Jake Spavital thought his team could’ve been more competitive during Monday’s scrimmage. So, Texas State’s head coach challenged his team to be better during the next practice.
Spavital said the competitiveness was right where he wanted it to be on Wednesday.
“The offense showed signs of life,” Spavital said. “They hit some big plays. Scored some touchdowns. It looked like we were playing football and that’s all I can ask for. I told them afterward, ‘I couldn’t be more pleased at where we’re at as a team on where we were in that first practice to where we are now. We’ve taken a lot of strides.’”
Texas State wraps up spring ball with the annual Maroon & Gold Spring Game on Saturday at 6 p.m. inside Bobcat Stadium. As the Bobcats completed practices, Spavital said the defense started ahead of the offense when the spring began but now the offense is starting to catch up.
“I think the offense still has a ways to go but they’re now starting to be competitive in certain aspects of the game,” Spavital said. “That’s part to being new coaches, new schemes and the hesitation of not being familiar with what we’re trying to do. Just throughout the summer and fall camp, we’ve got plenty of time to get these guys back on the same page. Overall, I would say just how we’re starting to be pretty combative and competitive when we’re out there in practice.”
Texas State’s spring game won’t feature a score but it will pit the offense against the defense. The Bobcats will begin with kickoff returns to work through special teams. They will then begin playing with a 30-minute running clock followed by a 2-minute situation. There will be a short halftime before they go through the same rotation again in the second half.
Spavital said he wants to see someone on the offensive side of the ball emerge during Saturday’s spring game.
“You guys already probably have a pretty good feel for the product that we’re putting out there (on defense),” Spavital said. “Offensively, let’s see the guys go out there and play and someone do something and separate them from the competition that’s going on. So, I think that’s going to be the fun part and I think when you put these kids in these type of situations, where you got a lot of people in the stands, they start playing a little bit differently than the did on like a Wednesday morning. We’ve got to see who’s going to step up.”
Defensive coordinator Zac Spavital wants to see his defense play clean during Saturday’s game.
“The spring game to me is one of those deals, where it’s a little bit of a polish and it’s a little bit of a show,” Zac Spavital said. “But it’s not the grunt work through the spring … I want to see us execute. I want to see guys play hard. I want to make sure we’re playing and we’re improving and we’re not taking a step backward.”
Overall, the head coach is looking forward to seeing how his guys play in front of a crowd.
“I just want to see them fly around and have some fun,” Jake Spavital said. “You know, there should be a good atmosphere. It’s going to be great for these kids to show everybody what they’ve been working on for the past 14 practices. I just want to see a clean game. I don’t want to see pre and post-snap penalties. I just want to make it look like we know what we’re doing and just try to execute simple things and get in and play.”
