Missouri State Smothers Sam Houston 24-3 as Bearkats Move On From Phil Longo

Some losses sting for a week. This one cost a head coach a job. Sam Houston managed three points and 26 rushing yards in Springfield on Tuesday night, and by Wednesday the Bearkats had moved on from Phil Longo.

Missouri State beat Sam Houston 24-3 on Oct. 27 at Plaster Stadium in a game that belonged to the Bears' defense from the opening snap to the final fourth-down stop. Missouri State held the Bearkats to 284 total yards, sacked them five times and never let them into the end zone. The Bears improved to 3-5 and evened their Conference USA record at 2-2. Sam Houston fell to 1-7 and 0-4, losing a fifth straight game and, per KBTX, officially playing itself out of bowl eligibility for the second consecutive season.

It was the first conference meeting between the two programs and their first matchup of any kind since 2006, back when both were FCS schools, according to The Associated Press.

A defense with something to prove

Context matters here. One week earlier, Missouri State had been on the wrong end of a track meet, as Delaware buried the Bears 61-38 and ran for 232 yards in the process. Whatever was said in the film room afterward clearly landed.

Sam Houston's 26 rushing yards were the fewest the Bears have allowed all season, and the 284 total yards were the lowest by any FBS opponent against them in 2026, per the Springfield News-Leader. Five different Bears recorded a sack. The Bearkats ran it 25 times and averaged about a yard a carry. Their leading rusher, MJ Dowdy, finished with 18 yards.

Missouri State coach Casey Woods did not undersell it. "Our defense played the best game that they've played all season," Woods said, per the News-Leader.

Quarterback chaos in Bearkat country

Sam Houston walked into this one already shorthanded. Starting quarterback Landyn Locke was out with an injury, so freshman Brett Holloway got the first start of a young career. It lasted one series. DJ Bailey took over on the second possession and played the rest of the night.

Bailey was not the problem, at least not through the air. The backup completed 20 of 35 passes for 258 yards without an interception, spreading the ball to Grady O'Neill (six catches, 74 yards), Chris Reed (four for 64) and Tim Burns Jr. (three for 63). The issue was everything around it. Bailey was sacked five times and finished with minus-12 rushing yards. Sam Houston was flagged 10 times for 84 yards and went 5-of-14 on third down.

The Bearkats got one early answer. After Henry Belin IV found a wide-open Isaiah Myers for a 32-yard touchdown with 4:09 left in the first quarter, capping a nine-play, 77-yard drive, Samuel Carpenter's 33-yard field goal with 31 seconds left in the quarter made it 7-3. That was the last time Sam Houston scored.

A grinding middle

The next 30 minutes were the kind of football that does not make highlight packages. Yousef Obeid's 34-yard field goal in the second quarter put Missouri State up 10-3, and the score sat there through halftime and the entire third quarter.

Sam Houston's own defense deserves some credit for that stretch. Josh Alexander-Felton was a menace with seven tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks, Brian Bates Jr. added seven stops, and the Bearkats piled up nine tackles for loss while holding Missouri State to 313 yards. Paired with an offense that could not find the end zone, that effort still kept the game within one possession for 45 minutes.

The turning point: fourth-and-2 at the 37

Then Woods rolled the dice. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Missouri State faced fourth-and-2 at the Sam Houston 37. Instead of punting, the Bears went for it, and Belin lofted a pass to Jmariyae Robinson, who ran under it for a 37-yard touchdown. Connor Lair's block in the backfield bought Belin just enough time. It was 17-3, and against an offense that could not run the ball, a two-score lead felt like 30.

Robinson finished with seven catches for 102 yards. Belin was efficient rather than spectacular, going 12-of-18 for 184 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.

The Robinson and Myers pairing is becoming a problem for Conference USA secondaries. Myers came into the night with the best single-game receiving performance in FBS this season, 11 catches for 242 yards and two scores at Delaware, per the AP. Robinson explained the math afterward. "Defense can't double one person," Robinson said, per the News-Leader. Asked about Myers, Robinson kept it simple: "He's my yin to my yang."

The dagger and the final stand

Sam Houston's last real hope ended on special teams. Missouri State punted with about seven minutes left, Burns fumbled the return, and Martavis Blackmon recovered at the Bearkats' 18. It was the only turnover of the game, and the Bears cashed it in five plays later when Lair, a West Plains native, plunged in from 1 yard out with 3:44 remaining. Lair led all rushers with 75 yards on 19 carries.

"Tonight, I knew I had to just dial in and do my job and play to the whistle, and not after," Blackmon said.

The Bearkats did put together one last push. Bailey hit Reed for 35 yards on the final drive and got Sam Houston all the way to the Missouri State 8. The Bears broke up a fourth-down pass with 1:08 left, and Sam Houston never did reach the end zone. Sam Houston finished 0-for-2 in the red zone.

What it means

For Missouri State, the win came at exactly the right moment. The Bears are 2-2 in league play heading into a trip to FIU on Nov. 7, and Woods has been preaching about meaningful November football all season. "In eight games, we are a fighting football team. We talked a lot this week about combining effort and execution," Woods said. "We are headed into November playing meaningful games. We are on track for those goals."

The catch is where the Bears go next, and Woods was candid about that, too. "We haven't played particularly great on the road. We have to respond to that," Woods said. The loss in Newark is still fresh, and the trip to Miami will say a lot about whether Tuesday was a real turning point or a home-field blip.

For Sam Houston, the fallout was immediate. The school announced the next day that Longo had been fired. Longo was hired in December 2024 and went 3-17 with the Bearkats, per the News-Leader, and the lone win this season came against FCS Nicholls. This was also the third conference game this season in which Sam Houston scored exactly three points.

Athletic director Bobby Williams said in a statement that a change in leadership was "necessary to position Bearkat Football to compete consistently in Conference USA."

Sam Houston played New Mexico State close a week earlier before falling 30-24, but close does not count, and the offensive numbers have been brutal for most of the year. The Bearkats return to the field on Nov. 7 at Jacksonville State.

The last word

Tuesday night football in Springfield is not usually where coaching careers turn, but this one will be remembered as the night Sam Houston decided it had seen enough. Missouri State, meanwhile, found a defensive identity it had been searching for, and an offense that only needs a couple of big shots from Belin to make it hold up. Every snap is in the official box score (opens in a new tab), and Sam Houston's view of the night is in the Bearkats' recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: Sam Houston Athletics recap and box score, The Associated Press, the Springfield News-Leader, KBTX and CBS Sports. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Danny Salas/Sam Houston Athletics.