Sam Houston vs. McNeese State Game Notes
11/4/2010 9:00:00 AM | Football, Athletics
KATS FOR THE CAUSE
Sam Houston plays host to McNeese State Saturday in the fourth annual "Kats for the Cause Pink Out Day". Various Sam Houston student organizations, faculty and staff and community members have organized a variety of activities to support breast cancer education and awareness.
Kats for the Cause volunteers will be selling special pink t-shirts to benefit Breast Cancer Education and Awareness, American Cancer Society, Hope Foundation, Colleges Against Cancer and the Breast Cancer Network of Strength. Pink Out Day activities will highlight both the pregame tailgate and halftime of the event.
BEARKATS-COWBOYS SERIES
No football team in the Southland Conference has been tougher to beat for SHSU than McNeese State. In the pair's 31 games since their first meeting in 1951, the Cowboys have won 23 times while Sam Houston has posted only seven victories. There was one tie in 1955. Sam Houston is 3-19 against McNeese in their 22 games as Southland Conference foes. The last Bearkat victory was in 2004 when Dustin Long powered SHSU to a 52-47 win. The Bearkats stand 2-8 against the Cowboys in Bowers Stadium.
McNEESE STATE ENTERS TIED FOR FIRST
The Cowboys enter Bowers Stadium Saturday tied for first place in the Southland Conference. McNeese State, Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin all sport 3-1 league marks. Standing atop the Southland is a position familiar to the Cowboys. No team has won more Southland Championships than McNeese State. The Cowboys have 13 football titles to their credit including six in the last nine years. They are defending co-champions (tying for first place last year with SFA). No other Southland team, past or present, has won more than eight league titles.
SCOUTING THECOWBOYS
McNeese State ranks No. 1 in the Southland Conference in total defense, allowing opponents only 347.5 yards per game this season. Offensively, the Cowboys stand No. 6 in the league in total offense (327.9) but they bring the Southland's No. 3 rushing offense into the contest. Running back Andre Anderson is No. 4 in the Southland in rushing with 111 carries for 525 yards and two scores. Quarterback Jacob Bower has completed 74 of 124 passes for 935 yards and four touchdowns.
SACK ATTACK
Sam Houston's blitzing defense totaled 27 sacks in their first six games. However, the Bearkats went without sacks in the two losses to Stephen F. Austin and Northwestern State. Despite the two-game sack drought, Sam Houston State leads the Southland Conference and ranks No. 2 in NCAA Division I FCS national statistics in sacks per game (3.25).
A year ago, Sam Houston totaled 15 sacks in 11 contests. The 27 sacks this year are most for a Kat defense since the 2001 Southland championship season when Sam Houston totaled 44. The school record for sacks in one season is 47 in 1991, another title year.
In a 26-7 victory at Nicholls, the defense tied a Southland Conference record and set a school record by rolling up 12 sacks. The previous team record was 10 sacks against Mississippi Valley State in 2002. Northwestern State originally set the Southland record with 12 sacks against SFA in 1997. The NCAA Division I FCS national record is 14 sacks by Alcorn State against Mississippi Valley in 2007.
Will Henry tied a school record with four sacks at Nicholls. All-America defensive tackle Michael Bankston, who went on to play eight years in the NFL for the Cardinals, was the first to set the SHSU single game record with four sacks against Angelo State in 1991. The Southland single game record for sacks is five.
Henry was named as Southland Conference "Defensive Player of the Week" after his performance at Nicholls. Fifteen Bearkats have had a hand in at least one quarterback sack this year. Henry and J. T. Cleveland (who had three sacks at Nicholls) both have season totals of five. Eric Fieilo has four for the year.
STOPPING THE RUSH
The SHSU defense held opponents to less than 100 yards rushing in each of its last six games. Bearkat foes have totaled only 244 yards (40.7 yards per game) in those six contests.
The Bearkats lead the Southland and rank No. 11 nationally in rushing defense (93.8 yards per game). The Kats limited Nicholls to just 97 yards total offense. That was the lowest total offense figure allowed by a Sam Houston defense since a 23-3 victory over Stephen F. Austin at Bowers Stadium in 1990 when the Kats held the Jacks to 83 yards (-49 on the ground and 132 in the aire)
CONSECUTIVE 100-YARD RUSHING STREAK ENDS
Tim Flanders, redshirt freshman from Midwest City, Okla., is the leading rusher in the Southland Conference (102.4 yards per game) and ranks No. 20 in the NCAA Division I FCS national statistics.
He had rushed for 100 yards or more in six consecutive games, a school record. The streak came to an end Saturday at Northwestern State when, slowed by an ankle injury, Flanders left the game early in the second quarter after seven carries for 20 yards.
Flanders netted 156 yards at Western Illinois, 104 vs. Gardner-Webb, 153 at Lamar, 105 yards at Nicholls, 134 versue Southeastern Louisiana and 100 against SFA. With 819 yards rushing in eight games, Flanders stands No. 2 on the list of top single season rushing performances by Sam Houston freshmen. Joe Rauls gained 867 yards in 1998.
Flanders already has broken the school record for most rushing TDs (9) set by a freshman set by Joe Vickers in 1971. He also has tied the school mark for 100-yard rushing performances in one season with six. While their six 100-yard games were not in succession, Roger Wiley (1982), D. D. Terry (2006) and Chris Poullard (2007) all produced six triple figure running games in a year.
YOUTH MOVEMENT
With only 29 lettermen back from last year's Bearkat squad and only five seniors on this year's roster, the 2010 Sam Houston football team definitely is young.
Eleven freshmen dot the Bearkats' two-deep lineup. New Sam Houston head coach Willie Fritz inherited a young team with just as many newcomers as returning players and told potential high school recruits they definitely had an opportunity to play as freshmen.
The 34 lost letter-winners is the highest total of departed players since the Bearkats moved up to the NCAA Division I FCS level in 1986. The previous high was 28 lost lettermen in 1993 when Sam Houston went 4-7 for the year and 2-5 in Southland action. Just eight starters (two on offense and six on defense) are among the returnees. Sam Houston did not return a running back who touched a ball in the 2009 season and the Bearkats' top six receivers from last year are gone.
Of the 90 players who reported for the opening of preseason camp on August 6, only 48 took part in Fritz's spring practice in April. The other 42 players were either freshmen or transfers.
THE BEARKAT OFFENSE
The biggest change for the 2010 Bearkats has come on offense where Sam Houston have become more balanced.
Brian Bell, a true freshman from China Spring, has been the starter since the third game. Bell came off the bench in the second quarter at Western Illinois and directed the team to two touchdown drives.
With no running backs who carried during either the 2009 season or in spring practice, Sam Houston has collected a strong stable of runners in preseason camp. Tim Flanders, a redshirt freshman transfer from Kansas State, leads the Southland in rushing. True freshmen Cameron Brown (Austin LBJ HS) and transfer D. J. Morrow (Louisiana Tech) help carry the load.
Junior center Travis Watson and left tackle Chris Crockett were starters in 2008 who missed playing in 2009 because of injury. Sophomore tackle Kaleb Hopson was a starter as a freshman last year and sophomore tackle Riley Smith and guard Cameron Pound were backups last year, giving the Kats an experienced front line.
Wide receivers Brandon Closner and Melvis Pride and tight end T. J. Jones were the only returning Bearkats to catch passes last year (combining for 13 catches for 170 yards). Western Michigan transfer Seth Patterson leads the Bearkat receivers.
THE BEARKAT SECONDARY
The Bearkats started three freshmen, two safeties and a cornerback, who got on-the-job training while taking their fair share of lumps. Sam Houston ranked sixth out of eight teams in the Southland Conference in pass defense at 253.5 yards a game. Things got better towards the end of the season including a victory over Central Arkansas in which the Kats gave up only 106 yards passing and picked off two passes.
What was once a major weakness now is a strength. Those three freshmen - Darnell Taylor, Kenneth Jenkins and Robert Shaw - are a year older, and more importantly, have now been in defensive coordinator Scott Stoker's scheme for an entire season. Throw in senior cornerback Jarvis Pippins and senior safety Victor Carmichael, true freshman Bookie Sneed and sophomore transfer Daxton Swanson and the Kats have put together a talented secondary.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Brandon Closner ranks No. 2 in the Southland Conference and No. 20 in the nation in punt returns with a 12.2 average per return. He returned a punt 37 yards for a touchdown in the Lamar victory. Sam Houston had not had a punt return brought back for a score since 2006. His 33-yard punt return set up a touchdown in the third quarter of the SFA game.
Matt Foster, a veteran of Australian rules football in Melbourne, handles punting chores. A red-hirt at Purdue last year, Foster will be played in his first American football game in the opener at Baylor.
Miguel Antonio is the kicking specialist for the Bearkats.
SOUTHLAND PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Through the first half of the season, five Bearkats have earned Southland Conference football "Players of the Week."
Robert Shaw, sophomore safety from Converse/Judson, earned the defensive honor after a 57-7 victory over Southeastern Louisiana. Shaw iced the win with a 54-yard interception return for a touchdown and scored on a 24-yard return of a blocked punt by Vincent Dotson.
Linebacker Will Henry from Waco LaVega won the defensive honor after tying a school record with four sacks the 26-7 victory at Nicholls. The Bearkat defense tied a Southland Conference record by sacking the Colonel quarterback 12 times.
Kicker Miguel Antonio and punt returner Brandon Closner were special teams winners. Antonio's honor came after SHSU's 30-14 victory over Gardner-Webb Sept. 25. Antonio was perfect on three field-goal tries and three PAT in the win. Closner's 37-yard punt return for a touchdown was the first score for Sam Houston in the 38-10 victory at Lamar.
Running back Tim Flanders received Southland offensive player of the week honors after posting his third consecutive 100-yard rushing game against the Lamar Cardinals.
SEASON FINALE AT BOWERS NOV. 20
Sam Houston will complete its 2010 regular season schedule Saturday, November 20 when the Bearkats play host to Texas State at 2 p.m. here at Elliott T. Bowers Stadium.
Special "Senior Day" pregame ceremonies honoring the five players stepping on to the Bowers turf for their final home game as Bearkats.
The Bearkat-Bobcat series begin in 1919 and, with 86 previous meetings, stands as the oldest NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision rivalry in Texas.
