week by Stats Perform.

A Houston, Texas, native who spent the last two years at Lindenwood before enrolling in Furman's graduate program in January, Blaylock opened Furman's scoring when he intercepted a pass at the Tribe 43-yard line and returned it for a touchdown to help stake Furman to an early 7-0 lead.  He followed that with two critical defensive plays late in the fourth quarter — the first coming on a third-and-one play at the William & Mary 34 when he burst through the line on a safety blitz to record a four-yard loss.  On the next play, he batted down a fourth down pass attempt to give Furman possession on downs with 1:56 remaining.

Furman (1-0) plays host to Presbyterian (1-0) this Saturday at Paladin Stadium in a 2:00 p.m. contest.