Head Coach: KC Keeler is in his 11th season as the head coach of the Bearkats, he has an 88-36 record (all but one season in FCS.) Keeler won a FCS championship with Sam Houston in 2020 becoming the first head coach to win one at multiple schools, Keeler also won a FCS national championship with future FBS/CUSA foe Delaware back in 2003. He’s had immense success here clearly but the move to FBS is a new challenge.
Program Outlook: Right now for Sam Houston it’s all about gaining their footing as a FBS team and adjusting to their new life. Last season featured a lot of that. Sam Houston suffered heartbreak after heartbreak during their 0-8 start, but once they broke the ice with one win they really started coming. They went 3-1 in November with only a 5 point loss at Western Kentucky. The Bearkats are still in the transition phase so it’s not time for lofty goals yet, but the hope after that finish is to reach a winning record and maybe luck into a bowl if there aren’t enough teams eligible.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: Sam Houston is one of the leading teams in the conference in returning production. They tanked their 2022 season (last in FCS) to redshirt all key contributors to have them for a longer time once the Bearkats got to FBS. They were clearly more confident in their defense than offense last year. They opened their first couple games in complete protect mode on offense to keep the defense in good positions and it led to some hilariously uneventful games (lost 14-0 to BYU & 13-3 to Air Force.) The offense gained momentum as the season went on and now there’s more experience back which means this could flip. There wasn’t much that worked, they had to nickel/dime across the field using mostly the short passing game, simply put there wasn’t a way to get easy extra scores, everything came difficult. Sam Houston is hoping Central Michigan transfer Jesse Bauer takes the job and runs with it, he can provide a little more pop which in turn could open things up more for a decent stable of backs and a more experienced offensive line. Sam Houston’s defense doesn’t return as much as the offense but they led the way early last season and just as soon as the offense improved the defense began to hit some struggles. The Bearkats have a pretty strong backend but they need to find ways to disrupt offenses up front, whether that’s finding some answers on the dline or getting aggressive with an awesome group of linebackers.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: Sam Houston’s non-conference is pretty tough. 3 of the 4 opponents made a bowl last year and all of them return a lot of key contributors, they might not be favored in any of these games. Conference play gets better though, they avoid a lot of the toughest teams in the conference until late in the year, plus get Liberty and WKU at home.
Vegas Projection: Sam Houston’s win total is set at 4.5 with the odds geared toward the over. Vegas sees them improving enough to contend for bowl eligibility if there’s not enough bowl eligible teams.
2024 Best Case: The Bearkats offense gets some more pop and the defense gets better not worse. It’s on display early on as the Bearkats surprise Rice in the opener for a huge early victory. They take their lumps against UCF but it doesn’t deter them from their strong start. The Bearkats win the next 4 and enter themselves into CUSA title contention with a huge win over Western Kentucky in front of the Nation during week night CUSAction. They charge unbeaten in conference play through the next several opponents and the road game at Jacksonville State turns out to not be as difficult as expected allowing the Bearkats to hit 10 wins. They aren’t eligible for the CUSA championship but for their perspective the Liberty game is their shot to win the title from their perspective. The Bearkats battle hard with the Flames but the Flames escape late. Still it’s a 10 win season and its apparent the future is bright for Sam Houston. They get one last added bonus when not enough teams are bowl eligible allow Sam Houston to make their first bowl appearance and cap off a fantastic season with a bowl victory.
2024 Worst Case: The transition to FBS remains rough, the offense doesn’t improve and the defense gets worse. The start is even worse than last season as Sam Houston isn’t able to win any games. They come close but can’t even beat La Tech or Kennesaw State. It’s even worse when the Owls get a winning record so even they aren’t struggling with the FBS transition like Sam Houston is.
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