Positives and Negatives...

Ran a story in Sunday's paper about the positives and negatives of the Texas State football team so far. You can read some of the examples down below and all of it here.

Positives

• The defense looks better — which doesn’t say much considering it was one of the worst in the Southland Conference last season. But Texas State has made a concerted effort to improve. The Bobcats look well-versed in their fundamentals and are tackling far better.

• The additions of new defensive coaches Fred Bleil and Mike Bugar have paid off. They bring 67 years of coaching experience between them to Texas State. Bleil left a Tulane team which limited opposing offenses to 132.6 rushing yards per game. Bugar spent the last six years at North Texas, producing seven All-Sun Belt Conference selections on the defensive line.

Negatives

• The Bobcat defense overpursues the run, which can lead to big gains on cutbacks and counters. During full-team drills, the offense can count on five-to-seven yard gains like clockwork if they run a misdirection.

• Texas State’s secondary, while it has improved with the coaching of Bleil and the addition of Williams, must take leaps, not baby steps in the next two weeks. Will Thompson needs to get more physical at the line of scrimmage. Morris Crosby, while showing signs of breaking out into a lock-down corner, must improve in man-to-man coverage.