Spartanburg, SC — Wofford comes out of its bye week with a Halloween night trip to Birmingham, Ala., to face Samford at Pete Hanna Stadium. Kickoff is 7:00 PM ET on Saturday, Oct. 31, on ESPN+ and Nexstar (WYCW in the Upstate, WFTO Birmingham, WCIV Charleston, WUXP Nashville and EFLI Chattanooga), with Jim Noble, Thom Henson and Van Hipp on the call for the Wofford Digital Network.
The Terriers are 5-3 and 3-2 in the SoCon, with a winning record through eight games for the first time since 2019. The Old Gold and Black have won three straight, with the latest being a 41-14 Homecoming win over VMI.
Samford is 2-6 and 2-3 in league play after a 13-6 win at Furman. The Bulldogs went 1-11 and 1-7 last fall and were picked eighth in the preseason. John Grass is in his first season after eight years as head coach at Jacksonville State and four as an analyst at Clemson, and he owns a 74-32 career record.
Samford’s defense is its strength. It allows 23.1 points and 337.5 yards per game and leads the SoCon in pass defense at 152.9 yards per game, third in the FCS. It also owns the league’s top red zone defense, allowing scores on 18 of 24 trips and only 10 touchdowns. The soft spot is the run defense which is giving up 184.6 yards per game (93rd nationally), an area that Wofford RB’s Gerald Modest Jr. & Davis Penn should be able to exploit.
Linebacker Spencer Conn leads Samford with 69 tackles, 8.0 tackles for loss and three sacks. Jalen Nelson, a preseason second-team All-SoCon pick, has 54 tackles and a 95-yard fumble return touchdown, and LaShon Young has 46 tackles and a 45-yard pick-six. At Furman, Samford forced three turnovers and kept a SoCon opponent out of the end zone for the first time since 2024.
Samford’s sputtering offense will run into a Wofford defense that has been on fire over the last month, giving up only 13 points per game. The Samford offense averages a pedestrian 17.9 points and 292.3 yards per game, 109th nationally in both. Their rushing attack ranks 119th at 81.1 yards per game and 2.8 per carry. Ken Cherry leads the backs with 311 yards on 58 carries. Quarterback Gabarri Johnson, an Oregon State transfer in his first year as the starter, has completed 137 of 235 passes for 1,365 yards with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions. Clemson transfer Marquise Henderson is the big play threat with 26 catches for 456 yards (17.5 per catch) and three touchdowns. Preston Bird, a preseason first-team All-SoCon receiver, leads the team with 29 catches for 291 yards, and freshman Cayden Aukerman has 26 catches, three touchdowns and the game-winner at Furman. Samford has allowed 26 sacks, 115th nationally, and converts 31.8 percent on third down.
Wofford averages 26.0 points and 316.5 yards per game, and it has been close to automatic inside the 20. The Terriers are second in the nation in red zone offense at 95 percent, 21-of-22 with 14 touchdowns. Gerald Modest Jr. has 732 yards and eight touchdowns on 149 carries, 18th nationally in rushing touchdowns and 21st at 91.5 yards per game, and he was SoCon Offensive Player of the Week after a career-high 173 yards and three scores against VMI. J.T. Fayard has started the last two games and is 63-of-111 for 732 yards and four touchdowns. Ethan Drumm has nine touchdown passes, 64th nationally, but it is unclear if he will be available after the Terrier’s bye week after injuring his shoulder in the Furman game. Isaiah Scott leads the team with 311 receiving yards and is 13th in the country at 19.44 per catch, Terrence Honeywood leads in receptions with 17 at 17 yards per catch (36th), and Ivory Aikens has a team-high four receiving touchdowns. Modest and Scott both passed 1,000 career rushing and passing yards respectively against Tennessee Tech.
Wofford allows 23.1 points and 366.4 yards per game. Logan McCloud leads with 55 tackles. Eli Campbell, a preseason first-team All-SoCon pick, earned FCS National and SoCon Defensive Player of the Week honors after three takeaways at Elon. He has 43 tackles, two interceptions and two blocked kicks. Nicholas Mathious averages a tackle for loss per game, 39th nationally, and leads the team with eight. The pass rush has only seven sacks.
When Wofford has the ball, the run game is the pressure point. Samford allows 4.3 yards per carry, and the Terriers are 4-1 when they rush for more than 100 yards. Wofford’s 95 percent red zone offense meets the league’s best red zone defense at 75 percent, and Samford’s 16 sacks face a Wofford line that has allowed 22.
The Bulldogs are 2-0 when they win the turnover battle and 0-6 when they lose it, and they have given it away 10 times. Conversely, the Terriers are tied for first in the nation with 18 turnovers gained, and their +1.00 turnover margin is sixth nationally. Samford is also 0-6 when outrushed, which seems a given to happen again this Saturday and bodes well for Wofford going into Birmingham,
Special teams favor the Terriers. Cillian Bonner ranks 31st nationally in punting at 42.0 yards, and Wofford’s 40.7-yard net average is 11th in the country and first in the SoCon. Aikens is fourth nationally in kickoff return touchdowns with one, and Wofford averages 29.2 yards per kickoff return and 15.7 per punt return to Samford’s 19.3 and 8.6. Samford’s edge is range. Kicker Ty Ippolito, the team’s leading scorer with 48 points, is 12-of-18 on field goals and 3-for-3 from 50 and beyond, and his 58, 54 and 53-yard makes are the three longest in school history. Conner Deviney, 6-of-7 since replacing the injured Sam Spence, has a long of 42.
Key numbers to watch: Wofford has been outscored 63-20 in fourth quarters and is 3-of-20 on fourth-quarter third downs. Samford is 0-6 when the opponent scores first and 0-4 in night games.
Samford holds an impressive series lead against the Terriers, with a 13-6 record and a 6-4 record in Birmingham against Wofford in the FCS era. That said, the Tdawgs have won two straight and will look to make it three, after a 17-13 win at Samford in 2024 and a 26-16 win in Spartanburg in 2025. Last year Wofford intercepted Samford four times, with Maximus Pulley and Campbell returning picks for touchdowns. 11 of the 18 meetings as SoCon members have been decided by a touchdown or less, a testament to the competitiveness in the series. Wofford Head Coach Shawn Watson is 2-2 against Samford since taking over for the Terriers.
Since the program resumed after World War II in 1946, Wofford has played on Oct. 31 only seven times, going 3-4 and 2-2 on the road. The Terriers have won four of their last eight games following a bye week, not counting the 2021 spring season. Saturday is the first of three road games in Wofford’s final four.
Wofford (5-3, 3-2 SoCon) at Samford (2-6, 2-3 SoCon), Saturday, Oct. 31, 7:00 PM ET, Pete Hanna Stadium, on ESPN+.