TROY, Ala. – Quotes from Texas State head football coach Jake Spavital following the game at Troy at Bobcat Stadium on Oct. 15, 2022.
 
Jake Spavital, Head Coach
On the performance by the Texas State defense…
We that knew it was going to be a low-scoring game. That's the style of play that (Troy has). It's going to be a ball-control type deal. They don't beat teams by scoring points, they beat teams by managing the game. We all thought it was going to be 21-17 going into the fourth quarter. It's going to be a low-scoring game anyway. And we needed to finish it off the right way.
 
The defense put us in a lot of great positions throughout the game and we (didn't) execute with five minutes to go and they run the clock out with the four-minute drill. That's what I'm talking about with where we're at. I don't question the fight. I don't question the effort, ever, with these guys. When we got to the end of the game, they made more plays than we did in those moments. It's frustrating, but I'm always proud of their fight. That's a really good Troy team. I'd say, going into the week, this probably was going to be one of the best teams we face the rest of the year. It's going to take an ultimate test of team football. I thought all sides of the ball had their ups and downs. Defensively speaking, they played extremely well like they always do and we just didn't capitalize off of it.
 
On Troy's defense…
They're very talented. We knew that it was going to be a low-scoring game. That we had to be efficient with what we're doing. Eliminate penalties. Eliminate negative plays. We had some penalties early in the first half. We did respond to get a touchdown at the end of the second quarter. And then we came back and scored on the first drive of the second half which got us into a good game in which we could manage it a little bit more. At the end of the day, they won a couple one-on-one battles, but we made too many mistakes and mental mistakes when it mattered. Especially in the fourth quarter, especially in situational downs. You look at the stat book of everything, it was even across the board, but they made more plays when it mattered. That's a test of them being a good football team, and we got to be better at that, especially in critical moments.