Alabama A&M hires Sam Shade as head coach

Alabama A&M has hired Sam Shade to be its next head football coach, the team announced Sunday. He is the 22nd coach in program history.

Shade was the head coach at Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama, for the past three seasons. He led them to an 18-15 overall record and won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship this past year before advancing to the second round of the Division II playoffs.

Shade’s roots in the state run deep, as he won a national championship with the Alabama Crimson Tide as a player in 1992. He played defensive back and ended his college career with five interceptions before being selected in the fourth round of the NFL Draft.

Shade would go on to play eight seasons in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals and Washington before retiring. He first got into coaching in 2004 as a volunteer assistant at Briarwood Christian High School in Birmingham.

He landed his first college coaching job in 2009 when he took over as special teams and defensive passing game coordinator at Samford. He kept that role until 2015 before moving on to be the cornerbacks coach at Georgia State in 2017.

Shade was also an assistant special teams coach for the Cleveland Browns in 2018. He later landed his first head coaching job in 2020 when he took over at Pinson Valley High School in Alabama. He led the team to a 6A state championship in his very first season.

“This is a new and exciting time to bring Coach Sam Shade to the Hill,” athletic director Paul A. Bryant said. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and proven success to a program ready to thrive. His vast resources in the State and impeccable relationships with his team made him the perfect candidate for Alabama A&M University.”

Shade is a native of Birmingham who played his high school football at Wenonah High School. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance from Alabama.

Alabama A&M is coming off of a 6-6 finish to this past season and competes in the Southwestern Athletic Conference of the FCS. It will be interesting to see what Shade can accomplish in Year 1 with the Bulldogs, and he’ll certainly have a lot of people rooting for him to succeed.