Head Coach: Phil Longo is entering his first season as the head coach of the Bearkats. He’s been an offensive coordinator at a variety of locations including Sam Houston. His previous stop was at Wisconsin where he aimed to install the “Dairy Raid” offense, but it was a great concept that never panned out. That’s in the past now, it’s been apparent that Sam Houston was a place that left a big impression on Longo, ever since he coached here he considered it home and now it’s his time to lead the program.
Program Outlook: It’s been a great transition to FBS for Sam Houston so far. Sure the first season came with its bumps and bad luck but they planted seeds that first year and saw the fruit of it in 2024 (this is such a cheesy analogy but what can I say? I’m typing this while my wife is gardening outside). There’s programs at this level that have been in FBS for a while and haven’t seen a 10 win season or a bowl victory, Sam Houston did that 2 years in! Now it’s about adjusting to life post KC Keeler, a strong history of success at the FCS level suggests they’ll find their way.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Sam Houston ranks 129th in the country returning 33% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. It’s an overhaul and not surprising considering the coaching change. Key players starts with QB Hunter Watson, he’s one of the few returnees from last year’s team. He’s a dual threat that will offer a lot for this offense as long as he’s healthy. They have a host of backs in North Texas transfer Shane Porter, Indiana transfer Elijah Green and others who will run behind two all-CUSA guards James Dawn and Rhett Larson. The defense loses just about everyone, Sam Houston is dead last in returning defensive production. The portal will help, DE Keelan Cox (Alabama), LB Antavious Fish (Akron), Corner Jace Arnold (Wisconsin) and S Trey Harris (Cornell) we’re are instant impact pickups.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: Sam Houston has a pretty challenging schedule this year. The non-conference is a big culprit of that. There’s one one of those at home and that’s UNLV, while they have road games at Hawaii, Texas and Oregon State, none of those are easy trips. The CUSA schedule has its challenges, the Bearkats avoid Liberty which is a huge plus but they also miss relative newcomers Kennesaw State and Missouri State. Overall it’ll be fascinating to see how they handle the early portion, there’s a lot of change and they have no on-ramp to adjust.
Final Thoughts: Everything here is screaming regression, new Head Coach, very low returning production all on a team that went 6-0 in one score games. There still opportunity here, the offense will operate at a faster tempo and be much more aggressive, some of this could help fix RedZone woes that hampered the Bearkats last year. The Sam Houston faithful shouldn’t be concerned if they miss a bowl, this much change won’t happen every time.
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