Just when we thought things were looking questionable for Texas State and its quarterback room, G.J. Kinne had another ace up his sleeve.
Kinne reeled in his third QB1 out of the transfer portal in two months. Former James Madison QB and Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year Jordan McCloud will be joining the Bobcats, the program announced Tuesday:
Big time.
McCloud passed for 3,657 yards and 35 touchdowns last season and wasn’t even the Week 1 starter. He added 276 yards and eight scores on the ground. McCloud will be suiting up for his fourth different program. He spent 2018-2020 at USF before transferring to Arizona for two years. McCloud then transferred to JMU, where he found a ton of success and guided the Dukes to an 11-1 regular season record and the top spot in the Sun Belt East — arguably the toughest division in all of the Group of Five.
Now, McCloud will be playing in the Sun Belt West. The Bobcats and the Dukes won’t meet in 2024, but there’s a good chance they can match up in the conference championship game. College football betting odds might have McCloud as the preseason favorite to be the league’s player of the year again.
But what might be as close to impressive as McCloud’s lone year at JMU is what Kinne has been able to do with the cards he was dealt. It wasn’t too long ago when we wrote about how Kinne and the Bobcats had lost two starting-caliber quarterbacks in a matter of eight days.
Texas State landed Arizona transfer Jayden de Laura, forcing TJ Finley to hit the portal. Finley committed to Western Kentucky a week later.
It didn’t take long for there to be backlash among fans and students stemming from de Laura’s situation revolving around a sexual assault case, which ultimately forced him to withdraw from the school. Not only that, but the Bobcats’ second and third-string QBs — Malik Hornsby and C.J. Rogers — decided to also enter the portal.
And just like that, Texas State was without a QB.
The Bobcats don’t just have a QB now, though. They have a reigning First-Team All-Sun Belt player and probably upgraded at the position. It’ll be interesting to see where they sit when the conference championship odds are put on the market. They’re likely to be one of the top two favorites to win the SBW.
It’s hard to imagine McCloud won’t have at least the same success as he did last season. There’s a strong chance he’ll even improve on last year’s numbers leading Kinne’s high-powered offensive attack.
Texas State paced the league in both scoring (36.7 PPG) and total yards (458.5 YPG) last season. They bring back a standout running back in Ismail Mahdi, who was third in the conference with 102.4 rushing yards per game and finished with 10 rushing TDs. The Bobcats also return Joey Hobert, a Second-Team All-Sun Belt selection whose 81.4 receiving YPG also ranked third in the league.
McCloud has the system and the weapons to have a huge season. The upcoming campaign should further prove Kinne’s ability to recruit with the best of them and put his players in positions to be successful like he’s done during his entire head coaching career.
It won’t be long before Power Five offers become too good to pass up.
