Texas State adds BYU, set to play SMU on ESPN

Texas State announced two additional changes to its 2020 schedule on Wednesday.

The first was that the Bobcats have added an 11th game to its schedule against BYU, set for Oct. 24 in Provo, Utah. No game was set for that date prior to the game being scheduled and it’ll serve as the bookend of a four-game road stretch for Texas State. But head coach Jake Spavital said Thursday he and the team were thankful to get a game back on the schedule after seeing two get canceled earlier this month.

“I think, you ask me and the head coach at BYU, you’re like, ‘Yeah, let’s play.’ But there’s so many more moving parts to that whole deal that, you know, that all the administrations had to get together and make sure it worked,” Spavital said. “And Oct. 24 was the day that worked the best for, really, all of us. So, again, these dates are changing nonstop.

“I think our kids are pretty fired up. So I think what they see is that we’re just trying to play anybody and understand that there’s a lot of moving parts to this season. And you know, if we keep doing the right things then we’ll be able to play all these games. So they know they will be rewarded to go to Provo, Utah — which, I’ve never played at. Heard a lot of great things about it. You know, a lot of our coaching staff has played BYU. So we know it’s going to be a physical, tough game.”

The other change affected Texas State’s season-opening game against SMU next Saturday. The contest was originally set to kick off at 6 p.m. However, ESPN announced it will broadcast the game on its flagship network and rescheduled the start time for 3:30 p.m.

Spavital said his immediate reaction was that he needs to prepare the players to play in the heat, making sure they’re all hydrating and getting good nutrition. The Weather Channel currently forecasts a high of 97 degrees for that day and the head coach doesn’t want to see anyone get sidelined due to cramps or heat exhaustion.

But Spavital knows how important being on a national network like ESPN is for a program like Texas State.

“I love these games,” Spavital said. “I think it’s gonna be great exposure for the university. I think our kids are pretty excited to just get out there and compete because of all of the ups and downs that they’ve gone through … I think when ESPN kind of finalized it up as a 3:30 kickoff on the main network, I think reality is starting to hit in now that we’re about to go play a football game. So I think everybody’s pretty excited to do this right now.”

Thursday’s practice was a light work day for the Bobcats, as the starters participated in low-impact workouts while the scout team performed a full-pads scrimmage. Spavital said its one of his favorite moments of the week, getting to be more hands-on with players who don’t get as many reps during other practices.

The team will dig more into SMU on Friday and Saturday to finish out the mock week. But Spavital said there’s also another important, non-football conversation that needs to take place soon.

Jacob Blake, a Black man from Kenosha, Wisconsin, became paralyzed from the waist down after police officers shot him seven times in the back on Sunday, sparking protests around the nation. Those protesting included NBA and WNBA players, who boycotted games on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Texas State athletics department marched with San Marcos law enforcement from the J.C. Kellam Administration Building to Bobcat Stadium in a show of solidarity on June 10 following the murder of George Floyd. Spavital admitted there he hasn’t had many conversations with team leadership about the Blake shooting yet, but that it was something he planned to address with the Bobcats.

“There’s ways that we can use our platform to make sure that, you know, we’re giving our kids a voice,” Spavital said. “And it’s just based off of where this has hit right now. You know, today we don’t have many team meetings and stuff but like, we have addressed it with the leadership group and we’re going to talk more about it. But that is an issue that is not just gonna be on the back burner of anything. It’s always gonna be something that we’re going to talk about, making sure that we’re having conversations about this and making sure that we’re using our platform where we’re at at Texas State to possibly help cause change.”

Texas State is now set to host SMU inside Bobcat Stadium on Sept. 5 at 3:30 p.m.