Sam Houston beckons as Hawai’i hits road for first ever meeting with Bearkats

HONOLULU – Time to be “Road Warriors”. 

Hawai’i (1-1) plays outside the friendly confines of T.C. Ching Complex for the first time this weekend as they travel to the state of Texas to take on Sam Houston State (1-1) for the Bearkats’ home-opener. The matchup on Saturday, which projects to be a sizzling 93 degrees at kickoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m. HT, will mark the first ever meeting between the two programs. 

The Bearkats, in their second year at the FBS level, opened the year on the road in dominant fashion, blitzing the Rice Owls out of the gate for a 34-14 win. Things were not as pretty in Week 2’s matchup against Big 12-favorite UCF, who gashed the Sam Houston State defense for 384 yards on the ground in a 45-14 loss for SHSU. 

Hawai’i left on Thursday from the islands with a Hawaiian Airlines chartered flight as a part of a partnership between the airline and program new this year. The Rainbow Warriors crossed over five time zones to get to Texas, arriving early to get bodies and minds acclimated in plenty of time for Saturday’s game.  

Sam Houston State has shown an ability to get started quickly in games and the offense has seen explosive plays throughout both performances so far, completing 60-plus yard touchdowns in each of the first two contests. For the Rainbow Warriors, it was vital to arrive early so that the team could be best prepared for a Bearkats team that is itching to electrify an expected sell-out crowd of over 14,000 fans from the jump. 

That Bearkats offense is led by redshirt junior QB Hunter Watson, a transfer from 2023 NJCAA national champion Iowa Western CC, and longtime Bearkat receivers Ife Adeyi and Noah Smith. Watson won C-USA Offensive Player of the Week honors after passing for 229 yards and running for 57 more, adding a pair of TDs in the Week 1 victory over Rice. 

The dual-threat QB did not enjoy as steady of a Week 2 against UCF in limited action but will be looking to get back on track much like Hawai’i signal caller Brayden Schager this weekend. UH has struggled with containing running quarterbacks in the past and saw Delaware State QB Marqui Adams find some success in Week 0, so it will be vital for the Rainbow Warriors to keep Watson in a box. 

Both redshirt seniors, Ife Adeyi and Noah Smith are two of the seven players remaining from Sam Houston’s 2021 FCS National Championship winning roster. Adeyi is in his sixth year with the program, returning after suffering a season-ending injury three games into last year to try and help make a bowl before ending his time in Huntsville. The 5-foot-10 speedster has been used in multiple ways on offense for the Bearkats and has at least one reception in 41 of his 43 career appearances. 

Smith, one of the Bearkats’ two permanent team captains, is the only returning all-conference wide receiver in the entire C-USA. A versatile chess piece for head coach K.C. Keeler, Smith has lined up at WR, RB and even QB in his Sam Houston career. The 5-foot-11 playmaker completed a 64-yard touchdown pass against UCF and is 80 rushing yards away from becoming the third Bearkat to ever record 1,000 rushing and receiving yards in a career. 

The Sam Houston defense, led by the youngest defensive coordinator in the entire FBS in 30-year-old Skyler Cassity, dominated against Rice with a powerful pass rush that produced 10 pressures, seven quarterback hits and two sacks while the back of the defense chipped in with a pair of interceptions. While the pass rush continued to produce against UCF (nine pressures, three sacks), the Bearkats doubled their missed tackles to 12 and saw the Knights run wild for nearly 400 yards in the loss. 

One of the Bearkat standouts on that side of the ball to begin has been redshirt junior Chris Murray, who had Sam Houston State coaches raving from an offseason jump. A 2023 transfer from TCU, the defensive lineman has been a disruptor in the trenches and showed his progression when he had a strip sack last week against UCF. The play helped extend the SHSU defense’s streak to eight consecutive games of forcing a turnover. 

In the middle for the Bearkats is the other permanent team captain, Kavian Gaither, who wears the green dot and communicates the calls from the coaches to the rest of the defense for SHSU. He had eight tackles against UCF and had the second-most tackles among all Bearkat defenders in 2023. 

Likely to be seeing some time across from Hawai’i standout Pofele Ashlock will be defensive back Da’Veawn Armstead, who transferred from TCU to Sam Houston in 2023 along with Murray. He missed most of last season with an injury, but appeared in 10 games as a true freshman for the Horned Frogs and hopes to slot in as a top cover corner by using his 6-foot-1 frame and lanky wingspan to continue disrupting opposing offenses.  

Hawai’i enters the game as the road underdog as Sam Houston State is favored by four points, but the Bearkats will be looking to snap a two-year losing streak in home openers. SHSU last opened action at home with a win in 2021 against Southeast Missouri. 

While the Bearkats were in the subdivision below the Rainbow Warriors just three seasons ago, both teams now find themselves in a similar position trying to prove that they should be coveted in the next round of conference realignment sure to kick off following news of the Pac-12’s plan to rebuild and poaching of four Mountain West programs. 

Back in the scope of the 2024 season, this game could play a pivotal role in the hopes of both programs to get to a bowl game this season. Sam Houston added a new competitor to the mix in their first year of bowl eligibility and Hawai’i is hoping to take the next step as a program in Timmy Chang’s third season at the helm. 

For Hawai’i to be victorious on Saturday, it will be vital for the Rainbow Warriors to take care of the ball against a defense that has a knack for creating momentum-swinging plays and for the offense to hit a new gear to compliment a defense that has been strong to kick off the season. 

If UH can get the running game going while the defense continues the standard it has held to begin the year, Chang and company will return to the islands with their first non-conference road win in the last three years. If not, the roads to securing a berth in a bowl game get murkier for Hawai’i.