Football 9.28.23

The Chris Hatcher Show: Sept. 28, 2023

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Each week during the 2023 season, we will release The Chris Hatcher Show. The show hosted this season by Tyler Brain and featuring head football coach Chris Hatcher, will look back at the previous week's football game and look forward to the upcoming contest.

In front of the second-largest crowd in Seibert Stadium history, Samford fell 47-24 to the Chattanooga Mocs during the university's annual Family Weekend game. Even with the defeat, coach Hatcher was enthusiastic about the attendance.

"I am very appreciative of our fan support. Last year, it really kind of grew as the season went on, especially since the students are starting to support the team and all the athletic teams here at Samford. That is always good to see. We had a great following with the parent's weekend being there," Hatcher said. "Unfortunately, we did not give them a whole lot to cheer for, but you have days like that. We made a lot of mistakes. Fortunately, for our team, it is something to build off of. We got down early, a lot of turnovers, a lot of missed assignments, but we found ourselves there late in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie the ballgame. That tells a little something about the resolve of our team. It was a great environment. The Dog Walk was phenomenal, the quad was hopping and hopefully we can get a little bit more of the same this coming week as we play our second home game in a row."

Graduate student Chandler Smith paced the Samford offense against Chattanooga with eight catches for 87 yards and a 21-yard scamper to the end zone on the ground. The preseason All-American has lived up to his playmaking ways in the early going of the 2023 campaign.

"He has been a very good player since he got here. He was a former walk-on that, last year, made all-conference. He is definitely the best playmaker that we have right now on our team and I say that because each week he goes out and makes plays. He practices hard," Hatcher said. "It's funny when you practice hard and work hard, the ball always seems to come your way. He does that and we need some other guys to step up and have that type of work ethic during the course of the week in order for them to make plays because I do believe that we do have a bunch of playmakers on our team, we just haven't seen it on game day. He is phenomenal, he had a great punt return that was unfortunately called back for a touchdown. The reverse, he beat them with great speed, but he is a really good football player and we need to find a way to keep feeding him the ball during the course of the rest of the ball games we play this season."

On the defensive side of the ball, Garret Morris led the Bulldog defense with a game-high nine tackles and ranks second on the squad with 28 tackles, only behind Noah Martin. Morris, who transferred in from Penn and is an Alabama native, is coming into his own in the Samford secondary.

"He is a good leader and he is a very hard worker. He played at Auburn High School here in the state of Alabama and the thing about him is that is in a position, he plays our spoke position, that we rely on that guy to make a lot of tackles," Hatcher said. "If that guy is not doing a good job of tackling the football and then we are in trouble. It was good to see him play well on Saturday."

Samford and ETSU are meeting for the 11th time in program history. The Bulldogs lead the all-time series with a record of 7-3. In the last two meetings between the SoCon foes, over 200 points have been scored and over 2,000 yards of total offense have been gained.

"Their backs are against the walls like ours is right now. We are still early in the season. I believe that they are going to come in and be very aggressive in what they do. That is the type of ball they play; they have really good players. They have a good tradition there and they are not too far removed from their conference championship run that they had several years ago," Hatcher said. "Southern Conference football at its best come Saturday around 12:02 at Seibert Stadium, so we need a lot of people there and hopefully our ball club will show up and play like we are capable of playing."

The kickoff with ETSU is slated for Noon at Seibert Stadium on Saturday. Tickets can still be purchased here.

FOLLOW THE BULLDOGS:
For the latest news and information on Samford football, visit the official website for Samford Athletics at SamfordSports.com. Fans can also follow the Bulldogs on social media at /SamfordFootball (Facebook), @SamfordFootball (Instagram) and @SamfordFootball (Twitter).

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Players Mentioned

#32 Noah Martin: LB; 6' 1"; Junior

#0 Chandler Smith: WR; 5' 10"; Senior

Players Mentioned

#32 Noah Martin
: 6' 1"; Junior
: LB

#0 Chandler Smith
: 5' 10"; Senior
: WR

Samford University Athletics

Players Mentioned

#32 Noah Martin

#0 Chandler Smith

Players Mentioned

#32 Noah Martin

#0 Chandler Smith