The Origin Story
Rewind to November of 2013, Mike, Jeb, Eli, and I were young pledges for a certain fraternity on campus and enjoying life as freshmen- Chic-Fil-A for breakfast every morning, hanging out on Ben Brown for hours, and loving the short commute from Smith to anywhere we needed to get to on campus. Oh, and we had not seen this many girls at once in our entire lives.
Coach Hatcher had not made it to Homewood yet, instead, the legendary Pat Sullivan was leading the rebuild of the program and this was a banner year. We had beaten top 25 Wofford on the road and Georgia Southern at home. We even almost pulled off a stunner in Fayetteville against the Hogs earlier in the year. Guys like Fabian Truss, Kelsey Pope, and Karel Hamilton were dominating on offense and Michael Pierce, Jaquiski Tartt, and Dr. Jeremy Towns were terrorizing offenses on the other side. Needless to say, our team was loaded. Imagine last year if we had three future pros and an MD on the defensive side of the ball…
Photo courtesy of Samford Athletics: Fabian Truss had nearly 300 total yards against Georgia State in 2013- our first win against an FBS opponent
On this day in particular, Hall of Fame Coach Bobby Bowden was on campus for the unveiling of his statue that now stands in front of the stadium. I was pumped because he led the bulldog walk and I was front and center to grab a high five from one of the best coaches in college football history. None of us had chosen to go to Samford for the athletics but we started our Samford journey at a fantastic time for the football program (not so much for basketball). UTC was in town and a share of the conference title was on the line assuming we beat Elon the next week.
UTC was led by QB Jacob Huesman, who dominated my McCallie team while he was at Baylor…twice, so it kind of felt personal. The game was crazy. A few big plays decided what was a tough defensive battle. Andy Summerlin hit Chris Cephus, his only catch of the night, for a 92-yard TD. But… he also threw a pick-six to keep it close and UTC ultimately tied it in the 4th to force OT.
By this point in the game, the sun had gone down, the lights were on and the student section was pretty much still intact. However, I think Jeb and I were some of the lone pledges left in the stands by that point. The students had all crammed down into the first ten rows or so, yelling as best as a few hundred people could, and hoping we were about to watch a close win in a season that had seen several close losses. We got the ball first and did nothing… so we had to kick the field goal. It went in and we took a small lead into the next possession. Any football fan will tell you there is almost nothing more nerve-wracking than having to kick the field goal first in OT. There are only two worse possibilities- not scoring and allowing the defense to score for a walk-off win. But, we had the 3-point advantage. UTC took the ball and immediately started moving the ball. They got one first down and almost converted for a second which would have certainly pushed the game to a second OT at best. But it’s college football. With the ball at the 8, UTC committed a seemingly small 5-yard delay of game penalty. The ensuing field goal attempt was now a 31-yard yard kick as opposed to a chip shot. We were standing, yelling, and hoping for a miss. Ball snapped, held, kicked and BOOM it hit the goalpost! Samford wins, Samford wins! We hurdled the hedges, stormed the field, and in our first year as students were able to see one of the best teams in Samford history. Our third top-25 victory of the season.
Photo courtesy of Samford Athletics
Fast forward almost a decade to November of 2022- our football team was on a heater, undefeated in the FCS to that point and no one was talking about it.
And so, in November of 2022, Mike, Jeb, Eli, and I decided to start a podcast. Someone needed to be talking about this special team and frankly Samford sports in general. Full disclosure, we were not die-hard Samford fans as students or even immediately after graduation. But, as the years went by and awesome guys like Montrell Washington, Kelvin McKnight Jr., Kendall Watson, Tay Berry, and others made their way through the program our fanhood slowly grew. Also during that time, we almost beat Mississippi State and Florida State (love watching Kelvin), set a record for points scored against Florida at home, hired Coach Hatcher to build on what Sullivan had accomplished, saw President Westmoreland step down and President Taylor take over, and oh, our basketball team finally hired a coach who could put together a competitive squad. All of that helped get us to this point.
In a year similar to what we had seen in person in 2013, something needed to be done. How could there not be more coverage of guys like DJ Rias, Michael Hiers, Fred Flavors, or Tay Berry? There have been podcasts in the past we found in some preliminary research but most seemed tied to a student project. The guys who run the “Southern Comfort: A SoCon Podcast” do great work but the football coverage is spotty, it covers the SoCon in general, and does not have the time to dig into games because they try to keep it short and sweet. For the first few loyal listeners, you probably remember we started the first few episodes as a SoCon podcast too. We learned very quickly that we only really cared about Samford.
Photo by Chase Cochran| Samford Athletics
So, we pivoted and invited Tay Berry on to introduce the shift. The rest has been history. We give no regard to run time, dig in where we want and float past where we do not, invite who we like, and have enjoyed every moment thus far… even when we had to re-record with Tay after realizing nothing in the first hour had been recorded. All of our guests have been a pleasure to speak with and a surprising part has been the depth and quality of the personalities we have in our athletic programs. After every interview, the guest hangs up and we just talk about how awesome they were for a few minutes in our debrief. There will be plenty more of those coming in the future.
You have also probably noticed an increased effort to analyze games (which started about halfway into the conference basketball season last year). We are not ex-coaches or have college playing experience, but we have certainly digested enough sports in our lives to be dangerous. To a more seasoned eye or experienced professional our “analysis” might not be up to snuff and we are certainly making educated guesses into projecting what we think will happen on the field, the court, or the diamond but… I am not going to lie, we have been pretty dadgum close on a lot of predictions and insights. I would certainly expect our quality in that regard to keep improving as the years go by as we become more and more accustomed to the competition in the SoCon, FCS level, and mid-majors in basketball.
The last point I want to make is this- we are not here for the short term. This is truly a hobby for us and life certainly happens (e.g. I have a new baby boy in my life and Jeb is getting his MBA while working a full-time job) so things might ebb and flow when it comes to producing each episode of the podcast. But, we have committed to building a sustainable community for Samford fans (beyond the incredible message board we love to read) outside the official bounds of the university. We are excited for what is to come, win or lose we love Samford and hope you enjoy the ride. Go Dogs!