G.J. Kinne takes over at Texas State, promising to 'light up the scoreboard'

SAN MARCOS — After leading the nation’s top scoring offense, G.J. Kinne had plenty of choices for his next coaching step before deciding to move 45 minutes up the road to Texas State.

The one factor that stood ahead of the rest is simple: Texas State is in Texas.

“A lot of different opportunities came up after the season and a lot of them offered a lot of great things, but I wanted to be at Texas State,” Kinne said Wednesday at his introductory press conference. “I chose to be at Texas State. I’m from Texas, so that was important to me. I knew that if the right guy got this job, you better watch out. You’ve got 40,000 students. You’ve got a river flowing through campus. This is the only Texas school in the Sun Belt. This place is really unbelievable and I’m just so fortunate to be here.”

More: Texas State hires Incarnate Word's G.J. Kinne to replace Jake Spavital

Kinne, 34, has only been a head coach for one year, but his lone season set records at Incarnate Word in San Antonio. The Cardinals led the nation in scoring with 53 points per game to go along with an 11-1 record. UIW’s quarterback Lindsey Scott Jr. set the record for most combined touchdowns in a season at 62, with the Cardinals potentially having three more games left as they continue through the FCS playoffs.

Kinne plans to implement the same high-powered offense at Texas State.

“We’ll play an exciting brand of football,” he said. “Offensively, we’re going to be a tempo team, run the play-action game and we’re going to light up the scoreboard. We have the No. 1 scoring offense in college football, whether it’s FCS or FBS. Our quarterback is going to win the Walter Payton (award for the best player in FCS), hopefully. He deserves it.”

While he pulls double duty coaching the Cardinals and setting up at Texas State, Kinne has two important tasks he’s focused on for the Bobcats. “Hire a staff and recruiting.”

“I’m going to hire a great staff,” said Kinne, who's a native of Mesquite. “A staff that knows Texas. One that can recruit the coaches and players in the great state of Texas. I’m going to hire a staff that are going to be great role models for our student athletes. … Once again, we are going to recruit Texas high school football. We are going to recruit the portal. We are going to identify guys that maybe left and want to come back because they are from the state of Texas. Too many great players in the state of Texas not to do that.”

It has been speculated that some of Kinne's assistant coaches at Incarnate Word will follow him to Texas State, but until then he’s recruiting on his own with the early signing day two weeks away.

“I’m a one-man show, but I’m doing it," Kinne said. "Believe me, I can get it done. I’m a great recruiter.”

The specifics of Kinne’s contract weren’t released, but a proposal to upgrade the football facilities was promised.

“One thing I talked to (Kinne) about was our interest in investing more heavily in the football program,” Texas State President Kelly Damphousse said. “Athletics in general, but football in particular. We already have a project in mind for expanding our weight room facilities. We have a long-term plan for building an indoor facility, but with conversations over the last week, we have accelerated that timeline for that indoor facility a lot quicker.

“Also, investing in our coaching staff by having incentives built into the contract and having more money available for the assistant pool, which is very important for a head coach to be able to hire the coaches that he wants. Also, increasing the recruiting budget, which is something we did last year.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas State introduces new coach Kinne, who pledges to recruit Texas