Colton’s Corner: Bobcats unable to break losing skid, in danger of missing bowl

OP/ED

Sometimes when a team hits a losing streak, you throw everything at the wall to see if you can create a spark or shift the momentum.

This week it was Texas State President Kelly Damphousse floating a football down the San Marcos River then placing it below the iconic Victory Star that sits on top of the J.C. Kellam Building in order to break the ‘Curse of the River Coach,’ a fun story invented by Twitter account @thefsix that was put together and spit out by Chat GPT.

But apparently the Mermaid River Goddesses did not appreciate a made-up curse invented by Chat GPT because what happened on Tuesday night was anything but snapping the Bobcats’ three-game losing streak.

Simply put, the Bobcats were embarrassed on national television as Texas State was pelted by the James Madison Dukes 52-20.

The story of the Bobcats’ season this year continues to be the stark contrast between the offense and the defense despite returning the same number of starters.

Losing their lead passer, rusher and receiver from last season, the Texas State offense has picked up where they left off, becoming one of the better offenses in the Sun Belt averaging 34.1 points per game.

Quarterback Brad Jackson has emerged as the next Bobcat superstar, passing for 2,016 yards and 10 touchdowns while rushing for 427 yards and nine touchdowns despite being a redshirt freshman.

Jackson arguably had one of his down performances of the year, throwing three interceptions against the James Madison defense, considered to be the best in the conference.

But despite the issues the Bobcats had on offense against the Dukes, they were pale in comparison to the Bobcat defense.

Texas State has given up the third-highest amount of points scored at 271, an average of 33.8 points per game. Against James Madison, the Dukes churned up over 500 yards of total offense, highlighted by a 75-yard touchdown pass from Alonza Barnett to Nick DeGennaro on the second play of the second half. When asked about if he was going to make defensive personnel changes at this moment, Head Coach G.J. Kinne said no, but acknowledged the need to continue putting his players in better positions to succeed defensively.

“I do know we got really good players over there,” Kinne said. “So we got to do something better as coaches to put them in better situations. We have changed some things up as the season’s gone. Tonight, JMU kind of exposed that a little bit with some of the new things that we were doing. They exposed us a little bit as a good coaching staff over there.

“Not making any wholesale changes right now. We’ll get in there and watch the film. We have the players to go out there and finish the right way. As coaches, myself included, we have to put these guys in better situations. So I’ll do a deep dive and all that this week and continue to evaluate things, but no changes right now.”

Now the Bobcats are in extreme danger of not only being unable to match the regular season win total of the past two seasons but also missing a bowl game with just four games remaining on the schedule.

The road won’t be easier either as the Bobcats travel to both Louisiana and Southern Miss with Texas State winless against the Cajuns, being 0-11 all-time, before hosting one of the Sun Belt West Division leaders in Southern Miss.

Texas State closes out the season against Louisiana Monroe and South Alabama, neither of which are gimmes.

Whether it happens now or after the season, serious changes must be made for the Bobcats before Texas State makes their debut season in the Pac-12.

Compared with their future conference bunkmates, the Bobcats have the second highest scoring offense in the newly configured Pac-12 behind Boise State but give up the most points on defense.

There is still time for the Bobcats to make a short turnaround with four games left in the season. But that time is running out and no progress has been shown so far, especially on the defensive side of the ball, that Texas State can rebound from this freefall.

Everything is on the line for the Bobcats in their final season in the Sun Belt and they must try to scrape something out of nothing in order to garner a little momentum heading into a new era of Texas State Athletics.