Emotions a focus during BOTPW game week
9/28/2016 2:12:00 PM | Football
HOUSTON – There is no hiding what week it for the Sam Houston State football program. Still, the approach and focus remains as it would for any other game of the season.
The Bearkats take on Stephen F. Austin in the 91st edition of the Battle of the Piney Woods on Saturday at 3 p.m. from Houston's NRG Stadium. Second-ranked Sam Houston has won five straight in the rivalry and is one victory shy of matching the longest win streak in the series.
“It's a really intense rivalry so I need to make sure our kids understand that we're here to win a football game,” head coach K.C. Keeler said. “We need to focus on the things at hand. Emotion is great because you can't play this game without it but you can put yourself in a position where emotion gets out of control which we can't do.”
The rivalry itself dates to 1923 with Sam Houston boasting a 53-35-2 advantage in the series including eight of the last 10 matchups. With the added notoriety of playing at NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans, the game take on one of the biggest stages in the FCS.
“This is one of the great rivalries in college football,” Keeler said. “No one could explain this game to me when I first got here then I lived through it in 2014 and it was everything and beyond what I thought it would be. I think it will be a heck of a matchup. It sounds like the crowd will be record breaking which has been a standard here since we've moved it down there.”
Like Keeler, the players understand the significance of the game to both fan bases. The matchup has been played at NRG Stadium each of the past six years with the crowds growing larger each season. Sam Houston defeated Stephen F. Austin 34-28 on Oct. 3 last year before a record crowd of 26,990 fans at NRG Stadium.
“I was talking to someone else the other day and the biggest game I might have played in was in front of 10,000 people,” sophomore captain and safety Adrian Contreras said. “To play in front of 30,000 people, there is nothing like it. It's so important to so many people, there's nothing like it, I don't think.”
Junior quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe will be playing in his second Battle of the Piney Woods this year and his first as the full-time starter. The UAB transfer ranks second nationally with 345 passing yards per game. A year ago against the Lumberjacks, Briscoe was 12 for 19 for 198 yards.
“It's definitely a big game but as Coach Keeler has been telling us since camp, every week is the biggest week of the year,” Briscoe said. “That's our mindset going into this game. Obviously, you can't hide the fact that it's SFA and it's at NRG, so it's a great atmosphere. For us, we really have to treat it like every week and keep a level head.”
Since 2007, the winner of the Battle of the Piney Woods has earned a 21-pound solid cedar trophy that displays replica pistols from Texas' frontier past. While a win would keep it in Huntsville, the trophy is just the first of multiple the Bearkats are after this season.
“We need to keep the team focused on a straight path,” Contreras said. “Yes, this is a big game and we want to win it because our ultimate goal is something bigger than this. This is just one step in the trail of our ultimate goal.”
