Opponent Preview: Sam Houston State
10/2/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Stephen F. Austin Game Notes 
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston State renew the Battle of the Piney Woods this Saturday at NRG Stadium in Houston Saturday at 3 p.m. It marks the 90th installment of the rivalry with the Bearkats holding a 52-35-2 edge, including a four-game win streak.
The rivalry between SFA and Sam Houston State dates back to 1923 and currently sits as the fourth-longest active rivalry in the state of Texas, sitting behind Baylor-TCU (110 games), Texas-Baylor (104 games) and TCU-SMU (95 games). It also ranks as the fourth-longest instate rivalry west of the Mississippi at the FCS level, trailing Montana-Montana State (114 games), North Dakota-North Dakota State (111 games) and South Dakota-South Dakota State (110 games).
Saturday's game marks the sixth time the rivalry has been staged at NRG Stadium in Houston as the game has become one of the premiere FCS games in the country, averaging over 25,000 fans per game. The 2014 edition set a new attendance record for the rivalry as 26,788 fans saw the Bearkats outlast the Lumberjacks 42-28.
The 90th Battle of the Piney Woods will once again be the ESPN3 Southland Game of the Week, broadcast worldwide on ESPN3 and through the WatchESPN app as well as through ESPN College Extra, airing on DirecTV, Dish Network and select sports programming packages. Kickoff is slated for 3:06 p.m. as Randy McIlvoy will have the call of the game with Shea Walker serving as color analyst and Brooke Bentley working the sidelines. Rob Meyers will once again broadcast the game live on radio at Q107.7 FM as fans can listen online at Q1077.com. Live stats will be available through SFAJacks.com with in-game Twitter updates available @SFA_Football.
A number of events have been scheduled for the day, including the football team's entrance to the stadium at 12:30 p.m. at Bud Plaza on the east side of NRG Stadium. Tailgating will be held in the southeast corner of the stadium with the gates to NRG opening at 1 p.m.
Head Coach Clint Conque's Press Conference Transcript
On the Abilene Christian game:
"I thought our kids played really hard again. For the second week in a row we found a way not to score within the one yard line and caused another 14 swing. Two weeks ago it was a fumble return for a touchdown, this week it was a center exchange over the tailbacks head and had a field goal blocked. It's difficult to overcome those big scoring plays on special teams. Offensively I thought we played well enough to win. We had nearly 600 yards of offense, over 300 rushing yards, five touchdowns, 50-60% on third downs and no turnovers. Unfortunately, we gave up some big plays on the defensive side of the football. There were a couple of long runs where we didn’t fit gaps and a couple of long passes where we had the young man covered, and we watched them catch the ball and score. Other than that, I thought we contained them pretty well. There were plays and opportunities during that game that we did not take advantage of that were magnified later in that game. It was a very competitive game effort by our team, but until we go earn a win, we are going to be in these situations and we’ve got to go respond better to them."
On the defensive struggles:
"We are struggling at corner, there isn’t any secret at that. We’ve got an injury to arguably our bet corner (Hipolito Corporan), have another senior who has not played up to his abilities and then our third corner (Tre Roser) has got an arm sleeve that looks like a knee brace on his elbow so he’s a little tentative out there. We’ve got a couple freshman that look like they are hungry so Tarrin Mitchell and Trevon Smith will get the start this week we'll see if we can’t get a little better production out of the corner position. The corners have given up some big plays, there isn’t any question. We've given up seven touchdowns at that position, not including the TCU game, all of which we had a chance to make a play. But we've just got to keep working and getting better and find young men that want to compete on the corner out there."
On the offensive production against ACU:
"I think Zach (Conque) gave us some big play ability with both his arm and his legs. I thought our running backs ran hard, and give credit to our offensive line for created some creases, putting some hats on hats and opening up opportunities down the field. They key though is that when you get inside the one yard line, you’ve got to get points, and for two weeks in a row, we’ve had a miscue. We've had seven snaps from the one yard line in the last two weeks and scored one touchdown. You can't have that. We scored 20 straight points on Saturday to overtake the lead, and it showed our ability to overcome it, but it might not have been that close had we been able to punch it in on offense. It’s not from lack of effort, it was execution. The real thing is to take the positives from offense from this week and build on them and see if we can remain that we going into next week. I’ve never coached in a game where we had 600 yards of offense, no turnovers, rushed for 300 yards and have 55% third down conversions and not win, but you can’t win on just one side of the ball. The kicking game and defense, and all three have to play competitively."
On Sam Houston State:
"Lets start with their offense. They are ringing up some Play Station-type numbers. They are very talented and can go two-deep across the skill positions, including quarterback. They've got two guys that pose different types of threats, so that will be a challenge. They’ve got a plethora of running backs, a big offensive line and they are averaging close to 90 plays a game. So you know it’s going to be an enormous challenge for a fragile defense but we’ll put a great plan together and go to work. Offensively, as I mentioned earlier, we’ve got to create a consistency that we need to move the chains and score points, particularly in the goal line area if we are lucky enough to do that, and we need to play even in the kicking game. If we had done that last week that could have been the margin of victory. Certainly offensively we have to maintain our rhythm and not turn the ball over, and limit their big play opportunities."
On the Battle of the Piney Woods rivalry:
"It’s a huge game for our alumni, it’s a big game on both sides and the opportunity to play down at NRG is a big deal from a media standpoint. But at the end of the day it is about execution. It doesn’t matter if there are 25,000 fans or 25 in the stands, you have to execute in all three phases at a very high level to beat your opponent, especially against our opponent this week. Going into this season many thought they are were of the top two or three teams in the country to compete for the national championship. They were semifinalist last year with their entire team back. It’s a huge challenge for us and a huge opportunity. I’m sure there will be a lot of energy in the stadium but at the end of the day, we’ve got to go out and execute and we’re going to have to do it for 60 minutes. They fell way behind against Texas Tech and stormed back. They were behind big to Lamar and stormed back. They've got the ability to do that so we’re going to have to play at an incredibly high level to have an opportunity to win this game."
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