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GJ Kinne: The next great offensive mind of CFB?

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GJ Winne

GJ Winne 166

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5 hours ago, Blotto said:

He get the week off last Saturday? 

As great as the playcalling was vs Baylor, is how bad it was vs UTSA.  Incredibly frustrating to watch so many drives go nowhere - 5 drives of less than 10yds and another 2 of 12 & 13.  Hitting a 55y bomb over the top to get to the 7 and then having to kick a 43y FG was brutal.

Should be noted that Kinne doesn't call plays - that's Mack Leftwich.

 

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College football's rising stars: The 30Under30 for 2023


Mack Leftwich, Texas State offensive coordinator (28)
The offensive coordinator of the No. 1 scoring offense in the FCS last season at 51.5 points per game, Leftwich helped lead an Incarnate Word attack that averaged a staggering 7.86 yards per play. G.J. Kinne then took Leftwich with him in his transition from Incarnate Word to Texas State. Leftwich began his coaching career at the high school level via Kyle (Texas) Lehman before arriving at UIW as a graduate assistant in 2018 and eventually forcing his way onto the field the following season. Leftwich also played a huge role in recruiting and developing 2021 Jerry Rice Award-winning quarterback Cameron Ward.
“I got the UIW job last year, I interviewed a couple of people and Mack was a no-brainer,” Kinne said. “He’s a former quarterback, coach’s kid. We come from the same background. He’s really someone when I’m not in the room or if I have to go to an event, I feel great leaving it in his hands. He’s a big-time coordinator and big-time person.”

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Evil Bill Obrien

Evil Bill Obrien 3162

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15 minutes ago, Butch Had Not said:

UTSA is considered a step up from state right? Probably a candidate to replace Traylor whenever he moves on?

Not really a step up at all, only reason it ever would have been considered so is because of Traylor and the UTSA administration being better than what TXST had been able to put together last 10+ years, but the turnover of AD and University President at TXST wipes that out and if Traylor leaves its defiantly a lateral move at best. UTSA doesn't make a really good hire when Trayor decides to try his luck at a P5 gig and think there will be some lean years in SA...

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Evil Bill Obrien

Evil Bill Obrien 3162

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9 hours ago, GJ Winne said:

Areas of improvement include 2nd half defensive execution and ball protection

image.png.f464ab51a18404005ea6a20453386021.png

Yeah this offense does not seem to be very good a protecting a large lead and chewing clock, options currently are keep pouring it on or sweat things out like today. Could have much larger complaints. Defense at least seems to be able to circle the wagons and get that 1 stop when they really, really need it.

Need to get the Malik Hornsby Ice Man/Mr Freeze moniker going, coming in and icing the game running for that last TD was awesome. 3rd straight game Bobcats  have won that Hornsby has the last score.

Mr Freeze GIF

Edited by Evil Bill Obrien
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GJ Winne

GJ Winne 166

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Definitely only do one thing well on offense - go balls out.  Slowing down just doesn't work for us.  I'd like to see the Hornsby package mixed in a lot more, a lot earlier.

Kinda love that we don't even pretend to have a prevent defense.  We're going man free and coming with pressure for 60 minutes and will live w/ the results.  We might go down, but we're going down swinging. 

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GJ Winne

GJ Winne 166

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UH isn't G5 anymore.

I don't think we need to worry about it this year, barring some crazy run where we end up 11-3/12-2.  He's said he wants to stay here and build something, which I realize every coach says, but I have to take him at face value.  I'd like to see us lock him up the way UTSA did Traylor so that he's paid well and we get a nice chunk of change whenever he's inevitably poached by a legit bigtime program. 

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Treefidy

Treefidy 1463

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Went to every game for 4 years while youngest cheered there, it was a beating.  There was only 1 game I can remember where the stands were more than 30% capacity, don’t remember who but maybe against SMU and it might have been 60% full.  

are the crowds better this year?  I know the president has played a HUGE role, he is really into the sports and acts a lot more like the AD.  Gives off a bit of a CDC vibe but with riding a harley on the field pre-game.  

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Evil Bill Obrien

Evil Bill Obrien 3162

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1 hour ago, Treefidy said:

Went to every game for 4 years while youngest cheered there, it was a beating.  There was only 1 game I can remember where the stands were more than 30% capacity, don’t remember who but maybe against SMU and it might have been 60% full.  

are the crowds better this year?  I know the president has played a HUGE role, he is really into the sports and acts a lot more like the AD.  Gives off a bit of a CDC vibe but with riding a harley on the field pre-game.  

Think we had 25K+ for Jackson State a couple weeks ago, closer to 19-20K for Nevada last weekend (me being one of them) and think it being 100 at kickoff may have had something to do with that being a bit lower (also think I saw 5 Nevada fans all day in San Marcos). Feel like if we knock off ULL this upcoming weekend may be coming home to a pretty good crowd on the 14th. Student section was noticeably rowdy against Nevada too which is good to see. 

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GJ Winne

GJ Winne 166

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Yeah, it's been depressing for quite a while, and you feel for the players looking up and seeing maybe 5K in the stands some days - very much like the early scenes in Major League.  The attendance is better for sure - 24K+ for Jackson State and 19K+ for Nevada, and we showed up big in SATX too, giving them their 2nd biggest crowd ever. 

Damphousse does indeed give off big CDC vibes - he's all over twitter and facebook.  The guy is an Energizer Bunny - he's at 2, 3, 4 events every single day.  Super accessible too - I've sent him DMs on twitter a couple of times, and he's replied.  Spoke to him at the alumni tailgate before UTSA and asked him to come by our greek reunion tailgate for Nevada and he did - shook hands, took pics, etc.  Athletic Director came by and actually addressed the whole group (100+).  They're doing a lot to build/rebuild bridges that the university has been ignoring since forever.

Speaking of the motorcycle, one of my friends won the right to lead the team out vs Nevada, and he rocked the Evil Knievel onesie.

image.png.198df218864fc8f209f721c18bae6809.png

May be an image of 12 people, saxophone, trumpet and clarinet

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Evil Bill Obrien

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1 hour ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Kinne needs to go to a place where he has complete control of the roster. The Deion and Kinne 60+ transfers thing rubs some ADs the wrong way. 
 

Coug High would make sense for Kinne, but I’m not sure their president is going to let him process 50 Houston kids. 

Feel like he's at a place like that right now. Also defiantly get the vibe that the University President and AD are both doing everything in their power to get Kinne whatever he needs and not have to tell him "no" on anything if at all possible. Thats the kind of support you can't buy as a coach and really prob gets harder and harder when you move up to "big time" jobs  and the big money donors start getting their hands on things...

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Hank_Hill

Hank_Hill 18450

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2 hours ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Feel like he's at a place like that right now. Also defiantly get the vibe that the University President and AD are both doing everything in their power to get Kinne whatever he needs and not have to tell him "no" on anything if at all possible. Thats the kind of support you can't buy as a coach and really prob gets harder and harder when you move up to "big time" jobs  and the big money donors start getting their hands on things...

Yea I think a fuck ton more money and access to a different tier of player outweighs this. 

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Rickylovesweed

Rickylovesweed 14154

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3 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Kinne needs to go to a place where he has complete control of the roster. The Deion and Kinne 60+ transfers thing rubs some ADs the wrong way. 
 

Coug High would make sense for Kinne, but I’m not sure their president is going to let him process 50 Houston kids. 

I don't think that's necessarily what Kinne will do long-term.

Texas State's roster was complete shit and he had no option but to turn over the roster with transfers. 

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GJ Winne

GJ Winne 166

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15 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

I don't think that's necessarily what Kinne will do long-term.

Correct.  We already have 15 commits for 24, all HS.  The 46 transfers in the 23 class avg 2.25 years of eligibility remaining, so there's cover while the HS kids come in and develop.

 

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Evil Bill Obrien

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15 hours ago, Hank_Hill said:

Yea I think a fuck ton more money and access to a different tier of player outweighs this. 

Probably will eventually, fingers crossed Kinne chooses to stay a couple years and rack up wins in San Marcos then gets himself a good P5 gig instead of leaving sooner for some desperate/bad P5 program. 

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Hook1997

Hook1997 5266

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How come Sam Houston got to go straight to Conference USA and not move Texas State there.  Sun Belt is just teams that should have never been moved up from FCS but so is most of C USA but I’d say it’s a bit better.  That coach definitely won’t be there in the next year or two, he’s moving on. 

Edited by Hook1997
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perfectchaos007

perfectchaos007 6592

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Just now, Hook1997 said:

How come Sam Houston got to go straight to Conference USA and not move Texas State there.  Sun Belt is just teams that should have never been moved up from FCS but so is most of C USA but I’d say it’s a bit better.  

There’s been a clear power shift in the past 5 years or so. The sunbelt is now a step above CUSA

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Evil Bill Obrien

Evil Bill Obrien 3162

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CDC wishes he was this cool:

image.thumb.png.25fb51976fa06caba705ecb336d621a8.png

Trying to find a picture/video from when Coach Chisum did it last year at the App State game (I think) because it looks way more hilarious with her on the motorcycle.

Ill agree its a little cheesy, but students seem to like it and get fired up, no one has crashed the motorcycle yet...so why not

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closetohumping

closetohumping 17379

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2 minutes ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

CDC wishes he was this cool:

image.thumb.png.25fb51976fa06caba705ecb336d621a8.png

Trying to find a picture/video from when Coach Chisum did it last year at the App State game (I think) because it looks way more hilarious with her on the motorcycle.

Ill agree its a little cheesy, but students seem to like it and get fired up, no one has crashed the motorcycle yet...so why not

Is that the Texas st OL behind him?

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Evil Bill Obrien

Evil Bill Obrien 3162

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28 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:


Raising the entrance requirements even 1% is destroying the university. That no neck fire hydrant on the left is not worthy of the Demi thread at all.

eh saw plenty of smoke during a casual walk thru tailgate before the Nevada game, still plenty of talent on campus. Could always be worse... <insert OU_Tranny_Cheerleader.jpeg>

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GJ Winne

GJ Winne 166

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Our RB is pretty badass.  He was at Houston Christian last year, and his main reason for transferring to TXST was that he got to witness Incarnate Word's O putting up 73 on the Huskies in person.  Had 317 all purpose yards and 3 TD on Saturday, and almost had 4, but he got Beebe'd.  Had VY knee down ?? Rose Bowl vibes for a minute wondering if they were going to call it all the way back.  Dude is averaging 9.8 YPC on 50 carries so far.

 

 

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GJ Winne

GJ Winne 166

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G.J. Kinne, Texas State and College Football’s Second-Biggest Roster Overhaul

The Bobcats took 53 scholarship newcomers to Waco and beat Baylor in Week 1. It was the product of a concerted, modern recruiting effort that has Texas State ahead of the curve.

When it comes to transfer portal roster turnovers in Year 1, Colorado has gotten all the headlines. It was Deion Sanders who said he was bringing Louis Vuitton luggage with him to Boulder and that he couldn’t put new furniture in his house without removing the old stuff in regards to a roster restock. It’s worked for CU, which has started the season 2–0. 

But the second-most dramatic transfer portal overhaul this season is in San Marcos, Texas, halfway between Austin and San Antonio, where Texas State and first-year head coach G.J. Kinne took 39 players from the transfer portal and 14 from high school to make for 53 scholarship newcomers (over half the 85 scholarship limit). It may not be Colorado-level in notoriety, but the Bobcats did produce a similarly unlikely Week 1 result by stunning Baylor as a 27-point underdog to win convincingly.

The Texas State story is one of a native son coming home. Kinne grew up the son of a high school coach in east Texas and played at Gilmer High School before going to the University of Texas and eventually transferring to Tulsa and playing for Gus Malzahn. He bounced around the NFL and the CFL before starting his coaching career, which culminated in 2022 with his first head coaching job at FCS Incarnate Word. In just one season, the Cardinals reached the FCS semifinals before losing to power North Dakota State. Kinne flew from Fargo to his new job in San Marcos to begin assembling a roster. He didn’t have much time, and he didn’t have many players either, as the early signing period neared at the end of December.

“I just wanted the job so bad,” Kinne says. “I wasn’t doing a deep dive of their roster, to be honest with you. You know, I’m very confident in my abilities to coach and then—hey, you know, basically, we’ll figure it out.”

He had to sort through a unique situation. While coaching his Incarnate Word team through the playoffs, players who had contributed heavily for the previous staff at Texas State were leaving through the portal, which is a plight common for many Group of 5 programs. In all, 23 players transferred out.

There were hard conversations with some players who didn’t fit what Texas State needed, and an NCAA rule does allow new coaches to cut players from the team while still keeping them on an academic scholarship. Kinne says he felt a responsibility to do right by players he was inheriting from the previous staff that had already transferred once, as it was becoming clear that undergraduate transfers weren’t going to be granted waivers to transfer multiple times anymore.

But Kinne’s new staff likely could have used others who transferred out. DB DeJordan Mask went to play for Kinne’s old coach, Gus Malzahn, at UCF. Defensive lineman Davon Sears went to Oklahoma. Cornerback Jarron Morris went to FAU. Guard Kyle Hergel went to Boston College. Offensive lineman Dalton Cooper went to Oklahoma State, where he started in Week 2. But Kinne also inherited a program that did not feature a significant foundation of developmental bodies because the previous staff had all but eschewed high school recruiting in lieu of taking junior college and transfer players, most notably in 2021 when Texas State did not sign a single high school player in its December or February signing classes. While Colorado’s portal turnover was largely by choice, Texas State’s was by necessity.

Kinne didn’t come in with a plan to portal up quickly—he had holes to fill. There’s a notion that Sanders will spawn copycats who will have to come equipped with their roster turnover plan to interview for jobs this upcoming cycle, but multiple agents told Sports Illustrated they aren’t instructing their clients to take that approach. Rather, they should treat each job on a case-by-case basis as far a large-scale overhaul is concerned, although many acknowledge that around a 20% roster turnover rate is probably the norm moving forward in college football.

Texas State hadn’t had a coach with deep Texas high school football ties since 2015. While the influence of high school coaches can be overstated in many states, everyone understands you have to kiss the ring in Texas, and in some ways it can be foolish not to in such a talent-rich state, especially if you aren’t at a school that can recruit nationally like Texas or Texas A&M. Kinne says the plan is to sign around 15 high school players moving forward.

“I think there’s something to be said for signing the high school kid and developing him from Texas—it just matters,” Kinne says. “Some kid from New Jersey or some kid from Michigan, it’s just different. Texas State is not going to be mean as much as it will to a kid that’s from Austin or San Antonio.”

Many of the transfers he brought in have Texas ties. Kinne joked that when he loads up the portal to see who’s in it the first thing he does is filter by state so he can see which players are from Texas. Four of Texas State’s five offensive line starters came with Kinne from Incarnate Word. The fifth, Brey Walker, hails from just outside Norman in bordering Oklahoma. Out of the Bobcats’ main contributors so far this season on offense: Receiver Drew Donley and tight end Konner Fox are from Texas originally. Wideout Cole Wilson came from Incarnate Word and running back Ismail Mahdi played in-state at FCS Houston Christian. But getting his starting quarterback, former Auburn and LSU QB T.J. Finley, to transfer in required a little bit of a different tact and a cold call because the Louisianan didn’t have any significant ties.

“I was out in New Braunfels, kind of a date night, and you know, I’d had some liquid courage,” Kinne says. “I had [Finley’s] number and called him and just gave it to him straight. I think he got kind of got fired up after that call, to be honest with you. He had a couple other P5 visits lined up. And I was able to say ‘I want you to come to us first, when can you get here?’ This was Sunday. He said, ‘I can be there on Wednesday.’ So we got him here on a Wednesday, and I knew that was key to getting him.

“I pretty much kind of told him like, I see where things went wrong [at] LSU, I can see where things went wrong at Auburn, you know, both of the guys that really recruited you left, so you're with new guys that didn't recruit you and that can happen sometimes. So I think he appreciated the honesty. I think he appreciated the research that I did.”

It may seem like a given to do your homework on a player but it is an oft-underrated skill of scouting football players. Kinne’s multiple stops before becoming a head coach included a role with the Philadelphia Eagles in which he initially worked directly with general manager Howie Roseman, writing scouting reports on Arkansas and SMU players because he’d previously worked there. He also worked with legendary Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland as an offensive assistant, which fostered a “passion” for the evaluation process.

Stoutland is renowned for his adherence to critical factors he looks for in every player and his attention to detail. It helped the Eagles identify players like Jordan Mailata, a former rugby player, in the sixth round and Jason Kelce, the perennial all-pro center, also in the sixth. It also helped in evaluating future Hall of Famer Lane Johnson, who was seen as a reach when the team selected with the fourth pick in 2013. Johnson and Kinne are close friends, and the Bobcats head coach credits both of his stints as a player and a staffer in Philadelphia as exposing him to high-level athletes who were relative diamonds in the rough.

“I’m doing Google searches on every kid, I’m doing deep Twitter searches on every kid on Instagram, Twitter, I’m doing everything I possibly can and talking to as many coaches. That’s one thing about me . . . being in different spots and being in the NFL and being a college like different schools . . . I tend to know someone on staff and I tend to know if I trust this guy or I don’t trust this guy,” Kinne says. “We’re always calling multiple people and, and sometimes, you know, people will tell you the truth and sometimes you have to filter stuff out. Like, can you really play? I think that’s the hardest thing in the portal to figure out . . . is this kid getting run off because he’s really not good? Or is this kid just not a good system fit for them? Is this kid just a ‘he can’t play at OU, but he can play at Texas State?’”

The rise of digital tools like Pro Football Focus and HUDL may make unearthing under-the-radar players difficult, but particularly if you are taking a bevy of portal players, careful evaluation is key. Kinne believes strongly in traits, and you can see it in some of the lanky 6' 7" linemen the Bobcats have who rival the size of many more well-resourced Power 5 schools, including the Baylor team they were clearly bigger than in the Week 1 win. Kinne and his coaching staff are intensely hands-on in the evaluation process, and as the rise of personnel departments are starting to proliferate at the P5 level, Kinne’s a little reluctant to cede evaluation responsibilities to other members of his staff. It’s helpful to be at Texas State and not Texas or Texas A&M, where he might have the ability and the pressure to hire an army of support staffers. His resources are better than when he was at the FCS level and had to use other schools’ logins because they couldn’t afford a PFF subscription.

Kinne’s luggage might not be Louis, but it’s good enough to notch the first Power 5 win in program history, and for a Texas State program that’s had one winning season since coming up to FBS in 2012, they’ll take someone who can fix up the place any way they can get it. 

https://www.si.com/college/2023/09/15/gj-kinne-texas-state-bobcats-roster-overhaul-win-baylor

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Evil Bill Obrien

Evil Bill Obrien 3162

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On 10/2/2023 at 1:08 PM, UnivTex34 said:

IMG_1032.thumb.jpeg.056c34007f780f2e5be04f526c4fa97d.jpeg

 

My brother who went to TXST just sent this to me. He and I are the only ones in our fam that didn't go to Tech. This has to happen for the sheer comedy it will bring me over the holidays.

Tech has to find 4 more wins to even make that a possibility...may be challenging to do if they don't finally win a road game this week against Baylor...

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GJ Winne

GJ Winne 166

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1 win away from bowl eligibility and the most wins for the team since 2014.

Last night was sketchy af.  Finley was overthrowing everyone and when he hit Hawkins in the hands, the ball got dropped (multiple times).  Had to go to a run first, run second, run third offense without our stud Mahdi in the 2nd half.  QB threw a pick 6 with 9 minutes to play that put us down 20-9, and then nutted up in crunch time with 2 TD drives and passes to pull out the W.

Had 27.5K in the stands - most ever for a SunBelt game, and 5th most in history (we've only had the 30K capacity since 2012).

New President and AD have done more to promote and support the team in the last year than the 2 schmucks we had before them did in their entire tenures.

Bye week at the right time.  Need to get some key players healthy and readjust our gameplan to that aggressive offense that boatraced Baylor.

Bobcat Stadium.gif

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