Kat football looks to improve during open weekend
9/17/2009 7:00:00 AM | Football
By Cody Stark, Huntsville Item Assistant Sports Editor
The Bearkat football team gets a rare fall weekend off this Saturday, but even though there is no game to prepare for this week, the squad is keeping busy.
Coming off the thrilling 48-45 victory over North Dakota State at Bowers Stadium last Saturday, the Sam Houston coaches have had a chance to review game video and are in the process of making adjustments to some of the areas that need addressing.
"The biggest thing to me that we need to work on is the kicking game," Sam Houston head coach Todd Whitten said Wednesday afternoon. "We kicked the ball very well but every penalty we made was in the kicking game. One cost us four points and one cost us the length of the field. We are really working hard on that."
Whitten pointed to a first half play when a field goal was taken off the board because of a roughing the kicker penalty.
Two plays later, the Bison tied the game at 7 when running back Pat Paschall scored on a 2-yard run.
Sam Houston also got a booming punt from Michael Capparelli that would have cornered North Dakota State at its own 16-yard line late in the third quarter with the Kats leading 31-24. But a holding call brought the punt back and the re-kick gave the Bison the ball at their own 49.
That short field position allowed North Dakota State the chance to tie the game at 31 in the fourth quarter.
The Bearkats did show some improvement on defense against the Bison after allowing 554 yards of total offense in the season opening loss to Western Illinois on Sept. 3.
Sam Houston held North Dakota State to only seven points and 77 total yards in the first half. But the Bison scored 38 points in the second half and racked up 342 yards.
"It's young in the season, but you always need to tackle better," Whitten said. "We are really stressing that as a defense. You also have to play four quarters. We gave up seven points and 80 yards in the first half, then struggled in the second half. We just have to finish.
"We are young and inexperienced in some places, but we need to learn how tough college football games are. We have had a lot of close games since I have been here."
The Bearkats don't play again until Sept. 26 when they head to Tulsa, Okla., to face the Golden Hurricane. Whitten said the coaches have began to address Tulsa this week, but are more focused right now on getting better as a team with these extra days of practice.
"We are introducing Tulsa, but the main thing we are doing is practicing our starters against our starters," the coach added. "We are not doing the scout team thing, so we are getting a lot of full speed reps against our best players on both sides of the ball.
"Next Tuesday we will go back to the scout team a little more, but we are a little more in scrimmage mode this week. We are just trying to execute, but we have introduced Tulsa. We will work more on that next week."
The next home game for the Bearkats is Oct. 3 against Saint Joseph's. Tickets are available online by clicking here. For ticket information, fans may call the Bearkat ticket office at (936) 294-1729 or come by the ticket office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House south of Bowers Stadium.
