Published: August 05, 2008 11:59 pm            

Southland Notebook: Rain forces Kats indoors

SHSU looking to find backup QB in fall camp

As Tropical Storm Edouard pounded the Walker County area with heavy rains Tuesday afternoon, the Sam Houston State football team was left scrambling to find a place to practice.

But there wasn’t any reason to worry.

“We are heading to our indoor practice facility,” Bearkat senior wide receiver Justin Wells said as he walked out the door of the field house. “Didn’t you know we had one?”

OK, so it isn’t the typical multi-million dollar indoor practice facility that is popping up on more and more college campuses around the country, but the Health & Kinesiology Center did the trick and kept the Kats nice and dry Tuesday.

The offense and defense each held a separate one-hour session in one of the HKC’s basketball gyms, mainly running plays against the scout team because there wasn’t much room to do anything else.

But with the season opener against East Central Oklahoma on Aug. 28 just a few weeks away, every little bit of practice is important even if it was only the second day of fall camp.

“Well, you have to do what you have to do whenever the weather is bad,” SHSU head coach Todd Whitten said. “When the weather is bad you have to react, and you have to get some work done because the clock is ticking.”

So far so good for Sam Houston State. A lot of players stuck around to work out this summer and most reported to camp in good shape. There are still a few players that are a step behind the rest, but in the next few weeks everyone should be ready to go.

Whitten said he was pleased with the attitudes and the condition the players were in when they took the field Monday for the first time since spring drills.

“I think that by us closing last season on a five-game winning streak, it did a lot for our offseason workouts,” the coach added. “We only had five or six guys that didn’t make the run test. From that standpoint, it was really positive.

“I think this is the best shape we have come into camp since I have been here. We have a bunch of seniors and I think this is important to them and they have a lot riding on this season. If we can find some leadership and stay healthy, we have a chance to compete.”

Even though the rain forced Sam Houston to practice inside, the rest of the week should be on schedule. Weather permitting, the Bearkats will hit the field in helmets and shoulder pads the next two days before going full pads for the first time Friday.

There are also plans for a situational scrimmage with officials Saturday morning at 8:30 at Bowers Stadium.

“It’s not all lost, this still counts as a practice so it doesn’t set us back any,” Whitten said. “It was hot (Monday) and we had some guys that had to take an IV after practice, so this was probably good for them. You have to make the best of what you have and we may have to do this again.

“But we are right on schedule and ready to put the pads on at the end of the week.”



Back to square one

One of the key battles during spring camp was for a backup to starting quarterback Rhett Bomar. Following the annual Orange and White game, senior transfer Ryan Hinojosa appeared to have wrestled the job away from redshirt freshmen Jeff Welch and Taylor Weidman and sophomore Jordan Williams.

But things have changed. Hinojosa failed to meet academic requirements, and Weidman is no longer on the roster. So, the Kats are left searching for a second-string signal caller once again.

Welch and Williams will square off with junior college transfer Bryan Randolph over the next few weeks to sort out the depth chart behind Bomar.

Randolph arrived on campus this summer after throwing for 1,733 yards at Moorpark (Calif.) Community College last season as a freshman.

“The thing about college football is that you have things happen and you have to find the next guy to step up. We are really trying to find a solid backup right now,” Whitten said. “Bryan Randolph has a chance to help us, and Jeff Welch showed some flashes during the spring.

“Sometimes you get young guys that decide playing college football isn’t for them, but it also gives you a chance to see other young guys step up and rise to the challenge.”



Glory days

There have been some memorable Sam Houston State football games over the years, and now Bearkat fans have the chance to take a trip back in time and relive those moments.

The SHSU athletic department has added 150 games on DVD dating back to the 1989 season for purchase in the multimedia store available online at gobearkats.com. Fans can select single games for $16.95 or entire seasons with prices ranging from $109.95 to $139.95.

“This is something we have been wanting to do for nearly a year and it such a relief to finally get this online,” SHSU media services coordinator Jason Barfield said. “We should have nearly every game from 1989-2007 in the store in the next few weeks and then we will start working on 1983-1988. This has been such a huge undertaking and it is great to finally see a finished product. We expect the number of games to reach 300 once we have everything converted to DVD.”

Fans also have the opportunity to vote on the top 10 greatest Bearkat games since SHSU moved up to the NCAA level in 1982. The athletic department has selected 29 games to choose from ranging from the 2004 playoff miracle against Eastern Washington to the Kats’ 27-25 win over Southwest Texas State to win the school’s first Gulf Star Conference championship in 1995.

“We had a hard enough time just narrowing the list down to 29. Originally the ballot was going to have 20 games on it, and we kept finding more that needed to be added,” Barfield added. “I have my list of the top 10, but am really looking forward to seeing which games everyone else votes for.”

The top 10 list will be unveiled before the Kats’ season opener Aug. 28 and one voter will be selected randomly to win a game of their choice from the DVD store.

        

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