HOUSTON - It's been a challenging summer for the SFA football team. Not only are they trying to improve after several lackluster seasons, but now they're dealing with many questions surrounding their head coach.
Interim head coach Jeff Byrd has been in that role for a few weeks since Clint Conque was suspended. On Thursday, he was in Houston for Southland Conference Media Day and he explained how the team has been sticking together.
Byrd says, "There's adversity that happens in family all the time and what you have to deal with in family is, you don't push people away, you pull people closer. If they'll embrace the family attitude then the sky's the limit, we can accomplish whatever they want to accomplish."
Last year, because of injuries and recruiting issues, SFA was forced to play several true freshmen throughout the season. While that was a struggle at the time, it should help them this year as all of those experienced players are back.
And interim coach Byrd is very happy with some of the newcomers they have as well.
"We got 2 safeties, one out of Center, one out of Lufkin, that I think will do a great job, Jeremiah Davis and JaTerious Evans, I think they'll do some really good things for us. We hope to kind of let [the freshmen] grow up and we've kind of filled in some of those gaps so that we don't need them right now...but if they're ready, they gonna play."
The Southland Conference also released their preseason poll at media day. For the 4th straight year, Sam Houston State is predicted to win the conference title. As for the Jacks, they're picked to finish 6th for the 2nd straight year.
SFA will open the 2018 season on September 1 when they play at Mississippi State.