Sam Houston fires Phil Longo after a 3-17 run

The news broke Wednesday afternoon, and Sam Houston has already decided who runs the team for the rest of the year.

Chris Vannini

@ChrisVannini

Breaking: Sam Houston has fired head coach Phil Longo, who was 3-17 in the job. Bearkats are 1-7 and lost to Missouri State 24-3 last night. Associate HC Eric Raisbeck and DC Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay will serve as interim co-head coaches.

Associate head coach Eric Raisbeck and defensive coordinator Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay will share the job as interim co-head coaches. Both were on Longo's first staff. Aughtry-Lindsay came over from NC State, where he coached safeties and nickels and had a stint as interim DC. Raisbeck was hired as associate head coach and special teams coordinator. A 2-man interim setup with 4 games left is a holding pattern. Nobody expects it to be a tryout.

The Longo hire was always a bet on the past. He was Sam Houston's offensive coordinator from 2014 to 2016, and his last year there was a monster: the Bearkats went 12-1 and put up 547 yards a game. After that he moved up the ladder as a coordinator, first at Ole Miss, then at North Carolina, where he ran the Sam Howell offenses that turned out 1,000-yard receivers and rushers and broke school records.

Wisconsin is where the shine came off. Longo went to Madison with Luke Fickell in December 2022 to bring the Air Raid to the Big Ten, and it never worked. Wisconsin fired him on November 17, 2024, with the Badgers at 5-5, and his offense ranked near the bottom of the country in scoring and passing. About a month later, Sam Houston brought him back as head coach to replace K.C. Keeler, who had left for Temple.

The homecoming went bad fast. The Bearkats started 0-5 in 2025 and finished 2-10. This year was supposed to be the step forward, and instead they're 1-7, and his passing offense, the whole reason he got hired, ranked last in Conference USA. Scoring 3 points against Missouri State was the end of it.

College football Twitter noticed the day of the week right away. A midweek firing during the season is rare, and this year has now had a couple of them.

Jordan D. Hilloween 🎃

@JordanDavisHill

If I had a nickel for every time a college coach got fired on a Wednesday this season, I’d have two nickels — which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice

Matt Zenitz

@mzenitz

Sam Houston has fired head coach Phil Longo, per the school t.co/wDMgut1T1r

Now Sam Houston has to find its 3rd head coach since Keeler left, and it's still trying to get settled in an FBS conference. Longo's buyout will get attention, and so will whether the school goes for a proven Group of 5 winner or another big-name coordinator. Raisbeck and Aughtry-Lindsay just have to get through the next few weeks and maybe win a game or two before the real search starts.