What John Grass said before Samford's game vs. UAB

Samford head coach John Grass wants to name the cross-town series with UAB.

"I guess I can call it a rival," Grass said. "I don't think they played but maybe one other time, so we need to call it something fancy like battle of the Vulcan or something. We need something like that. Hopefully we play them again next year so it could become a little rivalry game — who owns the city."

He's not wrong about the history. Saturday's game at Protective Stadium will be just the second meeting between the programs. Samford won the only previous matchup 49-3 at Seibert Stadium (now Pete Hanna Stadium) on Oct. 31, 1992. The Bulldogs (1-3, 1-1 SoCon) kick off against UAB (2-2, 1-0 American) at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

Grass, in his first season at Samford after eight seasons and six Ohio Valley Conference titles at Jacksonville State, was complimentary of what Alex Mortensen has built across town. He called UAB "very, very talented" and said the Blazers "probably really could be undefeated," pointing to their Week 1 game at Illinois.

"We won't play anybody FCS-wise more talented than UAB," Grass said. "Even if we were to play in a championship game, they're a very talented team. It's been kind of like a national championship game talent levelwise."

The connections between the two staffs run deep. Mortensen was a quarterback at Samford in 2006 under then-head coach Bill Gray. Senior linebacker Brandon Franklin transferred to Samford after spending the last four seasons at UAB. Linebackers coach Chuck Dunn, director of player personnel Xavier Robinson and strength and conditioning coach Jake Venables all spent time on the UAB staff.

Samford enters the game coming off a 45-7 home win over VMI — the Bulldogs' first home victory in 707 days. Safety LaShon Young opened that game with a 45-yard pick-six and was named SoCon Defensive Player of the Week. Quarterback Gabarri Johnson, a transfer from Oregon State, completed 84% of his passes, and Samford rushed for 221 yards.

Full transcript

On the VMI win and the first home victory in 707 days:

Coach Grass: "Great day Saturday. Good to get the first home win in 707 days. I didn't know that going in. It's been a while since Samford had won one at home, and good to get our first win as a team. Rough schedule early. Had chances to win some of those games but didn't. It's always good to get the first one and to get back even in the SoCon. We get back to one and one in the SoCon as we go into that second half of that challenge. I think everybody's pretty good, so it's going to be interesting to see how that race turns out. I think we had over 10,000 fans there. Probably seventh or eighth largest crowd in Samford history. Family weekend. Just a good turnout. Beautiful day."

On the offense against VMI:

Coach Grass: "I thought we played well. You go into those games and first game we felt like we were equal talentwise, had a level playing field going into the game. But you got to play well and I thought our team played well. We executed well on offense. Probably as efficient as we've played all year for sure. I think 84% completion rate, very efficient picking up first downs, keeping the ball moving, scoring in the red zone. And protected the ball. Didn't turn the ball over. So I was really encouraged how our offense played, and we rushed the ball for over 200 yards. We rushed for 221. Good to see a balanced offense."

On the defense against VMI:

Coach Grass: "Defense had been playing well and they continued that playing triple option. You never know how that's going to go. I thought we had good prep work. Our guys really played assignment football. Going through the ninth drive of the game, we had only given up 49 yards total offense. When we subbed out, we had a little bit better offensive production, but our defense created three turnovers, started the game off with a pick-six. You couldn't beat how they started the game, got us out front and continued to create some turnovers as the game went. We give up a lot of explosives and limited on pass. I don't think they had but three completions on the day. Really pleased with how we played. Return teams and special teams played solid too."

On UAB as an opponent:

Coach Grass: "Moving on to this UAB game, I kind of call them practice playoff games. And we've had some tough ones. Opened up with UNA and Southern Illinois, and I get to play a cross-town rival in UAB. Coach Mortensen does a great job. They flipped that roster. I think they got almost 70 new kids on that roster. Very, very talented team. Have come up short a couple times but won a couple games and probably really could be undefeated. I mean, they went to Illinois. They're good in every area. The return teams are really good. Defensively, very, very talented. Coach Grantham does a great job there schematically. And then offensively, they can run the football, a lot of RPO stuff, but very effective offensively. We got our work cut out for us in all three phases."

On naming the cross-town rivalry:

Coach Grass: "I guess I can call it a rival. I don't think they played but maybe one other time, so we need to call it something fancy like battle of the Vulcan or something. We need something like that. Hopefully we play them again next year so it could become a little rivalry game — who owns the city."

On what Samford has learned through four games:

Coach Grass: "We want to see where we're at. We didn't know anything about our team. You got a new staff, you got new players, you got players that have been here — it's new for them as well. So we didn't know anything about our team going into game one. We've learned a lot after four games about our team, about who we are, how we can use different personnel in different ways to help us. Our guys have been very pleased with how we've played with great effort. That has been fun to watch these guys play. If you've really watched us play and you study it, you see how hard our guys play and how physical they play. That's given us a chance at all our games.

"Not the result we wanted after the first three. We felt like we could have easily been two and one or three and oh after those first three games, but we learned a lot about our team. Moving forward, this is another measuring stick. Just go in and see kind of where we're at, because we won't play anybody FCS-wise more talented than UAB. Even if we were to play in a championship game, they're a very talented team. It's been kind of like a national championship game talent levelwise. Kind of see where we are and how we match up and where we need to go from there. I think these games help you for your SoCon race and then hopefully get in the playoffs."

On the "faceless opponent" approach to game preparation:

Coach Grass: "It's a normal week. I call it faceless opponent. Every week we approach it as a faceless opponent. We play like the score is triple zeroes at all times. You don't get caught into the score. Whether you get up in the game 14 or you get down in the game 14, play the play. Same thing with a faceless opponent. We don't really worry if we're playing VMI or UNA or Auburn or UAB. We got to play. It's all about how we play. I think we'll give ourselves a chance if we play well. If we don't play well, it won't be too good.

"These games, it's kind of a relaxed deal and you want your guys to play that way anyway. You don't ever get too uptight when you're playing Auburn or UAB and then play different than you do one of your conference opponents. I think you just got to have an even-keel mentality about how you approach it, because it's a process. You want your team to improve, and I think when you put all your marbles in one game or you get too nervous to play a game a certain way, you got to play to compete and have success. We try to approach it that way."

On the importance of local rivalries:

Coach Grass: "I think it was great of the administration getting it scheduled. I think it's a game that needs to continue. It's healthy for both schools. They're a bigger school, but it's a good in-town rivalry and I think it's big for both programs. In today's world, especially when you got bigger levels — you got Clemson going to Cal, you got UCLA going to Rutgers — it's kind of hard to build a local fan base. Back in the day, the old Gulf South rivalries that you had with Jacksonville State and Troy and UNA. So I'm glad we played UNA because that's an in-state rival that can become a rivalry game. UAB can become a city rivalry game. It gives your fans something. They know the teams, they know the school, you ain't got to travel far. It's really good for both fan bases. You don't have enough of that in college football right now."

On building Samford's fan base:

Coach Grass: "In today's world, everybody in this state's either an Alabama or Auburn fan and you fight that on Saturdays. Your loyal fans come to games, and you just want to build on that. I think we've done that. We set records both home games for our student body, and it's something we're trying to cultivate and get our students to show up. They've showed up and showed out in the first two. You want to build that fan base and make sure they're coming.

"We ain't got quite as hard a job filling our stadium up as theirs. Hopefully we'll grow out of ours soon. They got a little larger stadium to fill up. But I think we'll travel well. I think that's big for them to schedule us because that will help. You ain't got somebody from UTSA coming. We're going to bring more fans than most of the people that come in and play."

On stopping UAB's offense:

Coach Grass: "Explosive plays, man. They got a quarterback that can operate. I think he can run, hurt you with his legs. He's a very efficient passer, a lot of RPO stuff. Everything's built off their run game. Their offensive line is really talented and those running backs are really good. They got a couple that if they get on the corner, they can house it. We got to eliminate explosives and make them drive the football and keep the ball in front of us. We got to get a lot of people around the ball.

"In these games you can't get beat in the trenches. That's where you see it in these games most of the time, where you get dominated in the trenches. We got to do our job and hold up in the trenches, both sides of the ball. We got to find a way to run the ball and get better at running the ball. You got to eliminate explosive plays in the special teams and them throwing the ball down the field as well. We got our work cut out for us for sure."

On Gabarri Johnson's growth:

Coach Grass: "We were down a couple linemen that didn't play, so I was pleased to see our O-line just play well. Gabarri just executed. He had played well in our first three, but he had a great day on Saturday. He does a good job of just putting the ball in play and he finds ways to put the ball in play. Did really good with that. 84% completion percentage. I couldn't ask for any better than that. He does a really good job of protecting the ball as well. I think it did take a little pressure off of him not to have to throw it 50 times. We threw it 26 and we were able to run it for over 200. I think that makes you a more productive offense for sure."

On LaShon Young's breakout performance:

Coach Grass: "Very exciting. Smile ear to ear. He just had a great day. He was our special teams player of the week too. He had some good returns in there. He's really made a difference for us in the return game, returning punts, and just does a good job, man. He's a joy to coach. The way he played Saturday, that's the way he practices every day. It's fun to watch him kind of blossom. We kind of knew during fall camp that he was going to be a problem and do some good stuff."