Sam Houston

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Notre Dame lands 5-star OL Albert Simien over Texas A&Mour readA Renovated Stadium, More Resources and Continuity Have Sam Houston Believing in a Turnaround - Dave Campbell's Texas High School Footballour read

Conference USA · Phil Longo, year 2 (2-12) · Elliott T. Bowers Stadium · 14,000

The nationunrankedAP / Coaches
The model#127 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #129 (-21.5) · FPI #123
The marketno line yetvs Nicholls · our model 69% Sam Houston · a number, not a pick

LastL 17–23 vs Tulsa · Sat Sep 12 · Landyn Locke 316 pass yds, 2 TD

Nextvs Nicholls · Sat Sep 19 · 7 pm ET · Elliott T. Bowers Stadium · series 11-3 · Game preview

Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2

Zeitgeist statureRegional Program V#167 all-time– holding
one line from Regional Program IV
The era · 2014 through 2025

The CFP Era

11 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.

Era record 89-48 11 seasons
Best season 12-1 2016
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality AP Rank (inverted) CFP Appearance
'14'16'18'22'24NOW
CHAPTERS · 11 seasons · tap to open the archive
'14 11-4 '15 10-4 '16 12-1 '17 12-2 '18 — '19 7-5 '21 11-1 '22 — '23 3-9 '24 10-3 '25 2-10

Sam Houston's 2014–2025 record is 89-48. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.

Era win %
.649
Ranked seasons (AP)
0/11
Best AP finish
—

Program outlook

Sam Houston won an FCS national championship in 2020 and its first FBS bowl game in 2024. Then K.C. Keeler left for Temple, Phil Longo went 2-10, and Huntsville spent a year learning how much of the rocket ride was one man.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

The trajectory was remarkable while it lasted. Keeler took a Huntsville, Texas program from FCS champions in 2020 to major-college football by 2023 to a 10-3 bowl-winning team in 2024 — the New Orleans Bowl, 31-26 over Georgia Southern, the program's first FBS trophy. It was the fastest credentialing run in recent memory: four years from a national title at one level to a legitimate win at the next.

Then Keeler left for Temple. Phil Longo's first year in Huntsville produced a 2-10 record and a publicly reported culture crisis that made the offseason uncomfortable reading. The wins came over outmatched opponents; Conference USA opponents went 1-7 against the Bearkats. The fanbase fracture is clean: one faction believes the 2020 ring and the 2024 bowl prove the foundation is real and one bad year is noise; the other fears the program peaked the day its architect walked out.

The 2026 question is the only one that matters in Huntsville right now: does the championship DNA transfer, or was it portable — packed in Keeler's luggage on the way to Philadelphia? Programs that climb as fast as Sam Houston either find the next coach who fits, or they find out how thin the margin was. Longo's second year will begin to answer it.

On the field

Up-tempo and opportunistic — the Keeler-era identity was a relentless offense that pushed pace and a defense built to force turnovers, the combination that made the FCS-to-FBS jump work. Longo's air-raid background is a different system vocabulary, which helps explain the 2025 disruption: installing a new offensive identity at a program in transition is exactly as difficult as it sounds. The scheme is still being written in Huntsville, which is part of what 2026 is about.

program outlook · as of 2026-06-14

All-time record · Sam Houston

Sam Houston has won 55% of its games since 1919 — 79% at home, 37% on the road.

163-134 all-time · 57 seasons · 1919–2026

Home 92-24
Away 56-97
Neutral 15-13
1 g 1910s
0% 1920s
9 g 1930s
3 g 1940s
1 g 1950s
3 g 1980s
0% 1990s
50% 2000s
74% 2010s
53% 2020s

Coaching Era · Sam Houston

Phil Longo

Phil Longo in year 2 of the rebuild. The methodology is taking shape.

Era Phil Longo · 2025–presentPrev: K.C. Keeler (2023–2024)OC: Zack PattersonPrev OC: Brad Cornelsen (2023–2024)DC: Freddie Aughtry-LindsayPrev DC: Skyler Cassity (2024)
The full CFP-era story →
2 years · era

Program memory

What this program never forgets

Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.

2020

FCS national championship

Sam Houston caps an undefeated season with a 23-21 win over South Dakota State in the spring-2021 title game — the program's first national title

2024

First FBS bowl win

A 31-26 New Orleans Bowl win over Georgia Southern in just the second FBS season — the trophy that said the jump worked

2025

Keeler leaves for Temple

The coach who built the championship and the FBS leap departs; the Longo era opens 2-10 amid a culture crisis

Wound

NFL Draft Pipeline

2022–2022

Sam Houston has sent 1 player to the NFL Draft since 2022 — none in the first round.

Thin. Roster development still maturing.

1 picks · 0 in round 1
#157 Zyon McCollum Cornerback · 2022 · Tampa Bay
#196 all-time in draft picksthe talent factory →

More in this tab

Ladder finishHow far up the ladder this season got.

Season standing · 2026 · 0-2

Sam Houston is 0-2 in the season's first weeks.

An early losing record — too few games to call it more than that.

Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
Coaching historyEvery hire and departure on record, not just the current era.

Coaching history

  • Hired Phil Longo2025
  • Hired Brad Cornelsen (interim)2024
  • K.C. Keeler departs12-12, 2 seasons
  • Brad Cornelsen departs (interim)1-0, 1 season
  • Hired K.C. Keeler2023
Coordinator lineageOffense and defense under each coordinator.

Unit lineage

Sam Houston’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2023–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2023–2024 · Brad Cornelsen2025–2026 · Zack Patterson
Defense2023–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2023 · co-Joe Morris / co-Clayton Carlin2024 · Skyler Cassity2025–2026 · Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

2020 FCS National Championship

since 2020

more

K.C. Keeler's 2020 FCS national championship — won in the COVID-shifted spring 2021 playoffs — is the program's all-time peak. Sam Houston went 10-0 + beat South Dakota State 23-21 in the title game. The championship cemented Keeler's reputation + opened the FBS reclassification path that completed in 2023.

2023 FBS Reclassification + Conference USA Entry

since 2023

more

Sam Houston's 2023 FBS reclassification (from FCS) + Conference USA entry was the most-recent FCS-to-FBS-conference ascent in CFB. The transition opened the door to bowl eligibility + national TV exposure + recruiting upside. The 2024 8-4 second-season result confirmed the program's competitive viability at the higher tier.

K.C. Keeler Era (2014-2024)

since 2014

more

K.C. Keeler's 2014-2024 tenure — coming from Delaware where he won the 2003 FCS championship — was the program's defining modern era. Three FCS national title appearances + the 2020 championship + the 2023 FBS transition + sustained competitive cycles. Keeler's longevity + the FCS-to-FBS-conference ascent make him a unique-in-CFB head-coach résumé. He left after the 2024 season; Phil Longo has been head coach since 2025.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.
BowlsEvery bowl this program's played, and how it did.

Bowl / Postseason Ledger

Recent postseason (2014-2024): 3-3

Most recent: 2024 — win 31-26 (home). Last 5 postseason: 3-2.

20242020202020172015
Reddit blowupsThe plays that blew up on r/CFB.

r/cfb moments

1.4k
[Postgame Thread] Sam Houston Defeats South Dakota State 23-21
May 2021 · r/cfb
285
[Game Thread] South Dakota State vs. Sam Houston (2:00PM ET)
May 2021 · r/cfb
248
[Postgame Thread] Montana State Defeats Sam Houston 42-19
Dec 2021 · r/cfb
219
[Postgame Thread] FIU Defeats Sam Houston 33-27 (2OT)
Oct 2023 · r/cfb
186
[Postgame Thread] BYU Defeats Sam Houston 14-0
Sep 2023 · r/cfb

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