Game 6 preview: at UTEP

Leighton Chamblee

football
10/02/2024 10:00:00 am

Game 6 • El Paso • Sun Bowl
Sam Houston (4-1, 1-0 CUSA) at UTEP (0-4, 0-1 CUSA)
Thursday, October 3 • 8:00 p.m. CT


TV: CBS Sports Network (Alex Del Barrio, Taylor McHargue)

RADIO: BSN (Carlos Zimmerman, Brian Adams); Sirius XM 971

HOW TO FOLLOW: Live Statistics • @BearkatsFB on X

GAME NOTES: Sam Houston • UTEP
Series against the Miners: UTEP leads 4-0



EL PASO – The Sam Houston Bearkats will return to Conference USA action with their first midweek game of the season on Thursday when they take on UTEP.


Thursday’s contest is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. CT at the Sun Bowl. It will air on CBS Sports Network with Alex Del Barrio and Taylor McHargue. The game can be heard online on the Bearkat Sports Network, the Bearkat Athletics app and on Sirius XM 971, with Carlos Zimmermann and Brian Adams calling from the radio booth.



KATS WANTS TO GET TO 2-0 IN CUSA WITH A TRIP TO THE SUN BOWL
– The Bearkats staged the greatest comeback in school history, erasing a 22-0 first quarter deficit with a 40-39 win over Texas State on Saturday at NRG Stadium


– The Bearkats have won a total of 7 of their last 9 games after starting their FBS entry in 2023 with an 0-8 start


– Sam Houston is the first FBS program to start a season 0-5 since Georgia Southern in 2017 and 2018 and win at least four of its first five games the following year. The Eagles started the 2017 season 0-9 and started 2018 7-1 en route to a 10-3 year and a victory in the Camelia Bowl

– Sam Houston averages 34.0 points per game in its 4 wins. Every victory goes to a G5 team

– The Kats have outrebounded their opponents in each of their four wins, holding their opponent to less than 100 yards on the ground each time. In those four wins, the Kats averaged 253.3 yards on the ground while their opponents averaged just 68.0 yards


– Quarterback Hunter Watson and kicker Christian Pavon were named CUSA Offensive and Special Teams Players of the Week on Monday following their performance against Texas State. It’s the second time this season the pair has received these honors in the same week, also following the Kats’ Week 1 win at Rice

— Sam Houston will wear the second set of retro decals on its helmets for the second straight day on Thursday, with Bearkats in curved white font with a white stripe down the middle of the orange caps. The arched lettering was originally worn on a dark blue helmet from 1989 to 1993 before Sam Houston switched to orange helmets in 1994. The mark remained on the side of the hats throughout the 1996 season, while the orange headgear remains to this day

HISTORY OF THE SERIES
– Sam Houston and UTEP are meeting for the fourth time, including the third time in El Paso

– On Thursday, the Kats will play in the Sun Bowl for the first time since 2003, when the Miners defeated the Kats by a 59-14 margin

– On the day, the Kats had 6 turnovers and allowed a blocked punt in their second straight game against a 1-A opponent

SAM HOUSTON >> UTEP CONNECTIONS
– Despite being a pair of schools from the Lone Star State, there are few roster and/or personnel connections between the Miners and Bearkats


– The Miners have four players available from Kilgore College: Maurice Westmoreland, KD Johnson, Oscar Moore and Marcus Vinson, where Bearkat is a receiver Michael Phoenix II Have also spent the last 2 seasons

– UTEP linebacker Alex Szczesniak was a Bearkats teammate Hunter Watson and Luke Eckartdt last season at Iowa Western CC, where the Rievers won the 2023 NJCAA national championship

QUICK STRIKES FROM WIN against TEXAS STATE
– The Kats finished the game with 298 yards on the ground and now have 835 yards rushing in their last three games. It’s the first time since 2021 that the Bearkats have rushed for more than 200 yards in three straight games


– Hunter Watson finished the game with 105 yards on the ground, his second consecutive 100-yard rushing game. He is the first Kat quarterback in program history to rush for 100 yards in consecutive games. His 67.6 yards per game average also ranks first among QBs in CUSA and ninth among QBs in the country


– Jay Ducker ran 14 times for 69 yards and 3 scores against the Bobcats, racking up over 2,000 collegiate rushing yards that included stops at NIU, Memphis and Sam Houston. Meanwhile, his 3 touchdown runs are the most by a Bearkat in a game since Eric Schmid had 4 scores against Lamar in the spring 2021 season


– The Kats won their second straight game with passes totaling less than 100 yards, helped by 5 players rushing for at least 31 yards in the game


– Ife Adeyi has now caught a pass in 29 consecutive games as a teammate Noah Smith caught a pass 24 times in a row. Should they both pick up a win on Thursday against UTEP, the two would join Utah’s Brant Kuithe and Money Parks as the only duos in the country to each have a catch streak of more than 25 games

– Sam Houston stuffed two of the Bobcats’ 4th-down attempts on Saturday and has now stopped 5 of his opponents’ 11 4th-down attempts this year


– The Kats have had 11 straight games with at least one takeaway


– The Kats will be without a starting linebacker Trey Fields for the first half of Thursday’s game due to a confirmed goal call in the second half of the game against Texas State