SHSU vs Central Arkansas Game Notes
9/18/2012 9:17:00 AM | Football
SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE OPENER
Sam Houston and Central Arkansas, the teams that finished one and two in last year's Southland race (earning NCAA post-season playoff berths in the process), meet head-on in the league opener for both teams. The Bearkats won last year's meeting 31-10 in Huntsville. The Bearkats hold a record of 10 victories, 14 losses and one tie in their previous 25 Southland opening games.
SOUTHLAND TELEVISION NETWORK
Saturday's contest also is the opening telecast for the four-state Southland Conference Television Network. The KUBE in Houston is the local area outlet for the telecast. Sam Houston will be making its 10th television appearance in the past two seasons. Overall, Bearkat games have been telecast 38 times since SHSU moved up to the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and the Southland Conference. The Kats have won 21 of those games.
BEARKAT RADIO
KSAM 101.7 FM will broadcast all Sam Houston games home and away again. The broadcast also may be heard anywhere in the world online at www.gobearkats.com.
LAST WEEK AT BAYLOR
Sam Houston won the first half but Baylor roared back in the second for a 48-23 win over the Bearkats in Waco. The game marked SHSU's 28th matchup with an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) foe. SHSU will take on Texas A&M in the final regular season contest of the 2012 season. The game showed how far the Bearkat program has come during the past three seasons. Baylor defeated Sam Houston 34-3 in Willie Fritz's first game as SHSU head coach in 2010. Many of the current Kat starters were freshman and sophomores in that contest. Last Saturday night, Sam Houston rolled up 411 yards total offense against the 2012 Bears and held a 20-10 lead at halftime. The crowd of 44,856 fans marked the fifth largest audience ever for an SHSU football game.
SAM HOUSTON VS. CENTRAL ARKANSAS
The series between the Bearkats and the Bears is deadlocked at three victories apiece. UCA won the first three encounters 38-30 in 2006, 35-14 in 2007 and 48-46 in 2008. The first two of those meetings were in Huntsville and the third was in Conway. Sam Houston has won the last three meetings, winning 17-14 in Huntsville in 2009, 20-13 in Conway in 2010 and 31-10 in Huntsville last year.
NOTES FROM THE BAYLOR GAME
Timothy Flanders became the sixth player in Southland Conference history to score 40 career touchdowns with his 26-yard touchdown catch 1:30 before intermission Saturday in Waco.
Dax Swanson intercepted a Baylor pass at the SHSU goal line on the final play of the half. The pickoff marked his 11th career interception, moving him up to fourth place in the Bearkat record books. Ronnie Choate (1955-59) holds the SHSU career interception record with 14. Gary Kimble (1981-84) and Mark Hughes (2001-04) both picked off 12 career interceptions. Swanson is tied for fourth with Bobby Coleman who grabbed 11 from 1979 to 1981
Preston Sanders blocked a fourth quarter field goal to set a Sam Houston record for career field goal blocks (four). Sanders now stands seventh in all-time career kick blocks (punt/pat/field goals).
Brian Bell moved up to fifth place in all-time SHSU passing yardage. His career total now stands at 3,892 yards. The four quarterbacks ahead of Bell in the Kat record book are Rhett Bomar (5,964 yards, 2007-08), Arthur Louis (4,902, 1977-80), Dustin Long (4,588, 2004) and Reggie Lewis (4,269, 1984-87).
BEARKATS WIN IN SEASON OPENER
Timothy Flanders rushed 15 times for 117 yards including TD runs of 40 and eight yards to lead Sam Houston to a 54-7 victory over Incarnate Word of San Antonio in the Bearkats' season opener Saturday in Huntsville. Flanders became the all-time leading rusher in SHSU history thanks to the performance. His career total now stands at 2,793 yards, breaking the record of 2,688 yards set by Charles Harris in 1991-94. Backup running back Keshawn Hill ran for touchdowns of 11 and 27 yards. Chance Nelson added an 11-yards score on a pass from Brian Bell. The Sam Houston defense limited Incarnate Word to 88 yards total offense and a negative 46 yards rushing. Both figures rank as the second best performances by a Bearkat defense. SHSU limited SFA to 86 total yards and negative 48 yards rushing in a 1990 victory.
KATS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Last year's 31-10 victory over Central Arkansas earned Sam Houston its first NCAA FCS national rankings since Oct. 1, 2007. On Sept. 19, 2011, SHSU debuted in the national poll at No. 20. During an 11-0 regular season, the Kats rose all the way to No. 1 at the beginning of the national playoffs. Since last year's UCA victory, Sam Houston has been nationally ranked for 15 consecutive weeks, a program best.
SAM HOUSTON PRESEASON SOUTHLAND PICK
Sam Houston is the favorite to repeat as Southland Conference champions according to the 2012 preseason poll of the league's head coaches. The Bearkats' 2011 Southland football championship was their fourth in the program's 25 years in the league. However, the first three were co-championships, making the 2011 title the Bearkats' first undisputed league crown.
LAST YEAR'S 14-1 BEARKAT RECORD
The Bearkats rolled up 14 consecutive wins to earn the program's first No. 1 national ranking and a berth in the NCAA Division I national championship game in Frisco. North Dakota State defeated SHSU 17-6 in the finals before a sellout crowd of 22,000 at FC Dallas Stadium. Sam Houston was the only FCS team to go 11-0 through the regular season. The Kats chalked up a perfect 7-0 Southland mark, wins over five nationally-ranked FCS opponents and a victory over FBS Mountain West Conference member New Mexico. The No. 1 seed in the NCAA playoffs, Sam Houston knocked off No. 22 Stony Brook, No. 7 Montana State and No. 5 Montana in their march to the National Championship Game.
BOTH TEAMS NATIONALLY RANKED
For the 22nd time since Sam Houston moved up to the NCAA FCS level, the Bearkats enter a contest with both teams nationally ranked. In the previous 21 such encounters, the Kats have emerged the victor 12 times.EXPERIENCED BEARKATS
SEVEN ALL-AMERICANS
Seven Bearkat players were named to at least one NCAA Division I FCS All-America squad this season -- Tim Flanders (6 selections); Darnell Taylor (5); Travis Watson (3); Dax Swanson and Chris Crockett (2 each) and Richard Sincere and J. T. Cleveland (1 each). All but Crockett and Watson return.
PRESEASON ALL-SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE
Eighteen Sam Houston players have been named to the 2012 preseason All-Southland squad voted upon by the league's coaches. Tim Flanders and Richard Sincere, the league's player of the year and offensive player of the year, respectively, along with Darnell Taylor, the reigning defensive player of the year, head the list. Other SHSU first-team selections include defensive linemen J.T. Cleveland, Andrew Weaver and Gary Lorance and defensive backs Taylor, Kenneth Jenkins and Daxton Swanson.
Second team picks include tight end T. J. Jones, offensive lineman Matt Boyles, defensive lineman Preston Sanders, linebacker Darius Taylor, defensive backs Bookie Sneed and Robert Shaw and punter Matt Foster. Flanders, Sincere and Darnell Taylor both are on the preseason watch lists for the 2012 Walter Payton (offense) and Buch Buchanan (defense) awards.
RUNNING BACK TIMOTHY FLANDERS
Junior Timothy Flanders finished 7th in the 2011 Walter Payton Award voting and was named to five All-America squads. He led the Southland Conference in rushing and scoring. He stood No. 2 in the nation in scoring and No. 27 nationally in rushing. He was named as Southland Conference "Player of the Year." Flanders has set 19 Sam Houston football records.
"WILD BEARKAT" RICHARD SINCERE
Richard Sincere is the 2011 Southland Conference "Offensive Player of the Year." The sophomore from Galveston Ball is a wide receiver who also lines up behind center in the "Wild Bearkat" formation. In 2011, he rushed 129 times for 979 yards and nine touchdowns and caught 26 passes for 485 yards including a 77-yard touchdown strike on the opening play of the Lamar victory. Sincere's 160-yard rushing performance in the Montana State win marked his fifth100-yard rushing game of 2011. He begins his junior season ranked No. 12 in Bearkat career all-purpose yars (1,959) and is one of only 29 Kats with more than 1,000 career rushing yards (1,261).
JUNIOR QUARTERBACK BRIAN BELL
Since becoming SHSU's starting quarterback as a true freshman in the third game of the 2010 season, Brian Bell has led the Bearkats to a 19-5 record. An All-District quarterback at China Spring for his coach and father Mark Bell, Brian now ranks No. 5 in SHSU career passing (3,892 yards), No. 6 in career TD passes (30) and No. 5 in career total offense yards (4,447). He was a second team All-Southland selection in 2011 and is the first team quarterback on the 2012 preseason all-league team.
DAX SWANSON CAREER INTERCEPTIONS
Daxton Swanson ranked No. 3 in NCAA Division I FCS football and led the Southland Conference with eight interceptions last season. The Waco LaVega product was a third team All-America selection and a second team All-Southland selection. The eight interceptions tied a school season record set by Allen Boren in 1954. Swanson has returned the interceptions for 117 yards. Swanson intercepted two passes in 2010 and one this year at Baylor, bringing his career total to 11.
BLOCK PARTY RETURNS
A Bearkat tradition established by head coach Willie Fritz when he was an assistant at Sam Houston in the early 1990s returned in 2011. The SHSU "Block Party" produced six blocks last season. Preston Sanders blocked a field goal against Baylor for the first block of the 2012 season. Sanders accounted blocked field goals against Southeastern Louisiana, Texas State and Montana State last year.
Torrance Williams produced the first block of the 2011 season at McNeese State, blocking a punt from the McNeese 16-yard line that Robert Shaw recovered the ball in the end zone for six points. After Fritz started the "Block Party" in 1991, Sam Houston blocked 80 punts, field goals and extra points in the 14 seasons up to 2004.
WILLIE FRITZ WINS AFCA "COACH OF THE YEAR" AWARD
Sam Houston head coach Willie Fritz was named as American Football Coaches Association NCAA Division I FCS "Coach of the Year", the Southland Conference "Coach of the Year" and American Football Monthly FCS "Coach of the Year."
BATTLE OF THE PINEY WOODS OCT. 6
Sam Houston will take on Stephen F. Austin in the "Battle of the Piney Woods" rivalry game at Reliant Stadium in Houston Saturday Oct. 6 at 3 p.m. Tickets are available now online at www.gobearkats.com/tickets or at the SHSU athletic ticket office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium. The ticket office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The ticket office telephone is (936) 294-1729.
