Samford University Athletics

Tyler Murray enters his first season as the associate head coach prior to the 2025-26 season and is in his first season at Samford University.

Murray joins the Bulldogs after spending five years with head coach Lennie Acuff at Lipscomb prior to coming to Samford. He was elevated to the associate head coach role prior to the 2024-25 season as the Bisons went 25-10 overall and 14-4 in the ASUN. Lipscomb won the regular season and conference tournament titles as they made the NCAA Tournament as a No. 14-seed where they faced Iowa State.

Previously, Murray spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Furman University. During the 2018-2019 season, Murray helped guide the Paladins to wins over defending National Champion Villanova as well as Final Four participant Loyola Chicago. Furman started that season 12-0 and ranked #23 in the ESPN Top 25 poll. 

The Paladins finished the season 25-8 and qualified for the NIT postseason tournament, only the second NIT appearance in program history. 

Prior to his time at Furman, Murray spent two seasons as the Head Coach at NCAA Division II Shorter University. In his second year in charge of the Hawks' program, Murray led the team to a 17-12 record with 5 wins over nationally ranked opponents.  The team finished the 2016-2017 season by qualifying for its second straight post-season tournament while having the second most NCAA wins in school history.

Before his time as Head Coach at Shorter University, Murray was an assistant coach at Charleston Southern University.  During the 2014-2015 season, the Bucs captured the Big South Conference regular season title as well as earned an automatic berth into the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), the 1st in program history.

In six seasons as an assistant at Shorter under Chad Warner, Murray helped guide the Hawks to their most successful run in program history. With Murray serving as recruiting coordinator, Shorter won 120 games, made two national tournament appearances, and captured the program's first conference championship since 1977.  In that same 2011-2012 season, Shorter finished the season ranked as the #1 team in the country with a record of 34-3.

Murray played his collegiate basketball at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, one of the winningest Division III programs in the country. 

During his time at HSC Murray helped lead the Tigers to the program's 10th Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship and a berth in the NCAA Division III National Tournament.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Hampden-Sydney in 2008 and his Master of Arts from Shorter in 2010.

Murray and his wife, Jessica, a former standout volleyball student-athlete at Shorter, are the parents to daughters Carson and Camden and son Carter.