The (3-0) No. 6 ranked Houston Cougars will hit the road again in week four, though this one will be much closer to home as the Cougars will make the three-hour trip west to San Marcos where they face off against the Texas State Bobcats at Bobcat Stadium.
Texas State features a new coaching staff that has the task of turning around a 3-9 team from a season ago. Currently sitting at 1-1 the Bobcats will look to spoil Houston's early momentum heading into another short week next week as Houston enters a six week stretch of conference play.
Let's take a closer look at Houston's opponent for Saturday night with the help of San Marcos Record Sports Editor and Texas State Beat Writer Ishmael Johnson who gives us an "Inside Look" at Texas State heading into Houston's week four matchup with the Bobcats.
Coaching - Everett Withers is in his first season as Texas State head coach since Dennis Franchione retired in December of 2015 and comes during a time of complete rebuild. The 53-year-old comes to San Marcos after leading James Madison to back-to-back FCS Playoff appearances in 2014 and 2015 and an 18-7 record. He also served as interim head coach at North Carolina in 2011 where he went 7-6.Although he's coached under the likes of Mack Brown and Jeff Fisher over the course, he hails mostly from the Urban Meyer coaching tree similar to Tom Herman. He served as Ohio State's co-defensive coordinator from 2012 to 2013. A lot of his "core value" talk comes from Meyer and is similar to that of Charlie Strong at Texas.
Offense - Offensive coordinator Brett Elliott is a quick riser in the coaching ranks. He first started out as an offensive quality assistant at Mississippi State under Dan Mullen from 2012 to 2014 before joining Withers at James Madison last season. Elliott runs a style similar to that of Mullen's spread-based rushing attack. The Dukes produced the second-best scoring offense in the FCS. He brings the same system to Texas State, but is having to work with the most inexperienced unit of his career with skill position players (outside of quarterback Tyler Jones) receiving their first season of consistent FBS playing time.
Defense - Texas State is undergoing a dramatic shift from a 4-2-5 to Randall McCray's 3-4. It's a small, but shifty defense with their biggest player being senior nose tackle Dallas McClarty at 5'11, 270. A lot of players are being asked to play a size up from last season, for example: Defensive end Jordan Mittie and Ishmael Davis were linebackers a year ago, and linebacker Easy Anyama is a converted safety. McCray is shifting the Bobcats from a read-and-react scheme to a proactive one where they hope turnovers will generate.
Special Teams - If there's one unit Texas State can hang its hat on, it's defense. Punter and kickoff specialist, Lumi Kaba was ninth in the nation in kickoff touchbacks and 14th in net punting yards (40.38) in 2015. He's booted two out of the endzone this season and has seven punts inside the 20 through two games. Returner Brandon McDowell has the third-longest punt return under his belt after last season's 95-yard touchdown as well as the 2015 Sun Belt Play of the Year after returning a kick-six against South Alabama.
Kickers James Sherman and Marcus Ripley are 3-of-3 so far this season, but Sherman struggled in 2015 going 6-of-10 on extra points eventually losing his spot to Kaba.
Injuries/Suspensions - Outside of freshman Tyler Tutt who missed week one against Ohio with a concussion, no other injuries to report on. I'll get back later with any updates.
Special thanks to Ishmael, be sure to give him a follow over on twitter @IshmaelRJohnson for all things Texas State leading up to Saturday's matchup.
