Hunter Watson was a national champion without a solidified future. 

The Celina product reached the pinnacle of JUCO football with Iowa Western CC in 2023 as a NJCAA national champion quarterback and second-team All-American after accounting for over 2,500 yards of total offense and 30 touchdowns as a redshirt sophomore. But despite those accolades and success, Watson didn’t have an offer. At least not yet. 

Sam Houston general manager Clayton Barnes was confused. He watched nearly every JUCO quarterback in the country knowing the Bearkats needed to add an older signal caller to the room leading into 2024. Watson was one of those players. The more film Barnes, head coach K.C. Keeler, and offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen watched, the more they didn’t understand how nobody else saw it. 

“(Watson) had no offers and was seemingly off the recruiting radar, so I thought maybe I was missing something,” Barnes said. “We thought he was a really good player and didn’t understand why he didn’t have more interest.” 

Sam Houston decided to investigate. Cornelsen planned a last-minute trip to the JUCO national championship game in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he watched Watson win MVP honors with over 300 yards of total offense and five touchdowns in a 61-14 victory over East Mississippi in the NJCAA Division I title game. 

“I don’t know if we have anyone who does this,” Cornelsen messaged Keeler after watching Watson throw live. The Bearkats offered Watson the next day and rushed him to Huntsville right before the dead period began to seal the deal. 

Watson wasn’t the only quarterback Sam Houston added in the offseason. The Bearkats lost starting quarterback Keegan Shoemaker after 2023 and decided they needed two transfer quarterbacks to compete with Grant Gunnell for the starting spot. Central Michigan transfer Jase Bauer was already in the fold when Watson was added to the mix, and most on the outside believed Bauer would win the starting quarterback job. 

Watson performed best in spring and the coach’s believed he possessed the most upside, but an issue with his meniscus hampered his development throughout the spring. He was limited in the first three days of camp and Keeler wasn’t sure if Watson would regain form and win the job. 

Sam Houston kept the world in the dark about the starting quarterback position until minutes before warmups began at Historic Rice Stadium. Keeler kept the same company line for weeks – it was a three-man race between Bauer, Watson, and Gunnell. But that wasn’t exactly true. And not everyone was in the dark. 

“The quarterback room was awesome,” said Keeler of how the group handled news that Watson won the job. “We’re blessed with awesome kids. It was a battle.” 

The Sam Houston offense labored in Year 1 as an FBS program. The Bearkats started 2023 with an 0-6 record and didn’t record their first win until Nov. 4, against a Kennesaw State squad that was in a transition year into FBS like Sam Houston was in 2022. Sam Houston’s first win against an FBS peer wasn’t until the following week in a road victory against La Tech – the squad’s only road victory of the season. 

Sam Houston scored a combined 10 points in three non-conference games last year. Led by Watson, the unit accounted for 34 in a 20-point win over a Rice team that entered as a two-score favorite. He threw for 229 yards on 16-of-27 passing for two touchdowns and zero interceptions. He was also second on the team in rushing with 56 yards and added a touchdown on the ground. He would’ve led the team in rushing if not for seven sacks. 

Behind the scenes, the coaching staff watched Watson and the receiving corps create big plays against a stout Bearkats defense. The world caught a glimpse of that evolution on a 67-yard touchdown strike from Watson to Qua’Vez Humphreys on the second drive of the game. It was longer than any play by Sam Houston in 2023. The offense created nine plays over 30 yards in all of 2023. The unit did that three times in Week 1. 

The returns of wide receivers Humphries and Ife Adeyi are as important as the emergence of Watson at quarterback. Adeyi caught the game-winning touchdown in the FCS national championship game in the spring of 2021. He only played four games in 2022 to preserve a redshirt for 2023 only to get injured and miss the entire season. Humphreys also missed the 2023 season with an injury. The duo combined for 8 catches for 156 yards and two touchdowns in Week 1. 

The quarterback battle and improved health at quarterback are a pair of examples to a larger point: This isn’t last year’s Sam Houston. The Bearkats are deeper and more talented at every position, according to Keeler. Some of that is because of hits in the portal and development behind the scenes. Some of it is health. Some of it is the increased scholarships and recruiting success as an FBS program. 

The Bearkats haven’t had depth since the spring of 2021. The 2021 fall season was a grind because they played over 20 games in a calendar year. The 2022 season was tough because over a dozen of the team’s best players chose to redshirt and save a year of eligibility for FBS football. Injuries decimated the roster early in 2023. 

That appears to be an old problem. The Bearkats played seven receivers and six safeties against Rice. They played eight offensive linemen and 12 defensive linemen. A ninth offensive lineman should play in Week 2 against UCF with former starting right tackle Orion Irving set to return from injury. 

“We implemented some new things on the strength and conditioning side and our depth is really a strength for us this year when it wasn’t in Year 1 (as FBS),” Keeler said. “We’ve increased the talent level of the team and knew we were underrated and under thought of leading into the season.”