Texas State Football: Spring Game Provides Insight on QB Room, Team Expectations

After an 8-5 season and a bowl win over Rice in 2023, G.J. Kinne’s Texas State team are a popular pick to win the Sun Belt Conference in 2024. However, Kinne isn’t quite taking the bait as evidenced by his X (Twitter) account, posting a pair of emjois to represent rat poison when quote tweeting an early prognostication of the Bobcats for the upcoming season.

Following his team’s spring game, Texas State’s second-year head coach shed some insight on the motivation behind the message.

“It worked for Jon Sumrall [former Troy head coach], so that’s why I did it,” joked Kinne as he addressed the media at Bobcat Stadium. “It worked for him at Troy and I said okay let’s do it, I’m trying to win a conference championship. I don’t have a too big of an ego to not take something from him, I just want to win.”  

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The Bobcats closed their spring practices by having a session that lasted just over 90 minutes – with the largest storyline being the quarterback competition to replace former starting quarterback T.J. Finley, who transferred to Western Kentucky in the offseason.

Former James Madison starter and reigning Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year in Jordan McCloud is now with the Bobcats and is in competition with redshirt freshman PJ Hatter and true freshman Brad Jackson for QB1 role.

Following the spring game, Kinne provided an update on the quarterback competition.

“We’ve gone back and forth on it to give you a completely true answer, we feel really good about [Jordan] McCloud because he’s done a lot of really great things over his career,” said Kinne.

McCloud led five drives during the session, connecting for scores with wide receivers Joey Hobert and Jaden Williams, while Jackson and Hatter combined to lead five drives.

As the Bobcats enter the summer break, Kinne emphasized that the quarterback competition will continue into fall camp as Texas State looks to earn their second bowl berth in program history and their first conference crown.

“The other two guys are still competing because at that job, you’re always competing. [Jordan McCloud] went with the ones and he’s the guy, but you’re still competing,” said Kinne.