Moneyball at Sam Houston: How the Bearkats are thriving despite the ‘least amount of NIL’ in the FBS

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Sam Houston linebacker Trey Fields has seen it before. In the FCS semifinals three years ago, the Bearkats came back from a 21-point halftime deficit to beat James Madison. A week later Sam Houston won a national championship.

So, when the Bearkats fell behind 22-0 last Saturday against rival Texas State, Fields knew his team wouldn’t panic.

Three hours later, Sam Houston head coach K.C. Keeler stood in the middle of his team and did some disco-inspired dance moves following a 40-39 win at NRG Stadium, the largest comeback in school history. The Bearkats are 4-1, already exceeding the program’s win total (three) from 2023, its first season jumping from the FCS to the FBS.

“We gritty,” Fields said. “We gritty.”

A senior linebacker from Danciger, Texas — a small town an hour southeast of Houston with a population in the hundreds — Fields didn’t have any FBS offers coming out of high school. What he does have is a national championship ring on his finger and the attitude that carried the Bearkats there.

Keeler built his program on a foundation he describes as: “This is a game for grown ass men. We’re going to go to battle. But when that battle is over, because this is also a game of honor, we’re going to shake their hand.”

Leave your egos at the door in Huntsville. You’re not a fit if you bring one. The program has the same attitude it had three years ago when it won an FCS national championship. It is also operates very much like an FCS program. 

It was sudden transition to FBS football. Texas and Oklahoma tipped over realignment dominos that are still falling, which created opportunities for schools like Sam Houston to jump up faster than those at the university would have ever imagined.

It made sense…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/moneyball-at-sam-houston-how-the-bearkats-are-thriving-despite-the-least-amount-of-nil-in-the-fbs/

Author : Chris Hummer

Publish date : 2024-10-03 15:53:27

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