Samford Believes Early Tests Have Prepared It for SoCon Run

By Steve Irvine

HOMEWOOD, ALABAMA - October 8, 2026

Easy wasn’t part of the process during the first five games of John Grass’ initial season as the Samford football head coach. The schedule included a ranked Tennessee Tech team, a Southern Illinois team receiving votes in the polls, an opening game assignment against a UNA team that is currently 4-2 and a FBS matchup last week against UAB.

Take away the lone win of the early season for Samford, which came against winless VMI, and it’s been a difficult trip through the five games. However, look past the scoreboard and that difficult trip has Samford ready to attack the final seven games with six of those coming in Southern Conference play.

“We're starting to play good football and we've learned a lot about our team,” Samford head coach John Grass said. “We talked about it as a team, you know, the other day. These first few games and one (loss) in the conference count, the VMI win (counts). Going into this (SoCon) race, it's kind of you're even. You'd love to win the Tennessee Tech game, but the other (losses) don't really count (in trying to win the conference). You know what I mean? So we learned a lot about our team.”

In other words, Grass thinks his team is ready to dive into the meat of the SoCon schedule. East Tennessee State is the lone SoCon team without a conference loss. Six teams have one conference loss and four teams have already won two SoCon games. Tennessee Tech (No. 16) and Mercer (No. 18) are ranked in the FCS coaches Top 25 and ETSU is receiving votes. Tennessee Tech looked to be perhaps the top team in the conference until being knocked off by Western Carolina last week. It’s a wide open race.

“You look at (SoCon) scores every week, it's just really close,” Grass said. “It's neck and neck, a lot of parity. It's gonna be how you play as a team. And, you know, we can't have seven penalties and three turnovers. We got to clean that stuff up and we can't give up explosive plays on defense. It's one of those things where definitely I think that (UAB) game helped us and we're growing. I think we're primed to win some games down the line.”

The next challenge comes this week with a trip to Chattanooga. The Mocs are 3-3 overall and 2-1 in SoCon play.

“I mean, you got to bring your own energy,” Grass said. “You got to bring your own juice because you're not gonna have a big fan base there that's gonna travel with you. Going on the road, we try to make it no different playing at home. We stay at a home hotel. We make it the routine (where) it's just like a road game. I think we've been able to do a good job of that and I don't think it'll affect our guys playing on the road.”

Chattanooga features the leading rusher in the conference in Kevin Lalin (106-534, 6 touchdowns). Defending him and countering with a run game will be important.

“Well, they're built to play close games,” Grass said. “They're built to stop the run defensively. Really, really a good defensive football team. They have been that for years, my experience with them, and they run the football on offense. They’re gonna establish a run game and they gonna load up with tight ends and win the run game. They make no secret about it. They’re gonna run the football and they gonna stop the run on defense. We’ve got to play well in the trenches. That'll be the key to the game.”