Countdown for Kats
12/2/2011 6:42:00 AM | Football
It's right around the corner now.
On Saturday afternoon at Bowers Stadium, the Bearkats will be kicking off their first playoff game in seven years against the Seawolves of Stony Brook.
Between now and then, there's plenty of excitement and anticipation to go around.
"It feels good. This is our first playoff berth in a while. We're excited and ready to just go out there and play Saturday," Sam Houston junior linebacker Darius Taylor said following practice Thursday.
"This is going to be do-or-die this week. (Stony Brook's) going to come with their 'A' game and we're going to come with ours. We're going to try to go out here and make a statement and prove to everybody that we are a good team."
Following a short week from having a bye in the first round of the playoffs last week, the Bearkats got back to work Sunday and had one of their best practice weeks of the season, according to head coach Willie Fritz.
"We had a good week of practice. We should've. We had three days off," the coach said. "The guys are really focused. There is a great opportunity to be fresh. It's probably one of the best weeks of practice that we've had.
"We worked on a couple of things last week and we also did some competitive stuff with the offense and the defense. It was a good plan, I thought, for us.
"We had good weather - no problems with that. We were able to stay just on a regular week schedule starting on Tuesday, really. ... It was good."
Throughout the week, the offense, which has the nation's No. 1 scoring unit (39.45 points per game) and the seventh-best rushing offense (250.1 yards), has worked on picking things up right where it left off.
"Our coaches always preach the mental part of the game," Bearkats' do-it-all sophomore Richard Sincere said. "It's late in the season, so we're just trying to focus on the mental part. The physical part - everybody's beat up - so we just take it one play at a time and focus on what we have to do.
"We're going through our same routine that we've been going through all year long. Just stay focused, work hard every day like we have all year long and stay with our game plan whatever the coaches come up with and go out and execute."
The Bearkats defense, which is the best in the FCS against the run (59.0 yards per game) will be going head to head against the Seawolves' running game, which is ranked fourth in the country with 277.1 yards per game.
Knowing that Stony Brook (9-3), which is located on Long Island, N.Y., will try to wear down Sam Houston's defensive front using running backs Miguel Maysonet (1,560 yards and 15 touchdowns) and Brock Jackolski (1,332 yards and 15 TDs) for the length of the game, the Kats take it as a personal challenge to stop the run at the line of scrimmage.
"This is going to be huge this week. They've already expressed that they're going to run the ball 40 times. For us to get out there and prove them wrong and stop the run, it's going to be huge this week," Taylor said. "We know what they're going to do. They've been doing it all year and they're very good at it. We've got to get out there and stop them as a defense."
Kickoff for Saturday's second-round playoff game is set for 2 p.m.
ARRIVE EARLY SATURDAY
Fans who are looking to pick up tickets at will call or purchase at the ticket windows are advised to arrive early Saturday at Bowers Stadium. Based on the brisk pregame sales, a large walk-up crowd is expected at the ticket office. Ticket windows will open at 10 a.m.
PLAYOFF TICKETS ON SALE
Tickets for the NCAA Division I Football Playoff games at Bowers Stadium may be purchased now online at www.gobearkats.com/tickets or at the Bearkat athletic ticket office in the Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium will be open Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Ticket prices are $25 for reserved chairback seats, $20 for bleacher reserved and $15 for general admission seats.
Ticket windows at Bowers Stadium will open at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The SHSU athletic ticket office telephone number is (936) 294-1729.
Sam Houston students may purchase playoff tickets for the discounted price of $5 thanks to the contributions of local Huntsville- and Conroe-area business supporters. There are no free admissions to the playoff games due to NCAA rules. The $5 student tickets are on sale at the ticket office and will be available before the game at the main ticket office at Bowers (beneath the press box)>
