{"id":335982,"date":"2026-06-14T13:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/335982\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T13:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:46:09","slug":"texas-state-football-questions-bobcats-face-ahead-of-pac-12-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/335982\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas State football: Questions Bobcats face ahead of Pac-12 debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since hiring head coach GJ Kinne<\/a>, Texas State football<\/a> has recorded new levels of success at the Division I level, finishing above .500 and winning a bowl game for three straight seasons.<\/p>\n

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Texas State’s passing attack is set. Quarterback Brad Jackson<\/a> will have his top two receivers, Beau Sparks and Chris Dawn, to throw to, along with another year of experience in Kinne’s scheme. But is it enough to win the conference?<\/p>\n

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Here are the questions Texas State faces ahead of the 2026 season:<\/p>\n

What will the defensive changes look like?<\/p>\n

The Bobcats’ defensive reconstruction began with the hiring of Will Windham as their new defensive coordinator.<\/a> They also brought in Chris Gistorb as the defensive line coach, Marcus Patton as the secondary coach and special teams coach Tanner Burns now leads the safeties.<\/p>\n

MORE: Texas State football’s defense dials down intensity, ups discipline ahead of 2026 season<\/a><\/p>\n

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For the first three years under Kinne, Texas State leaned on splash plays, garnering turnovers and sacks to give the offense short fields to work with. Kinne said toward the end of the 2025 season that he wants this version of the team to be more versatile. It’s something the defense worked on in the spring, but because there are so many changes, what the unit will look like in the fall is a relative mystery.<\/p>\n

Texas State’s safety room is projected to be a strength. Jayden Bradley, Chase Davis and Jayden Lawton are solid depth pieces led by one of the lone returning starters, Ryan Nolan.<\/a> The rest of the defense consists of transfers and returning backups looking to prove themselves as consistent starters. How the depth chart shapes up during fall camp will be worth monitoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas State football players participate in a scrimmage during their Spring Showcase at UFCU Stadium in San Marcos, April 25, 2026.<\/p>\n

Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

How will the offensive line shake out?<\/p>\n

The secret sauce of Texas State’s prolific attack lies in the trenches. Despite losing players to the NFL draft, the transfer portal and graduation, co-offensive coordinator Jordan Shoemaker has kept the offensive line remarkably solid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Texas State will likely start Sully Burns at left tackle and Justin DeLeon at center. As for the rest of the line, Kinne maintained during the spring that fierce competition was occurring at nearly every other position.<\/p>\n

William Boone, Cameron Schultz, Bamidele Badusi, Jaylen Early and Rasheed Jackson are all names mentioned in the spring that are fighting for starting spots along the line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who is the third wide receiver?<\/p>\n

Texas State’s third leading receiver last season was running back Lincoln Pare. With Sparks and Dawn, the Bobcats won’t have many more targets to spread around. But if one of them misses time with injury, the Bobcats would need someone to step up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Texas State hoped Kylen Evans would take on that role last season, but he struggled with drops and only recorded 15 catches. Although he’s still in the mix for that third spot, the Bobcats have other talented pass catchers itching to move up the depth chart.<\/p>\n

Lakeyleon Graves, the top recruit from the 2026 recruiting class, made waves during the spring showcase with a few spectacular catches. Zechariah Sample, a transfer from Arizona State, also had his moments during practice. Dameon Crowe is one of the smallest wideouts on the roster, but his movement skills drew praise from the staff in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since hiring head coach GJ Kinne, Texas State football has recorded new levels of success at the Division…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[261,1771,9330,27,29,28,9327,9328,1927],"class_list":["post-335982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-college-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-division-i","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-state-bobcats","tag-texas-state-bobcats-football","tag-texas-state-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}