Head Coach Chris Hatcher .......... 4 Sports Feature .................. 32 NCAA Compliance ............... 60 Assistant Coaches ................. 7 Athlete Q&A. 33 Bulldog Club ................... 62 Football Support Staff ............ 14 Fall Sports Schedules ............ 34 Samford University .............. 64 Returning Players ............... 16 Seibert Stadium ................. 38 Athletics Facilities ............... 66 Signees ....................... 22 Cooney Family Field House ....... 42 Southern Conference ............. 68 Today’s Game .................. 25 Academic Enhancement Program ... 48 National Honors ................ 70 Around the SoCon ............... 26 Andrew Westmoreland ........... 50 Cheerleaders/Dance/Band ........ 72 Football Feature ................ 27 Martin Newton ................. 52 Players in the NFL ............... 73 Rosters ........................ 28 Athletics Administration .......... 54 Year-by-Year Records ............ 74 Depth Charts ................... 30 Head Coaches .................. 56 Team Records .................. 76 Opponent ..................... 31 Assistant Coaches/Staff ........... 58 Individual Records .............. 78 Editor: Joey Mullins Senior Graphic Designer: Scott Camp Director of Creative Operations: Janica York Carter Editorial Assistant: Julie Beckwith Contributors: Herb Brooks, Sam Chandler, Andy Dawson, Mike Grace, Bo Kerr, Zac Schrieber Photographers: Caroline Summers, Rebecca Long, Jimmy Mitchell, David Johnson, Beth Hall Produced by Samford Office of Marketing and Communication with road games at VMI (Oct. 10), Wofford student-athlete biographies, plus team (Nov. 14) and Mercer (Nov. 21). rosters, statistics, schedules, game notes, ESPN3 is available in approximately 75 results and video, the most comprehensive million homes to fans who receive their coverage of the Bulldogs can always be Internet connection from an affiliated service found online at samfordsports.com. A division of Samford Athletics, Samford provider. The network also can be accessed Sports Properties manages media rights and at no cost by 21 million U.S. college sponsorship opportunities. Under the students and U.S.-based military personnel. direction of Senior Associate Director of ESPN3 programming is also available to Athletics for Development Bo Kerr, Samford subscribers through Xbox LIVE and through Sports Properties is responsible for revenue the free WatchESPN app. generation through corporate sponsorships. The American Sport Network consists of Samford Sports Properties provides commercial TV stations owned by the sponsors with a single source for multi- Sinclair Broadcast Group and reaches close platform sponsorship opportunities across to 40 percent of all TV households in the all of Samford athletics. For more infor- United States with 167 stations in 77 mation, contact Bo Kerr at jkerr@samford. markets. A full list of ASN affiliates will be SOCON DIGITAL NETWORK edu or 205-726-2139. announced each week. A free, league-wide digital network available on smartphones, tablets, laptops SOCIAL MEDIA RADIO and PCs begins its second year in the fall of Samford fans can keep up with the Bulldogs Samford football can be heard on 2015. Fans can access live audio and video 24/7 through the following social media Samford’s own WVSU-FM 91.1 and of select football, soccer, volleyball, men’s outlets: samford.edu/wvsu, or the TuneIn app on and women’s basketball, baseball, and most mobile devices. softball games. Fans also can gain access Mike Grace returns for his ninth year as to live and executive producer of the Samford Sports on-demand audio Network and “Voice of the Bulldogs.” An and video of select expanded Bulldog broadcast crew for 2015 game highlights, also includes long-time voice of the press conferences, Birmingham Barons and returning play-by- features and exclusive interviews found only play announcer for Samford women’s on the SoCon Digital Network. To catch all basketball Curt Bloom, former Ole Miss of the exciting action, just look for the SDN Rebel football player Chad Pilcher, former link at samfordsports.com. facebook.com/SamfordSports Bulldog quarterback Ben Neill, and Samford students Blake Gardner, Caroline Saunders twitter.com/samford_sports and Chris Griesedieck. youtube.com/samfordsportsnetwork Grace, Plicher and Bloom are the instagram.com/samfordsports game-day radio crew for Samford’s five road games and the Sept. 19 Southern VIDEO ON ASN AND ESPN3 Conference showdown with Chattanooga. For the remaining five home contests, Bloom and Neill call the action on radio, with Grace and Pilcher in the ESPN3 Nine of the team’s 11 regular-season contests will be broadcast live, thanks to agreements with the American Sports Network and ESPN3. Samford’s home game against Chattanooga Sept. 19 will air on the American Sports Network. The remaining home games and a trio of road games will broadcast booth. Saunders provides sideline all air on ESPN3. reports for both broadcasts. Gardner and Thanks to a groundbreaking on-cam- Griesedieck serve as studio hosts for all 11 pus broadcast program utilizing Samford broadcasts on WVSU. staff, students and local broadcast profes- sionals, the Chris Hatcher era for Bulldog INTERNET football will debut on ESPN3 Sept. 3 as the The official website of Samford University Bears of Central Arkansas visit Seibert athletics is samfordsports.com. A partner- Stadium. Subsequent home match-ups ship of Samford Athletics and SideArm against Florida A&M (Sept. 12), The Citadel Sports, the Internet home of the Bulldogs is (Oct. 17), Furman (Oct. 31) and a home- full of the most up-to-date information on coming contest against Clark Atlanta (Nov. Samford football and Samford’s 16 other 7) will all be broadcast on ESPN3, along varsity sports. With news stories, coach and 2 3 BULLDOGS HEAD COACH CHRIS HATCHER hris Hatcher was named Samford’s straight victories at No. 5 Appalachian State, 36th head football coach on Dec. 11, ending the Mountaineers’ 30-game home 2014. He boasts a career record of winning streak, at home against No. 25 The C121-57 in 15 years as a head coach at Citadel and at No. 10 Wofford. Murray State, Georgia Southern and Valdosta The prolific offense ranked first in State. rushing, eighth in total offense, eighth in Hatcher comes to Samford after serving scoring offense and 23rd in sacks allowed. as the head coach at Murray State since The defense was 14th in turnover margin and 2010. In five seasons, his teams employed the 17th in fumbles recovered, while special high-powered “Hatch Attack” offense to top teams ranked 25th in net punting. the Division I-FCS football charts. In 2014, The 2008 season saw Hatcher guide the Racers ranked second in the nation in the Eagles to the program’s 25th winning passing offense, averaging 327.2 yards per season in 27 years. game. The team also ranked 15th in total In late October, the Eagles set an offense at 468.3 yards per contest. NCAA record for the largest fourth-quarter Murray State used a balanced attack in comeback as GSU erased a 31-3 deficit for a 2013. The Racers rushed the ball 424 times, 38-31 overtime victory at Western Carolina. throwing it 458 and averaging 398.6 yards of The contest was the first of an NCAA-record offense. The offense was spearheaded by four overtime games played by the Eagles in All-America wide receiver Walter Powell, who 2008. hauled in 66 passes for 837 yards and 13 Chris Hatcher Hatcher’s team provided impressive numbers touchdowns in 10 games. in all three phases. The offense ranked 20th The 2012 Murray State offense led the Ohio Valley nationally in passing and scoring, while the defense ranked 26th Conference for the third straight season. The Racers averaged a in sacks and 22nd in tackles-for-loss. The special teams units school-record 484.4 yards of offense per game and set a new finished 14th in punt returns and 36th in kickoff returns. single-season record by averaging 348.9 yards through the air. All of this was done as Hatcher and his staff were forced to The 2011 season saw the Racers go 7-4 and post back-to- play close to 30 freshmen on a consistent basis throughout the back winning seasons for the first time since the 1999–2000 season. In all, five Eagles received All-SoCon honors, and seven seasons. Murray State won five of its final six games, including freshman representing offense, defense and special teams were going on the road and knocking off nationally ranked Tennessee named to the inaugural SoCon All-Freshman Team. Tech. Prior to his time at GSU, Hatcher molded Valdosta State into The Racer offense was among the most prolific in the nation. one of the most dominant teams in Division II. It ranked third in scoring offense, fourth in total offense and The winningest coach in Blazers’ history, Hatcher was 76-12 seventh in passing offense. The 5,070 yards of total offense at his alma mater. In his first year, he took a 4-7 squad from the marked the fifth time in school history that Murray State amassed previous year and produced a 10-2 overall record (8-1 in GSC more than 5,000 yards; the 460.9 yards per game were the action) and a berth in the Division II playoffs. He coached third most all time. The Racers also rushed for 152.27 yards per quarterback Dusty Bonner, who was a two-time winner of the game. Harlon Hill Trophy as the NCAA Division II Player of the Year, an The Racers recorded their first shutout in seven years with a award Hatcher won in 1994. 39-0 victory over Mississippi Valley State. It marked the first Hatcher’s 2001 and 2002 teams posted back-to-back shutout on the road since 1986 and the first nonconference road undefeated records during the regular season, part of a Gulf shutout since 1979. South Conference–record 35 straight victories during the regular In 2010, the Racer offense led the OVC in passing offense, season. total offense and scoring offense, while ranking fourth nationally During the 2004 championship season, the Blazers lost their in passing offense, fifth in total offense and fifth in scoring season opener before rattling off 13 consecutive victories, offense.