November 6th, 2010
Bobcats bomb in last home game, lose 49-17

Texas State running back Karrington Bush (23) rushed for 108 yards Saturday, but the Bobcats lost by a mile. Central Arkansas won, 49-17, at Bobcat Stadium. Texas State sports information photo.

STAFF REPORT

The Texas State football team laid a monster egg in the first half Saturday and lost its final home game of the season, 49-17, to Central Arkansas.

Afterword, Texas State head coach Brad Wright might have been angry. But he was actually more puzzled. His football team had just come from 24 points behind last week to beat Stephen F. Austin, third-ranked nationally, on the road. Now, his guys were home for the final time this season, and the final time ever for the seniors, and they simply couldn’t block or tackle.

By halftime, the Bobcats trailed, 42-3.

“After a game like we played last week, you can hardly wait to get out and practice and keep it up,” Wright said. ” . . . We don’t have any answer for why the first half happened. We had a good week of practice . . . I don’t know. I don’t have an answer.”

A Texas State defense that has had its good days along with its bad was memorably incapable Saturday afternoon, allowing Central Arkansas to score touchdowns the first six times it had the ball. The Texas State offense and special teams did their share, though, enabling Central Arkansas to score three touchdowns on fields of 50 yards or less. Quarterback Tim Hawkins threw two interceptions, each of which set up touchdowns.

Central Arkansas entered the game ranked 81st out of 117 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams at running the ball with 118.38 yards per game. But that didn’t stop Central Arkansas’ Jackie Hinton from carrying eight times for 102 yards in the first half. At halftime against the Bobcats, Central Arkansas had 178 rushing yards.

“It’s a terrible feeling,” said Texas State senior linebacker Marcus Clark after playing his final game at Bobcat Stadium. “They ran on us every time.”

The Bobcats pulled a little closer in the third quarter as Hawkins threw touchdown passes of 15 yards to Daren Dillard and 12 yards to Da’Marcus Griggs. But the latter only narrowed it to 42-17 with 3:33 left in the third quarter.

The loss mathematically eliminates Texas State from any share of the Southland Conference championship, a possibility that was never so real in light of the Bobcats’ performance Saturday afternoon. Texas State is 4-5 overall and 1-4 in the Southland Conference. Central Arkansas is 6-3 and 3-2.

Playing his final game at Bobcat Stadium, senior running back Karrington Bush ran nine times for 108 yards, remaining third and approaching second place on Texas State’s all-time rushing yardage list. Bush now has 3,126 yards, 79 yards short of second place, with two games left in his career.

Bush rushed for more than 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons. But a knee injury shortened his season last year, and this year he has rushed for 637 yards. Next on the list is Kevin Jurgatis (1974-77) with 3,205 yards, then the all-time leader, Claude Mathis (1994-1997) with 4,694 yards. Bush has carried the ball 456 times in his career. Mathis carried the ball 882 times, and Jurgatis carried it 634 times.