Game 1 • Houston • Rice Stadium
Sam Houston (0-0, 0-0 CUSA) at Rice (0-0, 0-0 AAC)
Saturday, August 31 • 6:00 PM
TV: ESPN+ (Chuckie Kempf, Marcus Holliday)
RADIO: BSN (Carlos Zimmermann, Brian Adams)
HOW TO FOLLOW: Live Stats • @BearkatsFB on X
GAME NOTES: Sam Houston • Rice
Series vs the Owls: Tied 1-16 • Full Series History
HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkats will kick off the 2024 season on Saturday when they travel down Interstate 45 to take on Rice, meeting the Owls on the gridiron for the first time since 1993.
Kickoff of Saturday's contest is set for 6:00 p.m. at Rice Stadium. It will be aired on ESPN+ with Chuckie Kempf and Marcus Holliday on the call. The game can be heard online on the Bearkat Sports Network and on the Bearkat Athletics app with Carlos Zimmermann and Brian Adams on the call from the radio booth.
BEARKATS TO KICK OFF 2024 SEASON AT RICE STADIUM
- Sam Houston will be competing in its second season in the FBS and its first with full bowl eligibility. The Kats completed its 2-year transition to full-fledged FBS status following the completion of the 2023 season
- The Kats will be looking to get their first season-opening win on the road since winning at Northern Arizona to open the 2021 season
- Despite an 0-8 start to 2023, the Bearkats finished the season as one of the hottest teams in Conference USA with wins in 3 of their final 4 games. The Kats were joined by Liberty, NM State and WKU as the only CUSA teams to earn wins in at least 3 of their final 4 games of 2023
- Sam Houston went just 2-6 in CUSA play in 2023, but the margins were closer than one would originally expect. The 6 losses came by an average margin of defeat of only 6.6 points with only 1 double-digit defeat. The Kats held the lead in the fourth quarter of 4 of their 6 losses with 2 coming in overtime
- Sam Houston will be opening its season on the road for the fourth consecutive season, last opening at home during the COVID-altered 2020 spring season when the Kats defeated Southeastern Louisiana 43-38 at Bowers Stadium. The last time the Kats hosted a non-conference home game to kick off a season was in 2018 vs Prairie View
- The last time the Kats won a road FBS game in a season opener came in 2001 when they went to ULM and defeated the Warhawks 20-9. It was the program's first-ever win over an FBS program
SERIES HISTORY
- Saturday will mark the 18th meeting between the programs, but the first since 1993. Rice leads the all-time series by a 16-1 margin with the Kats' only win in the series coming in 1939
- The first game in the series between the Owls and Bearkats was from each program's first season as a college football program. For Sam Houston, it was the first football game ever played by the Bearkats and the first intercollegiate game for Rice
- It marks the second straight year the Bearkats have renewed a series with an FBS team in the Bayou City after having gone to TDECU Stadium in 2023 to take on Houston. It was the first time the Bearkats and Cougars had met on the gridiron since 2005
SAM HOUSTON >> RICE CONNECTIONS
- Sam Houston Director of Athletics is a 2-time graduate of Rice, playing football for the Owls for from 1977-80 before finishing his Bachelor of Arts in 1981 and Master of Arts in 1982
- Williams' father, the late Bobby Williams Sr., was a member of Rice's 1958 Cotton Bowl team and retired in 2002 after working as an NFL scout for the Buffalo Bill and Miami Dolphins
THE LAST TIME
- Yoncy Edwards rushed for 148 yards and a TD to lead Rice to a 14-13 win over Sam Houston on September 18, 1993 at Rice Stadium. The Kats had held a 7-0 lead at the half on a 2-yard rush by Kirk Lawrence and upped it to a 13-0 advantage on a school-record tying 90-yard touchdown run by Charles Harris early in the third quarter
- But a blocked extra point following Harris' score turned the tide and the Owls answered back with TD runs by Bert Emanuel and Edwards on the ensuing drives to take a 1-point lead which held up to the finale
- Harris finished with 117 rushing yards on 15 carries for the game and finished the season by setting a new single-season school record of 1,142 yards on the ground. That mark held the top spot in the Bearkat record book until 2006 when DD Terry surpassed him with a season of 1,327 yards. Harris' 1993 season now sits eighth all-time
