On a windy Tuesday in late March, the Texas State offense was up against tough conditions and a feisty defense in practice nine of spring ball.
 
Coming out of an intrasquad scrimmage this past Saturday for practice eight, Tuesday was about focusing on specific parts of the game. And it was clear which side of the ball won the day.
 
"Thought there was a good energy especially on the defensive side," said head coach Jake Spavital. "I thought the defense brought it today… that's pleasing me to watch."
 
With this week being the penultimate one of spring ball, the Bobcat defense had the upper hand. And the offense was challenged coming out of practice on Tuesday to respond later in the week.
 
"That's what you got to experience in spring football," said Spavital. "It's just a grind. You're so far away from actually playing a game. So you're in there just getting after each other in the middle of March and you just got to strap it up and keep going."
 
Inside wide receivers coach Bryson Abraham, entering his third season with the Bobcats in 2022, took the podium with the media after practice. He was joined by wideouts Rontavius "Toe" Groves, Drue Jackson and Demarcus Gregory.
 
The wide receivers group, which features 14 different players in spring ball, has nine upperclassmen and 18 combined Texas State letters earned. Throw in Gregory, who transferred to Texas State from USF but also spent time at Ole Miss, and the pass catchers of the offense are ready to be relied upon.
 
And for a high-flying, Air Raid-style offense, there are a variety of options.
 
"It makes my job easier," said Abraham. "You heard (coach Spavital) say it earlier, a lot of these guys have played football games. So they got the experience. They're not going to have the stage fright. You can trust them to go out there and know what they're going to do.
 
"This is an experienced group, and you need it because this is a receiver-friendly offense."
 
Abraham, a former defensive back at Louisiana Tech, brings a DB mentality to the wide receiver room as he tries to prepare the group for what the other side is going to do.
 
And while his experience plays a role on the technical side of the position, he's starting to see the intangibles surface in his veteran group.
 
"What I'm seeing now is guys step into those leadership roles," said Abraham. "When we're talking about experience – Toe Groves, Chandler Speights, Drue Jackson, Demarcus Gregory – for the most part, there's not a lot of new faces. You start to watch the guys who take over."
 
Groves, who missed some games last year due to a foot injury, has taken his one season at Texas State – along with his previous time at North Carolina – and leveraged that experience into being a leader among the receivers.
 
"I've been really pleased with what Toe Groves has been doing," said Abraham. "Obviously he's had some health issues in previous years, but he's fully healthy now. He's taken over that leadership role. He's been vocal. He's one of those guys I was talking about that pulls guys to the side and say, 'Hey, we need to pick it up.'"
 
Full videos of the coaches and players can be watched online. Spavital's quotes are below.
 
Head coach Jake Spavital
Opening statement…
Wanted to compartmentalize this practice. Focus on certain areas of the game. We got a lot of scrimmage reps on Saturday. We did a lot of scrimmage stuff last Thursday, getting a lot of situational work. But now it's kind of about focus on some things. We did a run-play-action period today. We worked on some tempo stuff as well. Did a lot of red zone emphasis stuff today. A lot of new plays. Thought there was a good energy especially on the defensive side. I thought the defense brought it today. Brought against the offense extremely well. That's pleasing me to watch. I'm really curious to see how the offense is going to respond on Thursday because right now they're getting challenged pretty hard by their coaches. That's what you got to experience in spring football. It's just a grind. You're so far away from actually playing a game. So you're in there just getting after each other in the middle of March and you just got to strap it up and keep going. This is always the most difficult week of spring ball because the light is not right at the end of tunnel yet. You still got another solid week before you can at least look forward to the spring game a little bit. We've got to buckle it up and get some work done this week. That's the challenge. Offensively we didn't make the strides needed but defensively they did a really good job today.
 
On WR coach Bryson Abraham…
Been with me for a little bit now. Love this guy. Love the energy and passion he brings. Played defensive back at Louisiana Tech and was one of their better players that they've had come out of that school, with his production and interceptions. But he made the transition over to receiver. Our strength coach (Damon Harrington) was the one that put me on him because Damon was at Louisiana Tech at the time and ended up talking about Bryson, how he was at Presbyterian at the time as receiver coach. We brought him in and loved him. He's a really good person. Great coach. Taking a lot of pride in what he's doing. Really dives into these players. Fortunate that he is here. His role has increased; he's more of the veteran person on the staff on that side of the ball. He gets to have a lot of input and say on things just being around me for the past couple years. Very familiar with this offense and team and recruiting.
 
On Demarcus Gregory…
Demarcus comes from (USF) and Ole Miss. Had a really good relationship with Jacob Peeler, who signed him at Ole Miss when he was there. Love the approach that this kid has. He wants to be great. He is up here nonstop. (He) and Layne (Hatcher) the past couple months have been up here throwing late at night and watching tape. You got to start kicking them out of this facility because they want to be good. They bring it every day. Fortunate to have DMarc here.
 
On Drue Jackson…
Drue's got an interesting story because he's also a long jumper as well for our track team. He's actually doing dual sports right now. He's a veteran. He understands what he's doing. I think he's gotten better every time he steps on that field. You can tell the confidence in him because he knows what he's doing. He's repping a lot. Looking forward to a big year for him.
 
On Rontavius Groves…
Toe is healthy. He broke his foot last year and had to sit out a lot of games and never really came back full strength. He looks great out there. He's got a savviness and a maturity to him. He's seen it all, done it all. Looking forward to a big year for him because he's coming back for a sixth year due to that injury. He's really pulled on the leadership role of this receiver group because everyone likes him. He's vocal. He works hard and loves what he's doing.
 
On quarterback Brady McBride announcing entering the transfer portal last weekend…
After Thursday's practice (March 24), Brady and I had a constructive talk. Love that kid. Love where he's at. Like just who he is. I want the best for him. We both kind of decided it was best for him to go (into the transfer portal) and there's nothing personal about it. It was a tough decision for him. I'll leave the details of the conversation to me and him. I want the best for him. He's still got a lot of ball left and two more years of eligibility. He's going to find a spot here and be successful. I appreciate everything that he's done for our program and being with me for the three years that I've been here. He's a great teammate, great person. Really looking forward to what his future entails.
 
On preparing for the impact of transfers…
I'm always thinking ahead for the 'what-if' moments. We prepared as a staff in December, January that that could potentially happen. It's part of the game. You have to bring in as many guys as you can. Especially in today's time. You got to try to keep the competition up as high as it can go. We're still looking at planning on bringing in more quarterbacks. That was the plan initially anyway. That wasn't the leading decision to all of it. As a coaching staff, you have to prepare for the worst – if someone leaves or not. That goes with any position. I think the way roster management is right nowadays, you don't know what's going to happen. I feel good about the roster this year. We'll see what happens after this year. You just never know what's going to happen. But you got to prepare for it and contingency plan as much as possible.
 
On the rest of the quarterback group…
(Ty Evans and Tanner Prewitt) have been around this program for a year. So they know how to operate it, communicate it. We just got to keep repping with everybody. That's kind of the focus it's been. Been doing a lot of reps with Ty (Evans) lately. He's just going to keep continuing to get better. Ty had kind of an unfortunate time last year with COVID and was out about a year. He had a bunch of ups and downs last year. But he loves to play this game. He shows up, he works. He tries to get better. Asks a lot of questions. Intelligent questions. He wants to be great. Layne (Hatcher) has been in this system for relatively a long time. It's nothing new to him either. Layne came in, this offense, the communication and operation of it all has been what he's been doing his whole life. He threw for a ton of yards in high school. He's thrown for 7,500 yards and 65 touchdowns in the Sun Belt. So he's played a lot too. I feel comfortable at that position but you still got to keep bringing in guys and developing them because you never know what happens. Injury occurs and the transfer portal is always a thing. Just got to be ready for anything.
 
On Ty Evans…
If you looked at him last year, I thought he had a good spring. And then I thought he had a great fall camp. Then COVID hit. He ended up being out for a long time. And when he came back from COVID, he hadn't played football in at least a month. He was almost out a month. We had to start it all back over. He never really got back into his stride. The frustrations – it's a real thing. You sit out for a little bit and get thrown into the mix. And you're not just exactly where you want to be. In the offseason, I just told him to step away from the game a little bit and start easing your way back into throwing the football. He came back out and looked pretty good at the beginning of spring ball. Now the reps are increasing more. The situations are the thing I got to get him better prepared for. I'm throwing a lot of things at him right now because he's got to be able to handle it. He's finally getting back into swing of things. I'm happy for him because there was some frustrating times for him last year. He's looking good. He's competing at a high level right now.   
 
On Layne Hatcher's biggest learning curve coming into his first spring ball at Texas State…
A lot of things. A lot of new guys – they just don't want to step on too many toes early. I think his work ethic has given him the respect to be vocal in a lot of ways. He's already got that approach. It's also having continuity and trying to figure out wide receivers running the right routes, how the protections work. We might be a little different than what he's had in the past. Maybe there are wider splits or smaller splits. More run game or more variety of the pass games. He's working through it. The more he reps, the more comfortable he's going to be. He already has an unbelievable feel of the entire offense because of his work ethic. He literally meets me up here at 6 o'clock in the morning. Stays up here till about 3 pm. Runs home, eats dinner, comes back up, and he's here till about 10 o'clock at night. He's up here more than most people. He'll figure it out just fine. There's a lot of moving parts, just coming into a new program especially at the quarterback position.
 
On reasons why the offense was outperformed by the defense at practice…
I think the defense is getting more multiple. The defense is understanding more. Typically, at the beginning of any type of – whenever you start up a spring ball or fall camp, the offense is clicking a little bit better. Over time, the defense starts to understand how we do things. They start to understand spacings and splits and all of that so it gets pretty competitive, which is good for us. For the most part, the offense has been pretty solid all the way up to this point. I think it's an eye-opening deal that you haven't achieved anything yet. That's the hardest part is complacency and entitlement. I do think the defense is playing a high level right now. It's going to make us better. What we've been preaching about in our team talks on every Monday, Wednesday, Friday is about making each other better. It's an edger mentality. It's about trying to get the edge on somebody. It's trying to understand everyone is trying to get better individually but collectively we can make them a lot better if you go 100 percent on every single rep that you do. And you understand that it's in the best interest. That's why all these fights are breaking out because we've been trying to make it as competitive as possible but there's nothing personal about it. We're just trying to make each other better. I'm curious on my end how the offense is going to respond on Thursday because we've gotten after the defense, and the defense comes back and responds. Let's see if the offense can bring it back. I think if you can challenge kids and have a standard and expectation of your offense and defense and understand what is acceptable on the next day, you're going to get better as a program.