Bulldogs See Progress Even in 22-10 Loss to UNA
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 30, 2026
John Grass certainly wasn’t satisfied with the opening result in his first game as the Samford football head coach. The 22-10 loss to UNA on Saturday at Joe Davis Stadium in Huntsville was disappointing.
But, Grass did take home some encouragement on night where first-time starter Gabarri Johnson played well, wide receiver Marquise Henderson provided some chunk plays and the defense kept the Bulldogs in the game well into the fourth quarter.
“I think UNA's gonna win some games, so it's a good indicator kind of where we're at,” Grass said afterward. “You know, ability-wise, I was concerned coming in, just ‘Hey, where do we stack up in talent with them guys?’ We’re not far off. I feel good about that. Our guys played the game the way we wanted to play it. We played physical. We played tough. I mean, I think we've gotten better and we played with great effort.”
What they didn’t do was run the ball with any success, which put added pressure on Johnson and the passing game. Mix in yardage lost due to sacks and Samford finished with minus-8 yards rushing on 25 carries. Don’t include the yardage lost on the six sacks and Samford had 36 yards on the ground. The leading rusher in the game for Samford was Keion Dunlap, who gained four yards on two carries. Starting running back Domonique Thomas had zero yards on 10 carries.
“We gotta be able to run the ball better than what we did,” Grass said. “And it's not that we didn't try. I mean we tried to run the ball and it got us in a lot of third-and-long situations. We gotta do better with that. And like I said, a lot of it was their defense. I don't think it's necessarily our offensive line is bad. They've improved a lot. I've talked about that. I think UNA's got as good a D-line as you will see at this level.”
That defensive line was a big part in the Lions having six sacks and 13 tackles for loss. They did a good job of attacking Johnson but the junior transfer from Oregon State did a good job of finding ways to make plays. He finished 19-of-33 passing for 245 yards with a 86-yard touchdown strike to Henderson (five catches for 151 yards). Johnson’s lone interception came on the final play of the game when he threw the ball into the end zone hoping his receiver could make a play.
“I don't think Jabari could've played much better,” Grass said. “I thought he protected the ball. He made some throws. When he had time, he was very, very efficient in the pocket. He's a accurate guy. Man, he really is good decision maker, gets the ball where it's supposed to go. They gave us a little problem, some twist stunts up front, some blitz stuff, so they got him off his spot. He had trouble. But, he made some plays with his legs, scrambling. Couldn't ask him to play for much better than he did tonight, when you don’t got your run game going because a lot of stuff we do is off that run game.”
The Samford defense allowed nearly 400 yards, including 165 on the ground, but for the most part they made things difficult on the Lions. UNA didn’t get its first big offensive play until just under nine minutes left in the first half. But that play was a school-record 95-yard pass from Destin Wade to Xavier Johnson. The touchdown came on 3rd-and-9 and happened not long after Samford narrowly safeties on back-to-back plays. Not long after the touchdown, UNA was able to get a safety of its own when Kamore Harris and Avery Howard tackled Johnson in the end zone.
Samford cut into that deficit on the long scoring pass to Henderson but a late rushing touchdown by Roderick Taylor Jr. gave the Lions a 16-7 lead at halftime.
Neither team scored in the third quarter. Samford cut the UNA lead to 16-10 on a 26-yard field goal by Ty Ippolito. But UNA was able to put some distance between the teams by driving 91 yard on 10 plays with Ty Watkins finishing the march off on a 1-yard scoring run with 6:38 remaining.
“We talked about getting the game to a fourth quarter and making it a one-score game,” Grass said. “We made it a one-score game, so we're sitting right where we want to be. We’re in it. We get the field goal, it's 16 -10 and we got chances. Gotta give them credit, man. They put together a drive and we had chances on that drive to get off the field. So, it's accumulation of all three phases and this bunch is here for a long run. It’s not how you start it’s how you finish. I think they'll come back to work and be ready to go next week.”
Next week comes quickly. The Bulldogs play again on Thursday in the home opener against a Southern Illinois team that dropped the season opener at West Florida.