Friday news - It's all Samford

The Birmingham (Ala.) News today reports on Pat Sullivan's hiring as head coach at Samford. The paper says the UAB assistant was offered the top job with the Blazers, but elected to head across town to Samford instead. That's a pretty big deal. If Samford was willing to outspend UAB to get a coach, it could be a sign of bigger things to come in that program (and a signal, perhaps, to the Southern Conference? We'll see).

In a column in The News, Kevin Scarbinsky says Samford scored a touchdown in luring Sullivan away from UAB, a troubled program where back-room politics apparently dominated the coaching search (like they don't everywhere else, but if Scarbinsky's right this looks like a particularly messy case).