Evenin', folks. Pull up a stump. I'm Lemuel Coxwell, but everybody from here to the Trinity River calls me Lem. I'm a Walker County native and a high school history teacher, and I collect Texas folklore the way some folks collect bottle caps. My students say I can turn a fire drill into a three-part saga. They're not wrong.
A good storyteller never needs to stretch the truth. So let me tell you this week's story plain, starting with the hard chapter.
Part 1: A Long, Quiet Night at Bowers
Sam Houston lost 16-3 to Western Kentucky last Wednesday night at Bowers Stadium. We're 1-5 and 0-2 in Conference USA.
I won't dress it up. The offense struggled. AP says we gained 177 yards and managed 12 first downs. Landyn Locke went 13 of 30 for 112 yards with an interception. MJ Dowdy ran 14 times for 55 yards. Chris Reed caught three passes for 51 yards. Sam Carpenter kicked a 42-yard field goal in the second quarter for our only points. And we were flagged nine times for 100 yards, per ESPN's box score. My students would call that a pop quiz nobody studied for.
But here's the part of the story folks will skip if I don't tell it. Our defense played its heart out. Western Kentucky scored its only touchdown on its first drive, an 11-play, 65-yard march capped by a 23-yard pass. After that, the Hilltoppers had to settle for three field goals. WKU gained 276 yards and threw for just 132. Dean Ford made 12 tackles. Railyn Adams made six. Tokyo Gordon broke up a pass. The defense kept us in it for 60 minutes. That's the kind of grit Sam Houston himself would've tipped his hat to.
And this season's been a long trail. We lost 24-21 at Troy and 23-17 at home to Tulsa, both one-score games. We beat Nicholls 59-0. We lost at Texas Tech and at Liberty. Now we come home to face a team we know.
Part 2: The Aggies Come to Huntsville
Wednesday, 8 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2, New Mexico State at Sam Houston.
Let me start with respect, because that's how my granddaddy told stories. New Mexico State has a fine running back in James Jones, who has 599 yards on 92 carries. Gabe Peterson has 4.5 sacks. Nick Session has 50 tackles. And the Aggies beat us 37-10 last season in Las Cruces, per CollegeFootballData.com. I don't forget, and I don't pretend.
But now let me open the history book to this year's chapter, courtesy of AP's preview.
New Mexico State's turnover margin is minus-5, which ranks 122nd in FBS. Trey Hedden has six interceptions. In their last game, at FIU, the Aggies turned it over three times and scored three points. Their red zone defense ranks 118th, allowing scores on 92.9% of trips. And it ranks 127th in time of possession. Folks, that's a wagon train with a loose wheel, no water barrel and a map drawn upside down.
And the Aggies haven't played since Oct. 7. They had a week off to think about that FIU game. I've had weeks like that. They're long.
Meanwhile, our pass defense ranks fourth in FBS, allowing 137.8 yards a game. Fourth! Our third-down defense ranks 24th, allowing conversions just 32.1% of the time. And Locke has 11 touchdown passes this season, with Reed catching 289 yards' worth and three scores. This team has chapters left to write.
I'll be honest about our side. Our run defense ranks 129th, allowing 200.3 yards a game, so Jones is the outlaw we have to round up. Our rushing offense ranks 134th, and our scoring offense ranks 123rd. And we rank 108th in penalty yards. Those are real problems, and a history teacher doesn't erase the chalkboard before class is over.
But here's a bit of folklore for you: the Aggies have made exactly one trip to Huntsville in this series, per CollegeFootballData.com. That was 2024. We won 31-11. Home cooking agrees with us.
Tales From Two Towns
Huntsville. Huntsville is a town of 45,941 in the East Texas Piney Woods, per Wikipedia, and it's where Sam Houston lived. You know him. He led the Texas Army at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive victory of the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas, then as a U.S. senator and governor. Near the end of his life, Wikipedia notes, he opposed the Civil War, a very unpopular position in his day. Courage like that deserves a tall statue. Huntsville has two of his homes, his grave and the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. And standing on a 10-foot granite base is a 67-foot statue of him, A Tribute to Courage, by David Adickes, which Wikipedia calls the world's tallest statue of an American hero. It was dedicated to the city on Oct. 22, 1994. Big Sam turns 32 on Thursday. The game's the night before. I'd call that a birthday present.
Our town got its start around 1836, when Pleasant and Ephraim Gray opened a trading post here. Ephraim named it after his hometown, Huntsville, Alabama. Texans have always known a good name when they hear one, and we made it bigger. We've also got Huntsville State Park, a folk and cowboy music festival every April and a university that's been here since 1879. Sam Houston has played football since 1912. We won the FCS national title in the 2020-21 season, beating South Dakota State 23-21, and we claim a 1964 NAIA title, too. We've played at Bowers Stadium, named for former university president Elliott T. Bowers, since 1986. And Phil Longo, the former Wisconsin offensive coordinator, has been our head coach since December 2024.
Las Cruces. Now, Las Cruces is a perfectly nice city in the Mesilla Valley. But I'm a history teacher, so let me give you the lesson. Wikipedia says that in 1860, the leading settlement in the area wasn't Las Cruces. It was Mesilla, with more than twice as many residents. So Las Cruces started out as the little brother in its own valley. And today, Wikipedia notes, Spaceport America, which keeps offices in Las Cruces, operates about 55 miles north of town. Folks in Las Cruces built a whole facility for leaving the planet. Here in Huntsville, we built a 67-foot statue of a man who stayed.
One more history lesson. Wikipedia says New Mexico State has one of the longest droughts of any current FBS team in the AP poll. It was last ranked in 1960. I teach history, friends, but even I don't go back that far.
Lem's Lesson Plan for Wednesday
1. Round up James Jones. A 129th-ranked run defense has to tighten the lasso. 2. Make them throw. A fourth-ranked pass defense is our Alamo... no, our San Jacinto. We win this one. 3. Take the ball away. Minus-5 means the Aggies will give us chances. Catch them. 4. Clean up the flags. One hundred penalty yards is a chapter we don't reread.
Come on out to Bowers on Wednesday night, folks. Bring a lawn chair and a story. I'll bring the history.
My call: New Mexico State Aggies 24, Sam Houston Bearkats 23.