Texas State is back on the gridiron to prepare for the program’s second ever bowl game when the Bobcats face-off with the North Texas Mean Green.
With the Bobcats playing in-state for their bowl game against an in-state opponent, both the team and Head Coach G.J. Kinne are thrilled with the opportunity.
“First off we are super excited,” Kinne said. “We have another opportunity to play another football game versus a really quailty opponent with really good players and coaching staff. Some of them that we know well and [are] intertwined with throughout the last couple of years. I just have so much respect for those guys and who they are.
Senior linebacker James Neal is also excited to play with the bowl game being close to his hometown of Paris, Texas along with many of the players who call the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex home.
“My family's going to have a short [trip],” Neal said. “They get to come see you play, and I know that's the same for a lot of my other teammates. So it's always good to play your home state. You got the support and fan base in the stands and it just makes you get that fire once you play even harder”
Playing against the Mean Green, many of the players on both teams have either played with or against each on the high school, add a level of familiarity not seen in the majority of bowl games.
“You have a lot of familiars,” Neal said, “Some guys on that side of the ball know some guys over there. It feels like [North Texas] in their own backyard, but it feels like that for us too being in Texas. We know it's gonna be a good competition. Maybe we got some juco guys that you went there with that are on the same team. … so all the familiars, all that type of stuff, it just means it's gonna be good competition”
In the lead up to the bowl game, both the Bobcats and the Mean Green have been hit hard by the transfer portal with 11 players jumping in from Texas State and 16 from North Texas.
Texas State saw starters Ismail Mahdi, Kole Wilson, Dominque Ratliff, Ben Bell, Alex Harkey and Joshua Eaton enter the portal with Ratliff committing to Indiana and Eaton to Michigan State.
However, Kinne has seen the team’s depth take a hit in the portal in the lead up to the bowl game.
“We do have quite a bit out at practice [so] today was a little different and difficult because it's not just the starters,” Kinne said. “You have some of the depth pieces. A lot of your walk ons and a lot of guys that are looking maybe to get on scholarship somewhere.
“We're down quite a few bodies, so we have some coaches out there doing some scout team stuff and then we just did a little bit more good on good but that's part of it.”
Despite losing both a running back and wide receiver in the portal, senior quarterback Jordan McCloud isn’t worried about the transfers, going back to the team’s ‘Next Man Up’ mentality.
“At the end of the day, we have a lot of good players on this team,” McCloud said. “Those guys have to do what they feel like best for their future. We have to play with the guys that are here and execute at a high level.”
Kinne is also taking that same approach with all the schools having the same issues as Texas State.
“Everyone's dealing with it across the country,” Kinne said. “You just [have to] make the most of it. The way the calendar is right now and the way that everything's set up, it's just what it is. That's kind of always the way I look at it . Unless they let me change it, I just do what they tell me to do.”
Texas State plays North Texas Jan. 3 at Gerald J. Ford Stadium on the campus of SMU. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m.
