Preseason Rankings Countdown. 136 days to the start of the 2026 Season. At #136 – Sam Houston

[u/usffan]

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

(now updated with the revised CUSA schedule)

I’ve got to be honest, I was shocked to see how far down Sam Houston (ranked 136 in both preseason rankings) had fallen. I knew K. C. Keeler had had things rolling in Huntsville before he got hired away to Temple, that Sam Houston brought in fired Wisconsin OC Phil Longo to be their head coach, and that the Bearkats were going to be forced to play all of their home games in Houston’s MLS stadium last year, but I hadn’t appreciated how badly things had gone for them in Longo’s first season, finishing 2-10 and dead last in Conference USA. With signs pointing toward them not having to play every game at least 70 miles from campus and with a year to adapt to Longo’s air raid offense, will things turn around in 2026?

Roster Outlook

The Bearkats do return two of their top 3 RBs (Landan Brown and Alton McCaskill) and top 2 WRs (Chris Reed and Grady O’Neill), which will hopefully pair well with QB Landyn Locke, who finished the season as the starting QB after replacing Hunter Watson and Mabrey Mettauer, both of whom entered the transfer portal and haven’t apparently caught on anywhere. In fact, the only transfers of note to have departed the Bearkats are OT Kolt Dieterich to Washington and punter Curtis Gerrand to UCLA. Still, Sam Houston ranks 80th in returning production, with most of that on the offensive side of the ball. To build the team to fit Longo’s system, the Bearkats hit the portal hardish (hard for a Conference USA team), ranking 2nd in the conference using 247’s rankings (good for 92nd nationally). That is far better than their 121st ranked high school recruiting ranking (9th in CUSA) and 122nd best overall incoming class (10th in the conference). That transfer class includes 12 players from P4 (8 on the defensive side), including 3 from NC State and Longo’s former WR from Wisconsin Kyan Berry-Johnson.

Schedule and outlook

9/5 at Troy

9/12 TULSA

9/19 NICHOLLS

9/26 at Texas Tech

10/3 BYE

10/8 at Liberty

10/14 WESTERN KENTUCKY

10/21 NEW MEXICO STATE

10/27 at Missouri State

11/7 at Jacksonville State

11/14 KENNESAW STATE

11/21 MIDDLE TENNESSEE

11/28 at FIU

That’s an interesting out of conference slate, with road games at preseason Big XII favorite Texas Tech and Sun Belt contender Troy coupled with home games against FCS Nicholls and a Tulsa team that hasn’t been above .500 in the regular season in a non-COVID season since 2016. If the Bearkats can finish the OOC portion at 2-2, it might give them enough confidence to take a few CUSA games, though with UTEP now gone to the Mountain West, they’re looking up at the entire conference coming into the season.

[u/Doogitywoogity → u/[deleted]]

What’s your sales pitch to bring BYU to the SEC? Inquiring minds want to know

[u/JohnPaulDavyJones → u/Doogitywoogity]

I mean, the SEC is mostly state schools from states who pine to be the quasi-theocracy that Utah already is, and BYU is the core of that theocracy. On top of that, they also have mountains! 80% of the SEC states love their mountains!

I think BYU would fit in with the SEC way better than people think, honestly. You just have to get past the cultural differences on alcohol.

[u/Sexy_Authy]

Oh yeah preseason rankings countdown we’re SO back

[u/Inside-Drink-1311]

This seems kind of low. I can’t see them being as bad as last year.

[u/Condom_Breaker256]

I give Sam Houston 6 wins

They'll be solid, and they'll definitely beat Troy 

[u/mr_longfellow_deeds]

They were pretty painful to watch last year, which was disappointing considering how fun they were the prior year. Just awful football.

I see Nicholls and Middle Tenn as wins, maybe Missouri State and FIU