Bobcats frustrated after loss to Troy, ready for homecoming

Frustration was the keyword this week for Jake Spavital and Texas State as they returned home from Troy following a 17-14 loss to the Trojans. 

The Bobcats were holding onto a 14-10 lead over the Trojans before Troy scored an early fourth quarter touchdown while the Texas State offense failed to score against a tough defense. 

For Spavital, the game was going in Texas State’s favor till the fourth quarter where the team fell apart. 

“I thought we managed the game pretty well for three quarters,” Spavital said. “If you look at time of possession, we held the ball in the first quarter for about 10  minutes and Troy then held the ball in the fourth quarter for over 10 minutes. When it got down to what mattered the most, few made a few mistakes, mental errors and had some busted plays on offense that we couldn’t close the game out from the four minute drill Troy… ended up making more plays than us in that fourth quarter where they hit that touchdown then the offense couldn’t sustain drives from that point while the defense couldn’t finish it out.

However, from the loss, the team was able to put some positives away from the game especially on the defensive side of the ball. 

“There are so many positives you can take out, '' Spavital said. “I thought the defense played extremely well. They are kind of beating themselves up over that four minute drive. The offense had their moments. Some of our big plays got negated because of penalties with two holding calls on two really good running plays for us. It was a game that was going to come down to clock management to give us a chance in the fourth quarter to win. We were up 14-10 heading into the fourth quarter and we were feeling pretty good about ourselves.”

There was a sense of frustration from both the players and the coaches following the loss, however, Spavital that made him feel something within the team had changed. 

“It was a frustrating loss but I do think that the mindset of our kids has changed,” Spavital said. “You just see them in the locker room, how they played together as a team, playing complimentary football and not beating yourselves. I thought we did that all the way up to the fourth quarter…you can see it the kids afterwards because it hurt them. We were all frustrated and I was extremely frustrated after practice. I told them that you can’t get frustrated about failure and that it’s more about the concern of how you can improve off of it.”

Now the feeling inside the locker room is that the Bobcats can make some noise within the conference.

“I think their mindset of where we are as a program is that we can compete with anybody,” Spavital said. “That solid game is something we wouldn’t do well in the past years…it just shows maturity, the experience, and a strong understanding of how to play the game of football and the style of play especially in the Sun Belt.”

With their upcoming game against Southern Miss, Spavital expects it to be a very different game than the previous two conference games. 

“The Sun Belt is a very fascinating league right now because each week is going to be a different way on how you manage the game,” Spavital said. “It was completely opposite of what we did against App State and this upcoming game against Southern Miss is going to be different as well. Southern Miss is a really good program. A proven and winning program and Coach Hall does a really good job.”

Kickoff against Southern Miss starts at 4 p.m. Saturday at Bobcat Stadium.