**I have not worked on the defense yet, but here are some things to know about our first opponent, Lamar.
LAMAR CARDINALS PREVIEW
This is always the hardest preview to do, because being an FCS team it is hard to find allot of information on the expected depth charts, so I have to dig a little deeper to find information. This team lost a lot to graduation and to the portal, but did a great job of filling needs through JUCO and portal additions in the offseason. This team is loaded with Freshman, so I did not dig too deep into the freshman and RS freshman class, just upper classman and transfers. As I believe that is most of what we will see this early in the season.
Lamar is coming off an 8-5 season where they were defeated in the first round of the FCS playoffs by #13 ranked Abilene Christian 38-20. They had a wild ride in 2025 with some great wins and some tough losses. They started the season by getting demolished by a very good UNT team 51-0, but then got on a huge hot streak with some big-time wins. They defeated at the time #4 ranked FCS South Dakota 20-13, then when on the road and beat Texas Southern handily, then a nice win at home vs Central Arkansas 35-32, another home win vs Nicholls 24-17, then a road win vs East Texas A&M, home vs UTRGV, road win vs Nw State, then a tough loss to Incarnate Word 24-17 and a home win vs #19 SLU 14-12 to put them at 8-2 at one point in the season with only losses to a very good UIW team and FBS North Texas. At that point in the season the wheels kind of came off for Lamar as they lost 2 straight games regular season games but still qualified for the FCS playoffs, losing to SFA and McNeese and then culminating the season with a 38-20 loss to ACU in the playoffs.
Lamar is led by Head Coach Pete Rossomando, Rossomando has been the HC at Lamar since the 2023 season, was the interim HC at the University of Charlotte, but had other stops at New Haven and Central Connecticut as HC, but outside of that he has been an OL coach at Vandy, Rutgers, Albany amongst other universities. He has done a very good job at Lamar since landing the head job there. His overall head coaching record is 80-64 with most of that success coming at New Haven where he was 42-13, he was an impressive 2-2 at Charlotte after taking over a dismal program who was 1-7 before he took over including a win over a bowl eligible Rice team. Drew Christ is his Defensive Coordinator; he came over after being an assistant coach at Boston College and he has co-offensive coordinators in Andrew Sparano and Matt Cannata. Cannata coached alongside Rossomando in Charlotte.
Offensively this was not an overpowering team in any stretch of the imagination, but they were balanced offensively they only averaged 22.46 points per game last year averaging 143 yards per game on the ground and 165 yards through the air. They struggled on 3rd down only converting 32.37% of their chances, they turned the ball over way too many times 18 times on the season but fumbled 19 times only losing 8 of them. They also struggled to score TDs in the redzone only converting at a 60% clip.
Defensively they were much better. They only gave up 23 ppg and held teams to 141 yards peg game on the ground and 185 yards per game through the air. They caused a bunch of turnovers, so overall the defense was much ahead of the offense last season.
Special teams were good, they averaged over 40 yards per punt, and converted 14-18 FG’s last year, in the return game, they only averaged about 20 yards per return on KO’s but an impressive 12.44 yards per return on punts, more on that later.
Quarterback
This will be a competition between two guys, Junior Evan Bullock a 6’5” 223 lb. transfer from La Tech, Bullock was pretty good at Tech in 3 years, going 226-352 for 2,365 yards and 14 touchdowns. He was named to the 2024 All Freshman CUSA team. His main competition will be Junior Aiden McCown, 6’2” 205 son of former NFL QB Josh McCown who had 7 starts last year for Lamar and completed 112-194 for 1,436 yards and 10 touchdowns. This will be a heated competition between these two guys. I give the edge to Bullock, but would not be surprised to see both on the field vs us, specifically if one struggles out of the gate.
RUNNING BACKS
This should be a Running Back by committee situation; they have what they believe is a 3-headed monster at RB. In the mix will be Parker Jennings 5’11 212 running back who has played for both Houston and ECU in the past. He was named to the 2025 Doak Walker watch list and rushed 75 times for 256 yards at ECU. He is a pretty good back as he was a 4-Star out of HS and listed as the 35th best running back in the country that year. JoJo Uga a 6’0 200 lb Running back transfer from the University of Albany who led Albany in rushing the last 2 seasons will also be in the mix and finally it will be LaDamian McDowell a 5’7” 176 scat back Sophomore who was an FCS Freshman All American last year and 2nd team as a kick returner, more of a 3rd down back for them and special teams player, but will see some time on the field as a RB.
WIDE RECIEVER/TIGHT END
Here are the 5 guys, I would assume will be in the mix at WR. Devan Williams a 6’1” 188 lb. WR from Temple Texas who is a Senior, who transferred in from Houston. At Houston he played in 12 games and caught 11 passes for 127 yards and 1 TD. He also played at Tulsa before that. Jaydn Girard 6’0 190 lb Senior transfer from Wake Forest, Girard, played for Lamar last season hauling in 19 passes for 194 yards and 2 TDs. He played in 9 games at WFU in two seasons there. Joshua Thompson a 5’10 167 lb Junior who spent 3 seasons at Georgia Southern and last season with UTEP before transferring to Lamar. Malachi Casey a 6’1” 212 Junior who transferred from Sierra College, originally from Anchorage Alaska, He started 21 games for Sierra in 2 years where he had 73 catches for 1076 yards and 9 TD’s there, one to watch. Finally, at WR is Blake Thomas, a 5’11 192 lb Sophomore who as a freshman hauled in 15 catches for 289 yards, he also carried the ball 5 times for 78 yards. He was a QB in HS, so watch out. Finally at TE is Davin Driskell, a big 6’5 240 lb Senior transfer who spent 3 seasons at Charleston Southern, he was a first team all MEC TE at Fairmont before going to CSU.
OFFENSIVE LINE
They are big and experienced on the OL either at Lamar or though the portal, the top 8 guys who I would expect to play vs us are the following:**
- Anfrenee Krease 6’5 327 lb. transfer from Texas State, has played at UT-Permian Basin, Navarro College, Kentucky and Texas State. He was part of Texas State OL rotation last year.
- Treaden Henry 6’4 317 lbs. transfer who played both at Marshall and Concord.
- Alex Haralson 6’5 306 lbs. Junior who saw action in 10 games at Lamar last year
- Brandon Stuckey 6’2 312 transfer from the University of Indianapolis, was a. starter there for 3 years, who started 25 games in his career
- John Hester a 6’4 327 Senior who played in all 13 games for Lamar in his Junior campaign.
- Kade Verden 6’2 296 lb Senior who filled in late in the season as a backup and started 4 games late in the year.
- Endrei Sauls 6’0 338 lb. Sophomore from Temple Tx. He played in 11 games last season as a backup at LG.
- Zach Curtis a 6’4” 296 lb Junior who was in the rotation for 7 games last year with Lamar.
SPECIAL TEAMS
PUNTER
Mason Stallons will be their punter this year same as last year. Had 54 punts for 40.3 yard average last season. He had 5 punts over 50 yards and 16 downed inside the 20, with only 2 touchbacks.
KICKER
Declan Mullins, they have to replace their placekicker from last year, but I think it will be freshman Declan Mullins that carries the load. He was a 5 star out of HS and should be expected to do the heavy lifting.
KICK RETURNER
This will be Ladamian McDowell handling the job. He had 22 returns for 23.18 yards last season with a long of 53, he is explosive and fast.
PUNT RETURNER
TBD.
Defense breakdown to follow.