FCS Throwbacks: Flanders Runs Wild in Albuquerque, Lifts Sam Houston to Upset over New Mexico

For all that went well that day, things did not get off to a booming start for Sam Houston in its Week 4 game at New Mexico. The Lobos were the only FBS team the Bearkats would play 2011 and it didn’t take them long at all to remind Fritz’s team of the fact that they played at a different level. In fact, it only took New Mexico 14 seconds to flex their muscles. Deon Long returned the opening kickoff 98 yards to the house and in a blink, UNM took a 7-0 lead.

Certainly not where you want to find yourself when you’re already the underdog. Sam Houston was certainly a great team that year but one thing it never had to do much of was play from behind. Here it would, though. On a third and long in their opening series, Bearkats quarterback Brain Bell completed a ten yard pass to Flanders, a play that didn’t even result in a first down. That was Flanders’ first of what would be many, many touches, however, and, while it may not have been on that particular snap, the Lobos defense was about to learn exactly who #20 in orange was.

Sam Houston got itself on the board later in the first with a big pass play from Bell to Brandon Closner. The 44-yard catch-and-run tied the game. Shortly after, they would take their first lead of the day on an explosive play from Flanders. He took the handoff from Bell and sliced his way through the New Mexico defense for a 61-yard touchdown scamper. After trailing from the first offensive snap of the game, the ‘Kats suddenly found themselves on 14-7, a lead they would hold going into the second quarter.

The see-saw battle would continue until halftime and when the two teams headed to their locker rooms, the game was knotted at 21 apiece. Sam Houston was doing a little bit of everything to stay with the Lobos. The defense doing its part and pinpoint passing by Bell was helping but so too was the steady, crushing play of Flanders. 30 minutes in he had seen the ball 14 times and had racked up 133 all-purpose yards and had found the end zone twice, one on an offensive fumble recovery. The game may have been tied but it was clear that New Mexico was having a Tim Flanders problem and it was one that would only get far worse in the second half.

The Bearkats regained the lead in the third with another passing score, this one from Bell to Keith Blanton. Those two were the ones that ended the 10-play drive that ate up nearly six minutes but it was again Flanders that was killing the Lobos by a thousand papercuts. He toted the ball five more times on that march and picked up another 21 yards. There were practically no answers every time he got the ball.

Sam Houston clung to their seven-point lead heading into the final 15 minutes and what a final 15 minutes it would turn out to be. Flanders helped his team balloon their lead to two scores when he pushed his way over the goal line with three minutes elapsed in the fourth quarter. His third touchdown of the day made it 35-21 and put New Mexico on serious upset alert. But the Lobos fought back.

UNM signal caller B.R. Holbrook found receiver Michael Scarlett for a nice 16-yard score to draw the game back to within striking distance. Once again, though, Sam Houston leaned on its workhorse to pull back away. On the ensuing drive, Flanders only touched the ball twice but that was all he needed. He once more found himself behind the Lobos defense after breaking free and he darted 53 yards into the end zone. Not only did the Bearkats have their solid two-touchdown lead back but Flanders had officially went for 179 yards on the ground by this point. With that and four touchdowns, it was already a career highlight day but he wasn’t done just yet and that was good for a Sam Houston team that would end up desperately needing it.

New Mexico proceeded to score touchdowns on their next two drives and sent the game to overtime. There they pushed the Bearkats to the brink when kicker James Aho nailed a 21-yard field goal. What Sam Houston needed to do to win would not be easy but it couldn’t have been more clear; a touchdown would be the only way to get it done.

Pushing an FBS opponent to overtime was impressive in its own right and, had Bell, Flanders and company not been able to finish the deal, it still would have gone down as a gutsy performance by all that would probably be remembered fondly nonetheless by Sam Houston fans. That team was not about losing, though, and they weren’t going to have it happen just yet. The formula for success was pretty evident by this point and Fritz opted to stick with it when the chips were down.

Bell carried the ball twice to get the ‘Kats inside their own ten-yard line. From their… and fittingly so… Flanders put the bow on it. A five yard run set himself up for the game-sealing score. His 30th carry and fifth touchdown of the evening was the one that gave Sam Houston its third-ever win over an FBS team. Flanders bowled in from four yards out and the celebration ensued.

When Flanders caught up with reporters following the game he said plainly, “Most importantly we were able to win the game. We just kept having to go out there and put points on the board and we never lost faith.”

It was easier to not lose that faith when Flanders was doing what he was doing. Sure, there were a couple of big play runs in there but, for the most part, it was little by little that he broke New Mexico’s back. When the dust had settled, he ended with 30 carries for 194 yards (and did that while splitting touches with both Bell and fellow back Richard Sincere. As a team Sam Houston piled up 375 yards by way of the run. Flanders was responsible for over half of them.

For all the incredible things he and the Bearkats did that day, it’s a game that is virtually impossible to find any real film of these days unless you dive deep. Flanders’ monster day can really only be re-lived on the stat sheets and in the newspaper columns. Like so many outstanding individual efforts from more than a decade ago, it is slowly being lost. But it was very real and it did happen. That win was one of 14 Sam Houston would have in 2011. The Bearkats parlayed their big day in New Mexico into a perfect regular season, a Southland championship, the #1 seed in the FCS playoffs and their first trip to the national championship game. Ultimately they succumbed to the machine the was North Dakota State in the end, giving the Bison the first of their 10 FCS national titles. Because they lost that game to NDSU, that Sam Houston team often doesn’t get thought about all that much anymore.

Fast forward 15 years later and much has changed. Fritz moved on to guide Georgia Southern to a Sun Belt title and then take Tulane to an American title. Now he coaches Houston in the Big 12 and the Cougars have been the real deal under his leadership. Sam Houston moved on from the FCS a few years back but not before they eventually captured that elusive national championship. It was K.C. Keeler’s squad that finally got over the top in 2020, bringing the program its only Division I championship. Flanders still holds the school record for all-time rushing yards (5,664) and rushing touchdowns (66). He had a professional career that saw him bounce between the NFL and CFL from 2014 until 2021.

For one late afternoon back in the fall of 2011, though, when most of the college football world’s eyes were somewhere else, a little-known sophomore running back from Oklahoma turned in arguably his most glimmering performance and, in doing so, gave the ‘Kats a victory that helped shape their budding program.