San Marcos — The Tim Hawkins era didn’t get off to a great start last Saturday night at Robertson Stadium.

With Hawkins needing to prove himself capable of running more than a handful of plays, he wasn’t on the mark. Hawkins completed only one of his nine passes for 12 yards and tossed two interceptions.

Hawkins, a redshirt sophomore, lent his hand in eight drives for Texas State against the University of Houston. Three possessions with Hawkins at the helm lasted all of three plays, three ended in turnovers (two interceptions and a fumbled snap) and the two others combined to net the Bobcats 45 yards.

“Honestly, I can’t even remember how Tim played,” Texas State head coach Brad Wright said after the 68-28 loss. “All I remember is a whole bunch of touchdowns being scored on offense and defense and almost special teams, just about every possible way you could possibly score.”

While Hawkins didn’t look like the starter Texas State head coach Brad Wright proclaimed him to be during media day, true freshman Tyler Arndt seized his chance and ran with it — literally.

Four of the drives Arndt captained resulted in touchdowns, including two crafty runs of his own from 14 and five yards out.

Even though Arndt did throw an ill-advised interception, he showed why he was ranked among the 32-best quarterbacks in the nation by ESPN.

“Without looking at the film, I know he made some mistakes early, but seemed like he settled in,” Wright said. “He moved us down the field a little bit.”

With Hawkins’ struggles and Arndt’s success, it might be easy for fans and pundits to annoint the true freshman the first-string quarterback. After all, Hawkins has had three seasons in which to grow in the system but not as a starter.

Yet, Wright has stayed true in his belief that he wants to see what both quarterback can do in non-conference games before entrenching either Arndt or Hawkins as the starter when the games truly matter.

“We’re going to play both quarterbacks and that’s what we’re going to do, for the time being,” Wright said. “What’s going to happen from this point on, I can’t say but that’s what we wanted to do. We gave both of them a good look and they are talented young men.”



Bush is back in a big way

After an offseason in which he recovered from season-ending knee surgery, battled legal problems, won back the coaching staff’s confidence and waited on clearance from the NCAA, senior running back Karrington Bush wanted to make a statement against Houston.

Well, Bush rushed for 73 yards on 19 carries and left no doubt in the Bobcats’ minds that he’s ready to go in 2010.

“He had some good runs out there,” Wright said. “Obviously we’re glad to have Karrington back. He’s going to be a good one for us.”

While he broke several big runs on cutbacks, Bush was unable to brandish the top-end speed he had during his freshman and sophomore years. Bush did run against a quick defense, so it will be interesting to see what he does against lesser or equal talent.