Game 5 • at NM State
Las Cruces, N.M. • Aggie Memorial Stadium (28,853)
Sam Houston (0-4, 0-1 CUSA) at NM State (2-2, 0-1 CUSA)
Thursday, October 2 • 8:00 PM CT
TV: CBS Sports Network (Jack Gordon, Taylor McHargue)
RADIO: BSN (Carlos Zimmermann, Brian Adams); Sirius XM; KSHU 90.5 FM
HOW TO FOLLOW: Live Stats • @BearkatsFB on X
Series vs the Aggies: Series tied 1-1
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – After three straight games outside of CUSA play, the Sam Houston Bearkats will return to its league slate on Thursday when it kicks off October midweek play at NM State.
Kickoff for Thursday's game is set for 8:00 p.m. CT and will air on CBS Sports Network. Jack Gordon and Taylor McHargue will call the action in the booth.
The game can also be heard online on the Bearkat Sports Network and the Bearkat Athletics app with Carlos Zimmermann and Brian Adams on the call from the radio booth. The BSN broadcast can also be heard online on GoBearkats.com, the Bearkat Sports app and Sirius XM. Additionally, all Bearkat Football games have returned to the airwaves in 2025, aired locally on KSHU 90.5 FM.
The broadcast will begin at 7:30 p.m. CT with the kickoff show, hosted by Jason Barfield.
KATS RETURN TO CONFERENCE USA PLAY AT NM STATE
- Sam Houston is playing the first of four consecutive midweek games in the month of October. In all, the Kats are scheduled to play five non-Saturday games in 2025, having also opened the season on a Friday at WKU
- The Kats went 3-1 in October midweek games and 5-1 overall in non-Saturday games in 2024. In all, SHSU is 5-7 in non-Saturday games since joining FBS in 2023
- The Bearkats will be playing in the third of four time zones of 2025 on Thursday with Las Cruces being located in the Mountain Time Zone. Sam Houston has already played at Hawaii (Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone), has eight games scheduled for the Central Time Zone and will collect the Pacific Time Zone in its Nov. 8 game at Oregon State
The Kats are one of nine FBS programs scheduled to play in four time zones in 2025, joined by BYU, Houston, Iowa State, Middle Tennessee, Nevada, TCU, Utah and West Virginia. The only program scheduled to play in five time zones is Stanford
- Sam Houston will be looking to avoid starting 0-5 for the second time in three seasons. Prior to its 0-8 start in 2023, the Kats had not started at least 0-5 since opening the 1977 season with seven straight defeats
- The Bearkats are one of 18 teams in the country and the only team in CUSA to not lose a fumble in 2025, helping contribute to a +1 turnover margin
- Emon Allen had a 66-yard pick-6 in the Kats' game at Hawaii, joining JaMair Diaz as Bearkat defenders to reach the end zone this year. It is the third straight year the Kats' defense has had at least two scores in a season, with the 2021 season being the last time that side of the ball had three TDs to its credit
SAM HOUSTON vs THE AGGIES
- Sam Houston and NM State will be meeting for the third time in series history on Thursday in Las Cruces
- Sam Houston is 3-2 all-time vs teams from the State of New Mexico, having previously played NM State (1-1), New Mexico (1-1) and Eastern New Mexico (1-0)
- There are plenty of connections between the Aggies and Bearkats in 2025, especially on the defensive side. It starts in the booth where Aggie defensive coordinator Joe Morris is in his second season in Las Cruces after spending the previous three seasons as the Bearkats' defensive coordinator
- Morris also took linebackers coach Jared Hensley with him from Huntsville to Las Cruces after Hensley had spent eight seasons of his own in Huntsville, including his final five seasons coaching linebackers
NOTES & QUICK HITTERS
- The Bearkats have representatives from 19 total states and three foreign countries on their roster in 2025, but only wide receiver Malik Phillips hails from the State of New Mexico, where the Kats will play on Thursday night. The Clovis native will be playing his second career game in his home state with the first coming in 2023 when the Kats made their first-ever trip to Las Cruces to play the Aggies in what was a 27-13 NMSU win. That night Phillips hauled in career highs that night with 10 catches for 118 yards, marks that still stand as his career bests
- Sam Houston is playing its fourth true road game of the season on Thursday at NM State. It marks the first time since 2010 the Bearkats have started a season with four of its first five games being on the road
- The Kats have not gotten off to an ideal start to 2025, but it is not the first time a new Bearkat head coach has gotten off to a slow start to a head coaching career. In fact, the last first-year Bearkat head coach to have a winning record thru his first four games was Allen Boren in 1968 when the Kats opened the year with a 2-1-1 mark
- The Kats were held to just 27 yards on the ground at Texas, the second straight week and the lowest rush total for the Kats since only having 24 total yards rushing in a win at Gardner-Webb in 2008
- Hunter Watson needs 213 more yards on the ground to become the fourth Bearkat quarterback in program history to reach 1,000 career rushing yards. Jared Johnson holds the record for rushing yards as a QB at Sam Houston with 1,601
