Bobcats still have fight left as they prepare for Troy; Brown, Griffin granted extra year of eligibility

Texas State wanted to use Saturday’s game against Appalachian State as a measuring stick. 

The Bobcats planned to gauge themselves against one of the top teams in the Sun Belt. Despite the 38-7 loss to the Mountaineers, head coach Everett Withers said there were both good and bad things to take away from the game. 

“You lose your quarterback (Willie Jones III) in the first series it kind of takes some air out of you,” Withers said at his weekly Monday press conference. “And then, after that, you make the turnovers, can’t get off the field on 3rd down, can’t stop them in the redzone, you misfit gaps, you’re not going to beat a good team like that. So, those things we came out of the game saying, ‘There were non-negotiables that we didn’t take care of.’” 

Although Texas State gave up 221 yards on the ground and only recorded 86 rushing yards, Withers felt like the Bobcats held their own on the offensive and defensive lines. 

“The things we did well after watching the tape Saturday night is I felt we owned our own up front defensively,” Withers said. “I felt like we did a good job of we wanted to stop the runs right down the middle, I thought we did that other than the one misfit of the gap. I thought we did a good job. I thought offensive-line wise we held our own for the most part. I thought we were able to do some things up front. We got better.”

Texas State (3-7, 1-5 Sun Belt) has another difficult test this week as it prepares to face Troy (8-2, 6-0) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. inside Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy, Ala. 

The Bobcats plan to put up a fight against the Trojans. Following the loss to App State, both sophomore wide receiver Jeremiah Haydel and junior cornerback Anthony J. Taylor said the team has a lot of fight left in it. Withers said he doesn’t know if this team has more fight than year’s past but he knows they’re more talented. 

“They want to win and they think they have a chance to win,” Withers said. “I think that’s biggest issues, you know, competing and fighting until the end because you think you’ve got a chance to win. These guys have all been through the building of this thing and they understand that’s really a non-negotiable. There’s nobody in our building that’s going to quit or expects to quit or none of that. We’re going to fight and compete every week because that’s kind of what we’ve built on is to go compete whoever we’re playing.”

As Texas State heads into its final two games of the 2018 campaign, depth still presents an issue for the Bobcats. But Withers says Texas State is in a much better spot depth wise than its been during the last two season. 

“We’re not close to where we want to be depth wise but we’re better than we have been depth wise,” Withers said. “We still have some spots that we don’t have enough spares like we’d like to have, but we’re getting closer to that. We’ve got a number of young kids that have played, take for instance K-Dot (freshman wide receiver Jah’Marae Sheread) from last week. That was his fourth game, so we’ll shut him down. He won’t play anymore because we want him to be able to redshirt him. 

“We’ve got three defensive lineman that we haven’t played all this year because they need to develop. We’ve got a couple guys on the offensive line that need to develop that we’re not going to play. Hopefully, you build that depth with kids that physically can go play. We don’t feel comfortable sticking a guy out there to go play just because he can. You want to put a guy back out there that can help you win a game and physically be able to match up against a tough league. We feel good about the depth now. It’s obviously better than what we had a year ago or even two years ago, definitely two years ago but it can better and it will get better.”

Injury Update

Sophomore quarterback Willie Jones III is out this week after suffering a shoulder injury against Appalachian State. He hurt his left shoulder, which he also injured against UTSA on Sept. 22. 
Texas State is having X-rays done and is expected to have an MRI done on Tuesday. 

“Right now, we don’t know anything for sure until after (Tuesday) at 11 (a.m.),” Withers said. 

Sophomore linebacker John Brannon suffered a concussion on Saturday. He’s out against Troy and the staff is hoping to have him ready for spring practices. 

Junior safety JaShon Waddy missed Saturday’s game with a hamstring. Texas State hopes to have him back against Troy.

Brown, Griffin granted extension to play in 2019 

Graduate senior tight end Keenen Brown and senior linebacker Frankie Griffin have been granted clock extensions by the NCAA, which will allow them to play next season. 

Withers confirmed their extra year of eligibility on Monday.