Bobcats Anticipate Tough Matchup With Bowl Game On The Line

Against Arkansas Pine Bluff, Tyler Jones, sophomore quarterback, showcased the team’s dynamic and “balanced” offense.

Against Georgia Southern, the Bobcats’ defense showed its ability to contain a top-ranked rushing team.

Against Louisiana-Monroe, David Mayo, senior linebacker, reminded his team and fans that the Bobcats could win in the final minutes of a game.

In 11 weeks, the Bobcats have evolved to a point that allowed them to play Arkansas State in what Coach Dennis Franchione called their most complete game this season. 

With six wins to their name, the Bobcats travel to Georgia State Saturday expecting to leave with not only a win but a bowl game invitation.

“I think our guys have an understanding of what they’re playing for—that they need a seventh win,” Franchione said. “That overrides anything that you should be thinking about your opponent at this time.”

Georgia State is 1-10 on the season, but the team has many game-winning components. The Panthers have a predominantly pass-oriented offense with close to 3,000 yards on the season. Franchione says his team will have to worry about Georgia State’s “dynamite” junior quarterback, Nick Arbuckle. 

 “This is a better football team than their record shows,” Franchione said. “They lost close games to Lafayette in the last few minutes, to South Alabama in the last few minutes, to New Mexico State in the last few minutes.”

Just like with Georgia State, numbers don’t mean much when observing the Texas State offense. 

“We’re slow starters,” Franchione said. “We’ve been talking about this as offensive coaches. We put a lot of thought into what we were going to run in our opening sequence of plays and it just takes us—we got to make a first down, if we can make a first down and get into our rhythm.”

In their last three games, the Panthers have lost by a total of 96 points. However, the team as a whole has many positive attributes. Franchione guesses inexperience can be the cause of their record.

“Sometimes when you’re learning how to win, you lose,” Franchione said. 

Oftentimes this season Franchione has credited his team for not “flinching.” Karee Berry, sophomore defensive end, mirrors this mantra when he says Georgia State is anything but a new challenge to the defensive line.

“We see the same thing we see every week,” Berry said. “We see a good team that has a lot of potential. They’re the number-one passing offense in our conference, and we have to be ready for that.” 

Berry says the team is using every day to prepare for the Panthers because “this is college football and these are very good players.” 

“If we go in there and we don’t respect them the way we should, we could get beat,” Berry said. “No one wants to get beat. We want to go to a bowl game, and we have big dreams and big goals, and we’re going to fulfill them.”

Mariah Medina is the assistant sports editor with the University Star where this story originally published. It is reprinted here through a news partnership between the University Star and the San Marcos Corridor News | @CorridorNews