The Sam Houston State football team signed 16 high school athletes for the 2002 season.Bearkat coach Ron Randleman said the Kats had a big need for defensive backs and the issue was addressed by signing five players at that position.”We had to strengthen our defensive secondary,” Randleman said. “We needed defensive backs and we were able to find some, and that’s a hard position to recruit. We got four corners and one safety, so we did good in that area.”Another position SHSU was looking to fill a spot in was the quarterback position. SHSU has had success in the past few years with Division I transfers, but Randleman said it is always nice to get a quarterback straight out of high school.Adam Karas from Spring High School should create more competition at the quarterback position next season.”We’ve got to have a young guy that’s not afraid to compete if you bring a transfer in,” Randleman said. “Or we have to have a young guy that can play another place if quarterback isn’t where he ends up playing. You’ve got to have an athlete at that position, and I think that Karas certainly is. He’s a confident young man, he’s played wide receiver, he’s got good speed and I think he could play a number of positions, but I think he has the personality to be a good quarterback.”Of the 16 recruits signed by the Kats, eight are from the defensive side of the ball and eight are offensive players. Here is the complete list of the newest Bearkats. “Our staff has worked awfully hard” Randleman said. “We only visited 33 guys, so we converted a high percentage of the guys we offered. We lost some guys to some awfully good schools. We went head to head with some big schools, and we won a few of those, but you lose more of those than you win. You don’t have to win too many of them to make yourself happy.”We targeted what we needed and how many we wanted to sign, and we stayed real close to our target figures, and I’m very pleased with the position we’re in right now.”
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