All Hogs

New Coach for Alabama A&M Adds Intrigue to Hogs' 2025 Football Opener

Former NFL defensive back, Crimson Tide player with ties to historic moments in Razorbacks history brings personal success to Fayetteville

Kent Smith

Arkansas Razorbacks linebacker Xavian Sorey celebrates after a play in a loss to Oklahoma State.
Arkansas Razorbacks linebacker Xavian Sorey celebrates after a play in a loss to Oklahoma State. / Craven Whitlow-Hogs on SI Images
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The season opener against Alabama A&M will be a borderline afterthought with fans next season and it certainly isn't top of mind at the moment.

However, a recent hire by the Bulldogs at head coach has added at least the slightest intrigue before a long string of absolute must-watch games overtake the schedule. Sam Shade, a former Alabama Crimson Tide player turned eight-year NFL safety with Cincinnati and Washington, has taken the reigns in Huntsville.

Shade, who cut his teeth coaching in Alabama high schools and as an assistant coach at FCS colleges in the region and with the Cleveland Browns in the NFL, finally got his head coaching break with Miles College. It was there that he showed the promise that makes him a coach to keep an eye on in the coming years.

While his head coaching career didn't start off great with a 1-9 record, Shade established his culture, putting Miles on a rocket ship toward success. In Year 2, he went 7-3, finishing second in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

By his third season at the helm, he had the Golden Bears in double-digit wins, claimed a conference championship, and even won a Division II playoff game before falling to eventual national runner-up Valdosta State. Shade leaves Miles having left quite a dent in the school record books.

Not only was he named SIAC coach of the year, he has the school's only playoff win and the longest winning streak in Golden Bears football history at 10 consecutive. Prior to taking over at Miles, he was head coach at Pinson Valley High School where his team won the Alabama state championship.

The name might sound familiar to Arkansas fans. He was part of the Alabama team that rudely welcomed the Hogs into the SEC.

There was much curiosity about whether Arkansas, which had dominated the Southwest Conference until the year prior to switching conferences, would be able to hold up without teams like Rice and SMU to fluff up the schedule. That's why thousands across the state paid the $25 pay-per-view fee, roughly a full day's wages after taxes at most jobs around the state at the time, to see the Razorbacks square off with No. 9 Alabama.

The season was already a disaster after Jack Crowe had to be fired following a season opening loss to The Citadel, but things appeared to be more promising after Joe Kines took over as interim and promptly smashed South Carolina 45-7 in the SEC opener.

However, the eventual national champions wasted little time showing Arkansas how high the hill was to climb. The Tide jumped out big in front of 56,000 at War Memorial Stadium, eventually winning 36-11 in a game that was more unevenly matched than the score indicates.

However, the Hogs made that climb under Danny Ford in 1995, Shade's last season at Alabama. The SEC got put on notice in mid-September when Arkansas went into Bryant-Denny Stadium and stunned the No. 13 Crimson Tide, 20-19, on a touchdown pass low and in the dirt to JJ Meadors on fourth down with six seconds to play.

That win propelled the Razorbacks, led by quarterback Barry Lunney, Jr. and running back Madre Hill, both Arkansas high school legends at the time, to their first-ever appearance in the SEC championship game.

The opener against Shade's Bulldogs will mark the first time since the Hogs faced a Cincinnati team coming off a College Football Playoff appearance in 2022 that the season opener will take place in Razorback Stadium. That is because, for the first time ever, the required Little Rock game will be filled by Arkansas State, a team for which the long held policy of never playing in-state opponents was established.

HOGS FEED:

• Injury gives freshman opportunity, creates needed depth for Razorbacks

• Quick talk with Calipari sets table for huge second half by Boogie Fland

• Reaction: Hogs take care of Oakland in final non-conference game

• Carmona stomp couldn't have happened at better time for him, Hogs

• Razorbacks' Next Football Game in Memphis Will be 'Trap'

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Kent Smith
KENT SMITH

Kent Smith has been in the world of media and film for nearly 30 years. From Nolan Richardson's final seasons, former Razorback quarterback Clint Stoerner trying to throw to anyone and anything in the blazing heat of Cowboys training camp in Wichita Falls, the first high school and college games after 9/11, to Troy Aikman's retirement and Alex Rodriguez's signing of his quarter billion dollar contract, Smith has been there to report on some of the region's biggest moments. 

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