Sam Houston's rebuild gets a checkpoint game at the freshly renovated Bowers Stadium, and Nicholls is the FCS visitor standing in the way of a feel-good Saturday.
Bush’s Picks
NICHSHSU
NICHSHSU
OverUnder
Best BetSam Houston
Sam Houston is broken in a lot of ways, but an FBS program hosting an FCS opponent with a defense full of new starters is still the side to trust to find a way to win outright. The Bearkats' offensive dysfunction was largely a product of facing FBS lines and coverages all last year — against a Southland defense replacing key pieces, there should be more room to operate.
Nicholls
+Shane Lee ran for 636 yards, 8 TDs as a freshman
+New OC installing tempo scheme to feature him
+Southland team improving after 1-6 start last year
−Finished just 4-8, no winning season since 2023
−Defense has many new, unproven starters
−Facing a significant FBS talent jump on the road
Sam Houston
+Home game at newly renovated Bowers Stadium
+Portal additions bolster a defense with room to grow
+FBS roster talent gap against Southland opponent
−Nation's worst third-down offense a year ago
−Defense allowed most yards per game in the country
−QB situation still unsettled behind Locke's rough 2025
This one lands in an awkward but telling spot on the calendar. Sam Houston opens the year at Troy, then hosts Tulsa in the first game at a rebuilt Bowers Stadium, and a week later it's Nicholls coming to Huntsville before the Bearkats hit the road for Texas Tech. In other words: this is the breather game, the one program insiders and fans alike will use to gauge whether Phil Longo's overhaul is actually taking. Nicholls, an FCS Southland program under second-year coach Tommy Rybacki, is the team asked to play spoiler.
Longo inherited a mess. Sam Houston's offense finished dead last nationally in third-down conversions a season ago at 22.5%, and the passing game barely functioned behind a line that couldn't buy time. Quarterback Landyn Locke completed just half his throws with as many picks as touchdowns. The defense was worse — 483.5 yards allowed per game, worst in the country — though coordinator Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay has restocked through the portal. None of that gets fixed by September 19, but a game against an FCS opponent is exactly the low-stakes rep this staff needs before Texas Tech comes calling.
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NICH Nicholls
SHSU Sam Houston
Nicholls isn't walking in overmatched on paper the way some FCS money-game opponents do. Sophomore back Shane Lee ran for 636 yards and 8 touchdowns as a freshman, with 6 of those scores coming in his final three games, and he averaged an FCS-best 4.54 yards after contact among Southland backs. New play-caller Matt Giampa, a former Western Kentucky assistant, is installing an up-tempo scheme built to get Lee more touches and stress a Sam Houston defense that still has plenty to prove.
Nicholls Colonels
Sep 5?@ Kansas State—
Sam Houston Bearkats
Sep 12?vs Tulsa—
Sep 5?@ Troy—
Recent form.
Nicholls Colonels
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Sam Houston Bearkats
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Rybacki's Colonels went 1-6 to open last season before things stabilized around quarterback Ean Rodrigue, and Nicholls finished 4-8 overall — its only winning season since 2023 still a ways off. The defense has real turnover, with a lot of new faces expected to man that side of the ball. Beating an FBS team on the road, even a rebuilding one, is a tall order for a Southland squad replacing that much of its two-deep.
For Sam Houston, this is as much about establishing an identity in the new building as it is about the win-loss column. A clean, competitive performance here — third downs converting, the new defensive faces flying around — would be the first real evidence the Longo era is pointed the right direction before the level of competition jumps significantly the following week in Lubbock.
