The first game of the Phil Longo era of Sam Houston Bearkats football could apparently go either way. There’s a very real chance that Longo will be able to take on the Hilltoppers in Bowling Green, Kentucky and hand them a loss. Or we could see SHSU fall short. 

If you ask the math magic machines and the folks behind them, along with all of the computing and calculating of ESPN’s Football Power Index, then you’ll see just that. If you take a look around and see what the odds are for the game, then you’ll find that the Bearkats won’t have much of a shot of taking down the Hilltoppers.

As the Bearkats get set for the first game under Longo, it looks like they’re going to have their hands full with Tyson Helton and the Hilltoppers.

ESPN Analytics Matchup Predictor shows that Sam Houston State has a very real chance to take down Western Kentucky

Checking in on that Matchup Predictor and it appears that WKU is favored, but not by much. The Hilltoppers are being given a 51.6 percent chance of winning this one. Meanwhile, Sam Houston State has a 48.4 percent chance of beating the Hilltoppers. 

And it’s interesting to see how this is working out right now. 

Because Western Kentucky is, more or less, established as a program right now (as much as any team outside of the Power 4 can really look) and Tyson Helton is a very successful head coach (he’s averaging 8 wins a year with the Hilltoppers).

Meanwhile, Longo is a new head coach (though he is familiar with Huntsville, life and recruiting in East Texas, and what it takes to have success there). It’ll just be a bit challenging in this first year given how radically different the Bearkats were from what Longo has historically been able to run on offense at some of his other stops. 

I mean, it absolutely is worth wondering if Sam Houston’s roster prepared for the rate and tempo at which Longo has run offenses.