April 10, 2008

San Marcos, Texas - The Texas State football team will play its annual Maroon-Gold Spring game this Saturday night on the Jim Wacker Field at Bobcat Stadium. The Game will kickoff at 6:00 p.m.

The Bobcats held a spirited practice in full pads Thursday afternoon at the Texas State practice fields. It is the final practice this spring for the Bobcats, who are looking to improve last season's 4-7 record.

Second-year head coach Brad Wright has been pleased with his team's hard work and improvement on defense this spring.

"Obviously with a new defensive coordinator and new defensive package we started at ground zero," Wright said. "We have come a long way the last month and made some big strides on the defensive side of the ball. The lights have started to come on for most of the players during the last week, and we feel like we have a good foundation to come back into fall camp. We have a long ways to go to become a real good football team, but we are going in the right direction defensively."

Wright added veteran defensive coach Fred Bleil as his new defensive coordinator and safeties coach. Bliel came to Texas State after coaching linebackers at Tulane last season, and serving as a defensive coordinator at North Texas, New Mexico and Utah State during his career. He also spent time as a secondary coach at San Diego State and was the head coach at New Mexico Highlands.

In addition to his team's improved defensive play, Wright also pointed out that his offensive players have continued their improvement in their second year in their wide open attack.

"It's like anything else you do in life, the more you do the better you become at doing it," Wright said. "Last year, everything was brand new like it is for our defensive players this year. But, we have been practicing good habits, which will become permanent. That has been the goal of this spring and I think that is something we have accomplished."