Texas State soccer has scuffled whereas others within the Solar Belt have thrived. Will 2022 be any totally different for the Bobcats?
Contact/Observe @MattK_FS and @MWCwire
A check for the rebuilding Wolf Pack.
After opening 2022 on the street towards New Mexico State, the Nevada Wolf Pack will welcome the Texas State Bobcats to Mackay Stadium to open up its six-game slate.
Whereas Nevada prepares to put in writing a brand new chapter within the wake of the profitable Jay Norvell period, the Bobcats are nonetheless chasing down that first sustained success. Since leaping to the FBS ranks in 2012, Texas State has only one profitable season and haven’t made a lot headway beneath the present regime towards a second. The strain is on, then, for each groups to show one thing of their early season conflict.
Location: San Marcos, Texas
Convention: Solar Belt
Collection Historical past: Nevada leads the all-time collection, 1-0.
2021 File: 4-8 (3-5 Solar Belt)
Head Coach: Jake Spavital (fourth yr at Texas State, 9-27 general). Since taking up for Everett Withers after the 2018 season, progress in San Marcos has been painfully gradual and Spavital’s switch portal gambits haven’t paid off fairly as hoped. Nevertheless, the staff’s 4 wins have been essentially the most since 2014 and, curiously sufficient, they beat the three groups who completed beneath them within the Solar Belt West division.
Key Gamers
Layne Hatcher, QB
If Hatcher’s title sounds passingly acquainted, that’s as a result of he break up time at quarterback with Utah State’s Logan Bonner at Arkansas State in 2019 and 2020. When he had the job extra to himself in 2021, the outcomes have been somewhat extra inconsistent: A 58.9% completion price, 2,423 yards, and 19 touchdowns with a 3.8% interception price. With a recent begin elsewhere within the Solar Belt forward of him and 32 profession begins already behind him, nevertheless, he may bounce again and provides the Bobcats precisely what they’ve lacked on the place lately.
Dalton Cooper, OT
One in all two Bobcats lately named a preseason first-team all-Solar Belt choice, Cooper can be anticipated to anchor the Texas State offensive line for a 3rd straight yr on the left sort out place the place, amongst different issues, he was named a freshman All-American by The Athletic in 2020 and paced the convention’s gamers on the place by way of general PFF grading in 2021.
Jordan Revels, DE
2022 will mark Revels’s fourth yr as a contributor for the Bobcats and his third as a starter, with 17 begins over the previous two seasons. In that point, he’s steadily grown extra disruptive, main the Bobcats in 2021 with 7.5 tackles for loss whereas posting profession bests with 59 complete tackles and three sacks.
Javen Banks, WR
2022 will mark Banks’ fifth yr with the Bobcats and he’s been a contributor to some extent the entire time. Final season marked the primary time he was the staff’s primary go catcher, nevertheless, as he led Texas State with 553 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns on 36 receptions, so likelihood is he’ll proceed on as a focus of the offense.
Seth Keller, Ok
Keller, like Cooper, was named a first-team preseason all-Solar Belt choose after connecting on 15-of-18 area objective tries and nailing all 32 additional level makes an attempt in 2021. For the time being, he additionally occurs to carry the varsity report for profession area objective share, so the junior might get loads extra probabilities to show he dependable he might be.
Overview:
Offense
Texas State’s offense wasn’t nice, irrespective of the way you slice. When it comes to plain yards per play, the Bobcats completed next-to-last within the Solar Belt; by factors per drive and out there yards share earned, they have been 92nd and 102nd. It wasn’t the worst assault within the nation, however being “forgettable” isn’t significantly better.
Hatcher is likely to be the frontrunner to start out at quarterback, however that isn’t a given. Ty Evans, previously of North Carolina State, may play his approach into the position. Whoever wins the job will profit from a working sport that could possibly be fairly good, spearheded by Calvin Hill (128 carries, 696 yards, three touchdowns) and Jahmyl Jeter (91 carries, 384 yards, eight touchdowns), and a bunch of go catchers that, past Banks, returns all however one participant who had at the very least ten receptions final season. Marcell Barbee paced the Bobcats with 40 catches and 5 scores whereas Ashtyn Hawkins had 30.
Protection
Maybe coincidentally, the Bobcats protection underperformed to nearly the very same degree because the offense in 2021, with only one spot of enchancment by way of factors per drive allowed (2.55, 91st) and none by out there yards share allowed (54.1%, 102nd).
Whether or not that’ll change is a bit murky. Revels and sophomore linebacker Issiah Nixon are the one two returning Bobcats who had greater than 5 tackles for loss, although a return to well being from gamers like defensive sort out Samuel Obiang (3.5 TFLs, 1.5 sacks in six video games) and contributions from switch portal arrivals like Myron Warren (Texas) and Levi Bell (Louisiana Tech) may go a good distance.
Farther from the road of scrimmage, linebacker Sione Tupou (75 tackles, three tackles for loss) and cornerback Kordell Rodgers (seven go breakups) present some much-needed veteran management however extra can be wanted at different positions. The protection, as an illustration, solely had three interceptions as a unit final yr regardless of 37 go breakups. Enhancements of their means to be disruptive may have an outsized affect, however that’s not a given.
Early Predictions
Nevada could also be working with a virtually new offense in 2022, however they need to have sufficient expertise on that facet of the ball to take advantage of what seems like, on paper, a leaky Texas State protection. It is probably not the prettiest sport to observe, although the Wolf Pack ought to get it executed.
Nevada 31, Texas State 27