Texas State wins 3rd-straight bowl, 41-10 over Rice in Armed Forces Bowl

When the Texas State Bobcats drew their first-ever bowl bid in December 2023, the shelves of the facilities in San Marcos were empty, in desperate need of new decor.

Fast-forward 25 months later, and Texas State more than populated that once-empty trophy case. In year three of the GJ Kinne era, the Bobcats won a third bowl in three seasons — and each victory transpired in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex against American Conference competition. On Friday afternoon, Texas State handled Rice in the 2025 Armed Forces Bowl, boatracing the Owls in 41-10 fashion. After staring down a 3-6 record in mid-November, the Bobcats concluded the season with four-straight victories of 17+ points.

“I’m happy for the players and coaching staff and everyone involved in our success,” Kinne said. “It’s been an up and down year. We started off really well, had a little lull, but I think the way we finished speaks to what we have going on here at Texas State. Super proud of everyone involved.”

The Rice defense presented early challenges for Texas State’s 12th-ranked FBS scoring offense, as the two Lone Star State institutions entered the second quarter at a deadlocked 0-0. However, Texas State eventually found its groove with quarterback Brad Jackson leading the way. The dual-threat quarterback attained 173 passing yards, 52 rushing yards, three passing touchdowns, and ran in his Sun Belt-best 17th rushing score of the year to secure MVP honors.

“Brad’s gonna be very humble, but people forget that this kid’s a freshman,” Texas State running back Lincoln Pare said. “He early enrolled and since he came in the previous year, we knew how good Brad was gonna be. Throughout that ‘24 season, everyone saw it in practice him dotting up our defense. When you have a quarterback who can push the ball down the field and is a run threat, it’s unbelievable. The way he operates, he knows what everybody’s doing on the field at all times. All the guys on offense are good, but we’re nothing without him.”

The spark was provided by Beau Sparks who caught an Armed Forces Bowl record 69-yard touchdown pass from Jackson in the first minute of the third quarter, extending Texas State’s lead to 17-7. Sparks finished with 87 yards, while wide receiver Chris Dawn Jr. joined his teammate in 1,000-yard territory on the season, generating 75 yards and two touchdowns in the commanding win.

“When you have your best receivers and your best players on offense, when they’re that unselfish, you have a chance to be really special on offense,” Kinne said. “They’re just great kids and great football players. It was very important for me to get Chris that 1,000 yards — him and Beau — just because of all the hard work that goes into that, what they’ve put into this program, and they’ve decided to come back.”

Rice produced the third-fewest turnovers in the FBS prior to Friday, only coughing up the ball eight times this year. However, turnovers doomed the Owls in the Armed Forces Bowl by a 3-1 margin. The turnover hiccups started in the second quarter when Rice quarterback Patrick Crayton Jr.’s misfire was returned 44 yards in the other direction by Texas State cornerback Jaden Rios. The Owls fully began to unravel in the middle of the third quarter. Rice fumbled behind the line of scrimmage on three-consecutive plays, and two of those loose balls were scooped up by Texas State.

The Bobcats started three separate drives inside the Rice 40 and two inside the red zone thanks to these turnovers, which served as an early source of their points — with 17 of their first 24 stemming from takeaways. For much of the season, Texas State’s offense shined while the defense struggled, but the defense repeatedly set up the offense for success, forcing three sacks and 13 tackles for loss in addition to the turnover barrage.

“Coaches have just been emphasizing, ‘Just do it for a series,’” Texas State defensive end Kalil Alexander said. “We know we’ve struggled. We were there. It was just that resilience. When you’re down in a season and things aren’t going your way, what are you gonna do to change that around? It was coming together and playing as one. It takes all the little people on defense to make it go.”

Texas State iced the victory to open the fourth quarter, as sixth-year senior running back Lincoln Pare capped his college career with a 63-yard scamper to the end zone. Pare celebrated with the Bobcat faithful in attendance in the midst of his 106-yard outburst, leaving the school as its second all-time leading rusher.

“It’s a blessing to be a Bobcat and be with the guys,” Pare said after riding off into the sunset on his college days. “I got here in ‘22 — last year without Coach Kinne — and Texas State wasn’t known for being bowl eligible and all of that. To be able to be at Texas State and help change the culture at Texas State, and now we have three back-to-back-to-back bowl wins, it just means everything.”

The transfer portal opened the morning of the Armed Forces Bowl, which caused Rice to operate without its top two quarterbacks — Chase Jenkins and Drew Devillier. Thus, the Owls operated under a two-QB system with redshirt freshman Lucas Scheehorn and true freshman Patrick Crayton Jr., a duo which entered the contest with a combined 13 passing attempts and seven rushes. Other than a 54-yard bomb from Crayton to Payton Matthews to set up a Rice touchdown with nine seconds left in the first half, the Owls’ shotgun option offense didn’t demonstrate much explosiveness.

The Owls collected just 195 yards of offense. With the quarterbacks struggling, they relied heavily on running back Quinton Jackson wildcat snaps in the second half. Jackson provided his best efforts with 79 rushing yards, but it wasn’t enough for a youthful Rice offense which started six freshmen Friday.

“Our young quarterbacks struggled and we didn’t really get in a rhythm,” Rice head coach Scott Abell said. “No matter what you’re doing, the quarterback still remains a very important position… I’ve got to put a better gameplan together for them. That’s on me. Obviously I did not do a good enough job putting a gameplan together for PJ and Lucas. I will take and learn from this, and hopefully they will as well.”

Rice (5-8, 2-6 American) remains in the chase for its first bowl win since 2014. The sub-.500 Owls qualified for the postseason due to a lack of available teams but wanted to seize an opportunity and play a high-stakes game to round out Abell’s debut year. Although Rice dropped its third bowl in the last four years, the experience in Fort Worth was certainly worthwhile to the first-year head coach and his players.

“I’d take it again,” Abell said on taking a bowl bid despite not attaining six wins. “The three weeks of practice. And I can’t replicate that moment out on the field today for Lucas (Scheerhorn) or PJ (Crayton). And that’s part of the problem, you can’t replicate that in practice… I would say yes all over again. I think this was a good experience here for our players. First half we were right in the hunt going into halftime. We were battling and making mistakes battling. You can’t play one half though, and those are things our program has to learn.”

Texas State (7-6, 3-5 Sun Belt) celebrated its third-consecutive bowl victory, cementing an era of newfound success under its 37-year old head coach. The Bobcats lit their victory cigars on the field in Fort Worth, basking another signature moment for the young FBS program. The Armed Forces Bowl marked the final time with the Sun Belt Conference patch on Texas State’s jerseys, as the program prepares a move to the refurbished Pac-12 on Jul. 1, 2026 — hoping to keep the postseason wins rolling in a new league.

“Really proud of the guys,” Kinne said. “We’ve had a bunch of really good players, a bunch of really good coaches come in here. To be able to keep it rolling year in and year out, I think we do things the right way. I think we recruit the right type of kids. Now it’s going to the Pac, and I think we have a real chance to continue to make some noise and be a real player going into next year’s season.”