In the Southern Conference preseason poll, both the coaches and the media picked newcomer Samford to finish last in the standings. That shows how much we know.

The Bulldogs will travel to Finley Stadium for Saturday’s season finale against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a chance to do something few people thought they could do: finish their first season in the SoCon with a .500 record in conference play, which would put them in a tie for fourth place.

Samford (5-5, 3-4) has been the surprise of the SoCon from the outset. It lost a close game, 23-17, at Elon in its debut and the following week picked up its first win, on the road, at Western Carolina, 21-6.

The Bulldogs have been competitive in every conference game until last week when they fell at home to Wofford, 28-7. Still, with a win against the Mocs, Samford would not only complete a very strong SoCon debut but also finish with the program’s first winning record since 2003.

“It would be huge,” second-year Samford coach Pat Sullivan said. “Last Saturday was disappointing, but we can’t let that one 60 minutes of football detract from where we started with this program 18-20 months ago. We’ve come so far, the kids have bought into what we’re doing and we’ve made great strides. Nobody gave us a chance to even win a game in the conference this year, and if we can somehow win the game Saturday we finish (tied for) fourth in the conference and we got a lot of kids coming back.

“There’s not a player on this football team, including our fifth-year seniors, that’s ever experienced a winning year at Samford, and for us to end up 6-5 it would be a huge thing for them.”

What Samford has accomplished so far this season is by no means a fluke, and the statistics prove it. The Bulldogs are tops in the conference in scoring defense, allowing just 20.0 points per game, and they’re second in total defense, holding opponents to 330.5 yards per game. They’re also third in rushing, first in rushing defense, second in interceptions, first in time of possession and tied for first in turnover margin.

“They remind you, not so much from a schematic standpoint, a little of Wofford in their style (on defense),” Mocs coach Rodney Allison said. “A lot of their style defensively is like Wofford. They got a formula figured out in a way that they consistently hold people to 17 to 24 or 27 points and they score just enough to win some games and lose some close games.”

Sophomore Chris Evans leads the conference in rushing with an average of 115.0 yards per game, and freshman quarterback Dustin Taliaferro is sixth in passing with 155.5 yards per game, with a completion percentage of 66.6 and 12 touchdowns to just five interceptions.

The numbers also prove that the Bulldogs are holding their own in the SoCon with a very young team. Of the 52 players that played last week against Wofford, 31 were freshmen or sophomores, including 10 in the starting lineup.

For more Mocs coverage, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.

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