Athlon Sports grades coaching hire of Phil Longo at Sam Houston

The Sam Houston Bearkats are heading for their third season in FBS. They’ll be doing so with a new coach in Phil Longo, who brings with him plenty of experience at the school.

Ahead of the 2025 season, Athlon Sports gave out grades to all of the new coaching hires. That included Longo, who was given a “C+” grade.

“This tenure marks a return to Sam Houston for Longo,” Athlon wrote. “Who has produced solid offenses for the bulk of his coaching career.”

CLICK HERE to buy Athlon’s 2025 magazine online

Phil Longo previously was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Sam Houston. He held that role from 2014 through 2016 when the program was playing at the FCS level. That was during the early part of previous head coach K.C. Keeler’s tenure with the program.

Longo was able to parlay that job with Ole Miss as the offensive coordinator. From there, he’d bounce to North Carolina and Wisconsin. Consistently, along the way, his Air Raid offenses have produced well. However, things ended after a difficult situation emerged in the 2024 season. Starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke was lost for the season due to injury and the Badgers struggled to adjust. They’d finish 108th in scoring offense with 22.6 points per game and 99th in total offense with 350.3 yards per game.

Both of those marks were down from his first season in 2023 with Wisconsin. They were also a major step back from his final season with North Carolina in 2022. There, he had the Tar Heels 26th in scoring offense, averaging 34.4 points per game, and 19th in total offense, averaging 462.8 yards per game.

One thing that Phil Longo does bring with him to Sam Houston, besides some familiarity with the program, is head coaching experience. He became the head coach at La Salle. An FCS program, in two seasons he led the Explorers to a 7-14 record. That was from 2004-05.

At Sam Houston, Longo inherits a team coming off a 10-3 season and a bowl win. That was in just their second FBS season and their 11th season under Keeler. He’d leave following the end of the regular season to become the head coach at Temple.

The Transfer Portal hit Sam Houston hard in the offseason. Better than 30 players left with the coaching change. Add in the outgoing senior class and the Bearkats are going to have a completely new looking team for Longo to coach come the start of the 2025 season.