Maconite Hatcher is battling through losing games this season, but the Samford head coach isn't losing perspective or humor
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Samford may be losing games at a staggering clip, but the Bulldogs’ head coach isn’t losing his sense of humor.
The Macon Touchdown Club plays the fight song of the school connected to or employing that week’s guest speaker, and that was repeated Monday night.
The Samford fight sound wound down as Chris Hatcher approached the microphone.
“That’s our fight song they play after we score touchdowns,” he said. “I have not heard that much this year.”
Hatcher is in his 26th year as a head coach, and he’s spoken at the Touchdown Club just about every one of them, so familiarity has never been an issue.
“It’s great to be back, as always,” he said. “Great to see a lot of old friends, a lot of old faces. A lot of you, you look a little older than you did last year.
“I’m sure that I do, too.
“I was asking Davey (Keys) earlier, some of the guys, ‘Have I ever told this story?’ He said, ‘It doesn’t matter.’ Most of you guys don’t remember what you had for breakfast.”
Indeed, the Mount de Sales grad may be aging more this year than most, for he’s amid unchartered territory with Samford’s 0-6 start, added to last Saturday by Mercer’s 45-21 win.
In his 11th season at Samford, the Bulldogs are on a clear path to the worst season in Hatcher’s coaching career. He’s still the program’s top coach in wins with 61, a mark he holds by 14 games over Pat Sullivan.
Of coaches with at least five seasons in charge in Birmingham, he’s fourth, at 53.8 percent.
But it’s not all bad, as it rarely is for Hatcher.
“I’ve been very blessed, OK?” he said. “We have not had that great a season this season, but I’ve been very blessed in that I’ve been able to see my daughter start at the same place, starting kindergarten and now be able to finish her senior year at the same school.”
He’s undergone a personal adjustment this year, too.
“I never thought I would say it, but I’m a Georgia Bulldog fan now,” he said. “My son (Ty) is coaching there now. So, you know, we pull for the Dawgs.”
Ty Hatcher is an offensive analyst at Georgia, after working at Texas A&M and Oklahoma after his graduation from Samford.
Two members of the Hatcher coaching tree are on the Touchdown Club schedule this year, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and analyst Will Muschamp, both of whom were on Hatcher’s first staff at Valdosta.
They’re having a better year.
“We have not won a game this year, which is the first time in my career of 26 years.” He said. “The season’s been difficult to say the least.
He offered snapshot of the season: Samford trailed Furman 14-7 late in the first half, got the ball at midfield, shanked a punt, and then stopped Furman.
Samford got the ball back with 1:48 left and is driving, around midfield. A blitzing linebacker tips a pass to himself and takes it in for a touchdown for a 21-7 lead. The Bulldogs get the ball back and drive down for a chip-shot field goal that gets blocked.
“That has been the story of the Samford Bulldogs of 2025,” Hatcher said.
He said only seven of his top 44 players entering the season had played in a college game, and the roster has 53 freshmen and 19 sophomores.
The transfer portal and NIL have impacts on all levels of college football.
“My long snapper, he’s been with me for six years,” Hatcher said. “But I have 11 players that play in either a group of 5 or power 4 (team) that would be starting for me. Ten of the 11, I signed out of high school.
“You sign all these high school players, you’re developing them, and then they’re getting paid to go somewhere else and play. That’s kind of where we’re at now.”
While most of Saturday at Mercer was unpleasant, Hatcher saw some potential while getting thumped.
“Just put all the freshmen in the game,” he said. “And then, boom, all of a sudden, we scored 21 points. All the freshmen were doing that, so I’ll probably play them a little bit more as we move forward.”
One of the freshmen on the roster is the son of Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, and another is the son of former Florida State and Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher.
The Bulldogs have four Central Georgians on the roster: Preston Bird of Veterans is their top wideout, Web Davidson of Tattnall transferred from Virginia Tech and is a starter on the offensive line. Malik Thornton of Putnam County is seventh in tackles, and receiver Brice Whitley of ACE Charter is redshirting.
Scheduling is a regular topic as major conference look to add a conference game, which elbows out the chance for non-major programs to play and earn some money.
Hatcher is there for his buddy Smart.
“The thing about it is to play an FCS opponent is going to cost you about $500,000, OK,” he said. “To play a Troy, you're going to pay them $1.2 million to play because they're (FBS).
“I got my fingers crossed, and I told Kirby: ‘Man, you can play the Samford Bulldogs, save you $700,000 a year, put it towards your roster, and, man, we'll all be good.”