TXST FOOTBALL
“Brad was just made for Texas State and for this role. He came in from day one, had a presence about him in a leadership role and wasn’t afraid to step into that role.” Offensive Landon Keopple Despite setting a program record for most rushing touchdowns, total yards of offense, total touchdowns and being just the fifth quarterback in program history to pass for over 3,000 yards, sophomore quarterback Brad Jackson was modest when grading his performance in 2025.
“Looking at last season, I’d give myself a B-minus,” Jackson said.
”I’m that hard on myself. I think I could have done so many things differently, especially in that five-game [losing] streak. I could have done so many things differently to change the outcomes of that game and of those games.”
The face of Texas State continues to set a new standard for Bobcat quarterbacks not seen since the days of Bradley George and Barrick Nealy as Jackson enters his second season as the starting quarterback.
Though his 3,224 passing yards, 21 passing touchdowns, 744 yards rushing and 17 rushing touchdowns would be a solid season for any redshirt freshman quarterback in his first year starting, for Jackson it’s not enough.
“My standard never changes. If anything, it keeps rising year to year,” Jackson said.”It’s like, ‘Right, like, we had this year and okay, it was good statistically but it could get so much better,’ I think that’s also so exciting too. Me and Coach Keopple talked about that yesterday so it’s exciting because we can both do so many things well. It’s so promising for us because it was my first time starting and his first time calling plays at the Division One level.
“So it’s just continuing to have that standard for myself each and every day, just being the same guy and not taking anything for granted. This is a blessing from God and I got to treat it like that. Ultimately, you can keep striving forward and just continue to have that standard for yourself.”
It was also a challenge laid down by Landon Keopple, who enters his second season as offensive coordinator of Texas State.
Though Texas State finished the season with an offense that was ranked fifth in the nation in total and 12th in scoring offense, both Keopple and Jackson knew that there was plenty of meat left on the bone.
“Me and Brad have spent a lot of time, obviously, this offseason and just he’s like, ‘Coach, I want you to coach me like I’m a true freshman who doesn’t know anything’” Keopple said. “He knows what we left [out there]. You go back and watch last year, as good as we were and as good as we did, you can go watch that film and you can find a lot of plays where we left a lot of offense and a lot of points out on the field. It’s just challenging each and every one of them, whether they’re a newcomer or a guy that’s been here in the program.”
The rise of Jackson as the face of the program took root in 2024 when he emerged as the primary back to then-quarterback Jordan McCloud.
Following a lower leg injury, McCloud was limited in the Bobcats road game against ULM where Jackson took the majority of snaps.
Playing in a monsoon, Jackson led the offense down the field, rushing for 119 yards and two touchdowns in the Bobcats 38-17 win over the Warhawks.
At the beginning of his redshirt-freshman season in 2025, Jackson entered a four-way quarterback battle in spring practice, going against established quarterbacks who had P4 experience in Gevanni McCoy of Oregon State, Holden Greiner of Auburn and Nate Yarnell of Pitt.
Despite being the youngest quarterback in the room – so young he couldn’t even drink on the Square legally – Jackson emerged from spring practice as QB1.
Throughout Jackson’s journey, Keopple knew the young quarterback was going to be the future face of Texas State.
“He was ready for it when he got on campus,” Keopple said. “Brad would speak up as an early enrolling freshman and communicate what he was seeing or what he wanted to the older guys. “Some guys, they’ll kind of walk in and make sure that they’re not offending anybody or kind of feel it out. But Brad was just made for Texas State and for this role. He came in from day one, had a presence about him in a leadership role and wasn’t afraid to step into that role.”
Now ahead of the Bobcats inaugural season in the new Pac-12 Conference, Jackson went over what he wants to get out of spring practice, including being more of the vocal leader of the team.
“I was able to sit down with Coach Keopple yesterday and talk about the expectations of spring ball,” Jackson said.
”I’m the field general out there. I’m directing traffic, getting those guys going, and then really just keeping the energy for those guys. So being that same dude every single day.”
In addition to improving his leadership skills, Jackson is also focused on staying in the pocket and not breaking to run early to let the play develop.
“Specifically for me just the pocket presence of being able to go through my reads, being comfortable in there, not having to scramble out and get too shaky in the pocket,” Jackson said. “Then all of our vertical choice games, just being confident, throwing trust in guys like [Beau Sparks] and CD [Chris Dawn Jr.] are gonna be able to get out of their break and throw them back downhill.”
As he looks to improve both his leadership skills and the presence in the pocket, Jackson’s focus will be breaking the bad habits.
“It’s spring ball. Let’s just use this time to continue to get these bad habits out of the way and just continue to improve each and every day,” Jackson said. “Take those things one day at a time and just to really be intentful. My biggest thing is when I’m out there and I’m in these reps that I do get is just to be intentful with them and just think about it. I’m back in the pocket, thinking about, ‘Okay, I want to do this correctly,’ and then over time, hopefully to continue to break those bad habits.”
Texas State continues spring through the month of April, concluding with the Maroon and Gold Spring Showcase Saturday April 25.
