Guessing Game Adds Intrigue to Samford-UNA Opener

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 27, 2026

Just like any opening game there will be a lot of unknown when Samford and UNA kick it off on Saturday night in the Story Financial Partners Bowl at Joe Davis Stadium.

Obviously, the unknowns begin on the Samford side with a new head coach in John Grass and an on-the-field coaching staff that includes no one from Chris Hatcher’s final season at the helm for the Bulldogs. It’s been UNA head coach Brent Dearmon and his staff’s task to figure out what to expect from the Bulldogs after the ball is kicked off at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

On the other side, Grass and his staff have three seasons of tape of a Dearmon-coached team at UNA. Does that make it easier to come up with a plan? Not if you listen to Grass’ assessment of the situation.

“What makes the opener difficult is he's got three new coordinators,” Grass said. “He's turned over the play caller to a guy he's coached with before that was at a FBS school last year. Play calling on offense is gonna be a little bit different. They got a new defensive coordinator so that scheme's gonna be totally different. They made changes for a reason. Schematically, they will be different probably all three phases. They also have a new special teams coordinator.”

Offensive coordinator Travis Partridge, who also coaches the quarterbacks, was the co-offensive coordinator and passing game coordinator at Bowling Green last season. Defensive coordinator Clint Bowen was the interim defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State for the final part of the 2025 season. Colby Ellis serves as the special teams coordinator as well as coaching the wide receivers.

It’s been a busy offseason for the Samford staff when it comes to watching tape to get a better grasp on what to expect.

“You look at everything,” Grass said. “Coaches, we're crazy, man. We look at all the hypotheticals, the what ifs and what if they do that.”

In this case, both staffs are in the same spot.

“It's not like they don't have questions about us too, right?” Grass said. “I mean, we're a whole new staff. You know, (defensive coordinator) Mickey Conn has not called a defense in college. They may be going back watching old Grayson (High) tape or they were watching old Clemson tape. You got two different (defensive coordinator) versions there. You got Brent Venables and Coach (Tom) Allen. What do they look like schematically? What do we look like schematically? It's a lot of questions that I think both staffs have to kind of prepare for. You want to make sure your team is as prepared as they can be and you got all the tools and answers to be successful.”

Another piece to the puzzle, especially today, is rosters that often changed dramatically from year to year. UNA does return quarterback Destin Wade, who threw for 1,118 yards and 10 touchdowns with five interceptions and rushed for 469 yards with five touchdowns in nine games last season. But, like the Bulldogs, they also have a depth chart that includes several transfers.

“The hard thing in today's world, I think, is until somebody plays a game, you don't know what they got,” Grass said. “You can hardly identify the returning starters they got on the team because so many people leave and they get new guys in. You really don't know from a personnel standpoint what a team looks like till they actually play this year and you get game tape on them.”