BIRMINGHAM, Ala.  – After downing Wofford on the road the last time out, the Samford football team welcomes the No. 5 Furman Paladins to Seibert Stadium on Saturday for a highly-anticipated Southern Conference showdown.
 
The Red Out game is slated for a noon kickoff and can be streamed on ESPN+. Blake Gardner and Damian Mitchell will reprise their roles in the broadcast booth with Taylor Kauffman joining the pair from the sidelines.
 
All Samford fans are strongly encouraged to wear their Bulldog red on Saturday. Students will receive a red t-shirt at halftime after a very special announcement from Samford President Beck Taylor.
 
For this week's complete game notes, click here.
 
Last time out, the Samford Bulldogs whomped the Wofford Terriers in a 31-10 road contest. On the day, Jay Stanton found the end zone twice, while the Bulldog didn't allow a touchdown until late in the fourth quarter.
 
Samford and Furman are meeting for the 26th time on Saturday. The lead the all-time 13-12, but the two squads have split the last 10 meetings evenly. Despite the parity in the series, Samford has down the Paladins at home since 2017.
 
Best In Stanton
Senior running back Jay Stanton backed up his best performance as a Bulldog with a 104 yard and two touchdown performance on the ground. Stanton's back-to-back 100-yard performances marks the first time since Fabian Truss in 2013 that a Bulldog has eclipsed the century mark in consecutive games.
 
Behind Enemy Lines
Entering the contest with Furman, Bulldog linebacker Noah Martin leads the SoCon with 9.5 tackles for loss. The next closest defender has seven TFLs.
 
A Hiers Ran Nation-State
Graduate Student quarterback Michael Hiers has been stacking the yards over the first half of the season. Entering the Furman games, Hiers has thrown for 1,768 yards which is good enough to lead all the FCS and is the most yards by a Division I quarterback in the football-crazed state of Alabama.
 
Stanton Leaving His Mark
Despite the #HatchAttack offense being synonymous with throwing the ball all over the field, senior running back Jay Stanton has shot to leave Samford as the second-best rusher in program history. After rushing for 690 yards and seven touchdowns in 2022 and 423 yards over the first half of the season, Stanton needs 184 yards on the ground to surpass Jerome Russell's 3,122 yards for the second most career rushing yards. Chris Evans holds the Bulldog record with 4,575.
 
Hatcher's Offenses Produce
Through his first eight seasons, Samford head coach Chris Hatcher's offenses have averaged more points than under any other head coach in program history. Entering the season, Hatcher's teams have averaged 34.53 points per game, ahead of Bobby Bowden's 28.57 average. Terry Bowden (1987-1992) averaged 27.92 points per game during his tenure while Bill Gray (2001-06 / 25.68) and Pat Sullivan (2007-14 / 25.50) round out the top five.
 
Putting Up Points
Over the last eight seasons under head coach Chris Hatcher, the Samford offense has scored at least 30 points 49 times. The unit has put up at least 40 points 28 times, and at least 50 points a total of 14 times.
 
Quick Strikes
In eight seasons under head coach Chris Hatcher, Samford has made a habit of quick scoring drives. In Hatcher's time at Samford, Samford has had 186 scoring drives of two minutes or less and 85 that have lasted one minute or less.
 
Samford Against South Carolina Teams
Samford has an all-time record of 44-29-1 against teams from the state of South Carolina, including a mark of 12-13 against Saturday's opponent, Furman.
 
Samford Against Southern Conference Teams
Since joining the Southern Conference in 2008, Samford has posted a record of 69-52 in conference games. All-time against each current members of the SoCon, Samford has a mark of 95-82-4, including a 14-13-1 record against Mercer. Samford's all-time record against each current SoCon team is: Chattanooga (11-34-3), The Citadel (9-7), ETSU (8-3), Furman (12-13), Mercer (15-13-1), VMI (7-3), Western Carolina (17-4) and Wofford (16-5).
 
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