Samford Preps For Chattanooga With Momentum From Win Over VMI

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 21, 2025

For the first time this season, Chris Hatcher and his Samford football team are experiencing the momentum of coming off a victory. It was certainly a welcome feeling.

“Our guys really deserved it,” Hatcher said on Tuesday in his weekly press conference. “They worked extremely hard all season with not much game success. And it was something that I prayed about all week, including the bye week that meant something good just needs to happen to our coaches and our team and it did. Monday's practice, we had a lot better pep in the step, a lot more smiles Sunday at treatments. What's amazing there was a lot less guys hurt on Sunday than there were previous weeks and I think the victory has a lot to do with that.”

The victory was a 24-22 triumph at VMI on Saturday. True freshman quarterback Brady Stober was 34-of-43 for 285 yards with three touchdowns one interception and had a net rushing total of 45 yards. True freshman placekicker Jake Garner kicked a game-winning 37-yard field goal with 1:28 left to close a 14-play, 67-yard drive. True freshman Samuel Pickett III caught one of Stober’s touchdown tosses. Freshman Trey Lenhardt had a critical interception late in the fourth quarter.

“You know, I've said it all year,” said Hatcher, whose team won for the first time in seven games. “Some people say that, you know, I'm making excuses, but facts are facts, and we got a lot of freshmen and sophomores out there playing. You know, our whole starting five offense alignment are all sophomores, and they played a lot better football game the other day. Stober, true freshman, gets his first start of the season, plays really well. Cam Bland, Ken Cherry, a sophomore and a freshman had to start at running back due to CJ Evans being injured. Didn't have a lot of explosive runs, but the runs were positive runs that set up some of our quick passes on the outside. Nick Crayton, sophomore, had a huge catch. And then Sam Pickett, true freshman, had his second touchdown in the last two games, which was a big one for us. So we got a lot of young players playing well now.”

Hatcher also praised veteran linebacker Jaden Mosley (12 tackles, 1 TFL, 0.5 sack) and defensive linemen Deuce Caldwell II (5 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks) and Conroy Cunningham (3 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 1 sack).

Now, the Bulldogs take the momentum forward against Chattanooga on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 at Pete Hanna Stadium. The Mocs are 3-4 overall, 2-1 in SoCon play, winners of back-to-back games and in sole possession of third place in the conference.

“Traditionally, they're used to being at the top of this league and all roads to the championship go through them,” Hatcher said. “They played a very difficult schedule early in the year. So their record, I don't think, is indicative of how good a football team they have. Unfortunately for us, they're getting hot now and they're playing extremely well now. So again, it's going to be a tough game.”