College
North Texas and Texas State could be case studies in handling the portal era
North Texas Mean Green head coach Eric Morris and Texas State Bobcats head coach GJ Kinne each took vastly different approaches to roster construction in their first year at the program. Now Texas State has a buzz ahead of its home opener while North Texas is statistically the worst defense in football.
Texas State's GJ Kinne and North Texas's Eric Morris are the only two coaches in the state in their first year at their respective programs. But their language in press conferences and the overall outlook of their team's young seasons couldn't be more different.
Deion Sanders ruffled feathers nationally when he took over a 1–11 Colorado program and brought in 68 new scholarship players. But Kinne flew under the radar in San Marcos following the Coach Prime school of thought for a first-year head coach, signing 51 new scholarship players ahead of the 2023 season. Now circumstances were different in San Marcos as Kinne suffered more roster attrition with key players like Dalton Cooper and DeJordan Mask moving on to Power Five programs. Kinne brought in FCS All-American Nash Jones to fill in for Cooper and the likes of Joshua Eaton (Oklahoma) and Shawn Holton (UIW) to help polish up the secondary with Mask gone.
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