Samford Looks To Break Through Against VMI

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 22, 2026

Two Southern Conference teams needing a win badly will meet on Saturday afternoon at Samford’s Pete Hanna Stadium.

Samford is not only still searching for the first win with John Grass as the head coach but the Bulldogs are also riding a eight-game losing streak dating back to the final five games of the 2025 season. On the other side of the football, VMI has a 14-game losing streak, including the first four games of Ashley Ingram’s tenure as the program’s head coach.

It’s guaranteed that one losing streak will end on Saturday.

“I think we need a win bad,” Grass said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday morning. “We really do. This bunch has done everything we've asked them to do. They've bought in. They're still bought in. So, I think a win would do a lot of people well. You'll get back to even in the conference. This team's goal was to finish at the top of the conference and that goal is still attainable. But you got to win these games. Losing the first one kind of put some pressure on all the rest of them, so you got our backs against the wall as far as the conference. This is a must-win when it comes to conference play.”

One advantage for Samford is the Bulldogs are rejuvenated after the team’s first bye week of the season. The extra week of work came following close losses to UNA and Southern Illinois and a tough outing at Tennessee Tech in the SoCon opener.

“You know, the first three didn't go the way we wanted 'em to go but we got better every week,” Grass said. “We had a chance to win some games in the fourth quarter there with the first two and then with explosive plays (at) Tennessee Tech, it got away from us early but had a chance to get back in that game as well. You learn a lot about your football team in those first three games, so we got to build on that, and that's kind of what we did last week.”

The extra work also allowed the Samford defense an opportunity to get extra work on defending the triple option attack brought in by the new staff. Ingram was an offensive lineman on three national championship teams at UNA, which ran the option, and spent 16 seasons as an assistant coach at Navy.

“Well, I mean, I think it's tough,” Grass said of getting ready to play an option attack for the only time this season. “I think this conference used to have two or three teams at all times that, that run the triple, so you would see it from week to week. I asked our guys, ‘How many of y'all played against the triple in high school?’ Surprisingly, more of them played against it than what you thought.”

But it still takes a healthy dose of adjustment in preparation.

“The biggest difference to me, (after) you played three spread offenses the first three games, is pad level,” Grass said. “It's under the center offense. It gets on you a lot quicker than a gun offense does. The pad level of your offensive lineman is way lower than it is out of the gun. So, I mean, it's an adjustment. It's gonna take us a series to adjust to the pad level of the game because they're rolling off the ball, man. They're in a four-point stance and they're coming off the ball. It's a power run game, and they want to be able to crease with that fullback. So it is different. But like I said, the knowledge on our team was better than what I had suspected in that deal.”