How Did Jake Spavital Do in His First Year as a Head Coach?

Entering the 2018 season, the Mountaineers had a lot of hype surrounding a senior-laden team led by Heisman candidate quarterback Will Grier. After a 10-3 season in 2016, former West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen decided to finally give up full control of the offense and hired Jake Spavital as the team's offensive coordinator.

This was probably one of the smartest moves that Holgorsen could have made as it allowed him to oversee the entire team, instead of focusing mainly on the offense. Spavital is a young, brilliant offensive mind that had coached the likes of Brandon Weeden, Geno Smith, Johnny Manziel, Davis Webb, and Case Keenum.

Spavital helped lead the Mountaineers to a hot start in 2018 getting off to a 5-0 start and ranking sixth nationally in the AP Top 25 poll. The offense was on an absolute roll and despite a little sputter at Iowa State, West Virginia was home to one of the nation's top offenses.

As you know, West Virginia dropped the final two games of the regular season and lost in the Camping World Bowl to Syracuse. Things were getting a little stale between Holgorsen and West Virginia, so Spavital decided to take a leap and secure his first head coaching job at Texas State.

In his first year strolling the sidelines in San Marcos, things didn't go so well. The team went 3-9 and 2-6 in the conference and also went winless on the road. Texas State has never recorded more than seven wins in a single-season and has only finished better than five wins twice since joining the FBS in 2012. Nor has the team finished with more than three wins since 2014. Winning isn't something the folks down there are used to, which means it will be a difficult program to turnaround.

Despite being an offensive-minded coach, the Bobcats severely struggled on the offensive side only averaging 18.4 points and 203 total yards per game. Spavital's starting quarterback, Tyler Vitt, had a tough year throwing only 11 touchdowns to 14 interceptions in nine games played. Gresch Jensen split duties with Vitt but didn't see much success either throwing six touchdowns and five interceptions.

Things don't look much better in 2020 (at least on paper) as the Bobcats open up the season with SMU and travel to Sun Belt power Troy in early October.

Although things look a little gloomy right now, better days are ahead for Jake Spavital. There's a reason why he was so successful at his previous stops, including his two stints in Morgantown. Whether or not he will make it up the ranks as a head coach remains to be seen.

Do you think Jake Spavital will eventually find success and make his way up the coaching ranks? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!

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