The last time Texas State head coach G.J. Kinne walked into Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, he was a football player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For him, Texas was never simply another school. Growing up in East Texas and playing quarterback at Gilmer High School for Jeff Traylor, a longtime high school head coach, the Longhorns represented the pinnacle of the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKind of one of those dream-come-true moments getting to sign with the University of Texas being an in-state kid, so a lot of fond memories going from Gilmer to Austin,\u201d Kinne said in an Aug. 31 Burnt Orange Nation article.<\/p>\n
The dream, however, lasted only one season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kinne redshirted in 2007 and watched now-Longhorn legend Colt McCoy emerge as Texas\u2019 established starter. Rather than allow his college career to become a waiting game, he transferred to the University of Tulsa in 2008. His departure was not bitter. It was almost reverential.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made great memories, great friends and have been blessed with experiences most can only watch,\u201d Kinne said when he announced his transfer.<\/p>\n
He left Austin without closing the door behind him. He thanked Greg Davis, Texas\u2019 offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach who helped develop him, and wished the Longhorns well. Then-head coach Mack Brown, in turn, wished Kinne the same and stated in the 2008 Texas Athletics press release that he would continue following his career.<\/p>\n
That career eventually carried Kinne far beyond Austin. First to Tulsa, then the NFL, Southern Methodist University, Arkansas, Philadelphia, Hawaii, the University of Central Florida, Incarnate Word and finally, Texas State. Along the way, he became a head coach in his own right.<\/p>\n
Nearly two decades later, Kinne returns to Austin as the Bobcats\u2019 head coach, carrying with him a relationship that has never quite disappeared.<\/p>\n
Kinne has remained connected to former Longhorn teammates, some of whom have reached out before Saturday\u2019s season opener. He said on Tuesday the messages were not exactly good-luck wishes, but rather the kind of familiar \u201csee you out there\u201d exchanges that reveal bonds that survived nearly two decades.<\/p>\n
The connection now reaches into the modern Texas program. Kinne has maintained a friendship with Chris Gilbert, a longtime high school coach and special assistant to Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian. Gilbert recently showed Kinne around the Longhorns\u2019 facilities, where he also spoke with Sarkisian.<\/p>\n
Even though he\u2019ll share a different sideline, a continued protection of Texas\u2019 integrity came out in Kinne this summer during a \u201cHorns Down\u201d incident. Kinne said he attended a Forrest Frank concert near campus with a busload of kids, and when they started making the familiar gesture, he instinctively stepped in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoa, whoa, whoa, 15-yard penalty, guys,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
The kid who once dreamed of taking snaps in Austin will finally return to DKR. When Kinne was asked what it would be like to return, his answer carried the strange simplicity of someone finally seeing an old dream from the other side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not playing. I wish I was playing, but I\u2019ll be over there on the sidelines,\u201d Kinne said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time Texas State head coach G.J. Kinne walked into Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-425791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425791","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=425791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}