Leighton Chamblee
football
Game 4 • Huntsville • Bowers Stadium
Sam Houston (2-1, 0-0 CUSA) vs. NM State (1-2, 0-1 CUSA)
Saturday, September 21st • 6:00 p.m.
TV: ESPN+ (Tom Franklin, Ken Moore)
RADIO: BSN (Carlos Zimmerman, Brian Adams); Sirus XM 987
HOW TO FOLLOW IT: Live Stats • @BearkatsFB on X
GAME NOTES: Sam Houston • NM State
Series against the Aggies: NMSU leads 1-0
HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkats will seek their second consecutive win when they open Conference USA play on Saturday night, hosting NM State at Bowers Stadium.
Kickoff for Saturday’s game is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Bowers Stadium. It will air on ESPN+ with Tom Franklin and Ken Moore on the phone. The game can be heard online on the Bearkat Sports Network, the Bearkat Athletics app, and Sirius XM 987 with Carlos Zimmermann and Brian Adams on the phone from the radio booth.
Next up for the Bearkats is the home game
– Conference USA play begins for the Bearkats on Saturday when Sam Houston hosts NM State at Bowers Stadium
– Sam Houston has an overall record of 6-3 in conference openers under head coach KC Keeler
– Due to a strange scheduling change, Saturday’s game against NM State will be Sam Houston’s last Saturday game at Bowers Stadium in 2024.
– Saturday’s game against Hawaii officially drew 15,134 fans to Bowers Stadium. That attendance is the second-highest in Bowers Stadium history and the highest since 16,148 in October 1994, when the Bearkats hosted Steve McNair and Alcorn State in a regionally televised game on ABC.
– The Bearkats dominated on the ground in Saturday’s win over Hawaii, outscoring the Rainbow Warriors by a 257-56 margin. In the Kats’ two wins this year, Sam Houston outscored its opponents by an average of 217.5-51.5.
– Sam Houston will wear retro decals on their helmets on Saturday, with the iconic KATS in white on the orange caps. The Bearkats wore this mark on their helmets from 1998 to 2004 before switching to the widely recognized SH paw mark in 2005. Legendary players like Josh McCown and Dustin Long wore this mark during their time as Kats.
– The game will be one of the centerpieces of Homecoming weekend, and a large number of Bearkat family and friends are expected to be in attendance. Sam Houston has a record of 47-41-1 in games played on Homecoming weekend and has won 13 of its last 14 games, with the lone loss coming in the 2022 season finale against Southern Utah.
– Defensive back Caleb Weaver was named CUSA Defensive Player of the Week on Monday following his strong performance in the win over Hawaii. The Bearkat safety intercepted his first pass of the season and had 3 more pass breakups and 3 tackles, fending off a high-powered passing attack from the Rainbow Warriors.
SERIES HISTORY
– Sam Houston and NM State will meet for the second time in series history on Saturday in Huntsville
– On Saturday, a team from the land of enchantment will come to Huntsville for the first time
– Sam Houston has a 2-2 overall record against teams from the state of New Mexico, having previously played NM State (0-1), New Mexico (1-1) and Eastern New Mexico (1-0).
– The Bearkats open CUSA play against the Aggies. NM State opened CUSA play in Week 2 when it hosted Liberty in a rematch of last season’s CUSA championship game.
SAM HOUSTON >> NM STATE CONNECTIONS
– There are many connections between the Aggies and Bearkats in 2024, especially on defense. It starts in the locker room, where Aggie defensive coordinator Joe Morris is spending his first season in Las Cruces after serving as the Bearkats’ defensive coordinator each of the past three seasons.
– Morris also brought linebackers coach Jared Hensley from Huntsville to Las Cruces after Hensley himself spent eight years in Huntsville, including the last five as the Bearkat linebackers coach.
– Additionally, NM State defensive back Da’Marcus Crosby was named first-team All-CUSA at Sam Houston in 2023 before entering the portal and landing with the Aggies this year. He will be joined in the NMSU secondary by DaKerric Hobbs, who also wore Bearkat Orange a year ago.
– Crosby and Hobbs did not play with the current Bearkat receiver Michael Phoenix II in Huntsville, but the trio were teammates on the Kilgore College 2022 squad
– The Kats got a transfer that went in the other direction, as a defensive player Dennis Warren played last year for the NMSU team that played in both the CUSA Championship Game and the Isleta New Mexico Bowl
