Lennie Acuff INTRODUCED As New SAMFORD COACH AT PRESS CONFERENCE
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - April 15, 2025
Lennie Acuff wasn’t looking to leave Lipscomb University.
Oh sure, he did leave .01 percent of chance that he would leave during a recent assessment of his status as Lipscomb basketball head coach. But that’s pretty close to saying that the Huntsville native, who had spent 22 years turning UAH into a D2 power before taking the Lipscomb, was content with closing out his career in Nashville.
Then he got a text from Samford athletic director Martin Newton.
Now, it’s no secret that text ultimately led to a celebratory Tuesday morning press conference officially welcoming the 60-year-old Acuff as 30th head coach in program history. It’s also known that Acuff is following one of the most successful head coaching tenures in program history.
“I want to say something about Bucky (McMillan),” Acuff said. “I knew Bucky when he was in high school. I saw him play in high school. What he has done here, what he did for the university, is incredible. I would say to everybody in the room, you're the ones that helped make that happen. Bucky's a Birmingham guy. He's an Over-the-Mountain guy. He's a Mountain Brook guy. You guys are a huge part of his story, and you should be so proud. And I tip my hat to (Samford athletic director) Martin Newton. I mean, to hire a high school coach, you got to be willing to step outside the box, and you have to be comfortable in your own skin. He did that and look at the results.”
Those results include a 99-52 record over the past five seasons with four consecutive seasons of 20-plus wins, the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since Jimmy Tillette led the Bulldogs to the Big Dance in 1999 and 2000 and a pair of SoCon regular season titles. And he did it in his own unique style.
“Just so, so happy for him and it's an honor to try to continue what he's done,” Acuff said. “Now, with that being said, I will not try to be Bucky, that's not my job. That's not it at all. My job is to try to keep Samford basketball at the top of the Southern Conference. That's my job. Bucky, what he did was unbelievable. I can't be Bucky, and I'm not going to try. We will work really hard to make sure that we continue the momentum that was built. But I also know that sailboats don't sail behind yesterday's winds. We got to row, and we got to get going, and we got to get this thing moving.”
Undoubtedly, Samford lost a special coach when McMillan moved on to Texas A&M. But Samford is also getting a special coach in Acuff, who is 660-404 as a college head coach. He was 454-223 in 22 seasons at UAH with five Division II Sweet 16 trips and a pair of Division II Elite 8 appearances. In 2019, he stepped up to Division I to take over a Lipscomb program that had went to the NCAA Tournament and claimed a regular season conference title in Casey Alexander’s final two seasons at the helm.
Acuff had a 110-82 record in six seasons, directed his team to 20 wins or more in his final three years at the school and led the Bison to an A-Sun regular season and tournament title this past season. His final game was a NCAA Tournament first round loss to Iowa State.
The lure of coming home to Samford was too strong to pass up.
“I think it's absolutely the perfect match for Samford and Lennie,” said Mike Morris, who played for Acuff at UAH and later was a Samford assistant with the men’s team and a successful head coach with the women’s team. “I think him and Bucky are different in terms of how they go about running a program, so I think that's going to help. I think for Lennie, this really gives him a great opportunity to, you know, finish strong. This is where he's always wanted to be, I’ll be honest with you. Ten years ago, five years ago, this is what he wanted.”
Tuesday was part family reunion and part press conference for Acuff. He introduced his wife Kelly, children Will and Molly, son-in-law Cole and his parents, Swannie and Sue, and his sister. He took time to talk about each one. He said six members of his wedding party were in attendance, sitting in a crowded family and friends section, as well as former players and coaching friends.
None of them need a refresher on Acuff’s coaching style. But he was asked what Samford fans who are not familiar with his style should expect, particularly in comparison to what they’ve seen the past five seasons.
“You'll probably see the greatest difference is that we won’t press,” Acuff said. “Now, offensively, it will look very similar, it really will. Bucky and his staff, they did a great job on both sides of the ball. We will probably be a little bit less high risk on defense. We'll probably be a little bit more half-court oriented. I just always thought you build a defense from the rim out. I'd like to have success they had, I'll tell you that. We won't be married to anything. I think one thing you have to do now, you have to be more flexible than you've ever been. We won't be married to a system. We'll be married to winning basketball. Whatever gives our team the best chance that your game is what it will be.”