Black Swarm ready to lead Kat defense
10/23/2010 7:08:00 AM | Football
By Cody Stark The Huntsville Item
There is no way to sugarcoat it. Sam Houston State's defense was a huge liability last season.
It was a safe bet that opposing team's game plans were going to be to throw the ball downfield and good things would happen. Week after week, it was the same old story. It was even so bad at times that running teams aired it out on the struggling Bearkats. By the time the season was over, Sam Houston ranked six out of eight Southland Conference teams in passing defense, allowing 253.5 yards per game.
The end result wasn't pretty. The Bearkats stumbled to a 5-6 record and placed fifth in the SLC with a 3-5 mark. But what was lost in the shuffle was that Sam Houston was seasoning a bunch of green players who could only get better.
"We are starting a bunch of young guys again, but I think they are better for some of the beatings they took last year," first-year SHSU head coach Willie Fritz said. "They got a lot of experience because of that and are better at running the schemes (defensive coordinator) Scott (Stoker) wants to run.
"They have played very well. Our entire defensive staff has done a very nice job, and we are getting better each week."
To say the defense has gotten better is an understatement. As a matter of fact, the Bearkats (4-2) have been so stingy and explosive over the past four games that Sam Houston, a team many thought would be bringing up the rear, is sitting atop the Southland Conference standings at 2-0.
A season and a half under Stoker has worked wonders. The former head coach at Northwestern State brought his blitz-heavy scheme to Huntsville last season, and the players looked lost at times out on the field.
Everything has fallen into place in 2010. The Bearkats have already amassed 27 sacks in six games, including a 12-sack performance in a 26-7 victory over Nicholls on Oct. 9.
To put that number into perspective, Sam Houston had only 15 sacks in 11 games in 2009.
Junior linebacker Will Henry leads the charge with four sacks, while linebacker Eric Fieilo and defensive end Edward Decambre each have three. Defensive lineman J.T Cleveland, linebackers Darius Taylor and Kash David and defensive backs Victor Carmichael and Chuck Obi have all recorded at least two sacks.
That type of pressure has helped Sam Houston climb to third in the SLC in pass defense and is a big reason the Kats are the league's top rushing defense.
"The difference has been the effort and the determination to be the best," Henry said. "Last year, we were just trying to be good enough to stick with the rest of the teams. This year, we just want to win more and be one of the best defenses."
There is still a long way to go, but the Bearkats are making a case for being the best defense in the SLC.
Sam Houston is currently the conference's leader in total defense, allowing only 333.3 yards per game. The Kats rank second in scoring defense at 21.3 points per contest, but those numbers are a little misleading as to how well the defense has been during the current four-game winning streak.
Baylor and Western Illinois combined for 90 points in a pair of victories over Sam Houston to start the season. After the Leathernecks torched the Bearkats for 542 yards of total offense in a 56-14 rout, it might have been easy for the guys to get discouraged.
But not this group. Since then, the Kats have allowed an average of 9.5 points in victories over Gardner-Webb, Lamar, Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana.
"Honestly, we were young last year and going through all those losses, it kept us humble," Decambre said. "We knew that if we wanted to win, we had to work for it, nothing was going to be given to us.
"After the Western Illinois game, we kept watching the film and watching the film and remembered how that feeling felt. In practice we just came out and played to the best of our abilities."
The young Sam Houston State defense that faced so much adversity last season has put it all behind them. This year the guys are having fun, and the fans are having a blast watching them.
The Bearkats call themselves the "Black Swarm," and it is easy to see why. They get pressure on the quarterback and they unleash ferocious hits. Sam Houston also makes the big plays which excite the crowd into a frenzy.
Sophomore safety Robert Shaw blocked a punt and returned it for the go-head touchdown against Nicholls. Senior wide receiver Vincent Dotson blocked a punt in the 57-7 victory over Southeastern Louisiana last week, which Shaw turned into another score. Oh, and Shaw also returned an interception to the house against the Lions.
Sophomore safety Kenneth Jenkins is tied for the SLC lead with three interceptions and freshman cornerback Bookie Sneed is tops in the league with 10 pass defenses.
The Bearkats have some playmakers, but the reason for their success has been because they are playing as a single unit.
"Last year, we knew we had a bunch of good individual players. we weren't playing as a team," Decambre said. "Now we are playing more like a team, a swarm."
"That is really were the Black Swarm comes from," Henry added. "We are not individuals anymore. We are a family, a brotherhood. That's is what the Black Swarm really is."
Approximately 4,500 tickets remain for today's "Battle of the Piney Woods" football contest at Reliant Stadium in Houston. The stadium ticket offices will open for sales at 11:30 a.m. Fans are urged to come early to avoid lines.
