The helmets are the same. Everything else, not so much.

The Sam Houston State team McNeese State faces on Saturday doesn’t look much like the Bearkats of recent vintage thanks to graduating a senior class that was instrumental in leading the program to three consecutive playoff appearances and back-to-back Football Championship Subdivision title games in 2011 and ’12.

Also missing is head coach Willie Fritz, who was hired by Georgia Southern for the program’s first year in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

In his place is former Delaware coach K.C. Keeler, who led the Fightin’ Blue Hens to the FCS title in 2003 and is assuredly the only coach in Southland Conference history to be named “Delawarean of the Year” by a major publication.

Keeler has replaced Fritz’s read option-heavy rushing attack with a spread offense, just as he replaced Delaware’s famed wing-T when he took over that program.

Predictably, the combination of a new coach, new offense, inexperienced starters and a slew of transfer players have led to inconsistency marked by the occasional flash of brilliance.

The Bearkats (2-3, 1-0 SLC) opened the year at No. 2 Eastern Washington and trailed by a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter before the Eagles pulled away for a 56-35 win. They looked hopelessly lost in a 56-0 loss at LSU and a 47-21 loss to Division II No. 2 Colorado State-Pueblo before bouncing back with a 42-10 thumping of Lamar to open conference play.

“It would have been a lot better for us to schedule a bit softer earlier,” Keeler said. “It probably didn’t work to our advantage because we have talent, but we’re still working through the process. Most of our better players missed spring practice because of injury. We brought in bunch of new guys. We’ve been in transition.

“We were pleased at Eastern Washington that we showed athletically we could play with anybody at this level. We had to go back to the drawing board after LSU and Colorado State-Pueblo. We’re starting to understand now what our kids do best.”

Because the Eastern Washington game was scheduled for TV a week before anyone else in college football kicked off, the Bearkats have had two byes in the past three weeks. The schedule that bit the Bearkats earlier in the year may now start to benefit them.

“It’d have been really tough if we didn’t have the two byes,” Keeler said. “(McNeese) is a really good football team and our schedule worked out well, because had we had to play them earlier we wouldn’t have had a chance.”

The Bearkats’ new offensive scheme and tricky schedule have made them difficult to read from a McNeese perspective.

“They’ve been a little inconsistent, but really good as of late,” McNeese coach Matt Viator said of the Bearkats. “Offensively they’re trying to bring in the new schemes Coach Keeler has brought in, and it’s probably a work in progress, like ours has been. I think it’s refreshing (to see a new coach), to be honest. Besides being in Huntsville and it’s Sam Houston, it’s almost like (scouting) a nonconference game.”

Some things aren’t too hard to figure out, though. Running back Keshawn Hill, who earned significant playing time when Tim Flanders was injured last season, has taken over as Sam Houston’s featured back. He leads the team in rushing and is second in receiving with 14 catches for 202 yards.

Quarterback Jared Johnson is a dual threat, averaging 216 passing yards and 37 rushing yards per game. Johnson has gained the most yards from scrimmage of any Bearkat runner, but his net average is one-third of that due to 24 sacks.

For all that has changed offensively, the Bearkats remain exceedingly familiar on defense, where former McNeese defensive coordinator Mike Collins is in his second year running the unit since leaving Lake Charles.(Rick Hickman/American Press)