Texas State vs. Southern Miss Recap

by Ryan Marcus
Sports Reporter

The Texas State Bobcats fell at home on Friday to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in a 56-50 shootout to bring their record to 1-2 on the season.

In a game that seemed to go back and forth each quarter, the Southern Miss defense was able to hold off Texas State’s comeback and secure a win. The first and third quarters were dominated by Southern Miss, while the Bobcats took control of the second and fourth.

The Bobcat’s seemed to be holding onto momentum in the third until an inadvertent whistle by the referee called back a scoop-and-score fumble recovery by the Texas State defense. Texas State Head Coach Dennis Franchione was visibly unhappy with the call and received an unsportsman-like conduct.

“Inadvertent whistles should never happen, I think the officials would say that too,” Franchione said.

Texas State QB Tyler Jones, who had a career high 470 all-purpose yards and 5 total TD’s, 310 passing with three touchdowns and no interceptions and 160 rushing yard with 2 TD’s, but it wasn’t enough to get his team the victory. Nick Mullens had 333 yards with 4 TD’s and no interceptions.

Although his performance was impressive Mullens wasn’t the hero of the game for the Golden Eagles. Running back Jalen Richard scored four touchdowns on 237 yards rushing, including two scoring carries for over 50 yards. His final touchdown brought the score to 56-42 with 6:23 remaining in the game. This switched the momentum back to the Golden Eagles and shut down the Bobcats comeback.

The Bobcats will stay in-state but hit the road to take on the Houston Cougars. The Cougars are 2-0 on the season after an impressive 34-31 road win against the Louisville Cardinals.