TXST FOOTBALL
Texas State Director of Athletics Don Coryell is excited about the upcoming season and the overall direction of both the program and the university including record school enrollment and football ticket sales. He spoke at the Rotary Club of San Marcos weekly meeting held at Texas Roadhouse, talking about the state of Bobcats athletics.
Before talking about the success of the Bobcat athletics program, Coryell talked about the record breaking enrollment numbers the university has had during the current fall semester and spoke highly of Texas State University President Kelly Damphousse.
“We have what I consider to be the best president in the entire country,” Coryell said. “He has been unbelievable for our athletics department and the university. We are going to have over 40,000 students this year, and we have the largest freshman class in the history of Texas State.”
Coryell mentioned the success of last year’s athletic teams that brought a number of conference championships.
“Last year we won the Bubas Commissioner’s Cup, which is given to the best athletics department in the Sun Belt,” Coryell said. “We have 16 sports, and we did well in a lot of them. You don’t win the [Bubas Cup] if you collectively are not doing well. Our volleyball team went to the NCAA Tournament last year and received the program’s first ever At-Large bid, which is really hard to get.
“We won a tournament championship in softball, where we beat the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, who are historically a Top 25 softball program,” Coryell said. “We went to the regional tournament at Texas A&M and made it to the championship game. Our women’s golf team won a conference championship. Our women’s track and field outdoor team were conference champs. The men’s golf team placed third, and our men’ track team placed second.”
Coryell then transitioned into the success of the football team who broke many historical markers during the 2023 season.
“Our team won eight games and won their first ever bowl game,” Coryell said. “If you had a chance to watch it, you witnessed Bobcat history. If you were there in person, in my opinion, it was the best athletic event I have ever been a part of as a Texas State Bobcat, and I have been here a long time. We had over 26,000 fans at [Gerald R. Ford] Stadium. SMU had a pretty good football team, and we put more people in the stadium than they did for the season.”
Coryell went on to say how the bowl game was a success not only for winning but also exposing Texas State to a national audience.
“As part of athletics, we want to drive the brand of the university,” Coryell said. “We want to drive the San Marcos community. During that bowl game on ESPN, we were the most watched sporting event that day with several other bowl games going on. We had over two million people tune in to watch the Bobcats and compete against other state institutions like Kansas and Minnesota. We showed the power of Texas State, and what we can do in drawing eyes to our university.”
Because of the success of last year’s team, Coryell explained how the attention around the Bobcats has now driven up ticket sales to record numbers.
“The buzz around this season is something I haven’t seen in a long time here in San Marcos,” Coryell said. “The community and the fans have been great. Maybe not since 2005 when Coach Bailiff was here as head coach have I seen this much enthusiasm for the Bobcats. We sold over 2,000 new season tickets, which for us is a super strong number. We might end with 6,000 season tickets sold, which is a number we haven’t been able to reach since possibly 2012 when we transitioned into FBS.”
For the upcoming season, Texas State will have seven home football games, the most since making the jump to FBS in 2012. Because of the added number of games being played at UFCU Stadium, it only means good things for the city of San Marcos.
“We have seven home football games this season,” Coryell said. “For us, it is a great way to bring people into town and spend money. We want people staying in the hotels, eating in the restaurants and shopping downtown. We want to be an economic force, drive people here, improve this community and show people this beautiful city.”
Assistant to the Head Coach and former Texas State Head Coach David Bailiff also spoke to the rotary club including a story about his former head coach.
“Coach [Jim] Wacker was my coach,” Bailiff said. “He was an amazing man. Coach Wacker used to always say when someone asks him how many are we going to win this year, he would say ‘People who try to predict the future live in crappy houses.’” Having won both a conference championship both as a player and head coach, Bailiff believes the Bobcats this year can win it again.
“We have high expectations this year,” Bailiff said. “Coach Kinne has done an unbelievable job with his coaches in recruiting. … But it’s an exciting time to be a Texas State Bobcat and be a part of the athletic department. We have incredible synergy with our young football coach, athletic director and a great president. That’s what it takes to win championships.”
Kickoff for Texas State-Lamar is set for Saturday, Aug. 31 at 7:30 p.m. from UFCU Stadium in San Marcos.
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
