Around The Southland Conference
10/8/2013 9:57:00 AM | Football
This Week's Schedule:
Saturday, Oct. 12
Lamar at No. 2 Sam Houston State* , 2 p.m.
Northwestern State at Nicholls*, 3 p.m. (SLCTV)
Nebraska-Kearney at No. 20 Central Arkansas, 4 p.m.
Stephen F. Austin at Southeastern Louisiana* 7 p.m., (ESPN3)
Abilene Christian at Houston Baptist, 7:30 p.m. (CSNH)
Six Southland Conference teams, including two-time defending champion Sam Houston State, begin conference play on Saturday.
The Bearkats are trying to become the first team in the conference to win three consecutive championships since McNeese State won titles in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
Only three other teams have won three in a row: Lamar (1964-66), Arkansas State (1968-70) and Louisiana Tech, which won four straight titles from 1971-74.
Sam Houston plays host to Lamar Saturday at 2 p.m. on homecoming in Huntsville.
Other conference games have Northwestern State visiting Nicholls at 3 p.m. on Southland TV and Stephen F. Austin is at Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m. on ESPN3. Central Arkansas wraps up its non-conference slate on Saturday with a 4 p.m. kickoff against Nebraska-Kearney while McNeese State is open this week.
McNeese State ushered in conference play with a 59-28 at defending Southland co-champion Central Arkansas last Saturday. The win, the Cowboys' first in Conway, snapped the Bears' 13-game home win streak that included the last 12 on the team's purple and gray striped field.
Southeastern Louisiana closed its non-conference slate with a 35-3 victory against future Southland Conference foe UIW. Five Southland squads had an open date last week.
Three Southland teams remain ranked in FCS Polls. Sam Houston State stands No. 2 in this week's Sports Network poll and No. 3 in the FCS Coaches' Poll after the bye week.
McNeese State climbed in both polls following its win over Central Arkansas. The 5-1 Cowboys are No. 9 in the latest Sports Network poll and No. 11 in the coaches' poll. UCA fell to No. 20 in both polls and is one of two sub-.500 teams ranked this week. Southeastern Louisiana received votes in the Sports Network poll, while Stephen F. Austin received votes in the coaches' poll.
Sam Houston State leads the FCS and is tied with Michigan for the Division I lead with its 18-game home win streak. The Bearkats beat Eastern Washington to extend their streak that dates back to a 33-28 loss to McNeese State on Nov. 13, 2010.
Sam Houston welcomes Lamar to Bowers Stadium for its annual homecoming game. Michigan, which extended its streak to 18 games last Saturday against Minnesota, is at Penn State this week and returns to home Oct. 19 to face Indiana. Central Arkansas lost at home to McNeese State last Saturday. The loss snapped a 13-game win streak at Estes Stadium, which included a 12-game win streak on “The Stripes,” the Bears' purple and gray striped turf.
Sam Houston State running back Timothy Flanders, a candidate for the Walter Payton Award, needs only 31 carries to break the Southland Conference record for career rushing attempts of 882 that is held by former Texas State running back Claude Mathis.
Flanders has 852 career carries. Flanders already holds Southland career marks for touchdowns scored (65), rushing touchdowns (61) and rushing yards (5,000) and season records for rushing yards (1,644), rushing touchdown (22) and total touchdowns (24), all in 2011.
In his last game, a 49-34 victory over Eastern Washington, Flanders became the first Southland Conference player and the 22nd FCS player to rush for 5,000 yards. He's sitting right on 5,000 career rushing yards after his 32-carry, 280-yard, two-touchdown performance against Eastern Washington. Flanders, who has 29 career 100-yard games, topped 200 yards for the third time in his career and the second time against EWU. Flanders' 61 career rushing touchdowns, which includes nine this season, rank 12th all-time in the FCS. In five games this season, he ranks second among all FCS rushers with 766 yards and his 153.2 yards per game ranks second in the FCS.
Sam Houston's opponent for homecoming Saturday, the Lamar Cardinals, also had an open date last week. Lamar closed out the non-conference portion of its 2013 schedule with a 27-16 road victory over Grambling State. It was the first road win for Lamar since a 34-26 victory at Nicholls in November 2011.
The Cardinals rallied from a 16-point deficit for the win over Grambling. With the victory Lamar is 3-2 and has equaled its best start since bringing back the program in 2010.
Junior QB Caleb Berry completed a career-high 31 passes for a career-high 399 yards in the victorious effort. Lamar finished the game with 535 yards of total offense.
The Bearkats hold a 24-9-1 edge in the all-time series against Lamar and have won the last three meetings.
Tickets for the Sam Houston versus Lamar football game are available now online at www.gobearkats.com . Fans also may purchase tickets at the SHSU Athletic Ticket Office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House in the south end zone of Bowers Stadium. The ticket office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The ticket office telephone number is (936) 294-1729.
Tickets for SHSU's two remaining home games at Bowers plus the 88th “Battle of the Piney Woods” at Reliant on Nov. 2 also are available online and at the ticket office.
