Skip to main content
texas logo

2025 Opponent Offseason Storylines: Phil Longo has a lot of issues to deal with at Sam Houston

Joe Cookby:Joe Cook•05/03/25•

josephcook89

Phil Longo
Mark Hoffman | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Congratulations, Phil Longo. You are the only first-time FBS head coach on the Texas Longhorns’ 2025 schedule. You’ll receive a warm welcome in Austin via the Texas Cowboys and the Silver Spurs when your Sam Houston Bearkats head to the 40 Acres, but that’s probably about it. September 20 won’t be kind to you, and it’ll exasperate a lot of the issues you’re facing as a head coach in year one of your tenure.

[Sign up for Inside Texas TODAY and get the BEST Longhorns scoop!]

You lost at least 30 players to the portal when KC Keeler left for Temple after going 10-3 in the Bearkats’ second season in FBS. Most of them didn’t follow Keeler, who won the 2021 FCS national championship in Huntsville, to Philadelphia. Instead, a large quantity left for North Texas. Those moves can be seen as trade-ups for the players considering the Mean Green’s place in the American Athletic Conference. Still, a 30 person exodus is tough, especially when On3 data indicates only 14 were brought in. Does your roster have enough to compete this year?

You’re a first time FBS head coach! All other variables aside, you will learn about things you never knew you had to worry about now that you’re in control of a program. Even though you have FCS head coaching experience at La Salle, things are a lot different in FBS football these days. Plus, La Salle doesn’t even have football anymore! Are you prepared for the challenge?

You start the season with a conference game at Western Kentucky in week zero, host UNLV in week one, then venture to Hawaii to play the Rainbow Warriors in week two. Luckily, week three is your first bye, but the Longhorns await you in week four. But there’s not much to be gained from that week one home game as you aren’t even really playing at home. SHSU, to your benefit, is renovating Bowers Stadium to look like something closer to an FBS stadium. But because of those renovations, your team is playing in Shell Energy Stadium in Downtown Houston. While the seats may be your color orange thanks to the Houston Dynamo, your home turf is still at least an hour from campus. Downtown may be closer to SHSU alumni, but that’s of little benefit to your players. It’s a complication you’ll have to deal with in year one. How do you handle it?

You do have quarterbacks, but how good are they in your offense? Hunter Watson returns, but he had a 12:8 touchdown to interception ratio and was also asked to rush for 647 yards. Can he adapt to your Air Raid principles? Or will you look to Mabry Mettauer, a player you recruited to and coached at Wisconsin? He attempted only one pass as the third-stringer in an offense that Luke Fickell viewed as bad enough to result in your dismissal. Do you know something we don’t? Or is this a justified yet obvious case of going with what you know? Can you adapt to what was left?

Eighteen of the 30 listed transfers out according to On3 played defense. That defense was No. 22 in scoring defense last year, and the only team that broke 40 points was a Power Five team in UCF. So… can Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay, a coach who hasn’t called defenses at the FBS level, call one successfully in 2025?

[Order THE LONGHORN ALPHABET today and teach your little ones the A to Z’s of Texas Football!]

Phil, can you figure out all these things ahead of your trip to Austin? The Longhorns will make finding the answers to these questions difficult, but it’s something you’ll have to do in order to find a level of success similar to your predecessor’s in Huntsville.

2025 Opponent Offseason Storylines

You may also like