Southland Notebook: Football in the spring

Bearkats open practice looking to fill some holes on offense, defense

By Cody Stark

For those hardcore football fans that don’t want to wait until August for the season to come around, you’re in luck because Sam Houston State began spring practice this week at Bowers Stadium.

The Bearkats hit the field Monday and Wednesday in helmets only and will not strap on the full pads until next week. But there was plenty of action with some individual drills and some 7-on-7 competition.

Sam Houston has plenty of holes to fill on both sides of the ball after going 7-4 last season. The Kats are searching for three starters on the offensive line, a new backup quarterback and a tight end to fill in for All-American Blake Martin, who graduated.

“I think we have had a good offseason. We have had a lot of enthusiasm and I think the way we finished the season really helped us out,” SHSU head coach Todd Whitten said Wednesday. “Everybody is fired up and looking forward to putting on the pads. We have a lot of questions we need to address. We need to replace three seniors on the offensive line and we need a tight end. It’s early and it should be interesting to see how it plays out.”

Tackle John Dirk and guard Hunter Schmidt are the two returning starters on the offensive line, which had paved the way for back-to-back 1,000-yard rushers the past two seasons. Backups R.C. Fairchild, Travis Best, Nick Grimes and Aaron Saunders, along with several others, will try and earn a starting spot this spring.

Schmidt, who is a junior and has started every game the past two seasons, has also been taking some snaps at center.

“We are going to experiment with (Schmidt at center) a little bit here,” Whitten said. “Center is such a critical spot up front. The way we play, we are in the shotgun almost every snap, so it is a critical spot because he gets everybody organized.

“That’s what spring is all about, checking some things out and experimenting with personnel. I think we are going to have the chance to have a really good offensive line next year. We just have some guys that haven’t played much.”

Redshirt freshmen Jeff Welch and Taylor Weidman and sophomore Jordan Williams are trying to move into the No. 2 spot on the depth chart at quarterback behind senior Rhett Bomar.

All three should get plenty of reps this spring as Bomar continues to recover from knee surgery. They each made some nice throws in practice Wednesday, including one from Weidman to 6-6 junior college transfer Jason Madkins, a wide receiver from Mart, that went for about 40 yards.

Bomar is taking part in spring practice but he has been limited. Although he has been running, he still can’t make any lateral movements so he has only been able to throw. Bomar did connect with senior wide out Justin Wells on a couple of long passes Wednesday.

“It’s been going good so far,” said Bomar about his recovery Wednesday. “I saw my doctor last week in Dallas during spring break and he said everything was going well. They have given me a brace and cleared me to throw. I can run some, but no laterals or cutting, yet.

“It’s been four months and I can run and jog and stuff like that. I think that they can clear me in May, so I should be a full go this summer and ready for the fall.”

On defense, the Bearkats need to fill a few spots in the secondary with the loss of safeties Byran Richmond, Carlton Cobey and Josh Moore. Starting cornerbacks Stanley Garrett and Wonseleh Brewer return, but a couple of JUCO transfers will add some competition at that position over the next few weeks.

Sam Houston also got back linebackers Patrick Robinson (injury) and Shane Richburg for spring practice to help bolster the strong returning core of Luke McCall and Frank Simon. The Kats also need to find a defensive end replacement opposite of starter Chris Brown and some guys on the inside line.

“Defensively, we had a whole bunch of safeties graduate so we are a little thin there,” Whitten said. “We need some young guys to step up for us. We also signed a couple of junior college corners and we need those guys to get a hold of things. We are going to be able to evaluate these guys this spring and hopefully find some that can really help us out next season.

“But we have had good effort and good attitude, and I think everybody is ready for next week when we can put the pads on and play football.”



Kats head to Corpus

Fresh off a three-game series sweep of Central Arkansas in the Southland Conference baseball opener, Sam Houston State heads to the beach this weekend to battle Texas A&M-Corpus; Christi.

The Bearkats (12-6 overall, 3-0 in SLC) exploded for 23 runs in the three wins over the Bears this past weekend and have been red-hot at the plate this season. As a team, SHSU is batting .351 and has outscored opponents 156-125 this season.

The Kats, who average almost nine runs a game, are led offensively by All-American Bobby Verbick, who is hitting .426 and leads the team with seven home runs and 23 RBIs. Todd Sebek is batting .412 with 19 RBIs and Keith Stein is hitting .380 and has driven in 18 runs. Nick Zaleski has also started every game and is batting .342 with 17 RBIs.

Sam Houston also got some nice work on the mound from some of its young arms in the series with Central Arkansas. In game two, junior Will Skelton pitched five innings in relief and didn’t give up a run to earn the win in a 7-4 victory.

In the finale, a 6-2 win, freshman Zach Neal scattered four hits and gave up only one earned run in eight solid innings to improve to 3-0 on the season. Neal has recorded 24 strikeouts in 23 innings and has an earned run average of 3.80.

The Islanders have gotten off to a rocky start this season at 3-14 and were swept by Northwestern State in their conference-opening series. Chase Wheaton (.343) is the only Corpus player batting over .300 this season.

The Islanders have also struggled on the mound recently. The starting pitcher trio of Brian Anderson, Omar Gutierrez and Roy Ferdin recorded a combined ERA of 7.88 last weekend in three loses to the Demons.



Mavs draw No. 1-seeded Memphis in NCAA tourney

Texas-Arlington will travel to Little Rock, Ark., to face No. 1 seed Memphis in the South Regional portion of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

The Mavericks (21-11) are seeded No. 16 and are making their first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. UTA knocked off Lamar, Sam Houston State and Northwestern State to win the Southland Conference Tournament last weekend at the Merrell Center in Katy.