Texas State notebook: Spavital more comfortable with Bobcats' depth

SAN MARCOS — Depth and experience on his roster had Texas State coach Jake Spavital feeling more confident at this year's Sun Belt media days than in years past.

Spavital, heading into his fourth season, is 9-27 at Texas State. He has faced uphill battles with depth since he took over in 2019 but has worked the transfer portal heavily over the past three years. His 2022 recruiting class includes 29 transfers, all of whom are eligible this season.

“I do believe that this is a team with a lot of depth,” Spavital said. “I was looking through our numbers, and we have about 80 guys that have played in college football games. A lot of that has to do with the COVID eligibility freeze and some unfortunate injuries that some of these guys had.

"We have a very experienced team right now, and there is a lot of excitement towards our program. I think there’s a lot of excitement for every school that comes up here about this time of the year, but this is the first time where we feel we have a good amount of depth and we’re in a decent spot as a football program.”

Even though it has been eight years since Texas State finished a football season with a winning record, Spavital’s sights are set on becoming the first coach to take the Bobcats to a bowl game.

“We know we’re not playing up to the standards and expectations that we have set as a program, but these guys are working tirelessly and effortlessly to put a product out there that people are going to be proud of,” Spavital said. “Our expectations are to go to a bowl game for the first time in school history. We’ve only been in FBS football — this is the 10th year of FBS football for our program. Never been to a bowl game. I think that’d be a great deal for our university, to galvanize our university and create even more excitement.”

Sun Belt media days were expanded to two days this year in New Orleans because the conference has added four teams — Southern Miss, Marshall, James Madison and Old Dominion. The East division went first on Tuesday, followed by the West on Wednesday.

To open Tuesday, Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill announced that the conference had "expanded" its deal with ESPN, promising more financial resources, exposure and linear coverage to conference members. The contract wasn’t extended and still runs through the 2030-31 academic year, but it's the second consecutive year in which Gill announced a contract expansion with ESPN during his annual state of the conference address.

“What Commissioner Gill has done shows the structure and the stability and the support of what this conference is all about,” Spavital said. “It shows this conference is in a really good spot and is probably the greatest Group of Five conference right now out there in college football.”

Gill also said the conference supports a 12-team playoff model for college football and that “nothing is off the table” in regards to adding teams.

Recruiting: Brenham defensive back Kaden Watts, the brother of former Texas State team captain Tyler Watts, turned down scholarship offers to accept a preferred walk-on spot with the Bobcats this season. Watts turned down offers from Bethel, Doane, Wilkes and Northwestern Oklahoma State and will be eligible this season but said he's likely to redshirt. Tyler Watts, who also started as a preferred walk-on, caught 102 passes for 882 yards and three touchdowns for the Bobcats from 2015 to 2018, leading the team in receptions in 2016.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas State using the transfer portal to address depth issues