Bobcats regroup during bye week

Following back to back heartbreaking losses to Troy and Southern Miss, Texas State heads into their bye week with a 3-5 record looking to regroup and prepare for their final four games of the season.

For head coach Jake Spavital, it’s been a rough couple of weeks for the team who had to lead in the fourth quarter only to watch it slip away in the final minutes.

“I thought it was a tough, hard fought game that ended in a disappointing loss,” Spavital said. “That is two weeks in a row where we had chances to win the game when we got it down to the fourth quarter and we just didn’t capitalize on momentum swings while not finishing the game like we wanted too.”

Despite the offensive issues plaguing the Bobcats who have averaged just 14 points per game since the 36-24 win over App State on Oct. 8, the defense has been carrying the load for the Bobcats while the offense has battled the top defenses in the Sun Belt Conference.

“It was a very good Southern Miss team who I give a lot of credit to Coach Hall and what they are doing,” Spavital said. “They are very good on defense right now and they got after us pretty well up front while controlling the line of scrimmage. Our defense played extremely well against them with it being a back and forth defensive battle … It was a disappointing loss and our kids fought till the very end. I was proud of their effort and how they were able to stick together.”

As Texas State heads into their bye week, Spavital talked about how this week was the perfect opportunity for the team to gather itself in order finish out the season in hopes of reaching a bowl game for this first time in program history.

“The bye week is coming at a great time right now,” Spavital said. “It is much needed and we are beat up right now. We need to get healthy and regroup because there is still a lot at stake in this last month with our last four games in the Sun Belt West. So it’s all about regrouping, getting healthy and taking a shot at these last four games.”

While the main objective for the Bobcats is to get healthy, Spavital is also trying to re-group the team following two heart breaking games.

“Those kinds of losses can really deplete your confidence,” Spavital said. “Especially when you are going back and forth while giving everything you got. Our kids are leaving it out on the field and they are a scrappy little team. I think we can play with just about anybody but we have to learn how to finish games. Our kids understand that we are very close and they are working diligently to keep changing the narrative of our program and university.”

The key to this week is the same mentality Texas State has approached things in the Spavital era.

“It’s all about taking it one day at a time,” Spavital said. “That is our approach and we are still working on correcting those issues  that we are dealing with right now. We got to find a way to get the optimism and confidence back up and this bye week is perfect for that time. We addressed a lot of the issues yesterday and we will continue to keep addressing them throughout the course of this week then shift our focus to ULM next week.”

Spavital also talked about how the Sun Belt has been morphing from a high-powered offensive league to a defensive juggernaut.

“The defense has been playing phenomenal,” Spavital said, “They have given the offense multiple opportunities to win. You look at the last two games and it’s been two offenses trying to figure out against quality defenses. It just shows you how great of a league this is in terms of how it’s flipped towards defensive ball. Our defense is playing at a high level and we are ranked 8th or 9th in the conference which shows you there is a lot of quality defense being played.”

Texas State returns to play Nov. 5 when the Bobcats make the trek out to Monroe, La. to battle the ULM Warhawks.