After losing to Louisiana at home last Saturday, 44-34, in a game that saw a combined seven turnovers by both sides, Texas State head coach Jake Spavital’s message to the team has been to eliminate mistakes.
The Bobcats actually won the turnover battle, forcing four and committing three, but the maroon and gold’s mistakes proved the most costly as all three led to Ragin’ Cajuns touchdowns.
“We’ve kind of been our own worst enemy this entire year,” Spavital said. “Everything that we’ve done is really self-inflicted. You talk about all these moral victories, we’re just frustrated with moral victories. Like, I tell you guys every week they play hard, and they do and you guys see that. It’s kind of common sense that they’re just playing extremely hard and competitive. But we’ve got to be more consistent and clean up the football part of it.”
All three of Texas State’s turnovers were interceptions thrown by redshirt sophomore quarterback Brady McBride. Spavital said that, while the team was dealing with protection issues throughout the game, McBride has to mature a bit and be less reckless with the ball.
As a result, Spavital chose to re-open the competition for the starting quarterback spot this week, with both McBride and junior Tyler Vitt taking reps with the first unit in practice.
“I’ve coached a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL. You know, I’ve coached 10 guys that have been in the NFL. And they all have had these moments, especially in their rookie years,” Spavital said. “I was talking with (Arizona Cardinals head coach) Kliff Kingsbury, he threw 17 picks in his first year. And that’s the thing that you’ve gotta learn from and you gotta keep getting better.”
Spavital later compared McBride to the quarterback of the Bobcats’ opponent this week, Appalachian State senior and 2020 Sun Belt Offensive Preseason Player of the Year Zac Thomas. Through five games this season, Spavital’s noticed Thomas makes a third and sometimes fourth read down the field before attempting to escape the pocket, which has helped the Mountaineers become the No. 1 offense in the league averaging 482.4 yards per game.
But early in his career, Thomas was likely to tuck it and run much sooner, similar to how McBride reacts now.
“You just see that he's matured every single year and he's playing at an extremely high level and he understands the playcalling,” Spavital said. “Like, I don't know the kid personally but you look at just how he handles the game and manages it, he's gotta have a really good relationship with that coordinator and have a very good understanding on what needs to be done to move the football.”
The App State defense remains a force in the conference, allowing the fewest points per game at 17.6. Spavital considers the unit one of the best the Bobcats will see all season.
“I think they’re very disruptive, they’re fast and I think they’re fearless,” Spavital said. “Like, there is no backing down when it comes to the point of contact. Like, you’re gonna see these guys try to run through people.”
The game won’t be easy no matter who lines up behind center as the maroon and gold’s depth chart continues to dwindle. Spavital said that while he would “never say never,” it’s unlikely redshirt sophomore tight end Jackson Lanam and redshirt senior linebacker Gavin Graham will not return this year after exiting last week’s game early with injuries. The head coach has tried to instill a “next man up” mentality within his program, but said the team is literally running out of men to call up.
But whoever Spavital names as the starter, he’ll expect more consistency and less mistakes from the team as a whole.
“I'm telling you, like, we've got everything,” Spavital said. “We've got the pieces in place on how they're playing and the energy and the motion and the competitiveness of it all, but we've got to be a smarter football team and the consistency's got to be better.”
Texas State (1-8, 1-3 Sun Belt) will host the Mountaineers (4-1, 2-0) inside Bobcat Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+.
