Coming into 2025, one question loomed large over the Texas State football team: Could they turn the corner? Coach G.J. Kinne’s first two years marked what looked like the beginning of a new era in San Marcos after back-to-back eight-win seasons and bowl wins.
However, expectations increased in 2025, as Texas State sat atop the projected standings in the Sun Belt. After a promising start to the season, things quickly spiraled downhill for five straight weeks before eventually taking a hard turn back in the right direction and finishing the season with the third consecutive bowl win.
Texas State’s season was anything but smooth. Here is a look back at the Bobcats’ 2025 campaign.
“Rollercoaster”: the word Texas State quarterback Brad Jackson used to describe the Bobcats’ season.
“Obviously, the fluctuation of the entire season, we started great and then we went on a real steep drop for a little bit,” Jackson said. “Just a rollercoaster of emotions and just being able to keep pushing through, ultimately end up the way we wanted it to.”
Jackson’s description of the season certainly is fitting, as the Bobcats started the season 3-1, with the only loss coming against a nationally-ranked Arizona State, in Tempe. Once conference play got underway, however, everything seemed to go wrong.
A 31-30 loss to Arkansas State signaled the beginning of over a month-long losing streak. Following the loss to Arkansas State, Texas State blew a 31-10 lead on homecoming, ultimately losing 48-41 to Troy in overtime. A week later, against Marshall, the Bobcats lost another overtime battle 40-37.
On the heels of a three-game losing streak, Texas State had to welcome the conference-leading and eventual College Football Playoff selection James Madison Dukes to town, a game that the Bobcats were thoroughly outplayed in.
After the beating by JMU, the Bobcats lost their 13th straight game against Louisiana. The main story from that game, though, was the massive postgame scuffle that resulted in 13 total suspensions between both sides. Texas State’s season looked to be in a tailspin.
The Bobcats sat at 3-6 and had to win out to reach the minimum number of wins (6) in order to qualify for a bowl game. The odds of that happening looked slim-to-none, as the Bobcats’ opponent after the UL game was Southern Miss, who was second in the Sun Belt at the time.
At some point between the end of the Louisiana game and the beginning of the Southern Miss game, it appears a switch flipped for Texas State, as it came out and decimated the Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg, 41-14. A win that reset the Bobcats’ course.
“That was the turning point in our season, that Southern Miss game was,” Jackson said. “It just showed us that we can do this, we have the potential to go out and dominate whoever we want to as long as we play a complete game and play complementary football.”
Following the big win over Southern Miss, the Bobcats dominated Louisiana-Monroe 31-14 and fired on all cylinders again the next week against South Alabama in a 49-26 victory to clinch bowl eligibility with a 6-6 record.
Texas State drew Rice in the Armed Forces Bowl with a chance to make it four straight wins to end the season and did just that with a 41-10 route of the Owls.
All things considered, the end of the season went as well as it could for the Bobcats, from nearly being eliminated from bowl contention to blowing out their opponent and winning a third straight bowl game. Texas State had a successful end to the season.
While the team finished strong, had they played the way they did at the end of the season all the way through, things could have possibly looked a lot different. Aside from James Madison and Arizona State, Texas State didn’t lose a game by more than one possession. Had both sides of the ball been clicking, those one-score games could’ve looked much different.
Regardless of the final record, though, Jackson maintains that the end of the season is reason to be excited.
“I think for us, we’re able to see this is the team we can be, we can go out and we can dominate anyone we want to,” Jackson said. “As an offensive unit, when you see the production we have, it’s like ‘holy cow,’ we can score all the points on anybody.”
Texas State head coach G.J. Kinne echoes the sentiment that the future is something to look forward to for Bobcat football.
“Really proud of the way the guys finished, there’s a lot to build off of, talking about the [Pac 12],” Kinne said. “The momentum from three straight bowl victories, we’ve got so much firepower coming back on offense, I think the sky’s the limit. Next year we’ve got a chance to be really special.”
The Bobcats’ final season in the Sun Belt was marked by the highest highs and lowest lows, but ultimately culminated in the program’s third straight bowl victory. The next time Texas State takes the field, it will be a member of the Pac-12. Curiosity and excitement will share the stage about what is to come for Bobcat football.
