Final preseason scrimmage Thursday canceled
8/11/2014 3:12:00 PM | Football
With less than two weeks remaining before Sam Houston opens the 2014 football season Saturday, August 23 at Eastern Washington, the Bearkats have turned their focus entirely to preparing for the FCS No. 1 ranked Eagles.
“Everything we do the next two weeks, we're doing to prepare for Eastern Washington,” head coach K. C. Keeler said.
The coach has canceled the Bearkats' final game-condition scrimmage which was scheduled for Thursday. The squad will hold practices each day the rest of the week with two practices (8 a.m. and 3 p.m.) scheduled on both Wednesday and Friday.
“We don't want to put some guys into harm's way this late into camp,” Keeler said. “We don't need any injuries this close to the first game.”
The coaching staff now is working to select the 65-player roster that will make the trip to Cheney, Washington, for the FCS Kickoff game to be telecast nationally on ESPN. Kickoff August 23 is 2:30 p.m. Central time. Both the Bearkat coaches and players know there is a lot of work to get done in the next two weeks.
“If you look at Eastern Washington, they have a bunch of guys that have been in their offensive and defensive systems for three or four years,” Keeler said. “Our players have been in our system for a maximum of maybe seven months. But we can't let that be an excuse for us not to get where we need to be for the opener. We have a lot of work to do.”
Sam Houston returns five players on offense and two on defense that started more than 10 games during the Bearkats' 9-5 season in 2013. SHSU is one of only three teams in the country that have earned FCS playoff berths each of the past three years.
Throughout preseason camp, Keeler has emphasized one thing with both with coaching staff and players.
“We have to play clean,” Keeler said. “My theme is simple. We're not going to lose games this year because of talent. We may not be as talented as every team we play this year, but we're not going to be at a deficiency because of it. So we have to play clean and not make mistakes. We play clean, our talent should match up with the people we play.”
Following the Eastern Washington game, August 23, the Bearkats will face Alabama State in their home opener August 30 at Elliott T. Bowers Stadium.
