Chris Hatcher is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Samford University, a position he has held since 2014. Hatcher served as the head football coach at Valdosta State University from 2000 to 2006, Georgia Southern University from 2007 to 2009, and Murray State University from 2010 to 2014. His Valdosta State Blazers won the NCAA Division II Football Championship in 2004. Hatcher played college football as a quarterback at Valdosta State from 1991 to 1994.
The Samford Bulldogs football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Samford University located in Homewood, Alabama. The team competes at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level as a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon). Samford's first football team was fielded in 1902. The team was known as the Howard Bulldogs through the 1965 season when Howard College was renamed as Samford University. Howard was located in Birmingham, Alabama prior to 1957. Since 1958, the Bulldogs have played their home games at Pete Hanna Stadium, which now has a seating capacity of 6,700, in Homewood. Chris Hatcher has served as Samford's head coach since the 2015 season.
The 2011 Samford Bulldogs team represented Samford University in the 2011 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Bulldogs were led by fifth-year head coach Pat Sullivan and played their home games at Seibert Stadium. They are a member of the Southern Conference. They finished the season 6–5, 4–4 in SoCon play to finish in fifth place.
The 2012 Samford Bulldogs football team represented Samford University in the 2012 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by sixth year head coach Pat Sullivan and played their home games at Seibert Stadium. They are a member of the Southern Conference. They finished the season 7–4, 5–3 in SoCon play to finish in a three way tie for fourth place.
The 2013 Chattanooga Mocs football team represented the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the 2013 NCAA Division I FCS football season as a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon). The Mocs were led by fifth-year head coach Russ Huesman and played their home games at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They finished the season 8–4 overall and 6–2 in SoCon play to share the conference championship with Samford and Furman. Chattanooga not receive the conference's automatic bid to the FCS playoffs and did not receive an at-large bid.
The 2013 Appalachian State Mountaineers football team represented Appalachian State University in the 2013 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by first-year head coach Scott Satterfield and played their home games at Kidd Brewer Stadium. They were a member of the Southern Conference. They finished the season 4–8, 4–4 in SoCon play to finish in a four way tie for fourth place. This was their last season in the SoCon and in the FCS as they moved to FBS and the Sun Belt Conference in 2014. They would be ineligible for the playoffs.
The 2013 Samford Bulldogs football team represented Samford University in the 2013 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by seventh year head coach Pat Sullivan and played their home games at Seibert Stadium. They were a member of the Southern Conference. They finished the season 8–5, 6–2 in SoCon play to share the conference title with Chattanooga and Furman. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs where they lost in the first round to Jacksonville State.
The 2014 Murray State Racers football team represented Murray State University in the 2014 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by fifth-year head coach Chris Hatcher and played their home games at Roy Stewart Stadium. They were a member of the Ohio Valley Conference. They finished the season 3–9, 1–7 in OVC play to finish in a tie for eighth place.
The FCS Kickoff is an annual college football game played on the Saturday before the opening weekend of the college football season. The game showcases teams from the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). For the game's first three editions, it was played at campus sites; since 2017, the game has been played at a neutral site, the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. The game is televised nationally by ESPN.
The 2015 Samford Bulldogs football team represented Samford University in the 2015 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by first year head coach Chris Hatcher and played their home games at Seibert Stadium. They were a member of the Southern Conference. They finished the season 6–5, 3–4 in SoCon play to finish in a tie for fourth place with the Wofford Terriers.
The 2016 Youngstown State Penguins football team represented Youngstown State University in the 2016 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by second-year head coach Bo Pelini and played their home games at Stambaugh Stadium. They were a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. Youngstown State finished the season 12–4 overall with a 6–2 mark in MVFC play to finish in third place. They received an at-large bid to the FCS playoffs, where they defeated Samford, Jacksonville State, Wofford, and Eastern Washington to advance to the National Championship Game, where they lost to James Madison.
The 2016 Samford Bulldogs football team represented Samford University in the 2016 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by second year head coach Chris Hatcher and played their home games at Seibert Stadium. They were a member of the Southern Conference. They finished the season 7–5, 5–3 in SoCon play to finish in fourth place. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs where they lost to Youngstown State in the first round.
The 2017 Kennesaw State Owls football team represented Kennesaw State University in the 2017 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by third-year head coach Brian Bohannon and played their home games at Fifth Third Bank Stadium in Kennesaw, Georgia as third-year members of the Big South Conference. They finished the season 12–2, 5–0 in Big South play to win the Big South conference championship. The Owls received the Big South's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs, their first trip to the playoffs in school history. In the first round of the playoffs, the Owls defeated Samford in a rematch of their only regular season loss and marked the school's first ever playoff win. In the second round, the Owls upset No. 3 seed Jacksonville State to advance to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, despite a furious second half comeback, they lost to Sam Houston State.
The 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of college football in the United States, was organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level. The FCS Championship Game was played on January 5, 2019, in Frisco, Texas. North Dakota State claimed its second consecutive FCS title, and seventh in eight years, defeating Eastern Washington, 38-24.
The 2018 Samford Bulldogs football team represented Samford University in the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by fourth-year head coach Chris Hatcher and played their home games at Seibert Stadium. They were a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon). They finished the season 6–5, 5–3 in SoCon play to finish in fourth place.
The 2018 Wofford Terriers football team represented Wofford College in the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by first-year head coach Josh Conklin and played their home games at Gibbs Stadium. They were a member of the Southern Conference. They finished the season 9–4, 6–2 in SoCon play to finish in a tie for the SoCon championship alongside East Tennessee State and Furman. They received the automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs, where they defeated Elon in the first round before losing in the second round to Kennesaw State.
The 2017 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game was a postseason college football game that determined a national champion in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision for the 2016 season. It was played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on January 7, 2017, with kickoff at 12:00 noon EST, and was the culminating game of the 2016 FCS Playoffs. With sponsorship from Northwestern Mutual, the game was officially known as the NCAA FCS Football Championship Presented by Northwestern Mutual.
The 2019 Samford Bulldogs football team represented Samford University in the 2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by fifth-year head coach Chris Hatcher and played their home games at Seibert Stadium. They were a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon).
The 2020 Samford Bulldogs football team represented Samford University in the 2020–21 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by sixth-year head coach Chris Hatcher and played their home games at Seibert Stadium. They played as a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon).
The 2022 Samford Bulldogs football team represented Samford University as a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon) during the 2022 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Bulldogs were led by eighth-year head coach Chris Hatcher and played their home games at Seibert Stadium in Homewood, Alabama.
