In what in the past has always been a less-than-great practice coming back from spring break, Texas State football returned to the field at Bobcat Stadium and showed last week's time away was just that: last week.
 
"A good practice today," said head coach Jake Spavital. "Ton of energy."
 
The practice had plenty of flair as the coaches structured it to be more of a controlled scrimmage, as opposed to situations and structure.
 
In turn, the Bobcats showed Spavital and the rest of the coaching staff a little more about the makeup of the group.
 
"It's the kind of mentality where you got to push each other and you can't hold back," said Spavital. "There's no pacing through this game. You got to push through it all. These guys have a really good look in their eye, which is great."
 
Spavital took the podium after practice to address the media and was joined by inside linebackers coach Brian Gamble and senior linebackers Sione Tupou and London Harris.
 
A group that lost two to graduation after last season – Markeveon Coleman and Brayden Stringer – the inside linebackers still maintain experience in Tupou but also received a new face to the room.
 
Harris, an outside linebacker last year, has moved to the inside so far this spring.
 
"In looking at our personnel, losing the two seniors last year, (London's) body type, his intelligence kind of lent itself to the inside backer room," said Gamble. "But then having a guy who has been a pass rusher kind of opens up some doors what we can do schematically with bringing our inside backers and creating some different looks for offenses."
 
Gamble noted a few others who have stood out in the first six practices of spring ball at the inside linebacker position, including two returners who did not see the field much in 2021.
 
"Josh Emmanuel has done a really nice job and Kenny Haynes has done a really nice job," said Gamble. "Those are two guys that we were hoping would be ready last year and they just weren't. But they have taken a huge step in the mental aspect of the game. And understanding their assignments and roles. That's going into that 'being one year better.'"
 
As far as newcomers, a junior college transfer from Mississippi Gulf Coast earned the praise from his position coach.
 
"I've been really impressed with (Williams)," said Gamble. "We knew he could play but I've been really impressed with his football intelligence, his football IQ. The guy studies his butt off … how quickly he's picked it up. You see him out there processing it, executing it."
 
For Gamble, while some new faces are getting noticed, it comes down to maintaining a level of stability from last spring. Which means guys like Tupou and Harris can make adjustments even faster this year.
 
"Being a year into it, we can go in with Sione (Tupou) and even London (Harris), even though he's new to the room, and we can speak the same language," said Gamble. "We can install faster. We can correct faster. All of those things happen at a greater rate, which allows them to get better quicker."
 
Full videos of the coaches and players can be watched online at txst.com. Spavital's quotes are below.
 
 
Opening statement…
A good practice today. Ton of energy. Normally this first practice back after spring break is one of the worst practices you have if you go back and analyze all the spring balls I've been through. But there was some pretty good energy out there. We changed the structure of today's practice and did kind of a controlled scrimmage (for) half of the practice. Just to get them back in the swing of what they went through before spring break. I know there's a lot of kids that go home before the weekend, some kids don't do as much. Some people work extremely hard over the break. That's their choice. It's their time to get away from the game a little bit. Overall, we set the tone on Monday about getting this thing back going in the direction we had right before spring break. These kids approached it well. It was a really chippy practice. I think they're kind of anxious to get out there. There were a lot of fights out there today. That's what we've been challenging our kids to do. It's the kind of mentality where you got to push each other and you can't hold back. There's no pacing through this game. You got to push through it all. These guys have a really good look in their eye, which is great. Once we got this going today and got it out of them after spring break and getting the conditioning back. On Thursday, we're compartmentalize our practices and structure it out and do some run game and red zone and blitz pickup. Good to be back, but still got nine more practices to go. I'm really curious to see where this depth chart ends up going.
 
On Sione Tupou coming back after taking part in Senior Day last season…
Sione took that leadership role over. He played at Allen High School. He's been around winning programs, knows what it looks like. It's a very difficult game, especially in that position because you're in a confrontation, a combative fight every single snap. It's a lot of wear and tear on the body. The offseason is long. He's now in his sixth – I think this is his sixth spring ball. He enrolled early. That's a lot of football. We had talks about it and I told him he's always welcome back. I thought those last eight games of the season when kind of just flipped a switch in that South Alabama game, he had a ton of fun playing. It's the most fun I've ever seen him have. I think he enjoys the game a lot. But he understands there's a lot that goes into it, a lot of work. We had a discussion how we're going to take care of his body as best we can. He doesn't need to prove anything to us. He just needs to stay sharp and be the leader that he is. I'm really excited he came back because he has a lasting impression on our defense and whole team.
 
On when Tupou told him he's coming back…
He came in and did the whole thing where he was acting all down. And I was like, 'Oh god, he's moving on with his whole deal.' And then he said he was coming back and I thought it was a joke, messing with me there for a bit. And then we hugged it out afterwards. It was a good deal. He's big on family. He's big on team camaraderie. He's trying to be the first to go a bowl game, the first in this program's history. That's the goal he wants to set for this team. Excited he came back.
 
On Tupou's leadership of the team…
When I got here in 2019, we didn't have very many guys speak openly. We had a couple of them, your Aaron Brewer and Brian London. And there was a couple more here and there. And then Gavin Graham took it the next year. We haven't had this many guys want to vocally stand up and talk. That was something we were kind of lacking last year at some point. And then (Tupou) ended up being the guy that stepped up. I can't tell you the importance of a guy that can lead on the field by example and play hard and have a tone and an edge of just his physical ability to play the game. But also that vocal leadership where people are going to lean on you. And to be able to lead people in the right direction and that's what he's capable of doing. I think that's very tough to replace and very tough to find. You can't just force someone to be in a vocal role. Especially if they may not have the respect of their peers. He's got the respect of their peers and when he talks, they listen. I can't tell you how important that is to have on the team.
 
On where the roster stands today…
There's been a lot of obstacles, you can say, that we've gone through the last two years. COVID and eligibility freeze and transfer portal. I think we've done a really good job at addressing today's time pretty quickly. What we did a year ago the entire country is doing right now. And we haven't had any attrition with recruiting tactics. I'm still planning on bringing in 16 to 20 more guys right now for depth because you never know what's going to happen with this transfer portal. You never know what's going to happen with the eligibility freeze.
 
When we first got here, we were a very senior heavy team. I can't remember the exact number but we lost probably around 40 guys that year. After your first year, you can only bring in – brought in 10 guys that first year, so you just kind of weather it. I always look back at 2019 as a year that gave me the opportunity to see how the Sun Belt is, see other facilities, how other teams are and get through that whole – what do we need to compete at a high level? We needed to get bigger and more depth and I think over the course of the last two years we've gotten a lot of depth. Now we've had a lot of issues with COVID, we've had issues with injuries, and now I think we're one of the more experienced teams in the country, in terms of kids that have actually played. I think where we were at when I first got here to now there's been just a lot of moving parts, a lot of new up to today's time. And I think it's still going to change. I think there's so much more on the horizon that we got to just make sure that our staff and everybody is on the same page in making sure we're doing the things the right way.
 
On what was different about this practice compared to other first practices back from spring break…
I think the approach they had. We challenged them on Monday, talked about how this practice normally goes. The thing that I love about them all is when you bring them into this meeting room, they're attentive. They're leaning up in their seat. They're excited to be here and want to be better. You always be surprised on how many concepts people forget when you go through a spring break. We did some calculated means with them all and I just liked how they were approaching this whole thing. If one guy was going through the motions, one is getting after them pretty good because he's going to have to elevate his play. They're actually making each other better.
 
On how much the defense is going to change this season…
We've added a lot more variety with what we're doing. And that's the 'what-if' plan too. We're in a three-down defense, we're in a four-down defense as well. And we're doing a mixture of all that right now. We're ready for anything. There's a lot of variety of the coverages too and how they disguise it. This is also a time in spring where you can tinker with new things. There's some good additions that they've done, especially on the back end to disguise what they did. The coverages that they do are very unique. It's kind of in that family of what Baylor runs.