Alabama News Center 2023 football preview: Samford University
Quarterback Michael Hiers, last year's Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year, is back for his senior season with the Samford Bulldogs. (Samford University Athletics)
Chris Hatcher says “repeat” isn’t part of the vocabulary of his Samford football team after winning its first outright conference championship since 1936.
“Our goal is we want to win one game a week, and the byproduct of that is to be champions again,” Hatcher said. “Repeat would mean everybody that played last year would be back, and we’ve got a lot of new faces. If we’re fortunate to be the champions again, there’ll be a lot of one-time champions on the squad.”
The difference between last season and this season for the Bulldogs is Hatcher and his staff have more talent across their lineup.
“I do think the pieces are there,” the coach said. “We did lose really good players last season. What I’ve seen thus far, I believe that we have more depth than we did last year. I didn’t say that our frontline was as good as last year. That’s not what I’m saying. But we have more depth and I’m really excited about that.”
One of those returning players is Michael Hiers, who emerged from a quarterback battle in the 2022 preseason to establish himself as one of the best signal-callers in Samford history. As a junior, he was named SoCon Offensive Player of the Year, second-team All-American by Stats Perform and third team by the Associated Press. The former Briarwood Christian High School Lion finished fourth in the Walter Payton Award voting.
“I think the biggest thing with him is he’s a really good leader,” Hatcher said. “The guys have rallied around him. He has a good voice in the locker room and, of course, you get that good voice by how you play on the field. He had an outstanding season last year.”
The coach said his all-star signal-caller is more than happy to share the credit for his success, acknowledging a really good running game, a solid offensive line and a great receiving corps. And then there was the improved defense that got the ball back to the offense.
“We’ve got to continue to have all those things happen,” Hatcher said. “He’s got to play within the system, not try to do too much. I do think we have the pieces around him for him to have another successful football season.”
Samford head coach Chris Hatcher sees his goal this season as winning one game each week. Last year, that approach led the Bulldogs to a Southern Conference championship. (Samford University Athletics)
The improvement on defense in 2022 was the result of one of Hatcher’s best recruiting efforts. Not for a player, but defensive coordinator Chris Boone.
“Actually, I tried to hire Chris a few years ago and he turned me down,” the coach admitted. “But I was persistent in my recruiting efforts to get him here. He’s a really good coach. He brings great intensity to our program that I think has carried over to all the phases of the game.
“Boone has got a tremendous defensive staff that he’s worked with in other places that was part of the hiring process, that he could pick his guys as long as I liked them, which I did,” Hatcher said. “We played with an edge over there. We got a lot of confidence. I think more importantly, we’ve had good players, but he’s been able to give them the tools for success and put them in the right position.”
Having turned 50 in February, the Samford coach said his “give a darn meter” gets lower every year as far as what everybody else thinks about him and his program.
“When you’re a young coach, you’re very concerned about perception,” he said. “As you get older, you realize the only thing that really matters is your team, your staff, your inner circle and how you treat them, how you coach them, how they feel about where the program’s going.
“I would say that’s No. 1,” Hatcher said, “that you’re more focused on what’s really important, not what somebody else thinks about you.”
Alabama News Center is posting season previews for all 16 college football programs in Alabama. Read previews for Birmingham-Southern College, the University of West Alabama, Jacksonville State University, the University of North Alabama, the University of South Alabama, Tuskegee University, UAB, Huntingdon College, Faulkner University, Alabama A&M University and Alabama State University, and look for a new football preview each day through Friday.
