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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/RiffRamBahZoo on 2023-12-27 17:26:55.

By J.D. Moore

When Kelly Damphousse interviewed in 2021 for the position of Texas State president, he had a clear favorite priority on his immediate to-do list: “Fix Football.”

The premise was simple enough. Texas State hadn’t had a winning season since 2014, and had never been invited to a bowl game since transitioning to the FBS level in 2012. A winning program, as Dr. Damphousse saw at Oklahoma and Arkansas State, engages alumni and donors, improves campus life, and helps build up retention rates.

And under a full moon in Dallas with a record crowd in Gerald J. Ford Stadium that drank the stadium dry, the Texas State Bobcats won their first-ever bowl game in program history, beating the Rice Owls 45-21.

Consider the program well on the way to being fixed.

Led by a strong ground game and a ballhawk-filled defense, the Bobcats controlled the entire game and never trailed the Owls. Bobcats RB Jahmyl Jeter scored three rushing touchdowns and and RB Ismail Mahdi gained 127 yards on the ground, but the shining moment of the offense came in the form of a Big Man TD.

Texas State’s offense exploded at the start of the second half with a trick play they called “Golden Bear” – resulting in 6’5, 320-pound offensive lineman Nash Jones barreling into the end zone.

“I’ve been waiting forever for it,” said Jones, who said the play had been practiced for months ahead of its deployment. “There was a 50 percent chance of it getting called. I knew they called it, and I went nuts.”

Less than two minutes later, the Bobcats defense put the game out of reach for the Owls. Linebacker and eventual game MVP Brian Holloway secured his second pick six of the night, taking the rock 48 yards back for the TD. Rice’s offense, seemingly falling to cramps and poor conditioning for most of the game, would never score again.

“I’m pretty fast; I knew I was gonna score,” Holloway said about his pick sixes while also praising his teammates for setting quality blocks for him. Holloway, who called the game a “full circle moment,” originally played at SMU before becoming one of the 50+ transfers who made it to TXST this offseason.

Those transfer players – now calling themselves a family – began smoking cigars on the field following their bowl game, which is now the expectation for head coach G.J. Kinne. The university is in the middle of its “Run to R1” campaign, just secured a new multi-billion-dollar endowment from the Texas Legislature, and wants a football program to match its new academic successes.

At an alumni tailgate before the game, Texas State athletic director Don Coryell made his expectations clear for his “fixed” football program – more NIL opportunities for his players, more season tickets purchased by fans, and more member sign-ups for the Bobcat Club. Why?

Because next year, Coryell, Damphousse, and the rest of Texas State’s administration expects Texas State to be competing for Sun Belt conference championship and the G5 spot in the expanded playoff system. Kinne is up for the challenge, saying his next steps include winning more bowl games and getting in the national conversation for conference championships.

“When I took the job, they always talked about the sleeping giant,” Kinne said. “The sleeping giant is awake. This is just the beginning.”