2019 Sam Houston State Bearkats football team

The 2019 Sam Houston State Bearkats football team represents Sam Houston State University in the 2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season as a member of the Southland Conference. The Bearkats are led by sixth-year head coach K. C. Keeler and play their home games at Bowers Stadium.

2019 Sam Houston State Bearkats football
Conference	Southland Conference
2019 record	7–5 (6–3 Southland)
Head coach	K. C. Keeler (6th season)
Offensive coordinator	Ryan Carty (2nd season)
Defensive coordinator	Clayton Carlin (3rd season as DC, 4th overall season)
Home stadium	Bowers Stadium (Capacity: 12,593)

2019 Southland Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 14 Nicholls +^		7	–	2					8	–	4
No. 11 Central Arkansas +^		7	–	2					9	–	3
No. 19 Southeastern Louisiana ^		6	–	3					8	–	5
Sam Houston State		6	–	3					7	–	5
McNeese State		5	–	4					7	–	5
Incarnate Word		4	–	5					5	–	7
Abilene Christian		4	–	5					5	–	7
Northwestern State		3	–	6					3	–	9
Stephen F. Austin		3	–	6					3	–	9
Houston Baptist		2	–	6					5	–	7
Lamar		2	–	7					4	–	8
+ – Conference co-champions ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

Previous season

The Bearkats finished the 2018 season with a 6–5 overall record, and a 5–4 record in Southland play to finish in a four-way tie for fourth place.

Preseason

Preseason poll

The Southland Conference released their preseason poll on July 18, 2019. The Bearkats were picked to finish in fourth place.[1]

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Nicholls	200 (20)
2	Central Arkansas	154
3	Incarnate Word	150 (1)
4	Sam Houston State	146
5	Lamar	123
6	McNeese State	114
7	Abilene Christian	112 (1)
8	Southeastern Louisiana	71
9	Stephen F. Austin	63
10	Northwestern State	56
11	Houston Baptist	21

Preseason All–Southland Teams

The Bearkats placed six players on the preseason all–Southland teams.[2]

Offense 1st team Nathan Stewart – WR 2nd team Woody Brandom – TE/HB

Defense 1st team Zyon McCollum – DB 2nd team Erick Fowler – DL Hunter Brown – LB Royce See – LB

Schedule

Sam Houston State has scheduled 12 games in the 2019 season instead of the 11 normally allowed for FCS programs. Under a standard provision of NCAA rules, all FCS teams are allowed to schedule 12 regular-season games in years in which the period starting with Labor Day weekend and ending with the last Saturday of November contains 14 Saturdays.[3]

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 31	5:00 p.m.	at New Mexico*	No. 23	Dreamstyle Stadium Albuquerque, NM	LOBOTV	L 31–39	13,749
September 7	6:00 p.m.	Oklahoma Panhandle State*	No. 25	Bowers Stadium Huntsville, TX	ESPN+	W 77–0	4,942
September 14	4:00 p.m.	at North Dakota*	No. 24	Alerus Center Grand Forks, ND	Pluto	L 23–27	8,697
September 21	6:00 p.m.	Incarnate Word		Bowers Stadium Huntsville, TX	ESPN3	W 45–6	8,196
September 28	6:00 p.m.	at McNeese State		Cowboy Stadium Lake Charles, LA	ESPN+	W 28–17	9,107
October 5	3:00 p.m.	vs. Stephen F. Austin		NRG Stadium Houston, TX (Battle of the Piney Woods)	ESPN+	W 31–20	24,008
October 12	2:00 p.m.	Lamar	No. 25	Bowers Stadium Huntsville, TX	ESPN+	L 17–20 ^3OT	4,047
October 19	2:00 p.m.	No. 9 Nicholls		Bowers Stadium Huntsville, TX	ESPN+	W 17–0	3,953
October 26	6:00 p.m.	at No. 12 Central Arkansas	No. 21	Estes Stadium Conway, AR	ESPN+	L 25–29	9,363
November 9	3:00 p.m.	at Abilene Christian		Wildcat Stadium Abilene, TX	ESPN+	W 24–10	6,491
November 16	2:00 p.m.	Northwestern State		Bowers Stadium Huntsville, TX	ESPN+	L 28–31	4,280
November 23	2:00 p.m.	Houston Baptist		Bowers Stadium Huntsville, TX	ESPN+	W 37–14	3,849
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

Source:[4][5]

Game summaries

at New Mexico

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 23 Bearkats	0	16	7	8	31
Lobos	13	9	10	7	39

Oklahoma Panhandle State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Aggies	0	0	0	0	0
No. 25 Bearkats	42	21	14	0	77

at North Dakota

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 24 Bearkats	0	14	0	9	23
Fighting Hawks	14	0	13	0	27

Incarnate Word

	1	2	3	4	Total
Cardinals	0	0	0	6	6
Bearkats	14	17	7	7	45

at McNeese State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bearkats	0	9	6	13	28
Cowboys	7	7	3	0	17

vs. Stephen F. Austin

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bearkats	0	14	0	17	31
Lumberjacks	7	3	0	10	20

Lamar

	1	2	3	4	OT	2OT	3OT	Total
Cardinals	0	7	0	0	3	7	3	20
No. 25 Bearkats	7	0	0	0	3	7	0	17

Nicholls

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 9 Colonels	0	0	0	0	0
Bearkats	7	3	7	0	17

at Central Arkansas

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 21 Bearkats	7	9	6	3	25
No. 12 Bears	0	0	14	15	29

at Abilene Christian

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bearkats	0	14	10	0	24
Wildcats	10	0	0	0	10

Northwestern State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Demons	7	17	7	0	31
Bearkats	21	0	7	0	28

Houston Baptist

	1	2	3	4	Total
Huskies	0	7	7	0	14
Bearkats	20	7	0	10	37

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	23	25	24	RV	RV	RV	25	RV	21	RV
Coaches	22	22	21	RV	RV	RV	24	RV	25	RV

References

1. "Nicholls Voted to Top Spot in 2019 Football Preseason Poll". www.southland.org. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
2. "Southland Announces 2019 Preseason All-Conference Football Teams". www.southland.org. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
3. "Bylaw 17.10.5.1: Number of Contests, Maximum Limitations—Institutional" (PDF). 2018–19 NCAA Division I Manual. NCAA. July 2018. p. 273. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
4. "Football 2019 Schedule". Sam Houston State University. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
5. "SOUTHLAND TV SELECTIONS ANNOUNCED FOR FIRST FOUR WEEKS". Southland Conference. August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2019.