Week 2 Football Recap: Running Game Returns to Form

Momentum is building for the 2013 Texas State football season as the Bobcats improve to 2-0 for the first time in eight years following a 28-3 victory against Prairie View A&M.

The Bobcat defense stifled Prairie View Panther offense, holding them to only 43 yards rushing and 181 passing yards with no touchdowns. Although it wasn’t a turnover-fest like the game last week, Texas State bent on a few drives but refused to break to complete the dominating performance.

Senior safety Aaron Matthews headed the defense’s big night as he was responsible for a near interception and a few momentum swinging hits.

However, unlike last week the story of this game was the offense and the return of the ground game. Sophomore running-back Chris Nutall rushed for 132 yards on 8 carries, including a 77-yard touchdown that broke the game open for Texas State in the second quarter.

Head coach Dennis Franchione wanted to make sure the offensive line got credit for their job tonight as well.

“We couldn’t have had a 77 yard run without good up font blocking. We were better. There is no doubt about that. We were better up front.”
– Head Coach Dennis Franchione

Coach Franchione said in the off-season, Nutall would be right in the thick of the running-back workload and that the defense hates tackling Nutall in practice, no doubt a testament to Nutall’s power running style.

Last week the Bobcats showed that this could be a special season for Texas State football and they backed that sentiment this week by improving to 2-0 as they head into a bye week, then onto Lubbock, Texas to take on Texas Tech.
Game Notes:

• What did I say about Chris Nutall last week? Yup.
• The play-calling on offense definitely opened up. Still conservative at times but that’s simply vintage Franchione.
• Senior QB Tyler Arndt earned the starting job last week. He solidified it this week with another good performance.
• Look for a much closer score vs Texas Tech after this bye week. The team as a whole is more ready for a quality FBS opponent.