Kats look for fast start against UIW
9/20/2013 12:30:00 PM | Football
When the Bearkats took down Incarnate Word 54-7 in the first game of the 2012 season, Sam Houston State football was not yet known as back-to-back FCS championship finalist with the nation's longest active home winning streak.
The Kats had been highly successful the year before, going undefeated up to the championship loss against North Dakota State. Last year's game against Incarnate Word was Sam Houston's 11th straight home win, a run that has since been extended to 16 games.
Senior offensive lineman Matt Boyles said Wednesday he believes this Bearkat team can be even better than a year ago.
“I think we've improved so much, even from last year,” Boyles said. “We had a good team last year and we lost a lot of those guys, just thinking it was going to be tough to be that good again. We look back and think we're better. We have a bunch of new faces, especially on the offensive line. We have true freshman that are playing and pressuring the older guys to really step up as well. So we've got a lot of good things going for us.”
Three games into the 2013 season, No. 5 SHSU has the top ranked scoring and rushing offense in FCS. The Incarnate Word defense will have its hands full, but Boyles expects the Cardinal's 3-4 defense, now in its second year of implementation, to present some challenges for the Kats.
“Their defense, they give us a lot of weird looks,” Boyles said. “I think they try to make up for whatever they have going and just try to make a lot of confusion for the offense. They do a lot of different stunts that try to confuse the offensive line and have open guys up front.”
Incarnate Word is coming off consecutive shutouts against Langston University and Texas College. The Cardinals fell in their season opener to the Southland Conference's Central Arkansas, 58-7.
The Kats are confident they can win the game, but not overlooking the progress the Cardinals made from a year ago.
“They've gotten a lot better from last year. They really have,” senior cornerback Bookie Sneed said. “Their offensive scheme, they know what they're doing over there. They have a pretty good quarterback and wide receivers. We're looking forward to the game. It's not going to be as easy as it was last year. You know, last year it took a while for us to get up because it was the first game. But this is the fourth game of the season so we're looking forward to it being a good game but we've got to come out with that win.”
Kats head coach Willie Fritz said he wants his team to come out early against Incarnate Word with the combativeness that lacked for in the first quarter against Texas Southern last week.
Texas Southern took a 3-0 lead in the second quarter before the Kats scored 27 unanswered to take a 27-3 lead into halftime. Fritz expects to see a young, well-coached Incarnate Word group against the Kats on Saturday.
“I think they have gotten better,” Fritz said of the Cardinals. “Last year was the first year they ran the 3-4 defense and we caught them when they were still learning what they were doing and they really seem like they have a handle to it. Even though this is the fifth year of their program, they're playing quite a few young guys. They felt like they had a really good recruiting class. They've got a really quality football staff.
“The big thing for us is we just want to improve and get better from last week. I didn't see the enthusiasm, the fire that I wanted to see last week out of us. And in the sport of football you only have 12 opportunities to play. It's not like baseball where you play 60 games and every once in a while you're maybe not going to bring your A game. In football, you can really focus each and every week.”
Tickets for the game are on sale online now at www.gobearkats.com or at the SHSU athletic ticket office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House in the south end zone at the stadium. Ticket office hours Monday through Friday are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Bowers Stadium ticket window on the west (press box) side of the facility will open Saturday at 2 p.m. Parking lots will open at the same time.
