By Cody Stark
Huntsville Item
Assistant Sports Editor

Quarterback Rhett Bomar passed for 204 yards and one touchdown and ran for 24 more and another score to lead Sam Houston State to a 17-13 non-conference victory over Angelo State in the season opener at Bowers Stadium Thursday night.

Bomar completed 16 of 24 passes including a 64-yard touchdown throw to Justin Wells for the first score of the game with 9:47 to play in the first quarter.

After a Taylor Wilkins field goal with 43 seconds left in the opening quarter, Bomar ran for an eight yard tally to complete a 93-yard, 11 play drive to put SHSU up 17-0.

It wasn't the kind of start they were hoping for. In fact, it was downright ugly.

But when the final seconds ticked off the clock Thursday night at Bowers Stadium, there was a collective sign of relief because Sam Houston State dodged a blue and yellow bullet.

Angelo State gave the Bearkats all they could handle before two huge defensive stops late in the fourth quarter helped secure a 17-13 victory.

“Anytime you win a college football game, you have to feel good about that,” SHSU head coach Todd Whitten said. “What I don't feel good about is the way we played. I thought we played hard, and I thought we did some good stuff. We have tons of work to do in the kicking game. It almost cost us the game.

“We have to make fewer critical penalties, and we had chances to make some big plays in the passing game but had some dropped balls. We have a lot of work to do.”

On a muggy August night, 17th-ranked SHSU didn't look like a Football Championship Subdivision Top 25 team. The Bearkat offense, which scored all of its points in the first half, looked sluggish despite racking up 400 total yards.

Instead of being explosive, it looked like the Bearkats were taking a more conservative approach, running the ball 42 times and passing just 26.

Quarterback Rhett Bomar threw an interception on his second attempt of the night, but settled down and completed his next 10 passes, including a 64-yard scoring strike to Justin Wells, a junior from Huntsville.

Bomar hit Wells about 25 yards down the right side, then the speedy receiver broke a tackle with a nifty spin move and raced to the end zone.

In his first game since 2005, Bomar finished the day 16-of-24 passing for 204 yards and a touchdown. He also carried the ball eight times for 24 yards and another score even though he was dealing with cramps that caused him to miss a few plays in the third quarter.

“It's tough. It's different going out there in that position. It's been 18 or 19 months since I played ball,” Bomar said of his performance. “You can simulate all you want in practice, but it's not the same.

“Coming out there and the second pass you throw an interception, you have to come back from that. That wasn't too good. But stuff like that happens and I responded.”

Bearkat running back Chris Poullard had a big game on the ground in his first career start. The sophomore from Killeen carried the ball 22 times for 131 yards.

The Bearkats moved the ball at times, but just couldn't get on the scoreboard. There were also a couple of dropped passes by Catron Houston that could have moved the chains, one on the Kats' second offensive play of the night that likely would have been a touchdown.

Poullard was the Kats' top receiver, catching five pass for 71 yards. Tight end Blake Martin, who was also dealing with cramps, and wide receiver Darnell Jones contributed by combining for eight grabs for 88 yards.

“Coach Whitten was telling us all week to make big plays,” Poullard said. “We put good drives together; we had one that was 10 or 11 plays. But when we got down (the field) we couldn't finish. But we have some time to work on that and by the second game we will be ready. We are going to make those big plays.”

It was a silly mistake on special teams that turned things around for the Rams. The defense held ASU to only six points, but the Rams scored their only touchdown when SHSU's Trey Payne fumbled a punt return that Sam Tindol ran back 33 yards to make it 17-7 with less than two minutes to go in the second quarter.

The Rams kept putting on the pressure, but the Bearkats came up with stops when they needed it most.

Angelo State had two big pass plays that each went for more than 40 yards in the second half, only to come away with one field goal. The second came midway through the fourth quarter when Tindol got past cornerback Wonseleh Brewer for a 41-yard completion down to the SHSU 15.

The Kats dug in and forced the Rams to turn the ball over on downs at the 9.

SHSU failed to move the ball on the ensuing possession, but sophomore punter Michael Capparelli uncorked a monster 56-yard punt, that aided with a personal foul call, backed ASU down to its own 10. Defensive end Chris Brown came up with a key sack on first down, and linebacker Nolen Bucek broke up a pass on fourth down to seal it.

“We got the defense together. Me, (Byran Richmond), everybody on the sideline and knew we had to make a stop,” Brown said about the final stand. “We didn't play our best today, but we came up with the plays when we needed to. When we saw the field position, coach told us before we came out that it was time to eat, and we were hungry.”

Bearkat football notes


Big crowd at Bowers ? More than 10,000 fans came out to see the Bearkats in their season opener Thursday night at Bowers Stadium. The stands on the west (pressbox) side were nearly full, and there were a bunch of students wearing their bright orange shirts out in the sun on the east side of the stadium. Until halftime, that is.

With the Bearkats holding a 17-7 lead at intermission, many of the students packed up and left. They must have thought the Bearkats had the game in the bag. Angelo State never quit, though. The Rams traveled a long way to play SHSU and they nearly left Huntsville with a come-from-behind victory.


Kickoffs from the 30-yard line this season ? Did you notice that there was only one touchback on a kickoff Thursday night? This season, the NCAA, in an attempt to add some excitement to the game, moved the starting spot for kickoffs back five yards to the 30-yard line.

It looks like the NCAA made a good call. Instead of having kickers boot the ball through the end zone, the receiving team can set up a return. And if that team has a speedy return man or two, they can change the game in seconds.

On Thursday, the Bearkats returned three kickoffs. The average starting spot after those kicks was the SHSU 28-yard line.

Angelo State did a better job returning kicks. The Rams' average starting spot on kickoffs was their own 34-yard line. Terrell Lee returned one kick 35 yards and Chris Fowler ran another one 30 yards.