BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – To close out the opening season two-game road swing, the Samford football team is slated to head south for a Saturday showdown with the Florida Gators.
Saturday's contest is scheduled for a 6 p.m. CT kickoff in Gainesville, Fla., and will be streamed on ESPN+ along with SEC Network+. Clay Matvick and Steve Addazio will be on the call.
For this week's complete game notes, click
here.
In the 2024 season opener, Samford dropped a 38-29 contest to the West Georgia Wolves in Carrollton. In the defeat,
Quincy Crittendon became only the second quarterback in the Hatcher era to throw for 300 yards and rush for 90 more yards in the same game. Defensively, preseason All-American
Noah Martin tallied a game-high 11 tackles.
Samford and Florida are meeting for the fourth time in program history and the first time since the 70-52 shootout in 2021. Before 2021, the two squads went 99 years without playing each other after facing off in back-to-back seasons back in 1921 and 1922.
Returning To The Swamp
During the 2021 contest, a total of 11 current Bulldogs saw action in the game including
Midnight Steward,
Noah Martin,
Thomas Neville,
Johnny Johnson,
Wade White,
Cooper Frazier,
Chris Noble,
Luke Byrne,
Zach Brown,
Nick Jackson and
Mitchell Owen.
Hatcher's Offenses Produce
Through his first nine 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 33.92 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 nine seasons under head coach
Chris Hatcher, the Samford offense has scored at least 30 points 50 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 the nine-plus seasons under head coach
Chris Hatcher, Samford has made a habit of quick scoring drives. In Hatcher's time at Samford, the Bulldogs have had 192 scoring drives of two minutes or less and 90 that have lasted one minute or less.
Samford Against Florida Teams
Samford has an all-time record of 18-17-2 against teams from the state of Florida, including a mark of 0-3 against Saturday's opponent, Florida.
Samford Against Southeastern Conference Teams
Samford has an all-time record of 2-79-3 against the current members of the Southeastern Conference. Samford has played an SEC team in nine of the last 11 fall seasons. Samford defeated Mississippi State, 6-0 in 1909 and Ole Miss by a score of 7-6 in 1934.
On This Date
Samford has an all-time record of 4-3 in games played on Sept. 7 with all games being played since 1985. The last time that the Bulldogs won on Sept. 7 was a 49-41 victory over West Alabama in 2017. The last defeat for Samford on Sept. 7 was a 31-21 loss at Arkansas in 2013.
Mister Martin
Noah Martin, a consensus first team All-SoCon defender in 2023, led the SoCon with 109 and became the first Bulldog defender to eclipse 100 tackles since John Staton had 115 in 2019. Martin's 109 tackles were good enough to rank him 13th nationally.
Heading into the 2024 season, Martin was named a preseason All-American by FCS Football Central, Stats Perform and Phil Steele while landing on the Buck Buchanan Award Watch List.
Martin picked up right where he left off in 2023 with a game-high 11 tackles in the season opener at West Georgia. Dating back to last season, the Chattanooga native has 41 total tackles in his last three games played.
The Long Wait
After starting for an injured Micheal Hiers in the 2022 FCS Quarterfinal game at North Dakota State, junior quarterback
Quincy Crittendon waited 631 days to make his return to the starting lineup for the Bulldogs.
In the season opener against West Georgia, Crittendon became just the second Bulldog signal caller in program history to throw for over 300 yards and rush for over 90 yards in a game. Devlin Hodges did the feat twice in 2015. Crittendon was also the only QB in all of D1 football to put up that stat line on the opening weekend of the 2024 season.
A Familiar Face On The Florida Sideline
Saturday's contest against Florida on Saturday will include a familiar face for Samford head coach
Chris Hatcher and the Samford faithful. Florida's co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Russ Callaway was on staff at Samford under Hatcher from 2015 to 2019. Callaway started off on Hatcher's first staff in 2015 as the wide receivers coach and pass game coordinator before being promoted to the role of offensive coordinator for the 2016-19 seasons.
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).
