Midweek on the Mountain begins on Thursday night when Liberty (4-0, 2-0 CUSA) and Sam Houston (0-4, 0-1 CUSA) meet at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
The Bearkats may be winless so far this season, but they have faced some tough competition. Sam Houston has lost to BYU (14-0), Air Force (13-3), and Houston (38-7). Last Thursday night, Sam Houston played their first ever Conference USA game, falling at home to Jacksonville State, 35-28, in overtime after leading by as many as 14 and even holding an 8 point lead with just over a minute left in regulation.
“I think you’ve got to look at who they’ve played first,” said Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell. “Houston is a Big 12 team. BYU is a Big 12 team. Air Force is arguably one of the top G5 teams, right. My point of that is, yeah they have maybe not scored as many points but they’re also playing pretty good people.”
Sam Houston may be in its first year as an FBS member, but they were traditionally one of the top FCS programs in the country. Led by 10th year head coach KC Keeler, the Bearkats were 21-1 in the two seasons prior to beginning the transition to FBS a year ago. This included a FCS national championship, the second in Keeler’s career. Now, Keeler and Sam Houston looks to bring that success to the FBS level.
“You can get skill guys, it was just hard to get OL/DL guys,” said Chadwell of the transition from the FCS to FBS. “I think that’s the biggest challenge that you face when you move up because it’s more physical. I’ve actually been impressed with how they have played and how they’ve held up with the schedule they’ve had, physically up front. That shows you they are heading in a good direction.”
Sam Houston is averaging just 9.5 points per game through their first four games. They have been held to 219.5 total yards, with 154 of those coming through the air and 65 on the ground. In their first CUSA game last week, the Bearkats had 435 yards of offense, 299 passing and 136 rushing.
“(Thursday) night was really, in my opinion, the first time they’ve played somebody that was probably equal talent wise and some of those things, so they scored a lot of points,” Chadwell said of Sam Houston. “Now, they have had some injuries. I think you watch that game and they should have won that game, had it won. They are very talented. You can see on special teams they have a lot of good players. Special teams tells you if you have good players or not, if you can run or what not. So, they’ve got good players. They obviously won a national championship in 2020. They’ve played at a high level for a long time. We’re not going to underestimate them. We know who they’ve played.”
Keegan Shoemaker is a senior quarterback for the Bearkats. He has played in three games this season, missing the game at Houston. So far this year, Shoemaker has completed 48 of 85 passes for 476 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions.
Noah Smith has been his favorite target, as he has 17 receptions for 156 yards and a touchdown. John Gentry has 11 catches for 123 yards and a touchdown. Gentry is also the team’s top rusher, with 45 carries for 133 yards.
Where the Bearkats may have struggled on offense early in the season, they have seen some success on defense, holding BYU and Air Force to 14 and 13 points, respectively. Sam Houston has been very good against the pass, holding opponents to 177 yards passing this season.
“They don’t do a lot of stuff but what they do they are really good at,” Chadwell said of Sam Houston’s defense. “They’ve got two really good linebackers that can get to the football. Up front, they cause a lot of havoc with twisting and movements and stuff. They never end up where they line up. They have a lot of different stunts and things. They are good at what they do. They are sound at it. They play confident. We think, from a defensive standpoint overall, it’s the best defense that we’ve seen. They’re very sound. They are very experienced. There’s not anybody on that team that’s not been there 3-5 years that’s on that defensive side of the ball, so they have a lot of experience. Look at our defense and how many games people have played on our defense, compared to how many games those people have played there. Experience is experience no matter what level you play at. They’ve got guys who have played 40+ games. We’ve got guys going on 4. That’s a big difference from an experience standpoint.”
PREDICTION
Liberty 33, Sam Houston 13
Line: Liberty -19.5
Picks results this year:
Straight-up: 4-0
ATS: 3-1
