TXST FOOTBALL
A look at past Texas State coaching poaches
With the coaching carousel in high gear, having four new openings at Arkansas, Oklahoma State, UCLA and Virginia Tech, one of the names popping up as a potential candidate has been Texas State Head Coach G.J. Kinne.
Despite being listed as one of the top coaches to take over for the Oklahoma State job by multiple outlets, Kinne’s focus has been on the Bobcats.
“It’s pretty simple, I’m just focused on [our opponents] and on Texas State,” Kinne said. “We’re ready to go, on a mission and nothing to do with the outside world. Whether it’s me, players, it doesn’t matter. Our focus is on [our opponents] and it’ll continue to be that way every week. So I’m just excited about the opportunity to go on the road to open Sun Belt play versus a really quality opponent. It’s all noise, you know what I’m saying? That’s just part of it. We’ve dealt with it every year since I’ve been here.”
If Kinne were to be hired away from Texas State for a new job, he wouldn’t be the first in Bobcat history to get poached. However, it hasn’t happened very often.
After four years as Head Coach at Texas State from 1979 through 1982, finishing with a 42-8 overall record, three conference championships and two national championships, Jim Wacker was hired to take over at TCU, leading the Horned Frogs to an 84 season in 1984 and their first bowl game appearance since 1965.
Leading Texas State to back-to-back winning seasons in 1990 and 1991, then Head Coach Dennis Franchione was hired at New Mexico, where he led the Lobos to their first bowl game since 1961 during the 1997 season. Franchione later had coaching stints at TCU, Alabama and Texas A&M before returning to Texas State in 2011.
The most recent poaching from Texas State was former Head Coach David Bailiff. In three seasons at Texas State, he led the team to their first conference championship since 1983 and a run to the FCS semifinals. Bailiff was then hired at Rice, where he led the Owls to their first 10-win season since 1949 in 2008 before winning a conference title in 2014, the first outright conference championship for Rice since 1957.
Kinne’s success at Texas State has caught the attention of many P4 programs looking to capture that same lightning in a bottle. Since taking over the Bobcat program, Kinne has led Texas State to their first win over a P4 program, their first win over UTSA, most recently handing the Roadrunners their fourth loss in the Alamodome under Head Coach Jeff Traylor, and the first ever bowl win and appearance in program history.
Despite garnering interest from other programs, Kinne remains adamant about focusing on the Bobcats, going as far as addressing the situation with the players themselves.
“It is what it is,” Kinne said. “[The players are] on Twitter, they’re on all that kind of stuff, and it’s just part of it. So you address it. I’m big on hitting it and not avoiding confrontation and noise. I talked to [the players], like a man, and it was great. No issues.”
Addressing the ongoing situation was something redshirt-freshman quarterback Brad Jackson appreciated.
“Coach Kinne is one-ofa- kind,” Jackson said. “Him being that open to us as the players, knowing that he has our back and his focus is on us. He has our 110% full effort right now. We can’t control any of the other stuff. All we can do is go out on that field, put our best foot forward and prepare like it’s the last game of the season.
“It’s the championship [game] every single week, going out there and competing. Just to play for a guy like Coach Kinne, he’s the best coach I’ve ever had. You want to go fight for a guy like that? So him being that transparent for us, it means a lot and we want to go out there and play for him.”
The Bobcats will be back home Saturday for Homecoming against Troy.
