Published: September 01, 2007 01:51 am      

Something needs to change

It’s been 24 hours since Thursday night’s fiasco at Bowers Stadium, and I’m still left scratching my head about what happened.

I would flat out be lying if I thought Sam Houston State’s first game of the season was going to be — well exactly what is was — a letdown. And it wasn’t just the fans who were disappointed but the Bearkats themselves as I watched their reactions down of the field afterward.

This team came one game within winning of the Southland Conference championship last season, and the pieces are there to to compete again in 2007. The problem is that the one thing that held them back a year ago seems to be the same thing they were lacking in Thursday’s 17-13 hold-on-for-dear-life victory over Angelo State.

Leadership.

Someone — the coaches or the players — has to light a fire under this team. Normally you don’t complain after a win, but this one is different. There are a lot of high expectations for the Bearkats this season, and there should be.

They have a talented quarterback in Rhett Bomar, a star in the making in running back Chris Poullard, a veteran offensive line, an All-America tight end and some playmakers on defense.

They have a championship-caliber nucleus. What the Bearkats don’t have is someone to lead them there, at least not yet. You would have thought that issue would have been addressed when SHSU blew a 14-0 lead at home against Texas State in the season finale last year, thus costing them a conference title.

There were some sparks Thursday night. Bomar had a good outing, especially since he hadn’t played in almost two years. Poullard broke the century mark on the ground in his first career start, and the defense saved the game with two key fourth-quarter stops.

Heck, even Taylor Wilkins did his job by kicking a pair of extra points and nailing a 30-yard field goal, something the team struggled to do last season.

But if this team wants to stop being a pretender and become a contender, it has to take care of business against a Division II team. Not to take anything away from Angelo State, those boys came to play, but a 17-0 lead in the first half should not have resulted in a 17-13 win.

Unfortunately someone has to take the blame, and this time it falls on the coaching staff. All week leading up to the game, all everybody kept talking about was not taking Angelo State for granted.

But after watching the game, I thought the coaches did just that. The offense looked watered down; the Kats didn’t take enough shots downfield. When they did (only a handful of times), a couple of possible big plays were dropped and Bomar connected with junior Justin Wells for a 64-yard touchdown.

It was there, it just wasn’t exploited enough.

I’m all for being balanced on offense, and again, Poullard looked really good, but they let the Rams hang around too long. The Bearkats ran the ball like they were protecting a huge lead. When they did throw the ball, it was a short dump off or it came when everybody and their dog knew it was coming.

The real backbreaker came with just under six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. After the defense denied the Rams a score in the red zone, the offense took over at their own 9. The first two plays were handoffs that netted two yards, then the third was a 3-yard pass to Chris Lucas. Oh, and the score was 17-13.

If sophomore punter Michael Capparellli doesn’t boom a 56-yarder on fourth down, and the Rams don’t commit a silly personal foul, the outcome might have been different. But Angelo State took over at its 10 with three minutes to go, and the Bearkats got three big plays from defensive end Chris Brown and linebacker Nolen Bucek to save the day.

I know it was just the first game and there is no reason to push the panic button. Hopefully, coach Todd Whitten and his staff just wanted to get a few guys some playing time and not reveal too much the first time out. But you have to have some of the vertical passing attack thrown in so the guys can get it down against a real opponent.

Whitten even said after the game that they should have thrown it more. Bomar has the skills to make this offense explosive, but 24 passes, especially when the majority is sideline to sideline, isn’t going to cut it.

This one is in the books and it could have been worse. To borrow and old and overused cliche´, a win is a win. But something has to change before next week’s game against Arkansas -Monticello, because Thursday’s game plan won’t cut it Sept. 15 when the Bearkats travel North Dakota State.