Thirty years after his stint as an NFL prospect out of Alabama football, Sam Shade is having a full-circle moment at the HBCU Legacy Bowl.
The newly minted head coach of Alabama A&M University is one of the coaches at the showcase event for HBCU talent — and he’s not taking it lightly.
“It’s special I’m truly honored and humbled to be here amongst some of the greatest of the game — not just HBCU but NFL guys like Shack Harris and Doug Williams — that’s an honor,” Shade told New Orleans Saints Media.
Shade has yet to coach a game at Alabama A&M — he was hired in December — but he earned his spot into coaching at the fourth iteration of the game at Miles College. In three seasons he took the Fairfield, AL-based HBCU from a one-win rebuild job to an SIAC champion and won the program’s first-ever Division II playoff game.
As one of the coaches of Team Robinson — named after Grambling State legend Eddie Robinson — Shade will get a chance to coach Miles offensive lineman Christian Twymon one last time. But he won’t be the only player that Shade has coached in New Orleans this week.
“A big part of this week is also the career fair that the HBCU Legacy Bowl puts on. That’s a great event,” Shade said. “We’ve got a couple players here from Miles College — where I coached before — that are looking forward to it. They’ve got their resumes right, they’ve got their gear ready for it to maybe land a job outside of football.”
Shade will be working with Jackson State head coach T.C. Taylor who is coming off an 11-2 season in his second year, guiding Jackson State football to the Celebration Bowl.
“I was very happy for him that they were able to win it in the SWAC conference that I’m in now. I’m excited to be in it, but it does present a huge challenge on that SWAC East side of things,” Shade said with a smile. “I’m going to enjoy this week with T.C. and hey, at some point during the season, we’ll get the chance to compete against each other. But he’s done a tremendous job and got a really good football team and it’s an honor for me to be a part of the conference.”