Texas State Bobcats College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Texas State Bobcats Biggest Key: Offense
The offensive line has to be better. The skill parts are there, the yards will come, and there should be more explosion, but the attack has to do a better job of winning on third downs. That starts with giving everyone more time to work.
The Bobcats have size and experience up front, but the line allowed 27 sacks on the year and 7.4 tackles for loss per game. The ground attack has the backs, but the team averaged a mere 131 yards per game.
Texas State Bobcats Biggest Key: Defense
Get pressure from somewhere other than the defensive interior. The Bobcats had a whole lot of problems on D – they finished last in the Sun Belt – and the changes have to come from the front six trying to get behind the line.
Nico Ezidore did his part, but he’s a tackle. He came up with a team-high 3.5 of the mere 12 sacks, and he generated 13 of the mere 53 tackles for loss.
The rest of the line isn’t going to do too much, but that means the outside linebackers and even the defensive backs have to be more disruptive.
That means …
Texas State Bobcats Key Player To A Successful Season
LB London Harris, Jr.
With Hal Vinson gone to FIU, Harris – or one of the other outside linebacking options – has to rise up and be more disruptive.
He didn’t do too much over his first two seasons, but the 6-2, 220-pounder worked on the outside in his first junior campaign and was fine. The 41 tackles in the rotation were nice, but there was only one sack and 1.5 tackles for loss.
Texas State Bobcats Key Game To The 2021 Season
South Alabama, Oct. 9
It’s one of those measuring stick games that Texas State will deal with all throughout the Sun Belt season. There were several good fights and nice performances in losses last year, but the 30-20 loss at South Alabama wasn’t okay.
This time around, the Bobcats open the Sun Belt season up against the Jaguars after getting a week off. There are other winnable home dates against Troy and ULM to play, but the road games are a bear.
Lose, and there’s no realistic hope of pushing for a winning conference season.
– Texas State Bobcats Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2020 Texas State Bobcats Fun Stats
– Penalties: Opponents 84 for 794 yards – Texas State 62 for 597 yards
– Sacks: Opponents 27 for 202 yards – Texas State 12 for 72 yards
– Field Goals: Opponents 18-of-23 – Texas State 9-of-12