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Texas State is looking to improve on its 19.8 points per game mark from last season, ranked in the bottom 10 of the NCAA. The team is hoping its newest recruit will be able to help.
The Austin-American Statesman reported Tuesday the addition of senior kicker Joshua Rowland to the Bobcat roster. Rowland will be a graduate transfer and eligible to play immediately in the 2019 season.
Rowland originates from Madison, Mississippi and began his collegiate career at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (MGCCC) in 2015. The kicker spent two seasons with the Bulldogs, connecting on 25 of 31 field goal attempts during the two years combined, the longest coming from 44 yards out.
The University of Texas at Austin brought Rowland in as the No. 19 highest-scoring kicker in the NJCAA with 59 points in 2016. Rowland played in every game for the Longhorns during the 2017 season, kicking off 69 times for 34 touchbacks and making 11 of 18 field goals. He lost the starting job last season to freshman Cameron Dicker, though, appearing just one time in 2018 to boot an onside kick against Oklahoma State on Oct. 27. Rowland received a redshirt for the year.
The senior now joins a team that ranked as one of the worst kicking units in the NCAA in 2018. Texas State was second-to-last in the country with a 42.9 field goal percentage and third-to-last with an 87.1 extra point percentage. The Bobcats made just six of their 14 field goal tries and only attempted one in the final three games of the season. Rowland is the 15th recruit of head coach Jake Spavital’s 2019 class.
Texas State confirmed that redshirt freshman kicker Chris Kessler is no longer on the team. Kessler played in four games for the Bobcats in 2018, making all three of the team’s final extra point attempts.
With Kessler gone, Rowland will compete with sophomore Foster Hillborn, the only other kicker listed on the roster, for the starting spot this fall. Hillborn made four of six field goals for Texas State in 2017, but sat out last season as a redshirt.
The Bobcats will kickoff the 2019 season at Texas A&M on Aug. 29, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in College Station.
