Texas State, nearly at full strength, matches up with Troy

A week of rest nearly has Texas State back at full strength.

Head coach Jake Spavital said Tuesday the team used its bye week to recover and will now see the return of multiple impact players, either from injuries or COVID-19 protocols, for this Saturday’s game at Troy, including sophomore quarterback Tyler Vitt, junior offensive linemen Alex Costilla and Eddie Rivas, senior linebackers Markeveon “Binky” Coleman and Brayden Stringer, junior cornerback Kordell Rodgers and sophomore safety Tory Spears.

The Bobcats’ focus now is getting back into a regular routine.

“Bye weeks are always tough because you go straight off of playing every Saturday and then you just kind of freeze for a week,” junior offensive lineman Tate Heitmeier said. “But I think overall, we're ready to get back to it. We got a lot of rest time off, so we'll see how it ends up on Saturday.”

The maroon and gold go up against a Troy team playing in its first Sun Belt game of the season. The Trojans handily defeated Middle Tennessee on Sept. 19, 47-14, but were blown out at BYU on Sept. 26, 48-7.

Spavital said Troy’s skill position players are comparable to SMU. The offense is being run through a new starting quarterback in sophomore Gunnar Watson. The Trojans are counterbalancing his inexperience by running an extremely high-tempo offense and quickly getting the ball to its other playmakers.

“They played a little more 11 personnel last year but they're in 10 personnel and they're getting the ball in and out of their hand and they're snapping it as fast as possible,” Spavital said. “The experience that they have, just how they can get into space, how they can make plays, it's a fun offense to watch. You know, they're gonna throw some tricks and screens at you and do it at a high-tempo pace.”

Jake and Texas State defensive coordinator Zac Spavital will be very familiar with Troy’s defense. The Trojans’ defensive coordinator, Brandon Hall, previously held the same position at Broken Arrow High School in Oklahoma under head coach Steve Spavital, Jake and Zac’s father, and stems from the same coaching tree as the Spavitals.

The Bobcats head coach said Hall predominantly runs a four-down defense, but will have “new kind of wrinkles every single game for you that you've got to be on your toes and be ready for.”

“They're a veteran group, they've got a lot of leadership back … and they've won a lot of games throughout their career, a lot of those guys have, so they've got some experience,” Texas State offensive coordinator Jacob Peeler said. “But again, it's just gonna come down to us taking care of the ball on offense and not putting ourselves in situations that hurt the defense like going three and out and forcing — you know, because they're really good on offense, they do a really good job. So we just gotta make sure that we extend drives, help the defense out, just don't put them at a disadvantage like we did at the end of the Boston College game.”

The team took its COVID-19 on Wednesday. Pending the results, Saturday could be the first time the Bobcats have both Vitt and redshirt sophomore quarterback Brady McBride available in the same game. Peeler and Jake Spavital said both players have had quality performances during their time on the field. The head coach said he expects both to see the field against the Trojans.

Texas State (1-3, 1-0 Sun Belt) and Troy (1-1) kick off inside Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy, Alabama at 2:30 p.m. The game is set to air on ESPN3.

Junior cornerback Jarron Morris will miss the first half of the game after receiving a targeting penalty in the second half of the team’s game against Boston College. Coleman and Rodgers will be limited coming off of injury. Still, Spavital hopes that, with the depth chart mostly restored, the Bobcats will be in shape to add a few more tallies to the win column.

“The kids are in a good spot, a lot of good energy,” Spavital said. “I think these kids are looking forward to trying to make a run at this, really, these next eight games. It's gonna be a gauntlet of it but we're back into a routine and we're gonna see if we can make a run at this thing.”