Sam Houston State Falls 17-6 to North Dakota State in Division I Championship Game
HIGHLIGHTS | REPLAY
North Dakota State 17,
Sam Houston State 6
FRISCO, Texas -- An unrelenting defense limited Sam Houston State
to its lowest total offense and point total of the season ending the Bearkats'
dream season as North Dakota State posted a 17-6 victory in the NCAA Division I
National Championship Game Saturday.
The Bison and the Bearkats both ended the season with 14-1 records
but North Dakota State took home the trophy after a hard-fought battle at FC
Dallas Stadium.
Sam Houston was held to 95 yards rushing and 115 passing for a total
offense output of 220 yards. The Bearkats came into the contest averaging 421.1
yards per game offensively.
Running back Tim Flanders led the Bearkat offense with 21 carries
for 84 yards as he set a Southland Conference record for most rushing yards in
one season (1,642). He broke the former record of 1,593 yards set by Claude
Mathis of Texas State in 1997.
Sam Houston's defense kept the Bearkats in the fight for most of
the contest. Kenneth Jenkins totaled 11 tackles and intercepted a pass. Darnell
Taylor posted eight tackles and recovered a fumble.
Brandon Closner was a special teams standout with six punt returns
for 53 yards including runbacks of 23 and 24 yards.
North Dakota State scored first on a 19-yard field goal by Ryan
Jastrom with three seconds left in the first quarter. The Bison drove 67 yards
in 10 plays for the score, settling for the three points after Will Henry and
Robert Shaw stopped Sam Ojuri for no gain at the one on third and goal.
The Sam Houston defense came up with a pair of first half
turnovers as Darnell Taylor recovered a fumble and Kenneth Jenkins intercepted
a pass, but the Bearkats could not convert either opportunity into points.
Craig Alaniz tied the contest at 3-3 with a 24-yard field goal
with 2:18 remaining before intermission to complete a nine-play, 41-yard drive.
Matt Buse partially blocked a Bizon punt to set up the scoring drive. Flanders
accounted for 37 of the 41 yards on the drive.
Less than a minute later, a 24-yard punt return by Brandon Closner
set up a seven-play, 25-yard drive for a 31-yard Alaniz field goal with 40
seconds remaining in the second period.
The six points by Sam Houston in the first half marked the
Bearkats' lowest point output in the first 30 minutes of play during the 2011
season. Sam Houston scored eight points in the first half of the UTSA game.
A 27-yard run by Matt Voigtlander on a fake punt followed up by a
39-yard screen pass from Brock Jensen to D. J. McNorton put the Bison up 10-7
just two minutes and 13 seconds into the second half. The scoring drive covered
72 yards in five plays.
Travis Beck returned an interception 63 yards to set up a one-yard
touchdown dive by Jensen to put the final nail in the victory with 8:45 to play
in the fourth period.
SAM HOUSTON STATE POSTGAME QUOTES
Coach Willie Fritz, Tim Flanders, Travis Watson, Robert Shaw
THE MODERATOR: Give us your overview of the game, Willie.
COACH FRITZ: First off, just a great job by North Dakota State
University. You're around a team and coaching staff of your opponent, it's kind
of rare in football, it doesn't happen very often, but I found it a really
classy outfit.
We just want to congratulate them for winning the championship. They
really played well today, and without question, and congratulations to them.
A couple of great defenses out there playing today, without question. And
with a little momentum there at the end of the first half, got the field goal
and went into 6 3 where we really didn't play very well in the first half and
we were excited about that.
Coach Bohl, fantastic job on the fake punt. That really was a big, big
play in the ballgame, and they came back and hit the very next play, and now
it's kind of a momentum changer, and had the interception later that really put
us behind the eight ball. We're not a team that plays behind a great we haven't
played behind very often this year, just probably minutes or seconds, I
believe.
But I'm really proud of the effort that we played with. I don't think
we played great. But probably a lot of that has to do with North Dakota State. I
think those were the top two defenses in the country without question, and the
top two teams.
Proud of our guys. Proud of our season. Wish we had a different
outcome, but great job by them.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. Travis, can you just if you can, talk about just the feeling right
now coming this far, as far as you guys have.
TRAVIS WATSON: Well, obviously we would have liked a better outcome. Like
Coach said, North Dakota State did a heck of a job. Their defense really came
out and played us well, and we really struggled.
But to come this far and do what we've done with this program and turn
it around so fast, it's been great to be a part of. And no matter what, this
has been the best year I've ever had. And I'm just blessed to be part of this
team.
Q. Is this the best defense you've seen all season? And what did they
do to keep you under wraps most of the game?
TRAVIS WATSON: No doubt they're fundamentally sound. Their defensive
coordinator did a great job taking away one of our option game.
I mean, big ups to them. Just overall good defense but we knew that
coming into the game.
Q. Can you take us through the I guess you were on the field for on the
punt, on the fake, right? Can you just take us through what they did there? Obviously
it looked like that whole side was open and it's just a matter of being caught
off guard.
ROBERT SHAW: Yeah, they caught us off guard. I'm not sure what happened
because I was man to man with my player.
But I wish it would have been different outcome of that play. And I
gave North Dakota State a good job for that.
Q. Coach, going into halftime, you guys stopped them on three straight
drives. Did you feel you had a little bit of momentum going in and knowing,
feeling good about it because you guys have been so good this year in the third
quarter?
COACH FRITZ: Yeah, we really felt good about things. I told the guys we
kind of gathered up before we went into the locker room we really didn't play
our best. Going in, make some good adjustments and come out and figure out what
would be effective against them, particularly offensively.
Momentum changed a little bit. But you gotta fight back from that when
they have the big play and score the touchdown and made it 10 6.
Yeah, we were feeling good at that point in time.
Q. Coach, could you talk about the first half, you all had
opportunities and turnovers, and you realized with a game this close that
you're going to have a few chances to make a big play. Talk about those plays
and the fact that you guys weren't able to capitalize with points off those.
COACH FRITZ: Whenever you get great field position and you get a take
away, you sure as heck want to convert it into some type of points. We weren't
able to do that on a couple of occasions. And we had some short yardage
situations that we had a difficult time with as well.
And they did a really good job defending us and different personnel
groupings and understanding what we were going to do.
There was a couple times where we could have converted. We didn't have
a lot of success on third and short and fourth and short. But they did a good
job of playing the situation better than we did.
Q. Will, you hit on it a second ago. I wanted you to talk a little bit
about the third and fourth down conversions. Neither team was really successful
in that area, but seemed like it came to kind of bite you guys a little bit
more.
COACH FRITZ: We just had a tough time. We had four of 18 third down
conversions and one of four on fourth down conversions. And just didn't they
closed the door on us on quite a few occasions.
So those were been pretty good on both those situations this season,
but we weren't today.
Q. Robert, young team. No reason why you guys can't be back here next
year?
ROBERT SHAW: We're going to be back. Coach Fritz is a good coach and we
have a good coaching staff, and I have confidence we'll be back.
Q. You guys really started to move the ball down the field more
consistently towards the end of the first half from the offensive line to the
running backs. Did you guys really feel that momentum was starting to shift in
your direction going into the break?
TIM FLANDERS: Of course it was. We was moving the ball down the field. It
all started with our defense. They gave them a stop. We just had a couple of
big plays, defense out of position, offensive line did a very good job, and
that's how we make our way down the field.
Q. Coach, as good a fake punt they scored on the next play, they kind
of catch you. Was your defense kind of reeling after that having to go back on
the field right away?
COACH FRITZ: We work all the time on sudden change. It was a good play
call. They ran a little screen to the back and caught us in the zone, and
lineman came up and blocked the linebacker and then ran off the secondary. So
it was the right call at the right time. And many times people take a shot,
sudden change situations. They were patient, ran a nice screen play, so it was
a good play call.
We turned the ball over this season at times as well and had sudden
change situations where we've had to go out there and execute, and we just
didn't do it that time.
Q. Talk about their defensive front and front seven, how they're able
to contain your run game when you guys have done such a good job running the
ball all season.
TRAVIS WATSON: They had a good defensive scheme coming into the game,
something we didn't see much. The defensive linemen, they weren't coming off
the ball like we were used to. They were kind of playing back and reading, they
were able to get us out of position with their slants and twists from their
linebackers.
So they were really they really played us well and got us kind of our
rhythm, and it was tough to come back from.
Q. Coach, looking at the fourth quarter, you're in a 10 6 ballgame. You've
got possession. Realizing that it's still for the taking either way, talk us
through the play that they made the big game changing play, the interception. It
seemed like defensively all game they had guys everywhere in the secondary. Very
few holes for Brian to stick the ball in. Tell us specifically about that play.
COACH FRITZ: It was a pre snap read. The linebackers showing that
they're playing wide, and on his progression he thought that was going to be
the open target, and the guy did a good job of bluffing, probably read his eyes
and ended up throwing the ball to him.
Great job of converting. We almost had the tackle on him where it would
have been a three or four yard return. Thought Torres would be able to run him
down, but he didn't quite get him and they ended up taking it all the way to
the 1 yard line. It was a huge play.
Q. Coach, can you just talk about the previous question, the fact that
so many guys are on the team that are young? And are you looking at this as a
learning experience after what they've gone through today?
COACH FRITZ: We're going to go back and regroup and see everything
that's transpired this season. But we are a very young football team, without
question.
And got a lot of guys coming back. So, you know, it's difficult,
because you've got guys like Travis, this is their last crack at it. But the
future's very bright for the Bearkats.
Q. Coach, talk about the role that their punter played in the game and
limiting the field position throughout the majority of the game.
COACH FRITZ: Went early, without question. And very good punter. Big
punt block. Really one man rusher. Heck of a play by Michael Buse. But he's a
very good punter. And enabled us to get some pretty good returns, pretty nice
punt returns to get some good field position as well.
But they do they're a solid ball club. They're good in all three
phases. Did a really good job with their kickoff coverage. Probably the best
kickoff cover team that we've played this season.
They're really good on offense and really, really good on defense and
played really well in the kicking game.