Texas State plays in 2022 Spring Game

Texas State ended its camp on Saturday, culminating in the 2022 Spring Game. The Bobcat offense walked away with a win in the intrasquad scrimmage, taking a 24-4 victory in a game to 21.

“I’m really pleased with where this group is at right now,” head coach Jake Spavital said. “The offense was kind of clicking a little bit today and the defense was a little upset walking off the field. But like overall, I think it went back and forth the entire spring and I’m pleased with where they’re at. You know, we’ve still got a lot more work to go and to do and we’ve got 150 days, roughly, till we play Nevada, so we’ve still got a lot of time until we go. So I challenged them in a way of, you know, let’s just keep it one day at a time. And there’s been a lot of strides through spring.”

The two sides began the day with the ball placed 75 yards out from the end zone. The defense started the day strong, forcing two stops on the offense’s first two possessions. On the next drive, redshirt junior safety Tory Spears picked off Arkansas State transfer quarterback Layne Hatcher on a deep ball.

It was the defense’s only takeaway of the day, though, as Hatcher, redshirt sophomore quarterback Ty Evans and the team’s other quarterbacks began to settle in behind center and keep the chains moving. Evans threw a 10-yard pass to senior wide receiver Marcell Barbee in the end zone for the first score of the day.

Spavital said he didn’t want to give too many touches to running backs Calvin Hill and Jahmyl Jeter because he already knows what they’re capable of. It allowed the signal-callers to shoulder most of the burden of moving the ball.

“Talking about the quarterbacks, I think that the ball is going where it needs to go,” Spavital said. “You know, there was a couple of missed throws by Layne, there was a couple of missed assignments with Ty. But overall, like, they’re pretty efficient in what they’re doing. And that’s kind of been the emphasis of just getting the ball in play and get it to the receivers because I think the receiver group is a veteran group and they’ve all got some playmaking ability.”

The scrimmage ended with a live-tackling segment with the ball placed just 25 yards out from the goal line. The offense would get six points for a touchdown, one point for a PAT and three points for a made field goal. The defense would get four points for a made field goal, seven points for a missed field goal and seven points for a stop of any kind. The teams would keep playing until one side reached 21 points.

The offense was held to a field goal with its first possession, giving the defense a 4-3 edge to start the game. But the offense reached the end zone with each of its next three touches. 

Hatcher connected with redshirt junior wideout Julian Ortega-Jones on the first play of the next possession for a 25-yard score to put the offense in front. The unit marched down to the 1-yard line on the next drive and handed it off to Hill, who punched in for the score. And Ortega-Jones made the game-winning grab, catching another 25-yard TD, this time from Evans. Spavital admitted it was a play he’d been waiting all spring to use against his brother, defensive coordinator Zac Spavital.

“It’s been awesome. I think this offense is rolling,” redshirt junior offensive lineman Kyle Hergel said. “I think we played real well today as a whole offense. The receivers made some plays, we ran the ball when we needed to and we protected the QB to our best ability.”

Texas State will now take a break before returning in the summer to begin preparing for the 2022 season. The players will focus on finishing their spring semester and remaining healthy — Spavital said the team came out “a lot better” from a health standpoint this year than they did after the 2021 Spring Game.

In the meantime, Spavital and his staff will continue to recruit, looking to build up the depth of the roster. The head coach said he anticipates bringing in 16-20 new players this summer.

The Bobcats face Nevada on the road in the 2022 season opener on Sept. 3. Spavital’s looking forward to seeing how his team grows between now and then.

“I want to see them build off of what they’re doing right now. That’s my biggest challenge,” Spavital said. “Like, I’m going to change up the summer installs. I normally go back to day one and you know, you rehash it all out and you get the newcomers going. (But) you know, I’m going full speed ahead with this, I’m gonna build off of it, I’m gonna get more package-driven, where you can, you know, get (sophomore wide receiver) Ashtyn (Hawkins) touches, and get these outside receivers and your running backs more touches. We have to get creative with that, we just gotta keep moving forward.”