New Texas State FB Coach

[R1Letterman]

Seems kind of fast, almost as if it wasnt a national search nor do they need board review and approval?

[cajun4life]

I think he will do well there.

[RaginDave]

I think he will do well there.

Most people expected Spatival to do well at Texas State. In fact, at the time he was a really good hire. There were people that when we hired Billy, thought Spatival could have done well here. I don't want to say that TSU is cursed, but man they have struggled much more than I thought they would have after transitioning from FCS. I think they have the resources and support to be a pretty good team in the SBC, but they have struggled mightily, specifically in football since joining.

The problem for anyone coming in, is that Spatival spent so much time in the transfer portal and/or JUCO. To give you an idea, 18 players on the offensive 2 deep depth chart were either transfers or JUCO's, while 13 on the defensive side were transfers and/or JUCO's. That is 31 of 44 players on the offense and defense with large amounts of playing time. That is 70% of your regulars.

I know he was in a win now mentality, but when you rely on the transfer portal and JUCO's that much you never really get a chance to develop talent for more than a couple of years, which in turn means your pipeline is very thin. Plus if you are taking that many transfers into your program their is not a ton of team chemistry, but more importantly you are probably taking allot of other teams problems.

Klinne will have issues replacing what is already a thin roster. Between transfers because of a new coaching staff and graduates/eligibility issues, they will lose Marcell Barbee, Rontavius Groves, Chandler Speights, Javen Banks and Dennis Robinson at WR, Richard West and Russell Baker at OL, Tyler Huff at TE, Lincoln Pare (transfer portal) at RB, probably Layne Hatcher at QB, Nelson Mbansassor, Nico Ezidore, Samuel Obiang at DL, London Harris, Sione Tupou at LB and Kordell Rodgers, Peyton Tuggle at DB.

So far the players that have announced they are leaving to the transfer portal are:

DL Levi Bell
CB Jarron Morris
S Tory Spears
RB Lincoln Pare

I have heard as many as 12 were gone, 3 of the 4 above were on the 2 deep, including Spears, Pare and Bell were were significant contributors.

[shof]

I think he will do well there.

Agree but as noted it will take time if he’s going to actually “build” the program right and not continue the quick fix method Spav tried.

[Cajunrunner]

Great question. San Marcos support of football there is much like Lafayette the last couple years. Not sure WHAT would move the needle.

We only have LSU 50 miles down the road to contend with for attendance and support.

The have Texas 30 miles Northeast AND now a UTSA program 50 miles to the Southwest that has been jockeying for Top 25 rankings these past two seasons.

With that, you’d THINK they’d have a tougher time than us drawing support, yet their average attendance this season beat us by about 2,500 people.

They do have a new university President, whom I’ve been told by a coworker who played baseball there, is extremely vested in promoting Texas State athletics and has real expectations for the football program. Was apparently very vocal in support on Twitter and stuff this season, and halfway through the year, many knew he was not happy with results and would be making a change for head coach.

That makes it sound like Texas State’s President is not sitting “comfortable” with the state of their athletic program. Do we have a leader like that in Martin Hall?

[CajunEXPRESS]

MartinHall is still in a state of grieving. Might be another half year or never to adjust over the passing.

[CajunT]

Agree but as noted it will take time if he’s going to actually “build” the program right and not continue the quick fix method Spav tried.

He may, but commitments will have to be made in salaries for staff and improvements in facilities. That administration has been reluctant to do it with the two previous hires.

[shof]

We only have LSU 50 miles down the road to contend with for attendance and support.

The have Texas 30 miles Northeast AND now a UTSA program 50 miles to the Southwest that has been jockeying for Top 25 rankings these past two seasons.

With that, you’d THINK they’d have a tougher time than us drawing support, yet their average attendance this season beat us by about 2,500 people.

They do have a new university President, whom I’ve been told by a coworker who played baseball there, is extremely vested in promoting Texas State athletics and has real expectations for the football program. Was apparently very vocal in support on Twitter and stuff this season, and halfway through the year, many knew he was not happy with results and would be making a change for head coach.

That makes it sound like Texas State’s President is not sitting “comfortable” with the state of their athletic program. Do we have a leader like that in Martin Hall?

San Marcos is a much smaller city than Lafayette but the whole I-35 corridor is booming from San Antonio north thru Georgetown. So while Texas is still the dominant force here there is plenty of room for Texas State to do well. Heck the school population is close to 40,000 students!!
WRT the new President, he has been very visible at football games this season and appears to be a HUGE upgrade from the previous one in many ways; specifically in support of athletics. We could use such a leader at UL!!!

[CajunNation]

Saw this on the Texas State site…

“Think Small, Be Small, Act Small, Be Texas State”

I’ll just leave that right there.

People like to say that we are kindred spirits with Southern Miss. That is wrong. We are almost a carbon copy of Texas State. From location to Big Brother, to the "name battle", to the bass ackwards administration, it's uncanny.

[HoustonCajun]

People like to say that we are kindred spirits with Southern Miss. That is wrong. We are almost a carbon copy of Texas State. From location to Big Brother, to the "name battle", to the bass ackwards administration, it's uncanny.

It is uncanny how we seem to mirror each other. Unfortunately, "Think Small, Be Small, Act Small, Be Texas State" could certainly apply to UL as well.

[CajunEXPRESS]

Strange how there’s zero talk of the new coach at TxSt on the SBC message board.

[CajunNation]

Strange how there’s zero talk of the new coach at TxSt on the SBC message board.

THe SBC Board is VERY eastern centric, and Txeas State has never been relevant in football. Plus, they Martin Halled the hire.