Sept. 10, 2005

Recap |  Final Stats

TEXAS STATE NOTES
Texas State scored on its first two offensive series, marking the quickest a David Bailiff team had jumped out to that kind of lead in his two seasons. Nick Session capped an opening seven-play, 72-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run with 12:11 left in the first quarter. After a Southern Utah fumble, Stan Jones would connect on a 22-yard field goal to give the Bobcats a 10-0 lead with 10:28 to play in the quarter.

Texas State quarterback Barrick Nealy completed 14-of-23 passes for 175 yards and for the second time in his career rushed for 100+ yards. The Dallas native carried the ball 10 times for 140 yards and two touchdowns. He went over the 100-yard mark with his first carry of the second half, an eight-yarder to give him 104 at the time and later finished off the series with a 24-yard touchdown run that gave him 10 carries for 140 yards at the time. All told, Nealy accounted for 315 yards of total offense. Last year against Appalachian State, Nealy rushed for 102 yards on 17 carries.

Nick Session, who played linebacker through the 2004 season, was moved running back during the spring and scored two touchdowns, rushing five times for five yards in the game.

The Southern Utah game marked the first this season for wide receivers K.R. Carpenter and Markee White. Both players sat out the Delta State because of injuries. Against SUU, Carpenter caught four passes for 33 yards while White had two receptions for 27 yards.

Texas State's defense held the Thunderbirds to just 74 first-half yards. Southern Utah did not have a first down until the second quarter. In two games, Texas State has given up just 42 rushing yards.

Quotes
Southern Utah Coach Wes Meier
"You can't take anything away from these guys, they are one tough ball club, they're experienced, they're gonna have a great season I'm sure."

"Defensively, we had a tough time bringing them down, we gave up a lot of extra yards we shouldn't have given up."

"Nealy was big, he really kept the pressure on us all game."

"I give them a lot of credit, but there are things we need to fix, things like not getting the ball carriers wrapped up."

"We could do a better job of opening things up, that's for sure. There are just some days when things just don't go your way, like they did last week."

Texas State Head Coach David Bailiff
"I'm really proud of this team ... obviously there were a lot of good things happening, offensively, defensively and special teams, but I still feel like the best is yet to come. I would like to see us improve (our killer instinct). We've got to have a fourth-and-one mentality. Fortunately, we didn't need it to win the game tonight."

"The defense is continuing to make strides. Out there in the fourth quarter, they were doing a lot of hard things, and having a lot of fun. They had blood on them, they had sweat on them but they were having a lot of fun out there. You've got to have that kind of mentality."

"We have a quarterback that's confident, we have an offensive line that's got an attitude, we have receivers making plays, and we have running backs running hard. We have everyone working together right now."

"It's fun watching this team getting a bit of a swagger about them."