The Paddle will remain home in San Marcos.
Though wasn’t born when the Paddle Trophy was created and wasn’t in high school at the height of the Battle for the Paddle rivalry between Texas State and Nicholls, making sure the trophy stayed in San Marcos was a blessing for senior defensive end Kalil Alexander after the Bobcats defeated the Colonels 35-3.
“It's definitely always good, just bringing hardware no matter what it is,” Alexander said. “Honestly, that's truly a blessing to bring it back and a blessing for us to be the ones who have done it.
“I definitely did my research on the rivalry a little bit, and it's kind of like a funny story behind it. So I like it a lot, and I'm glad we could bring it home to San Marcos.”
Head Coach G.J. Kinne was proud of his team for getting the win but knew the Bobcats play could be better as Texas State improves to 3-1 for the year while improving their overall record against Nicholls 17-15.
“These are the games that keep you up at night throughout the week and we were a little banged up going into it,” Kinne said. ”That's a good team that I talked about all week who beat UIW and was beating Troy up until the fourth. So we knew our work was cut out for us.
“I thought we were a little sloppy at times. You could feel that as the game goes that usually what happens in games like this. You're trying to get the guys up, you're trying to get their mind right and ready to go for a four quarter game.I thought we played really well at times, and I thought we were sloppy at times.”
One aspect of the game Kinne was to see his team improve is committing less penalties which the Bobcats committed six for 67 yards including a penalty on the opening kickoff which would have put Texas State inside the Nicholls 20-yard line.
“Obviously, a little bit disappointed [about] more penalties tonight,” Kinne said. “We've been really good in that aspect and obviously we started the game with the penalty. So that kind of set the tone for the whole game. We have a huge [kickoff] return, then you have the penalty just, and that's kind of how it was all night.”
On the opening drive for the Bobcats, Texas State drove 92 yards down the field before quarterback Brad Jackson scored on the nine-yard touchdown run to put Texas State up 7-0.
Nicholls responded with a field goal on their opening possession before the Bobcats answered back with a 44-yard drive, ending with Jackson scoring his second rushing touchdown of the night.
Senior running back Torrence Burgess Jr. tacked on another touchdown for the Bobcats scoring from four yards out in the second quarter before senior running back Lincoln Pare added another late in the quarter to put the Bobcats up 28-3.
Nicholls attempted to score late in the second quarter right before halftime, driving down to inside the 10-yard line but junior Khamari Terrell came up with the interception on third and goal to force the first turnover for the Bobcat defense.
Sophomore running back Greg Burrell tacked on the final score for the Bobcats in the third quarter on a five-yard touchdown as the Bobcats won 35-3.
Texas State rushed for over 200 yards as a team with Pare leading the way with 15 carries for 64 yards and one touchdown.
Jackson finished his night with 180 passing yards and 37 rushing yards along with two touchdowns. Freshman wide receiver Kylen Evans led the team in receiving with four catches for 88 yards.
As the Bobcats enter the bye week before their conference opener against Arkansas State, Kinne looks to have his team continuing to not only improve but also get healthier.
“We just have to continue to get better,” Kinne said. “Obviously super happy to win the game and to have the record that we have. Now we've just got to get healthy going into the bye week and we have to get better.
“It was good to see some of these young guys getting in the game and getting some reps. Hopefully we continue to build that depth because we'll need it down the stretch.”
