Texas State vs. Troy: Preview & Prediction

Location: Bobcat Stadium, San Marcos, TX

Kickoff: Saturday, November 16th 2:00 p.m. CT

TV/Radio: ESPN+/San Marcos: AM 1300, 930 AM, 89.9 FM. Troy: WTBF-FM 94.7

Series Record: Troy leads the series 8-1

Last Meeting: Troy won 12-7 in 2018

Betting Line: Troy -7, O/U: 60

Both Troy and Texas State stand at 2-3 in Sun Belt play and Texas State actually still has an outside chance at a title shot.

But Troy is able to become bowl eligible this week and look to drop the Bobcats out of Sun Belt contention.

For both teams their strengths will have to shine to get that critical conference win.

The Epic Cycle

For Troy their offense is blessed by Apollo the sun god.

Kaleb Barker has made the most of his senior season by being prolific. With a 67.1% completion percentage he’s already thrown for 2,789 yards with a 24 to 7 touchdown to interception ratio. So far he’s on pace to have a possible top three all-time single passing yardage season in Troy history.

Barker is also on pace to have a high place on the single season touchdown list as well. Earlier this year against Southern Miss he set the single game yardage record with 504 yards in a loss against Southern Miss.

The offense has been chugging out over 479 yards of total yards per game to go along with 36.3 points per game, good for 22nd in the country.

To complement the air attack of Barker is running back DK Billingsley. The 5’11” 207 lbs back has racked up 777 yards and 9 touchdowns. Billingsley has racked up four 100 yard games including the defilement of Coastal Carolina last week for a career high 163 yards alá Achilles to Hector’s body.

A Wine Dark Sea and Wine Dark Uni’s

Tyler Vitt proves that a pass happy, fast-paced offense can work as the sophomore threw for a career high 373 yards and a triad of touchdowns.

But it was Bryan London II, Nikolas Daniels and the rest of the myrmidons of the Texas State defense that kept the Bobcats in the game and allowed a pass happy attack to happen.

In a season where the secondary was at times full of more holes than the plot of Prometheus and the rushing defense was bleeding yards like all the Greeks and Trojans bled on the Turkish soil all those years ago, the ‘Cats defense had a resurgence of prominence in their win last week against South Alabama.

The Bobcats allowed just 164 yards passing and 184 yards on the ground against the Jaguars, marking just the third time Texas State allowed less than 200 yards rushing this year.

Stats aside the Bobcats had many critical stops in crucial situations and were hitting and popping pads.

To be successful they’ll have to ground the Trojan offense enough times to let the Bobcats let loose the juice.

Conclusion

As we see 22 Bobcat seniors strap on their grieves one last time and be sent off after the tumultuous last few years it’s important to remember the sacrifices these guys made to support the program through some of its darkest times.

Many of the these Bobcats saw the most losing in school history but amid the controversy, criticism and regime changes we saw players who became more than just stepping stones. Players such as fan favorites like Hutch White and all-time greats like Bryan London, like many before them, these seniors won’t be forgotten.

On Senior Day gimme the 32-30, Bobcat win.