Samford Stumbles To Chattanooga In Family Weekend Contest

Saturday, September 23

Birmingham, AL

2:00 PM

Samford University

1-3 , 0-2

Chattanooga

3-1 , 2-0

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Chattanooga	13	21	3	10	47
Samford	3	14	7	0	24

Samford Stumbles To Chattanooga In Family Weekend Contest

9.23.23 | Football

Box Score Photo Gallery

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – In front of the second-largest crowd in the history of Seibert Stadium, the No. 20 Samford football team fell 47-24 to the Chattanooga Mocs on Saturday afternoon.

The announced attendance of 10,870 is the most to see a game at Seibert Stadium since 11,189 saw the Bulldogs tie Alcorn State 45-45 in 1994. Alcorn State was led by Steve McNair at the time.

With the defeat, the Bulldogs drop to 1-3 on the season and 0-2 in Southern Conference play. Chattanooga moves to 3-1 and 2-0 in the league after snapping Samford's seven-game home winning streak.

Through the air, Michael Hiers finished the game completing 33-of-48 passes for 299 yards and a touchdown. Hiers completed passes to 10 different Bulldog receivers on Saturday but also threw two interceptions that were returned for Moc touchdowns.

The graduate student receiving duo of Chandler Smith and Ty King paced the Samford receiving crops in the losing effort. Smith hauled in eight catches for 87, while King caught eight balls for 52 yards and a touchdown. Freshman Brendon Jenkins added five more receptions for 25 yards along with four-catch performances by E. Jai Mason and Iaan Cousin.

As a team, Samford rushed for a season-high 174 yards led by Jay Stanton. The senior totaled 73 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries against the Mocs. To go along with Stanton's production, Mychael Hamilton carried the ball eight times for 40 yards. Hiers added 34 more yards on the ground to conclude the contest with 333 total yards on the day.

In total, Samford outgained Chattanooga by a margin of 473-429 but turned the ball over three times and committed 10 penalties for 104 yards.

Defensively, Garrett Morris had a team-high nine tackles. Noah Martin tallied six more with a pair of tackles for loss and a pass breakup. The lone Samford sack of the afternoon belonged to Joseph Mera.

On the opening drive of the game, Chattanooga marched down the field and scored on a 47-yard third-down pass to take an early 7-0 lead. The Moc defense made it a 13-0 game on Samford's first play from scrimmage when Chattanooga's Alex Mitchell took a Hiers deflected pass back 38 yards for a pick-six with 11:32 remaining in the opening stanza.

Wilson Beaverstock got Samford on the board with a 33-yard field goal, his first of the season, to cut the Chattanooga lead to 13-3 with 7:48 remaining in the first quarter.

The Mocs pushed their advantage to 20-3 in the opening moments of the second quarter before Hiers found King in the back corner of the end zone for a 21-yard strike with 11:41 left in the half to make it a 20-10 game.

Chattanooga added a pair of touchdowns before Stanton rumbled in for a three-yard score for a 34-17 contest as the two squads headed to the locker room.

Samford's final touchdown of the game came on the opening drive of the second half when Smith broke off a career-long 21-yard rushing touchdown on a reverse to bring the Bulldogs within striking distance at 34-24.

The Mocs knocked through a pair of field goals to open the fourth quarter before picking off Hiers for a second time and returning it for a touchdown for the 47-24 final.

To close out the longest homestand of the season, Samford will play host to ESTU on Sept. 30. Kickoff is slated for noon at Seibert Stadium and will be streamed on ESPN+. Tickets can be found here.

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