The 'Battle of the Piney Woods' commences once more this year, this time coming in Nacgodoches. This is a contest circled on the schedule by fans on both sides of the battle once their respected schedules come out. This game has important meaning for a lot of people involved from the players, many of whom grew up playing against and with each other to the SHSU head coach, Todd Whitten who is one of the most prolific passers in SFA football history. Seventh year offensive coordinator James Ferguson also has SFA ties, having served as an assistant coach in Nacogdoches from 1982 to 1988 during which time he coached Larry Centers, SFA’s all-time rushing leader, and tutored six of the top ten receivers in SFA history. Ferguson also happened to coach a three-year starter at QB from Kimball HS named Todd Whitten.

This year's battle has a great deal on the line with both teams playing with hopes of staying in the mix for the SLC championship and the league's auto-bid to the I-AA playoffs. Following this past weekend's home loss to McNeese, SHSU finds themselves at 2-1 in conference play. SFA also enters at 2-1 following a win against Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond in convincing fashion.

The Kats are going to have to have a complete offensive game to beat the rival Jacks after the unbalanced performance against the Pokes last week. The passing game was insufficient against McNeese with a six of 21 performance put together by the duo of Wade Pate and Brett Hicks for 88 yds and one interception. On the other hand, DD Terry put together 37 carries for 253 yards, both marks second in the Bearkats record books. Questions will be answered during the week regarding the starting quarterback position (Pate or Hicks) and the health of Michael Malone, who sprained his ankle and missed the McNeese game.

Defensively, Todd Whitten continually preaches avoiding the mistakes. In a rivalry game, the Kats will be ready to roll with a lot of enthusiasm and dislike for their opponent. Whitten and the coaching staff must make sure the Kats don't do anything they shouldn't be, whether it jumping offsides, ridiculous personal fouls or other costly penalties that could keep the defense on the field. look to put pressure on the QB and try to stray away from the penalties, With a running threat like Lumberjack QB Danny Southall, the Kats will want to make sure that if they flush him out of the pocket, they don't let him get too far.

SFA will bring many familiar faces to the game. Southall will come in as the starting QB for the Jacks. The Preseason All-SLC selection is completing over 50% of his passes and had his 'coming out' party against the Kats. Despite the loss, Southall completed 13-of-22 passes for a then career-high 217 yards (one of two 200+ yd passing performances on the season) at Sam Houston State in addition to throwing two TD passes. Another familiar face, junior running back Louis Runnels will be in the backfield. Kat fans will remember his performance last year as he rushed for 76 yards and scored one touchdown in Huntsville.

If the Kats don't know it already, they'll learn soon about Damian Perkins, who is in a similar situation to Kats' star RB DD Terry. After playing RB last year for the Jacks, he flip-flopped to lineback (the exact opposite of Terry). Perkins is among the Jacks leaders in tackles, has forced a safety and seems to find his way to the ball.

Last year, the Bearkats won by the largest margin of victory in series history with a 52-24 win over the Jacks. Throw out a 50+ yard field goal at the end of the game in 2003 that gave the Jacks a 34-31 win and the Kats have not lost this game since 1999. The Kats have not lost a game in Nacogdoches since 1998.
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Stephen F Austin Lumberjacks vs. Sam Houston State University Bearkats
6 pm, Saturday, November 4th
Homer Bryce Stadium · Nacogdoches, TX (Battle of the Piney Woods)

Audio:
SFA: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/teams/sst#
SHSU: http://www.live365.com/stations/ksam?site=ksam
OR http://www.tsrnsports.com/Broadcast/...am-Houston.htm

Game Release:
SFA: http://sfajacks.cstv.com/sports/m-fo...-spec-rel.html
SHSU: http://bearkats.shsu.edu/pdf/fbrelease.pdf

Team Sites:
SFA: http://sfajacks.cstv.com/sports/m-fo...otbl-body.html
SHSU: http://bearkats.shsu.edu/football

Fan Boards:
SFA: http://forums.delphiforums.com/sfalumberjacks/start
SHSU: http://www.katfans.com

Southland Conference:
Weekly Release: http://www.fansonly.com/photos/schoo...06fbweekly.pdf (available Monday PM)