No bowl, no winning record, but Texas State has plenty to play for, Spavital says
SAN MARCOS — Texas State is coming off another road loss, this one a 38-21 setback at South Alabama that was marred by "inefficient and inconsistent" offensive play, head coach Jake Spavital said, and it left the Bobcats with an 0-6 record on the road with four straight losses.
Even with no bowl game on the horizon for Texas State (3-7, 1-5 Sun Belt), Spavital said he wants the senior players to leave "on a high note" in the final two games, both of which are at Bobcat Stadium, where Texas State is 3-1.
“The ball hasn’t bounced the way that we wanted to and we’re disappointed that we didn’t achieve the goals that we wanted to, but (the players) know that we’ve come a long way as a program," Spavital said on Tuesday. "They want to do it for the men in this room that have been here since day one and are in the final two games of their career. That’s first and foremost what they want to play for.”
Texas State reached four wins last year, but hasn’t had at least five wins since going 7-5 in 2014.
“It’s also about the pride of this university and what they play for and how they are trying to change the narrative of this football program," Spavital said. "I think that will help with recruiting a ton, but I think it also helps with the psyche of these kids as well. So there’s a lot to play for in these next two games.”
The Bobcats were down several players even before the South Alabama game, then a few more went down during the loss. Starting left guard Evan Lovell was replaced by Russell Baker after Lovell suffered an injury. Julian Ortega-Jones, who started at receiver in place of other injured players, left early with an injury along with linebacker Brian Holloway. All three are expected to miss Saturday's game against Arkansas State.
Texas State’s receivers room is short about 10 players after starting with 15 scholarship receivers in fall camp, now with just five available this Saturday — Rontavius Groves, Charles Brown, Drue Jackson, Dennis Robinson and Donnovan Moorer. The team's top four receivers — Ashtyn Hawkins, Marcell Barbee, Javen Banks and Ortega-Jones — all are injured.
Hawkins is out for the season with a broken collarbone, while the other three are considered day-to-day.
“It’s going to be interesting to see some of these guys get some pretty heavy reps over the course of this week,” Spavital said. “I’m not really going to go into more detail so we can keep Arkansas State a little bit on their toes. It’s going to be pretty interesting with the personnel groupings we throw out there.”
Saturday's game
Arkansas State at Texas State, 4 p.m., ESPN3, 89.9
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas State's Jake Spavital insists there's still goals to go for team
