Football enjoying another playoff Thanksgiving
11/26/2015 11:48:00 AM | Football
Thanksgiving is Sam Houston head football coach K. C. Keeler's favorite holiday, especially if he is still coaching football on “Turkey Day.”
“There's no better time,” Keeler said. “My family knows that I'm the happiest guy in the world if I am still coaching football on Thanksgiving. That means our team has a pretty good year and we're in the playoffs.”
Sam Houston is 8-3 this season and is one of 24 squads that earned berths in the 2015 NCAA Division I Football Championship tournament. The Kats are in the FCS playoffs for the fifth year in a row, one of only three programs (along with North Dakota State and New Hampshire) that can make that cliam.
“There are two separate seasons in FCS – playing to get into the post-season and the playoffs,” Keeler said. “Since the second half of the Stephen F. Austin game at NRG Stadium, our team has played some dominant football. Even in the loss at McNeese, we played well defensively. Now we're in the playoffs going up against a really good Southern Utah squad. Our goal is to go 1-0 this weekend and advance to the next round.”
The Bearkats come into Saturday's contest ranked No. 6 in the STATS FCS media poll while Southern Utah ranks No. 16 in the NCAA Coaches ratings. The Thunderbirds stand 8-3 as well after winning the Big Sky Conference championship.
“You look at Southern Utah and you see a physical team that throws the ball around a lot,” Keeler said. “They won the Big Sky Conference championship, one of the best leagues in FCS. They are a really good team.”
The winner of Saturday's 2 p.m. opening round playoff game at Elliott T. Bowers Stadium will advance to the FCS Round of 16 against No. 4 seed McNeese State next Saturday in Lake Charles, La.
“Right now, this is a one-game season. We're focused just on Southern Utah,” Keeler said. “One of the things I really liked last Sunday when we had the team together to watch the NCAA Selection Show is that, once they announced who we were playing, the guys got up and left. There was no other game on schedule for them.”
Sam Houston nailed down its playoff berth with a 42-13 victory at Central Arkansas last week, a victory that earned the Kats a runner-up finish in the 2015 Southland Conference race.
“Last week I got a lot of questions from the media about, knowing we had to win to get into the playoffs, how were we as coaches going to take the pressure off the players,” Keeler said. “I told them we don't want to take the pressure off the team. Our kids perform really well in pressure situations. We virtually had to win out last year to get into the playoffs and then played three of our four playoff games on the road. This team has a wealth of experience from last year and that bodes well for this season.”
Sam Houston brings an offense that ranked second in the nation in total offense and fourth in FCS in scoring. The Bearkats are averaging 544.5 yards and 43.8 points per contest.
“This team plays with a lot of confidence,” Keeler said. “We are very proud that, during the past five seasons, no team in Texas has won more games than Sam Houston State. This team definitely is focused on Saturday.”
