Let’s get this straight - Phil Longo is not trying to use Sam Houston as a quick pit stop before bouncing back to Power Four football. 

He left Huntsville after serving as the offensive coordinator from 2014-16, but his heart never did. He’s coached for 36 years and plans to go for 50 before retiring in Texas. 

“If I coached here for 15 years and retired, I'd have had a good life,” Longo said.

That’s why he’s investing in his proverbial new home, putting the pool in, redoing the kitchen. And he believes in two to three years it’ll be a mansion - a program that’s rolling. For a while, however, it will look like a construction zone (That’s actually literal, because Sam Houston is redoing Bowers Stadium this year and playing home games in Houston).

Because of the roster uncertainty, the following insider notes will not mention specific players outside of left tackle Kolt Dieterich and linebacker CJ Johnson, who were interviewed.

We stop by all 13 FBS programs in Texas each spring on our summer magazine tour. Here are some news and notes from the stop in Huntsville.

Previous stops: Baylor | North Texas | SMU | TCU | Texas Tech | Houston | Texas State | UTEP | Texas A&M | UTSA | Rice

A New Era

• Longo has a massive stack of letters on his desk. Sam Houston has 1,411 alums of the football program. He’s called, texted or written a letter to every one of them. He believes the entire world is about relationships and wants everyone to feel involved with his program.
• On his staff: “This is one of the best staffs I’ve ever been a part of. I’m very, very proud of this staff we have here. From my general manager to my strength coach, who’s an absolute rock star, to these guys in this room - all I’ve got to do is ask and it gets done.”
• As previously mentioned, Longo was hired in the middle of the transfer window and recruited his portal class with four GAs, three graduate assistants, and one coach on staff outside of himself. He’d have recruits visit the facility and have nobody there to introduce them to outside of offensive coordinator Zack Patterson. “I have no idea how we brought some of the talent in here that we did,” Longo said.
• Longo does not have a 25-page rule book; he just has a sign in his office that says, “Character and Production.” One note he’s had from all of his college stops is that the team can be held more accountable. Whenever a player comes into his office to complain about playing time, Longo turns on their last 100 plays (practice and game reps) and has them grade themselves.
• Sam Houston’s spring practices have been ultra competitive because of all the new players. “There’s a lot of trash talking out there because it’s a lot of new guys, so you’re playing somebody you’ve never played before,” Kolt Dieterich said.

Offense

• Longo is a more balanced playcaller than his ‘Air Raid’ tag lets on. In 2014, his Sam Houston offense ran for 700 more yards than it passed for. By 2016, quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe won the Walter Payton Award (FCS version of the Heisman).
• Longo says it’s a good sign when his players ask what else they have to install or display a little boredom. That means it’s becoming instinctive. He says his offensive scheme is not overly complicated. He creates a lot of different pictures with formations, but runs the same concepts over and over.
• On the contrary, left tackle Kolt Dietrich says the offense has been far more exciting in spring ball, busting multiple long runs.  “Coach brings a completely different attitude to what we’ve had before. He runs a quick offense; we’re having fun out there.” 

Defense

• This is defensive coordinator Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay’s third stint with Phil Longo (Slippery Rock in 2011 and Ole Miss in 2018). “We’ve always said we wanted to win championships together. There’s nothing less expected than to do that here,” Aughtry-Lindsay said.
• Longo will call offensive plays and give Aughtry-Lindsay full autonomy on the defensive side. Longo said he loved working for previous Sam Houston head coach KC Keeler because Keeler let his coordinators captain their own ships. His favorite story is the one time Keeler tried to implement an offensive play. After he drew it on the whiteboard, Longo pointed out he’d drawn 12 guys on offense. Keeler threw the marker up, left the room, and didn’t come back again.
• Longo on Aughtry-Lindsay: “I’ve never seen a guy that promotes the players playing for him more. Guys want to play for him. I think that’s the biggest compliment you can give a coach.”
• Linebacker CJ Johnson echoed that sentiment: “I really appreciate him, because whether it’s football or off the field stuff, that’s a guy you can really go to and lean on no matter what the circumstance. We love that man.”
• My opinion is that Aughtry-Lindsay will have an uphill battle in 2025 unless Sam Houston strikes gold in the portal. The Bearkats went through the spring with three scholarship defensive linemen. One of them, Matthew Aribisala, entered the portal when it opened.