Wide Outs Look To Be Go-To Guys In 2015
8/30/2015 12:13:00 PM | Football
The Sam Houston offense rolled up 3,287 yards passing last year, the third highest single season total in the first 99 seasons of Bearkat football.
Yedidiah Louis, LaDarius Brown and Derreck Edwards combined to produce 2,243 of those yards and all three return for the 2015 season.
Brown and Edwards are seniors who joined the Sam Houston football team as transfers last fall. Louis is a sophomore who earned an early spot on the Jerry Rice Award “Watch List,” the award for FCS freshman of the year eventually earned by his teammate, defensive end P. J. Hall.
“With so much more experience, we're looking to be even better this season,” Louis said. “We just feel like it's going to be a way better year for us.”
Sam Houston will feature an up-tempo, fast paced offense that will give all three wide receivers opportunities to get their hands on the ball. The trio all agree that as long as one of them has the ball in their hands, good things will happen.
“When I first got here, I really didn't know these guys,” Edwards said. “But now they are my best friends and I want to see them be successful. I know that these guys want me to be successful too.”
Last year, there was plenty of uncertainty as to who would start at many positions. Sophomore Jared Johnson had missed spring ball with an injury but won the job in August. Johnson and the three receivers didn't have much time to jell as starters before taking on preseason No. 1 Eastern Washington in the regular season opener in Cheney, Washington, on July 23.
Alabama-Birmingham transfer Jeremiah Briscoe is challenging Johnson for the starting role in this year's preseason camp. But Louis, Brown and Edwards aren't worried about who will be under center for the opener at Texas Tech Sept. 5.
“They're both good,” Louis said. “We plan on playing with whomever we've got. We're athletic enough to put both quarterbacks on our backs and make them better while they make us better.”
“It doesn't make any difference,” Edwards added. “Either way, we've got to go out there and grind. We've got to get ours and that's just the way it is going to be.”
Louis, a New Orleans native who played high school ball in Richardson, Texas, after Katrina, led the 2015 Bearkats in total receptions with 71 for 803 yards. His 5-8 frame, combined with his quickness, makes him a shifty runner with the ball in his hands and allows the Bearkat coaching staff to utilize his skill set in different ways.
Brown is the team's top returning playmaker at wide receiver after averaging 17.9 yards per catch last season. Brown, a Waxahachie product who transferred from TCU, caught 45 passes for 807 yards and seven touchdowns.
“I expect myself to be the deep threat and do whatever I need to do for the team to win,” Brown said. “As long as we're winning, everybody is happy.”
Edwards, who transferred from Texas Tech, grabbed 32 passes for 368 yards last fall. He expects to make an even bigger impact in his senior season.
Knowing that he will be playing against some of his former teammates when the Kats travel to Lubbock, Edwards expects an intense, physical battle.
“It's nothing personal. It's going to be all business,” Edwards said. “It's going to be a really instense game.”
With Brown, Louis and Edwards along with senior Gerald Thomas who caught six touchdowns as a junior, defenses will have their hands full trying to stop the Bearkats' receiving threat.
“We all plan on being the go-to day,” Louis said. “We're all going to come out here and play.”
Season and single game tickets for Sam Houston's six home games at Elliott T. Bowers Stadium plus the 90th “Battle of the Piney Woods” at NRG Stadium in Houston Oct. 3 are now on sale online at www.gobearkats.com and at the athletic ticket office on the west side of Bowers.
