SFA head coach Colby Carthel didn’t shy away from the solemness inside the Lumberjacks locker room following the 28-20 Week 2 loss at Abilene Christian.

The Jacks built that game up as a playoff game and when it didn’t go their way, Carthel addressed what he described as a “very hurt locker room” in the only way he knows how — with honesty. 

“I told them point-blank that this is what it feels like to lose in the playoffs. I went around the room and pointed to each senior – your career is over, your career is over,” Carthel said. “But the thing about it, when you lose a playoff game like this, it is final. That’s not the case with this loss. We have a chance to use this feeling and use it for good.”

The leadership among the squad took it to heart and Carthel noticed a renewed sense of focus and intention after the loss, which dropped the team to 0-2 thanks to the Week 1 loss to the University of Houston. Carthel & Co. never panicked. The Jacks are a veteran team that went through the heartbreak of a 7-5 season in 2024 that included four losses by seven points or fewer.

“It was gut-wrenching because I felt like we had as good of a team last year and we just didn’t finish those games. Those players looked around the locker room and they decided to return and finish. We had a lot of players who could’ve left and made a lot of money, but they didn’t. That’s why this year has been so rewarding.”  

The pain from 2024 was much worse than what SFA felt after 2-0 start. Like Carthel said, the loss at ACU in September wasn’t a death knell for the Lumberjacks. It became a catalyst. One that started a 10-game winning streak that eventually earned them a Southland Conference championship, a 7-seed in the FCS Playoffs, and a bye into the second round. 

The 2025 season was a culmination of a rebirth for Carthel at SFA. He says it feels like he’s had to build SFA twice in his six-year tenure in Nacogdoches. He took over in 2019 and the program was immediately sanctioned by the NCAA for the previous staff’s academic transgressions. SFA’s upperclassmen were suspended, scholarships were cut, and the Jacks were banned from the postseason. 

The punishments occurred so late that Carthel and his staff had to pull upperclassmen off the bus about to leave for Waco to face Baylor in the 2019 opener. SFA won three games that year, “three miracles,” as Carthel puts it. The 2020 season brought about new challenges with COVID-19. The Lumberjacks were the only FCS team to play a full season in the fall, ending the year at 6-4 with a handful of games against FBS opponents. 

The first build for Carthel at SFA culminated with an 8-3 regular season in 2021 and the Jacks’ first trip to the playoffs since 2014. They lost in overtime to Cam Ward and Incarnate Word in the first round of the playoffs. 

The second rebuild for Carthel came after that 2021 season when the whole defensive staff left and took seven all-conference players with them. Carthel, and old soul and the son of a hard-nosed football coach – admits to not evolving with the times and resisting the new changes in college football, namely the transfer portal. SFA muscled their way to a 6-5 season in 2022 that ended in a WAC championship but the reluctance to change caught up with the program in a 3-8 2023 campaign. 

“You win three games and it’ll force you to do some soul-searching,” Carthel admitted. “You better change or you’ll be unemployed and back to farming. They were going to send me back to Friona if I didn’t adapt.” 

The Lumberjacks added some key pieces and concentrated on retention. That paid off after 2024 when the core group of leaders returned despite offers to make more money in the portal. SFA has 20 players on the roster who graduated and decided to stick around and finish the job. The decision resulted in a 10-win season and an opportunity to win the first playoff game since 2009.

To do that, SFA must knock off ACU in the rematch. This time in East Texas. Homefield advantage won’t be enough to change the result from the September game. Carthel says his Lumberjacks must limit big plays on defense and avoid turnovers on offense, like the two strip sacks that cost them in the first matchup with the Wildcats. 

“We can’t have those disastrous plays to get us off track,” he said. “We also need to finish drives. We got down into the red zone a couple of times last time and came away with zero points.” 

Even with a perfect game, SFA knows what it is up against. 

“I felt a whole lot better about this game before I went and watched them play again,” Carthel joked. “They’ve gotten so much better (since the first meeting). Coach Patterson and that staff does a great job and it is almost intimidating to go up against them.” 

His Jacks can’t spend too much time worrying about the opponent, however. SFA must worry about SFA to emerge victorious.

“We have a lot to do to improve on that showing, but it’ll ultimately come down to us playing our brand of football. They’re going to make some big plays because they’re a good football team, but so do we.”