Out of energy after full year
Montana State blitzes Bearkats, ending quest for two FCS titles in 2021
HUNTSVILLE — Sam Houston won 21 games in 2021, a college football record in a calendar year, which, for the Bearkats, included an FCS national championship in the spring.
This fall, the Bearkats went 10-0 in the regular season, rolled through the Western Athletic Conference, and were victorious in their opening game of the FCS playoffs.
A number of streaks and the season came to an end late Saturday night at Bowers Stadium, where the Bearkats had been 17-0 alltime in playoff games. The reigning national champion and top seed, Sam Houston never recovered from an early 14-point deficit, losing 42-19 to Montana State in the FCS quarterfinals, snapping a 22-game winning streak dating to 2019.
“I told the guys we did something (incredible),” Sam Houston coach K.C. Keeler said. “Twenty-one straight wins in one calendar year, two training camps, and a national championship. It’s mind boggling. We lost to a really good football team that made more plays than we did.”
Montana State, one of five teams from the Big Sky selected for the playoffs, outplayed a fatigued Sam Houston team. The Bearkats were playing on fumes following an extended spring playoff run culminating in their winning the national championship 2321 in May in Frisco over South Dakota State, Montana State’s opponent in the semifinals this weekend.
It was an unprecedented run by the Bearkats (11-1), who before Saturday hadn’t lost since Nov. 16, 2019 – at Northwestern State 31-28.
“It’s unheard of. Oh my gosh, it’s awesome,” linebacker Trevor Williams said. “Going back to this
spring season, playing all those games, don’t get worried about the streak, just play the game and see what we could do. But at the end of the day, they (Montana State) won.”
The Bobcats led 14-0 less than four minutes in and scored the first 28 points behind an aggressive, sound defense and true freshman quarterback Tommy Mellott, who was making his second college start.
“We ran into a buzzsaw and a team that executed at a high level and is very talented, and you saw us at the end of 22 games, and it showed,” said Keeler, who lost a home playoff game as coach for the first time in his career after 31 straight wins.
Eric Schmid threw a pair of 61-yard touchdowns to Ife Adeyi, who caught nine balls for 184 yards. But it wasn’t enough for the Bearkats, who were trying to reach the semifinals for the fifth time since 2014.
As a Bearkat, Schmid had been 25-0 as a starting quarterback. The Woodlands product passed for 354 yards and accounted for three touchdowns, but at times had problems with the Bobcats’ zone coverage, throwing three interceptions. “It was a combination of how good they are, how well they played, and also that this has been a long season,” Keeler said.
Over a nine-month period, Sam Houston played 22 games and went through two separate training camps. In the spring, the Bearkats played a season without a locker room and meeting area as the athletic department facility was being renovated.
“That’s a lot of football,” Keeler said. “I saw a different (Sam Houston) team
out there.”
Eighth-seeded Montana State (11-2) made the most of its 14 first downs and 55 offensive plays despite being outgained 433-359 by the Bearkats. Mellott passed for 165 yards and two touchdowns, completing only six of 11 passes. He ran for 76 yards. Isaiah Ifanse rushed for 105 yards, including a 42-yard run that concluded the scoring late in the fourth quarter.
Keeler could tell pregame that the Bearkats wouldn’t be as sharp Saturday as in their first 11 games this season. On Wednesday, the Bearkats didn’t finish their practice as strong as they typically do.
“I could see us start to peter out,” Keeler said. “It’s just so noticeable because how well we’ve practiced for this long of period of time. We’ve always practiced at a real high level, and on Wednesday, I saw a little dip-off, and I saw it in the locker room (Saturday night) coming out.
“We play with a lot of emotion, a lot of energy, and we were just a tick behind. We weren’t quite there. We lost to a really good team that executed much better than we did. I think it finally caught up to us.”