Bo's Bits: The “Ties to Texas Are Upon Them” in 2023 SERVPRO First Responder Bowl

By Bo Carter, National Football Foundation

Yes, the “Ties to Texas Are Upon Them” (with apologies to the Texas Longhorns and “The Eyes of Texas”) as Rice and Texas State prepare for the 14th Annual SERVPRO First Responder Bowl on Dec. 26 at Ford Stadium in Dallas.

No less than 59 Texas residents are listed on the Owls 106-man roster to finish the regular season, and the Bobcats line their 115-man roster with 96 youngsters claiming Texas homes. Both primary players’ groups feature dozens of high school phenoms returning to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to compete where several played in postseason playoffs or specialty games such as the Tom Landy Classics, Herbstreit Series and other contests against nationally-ranked prep powers. Many played high school specialty matches at friendly Ford Stadium on the SMU campus.

Some of the better known DFW area standouts for the Owls are CB Tre’shon Devones of Duncanville, LB DJ Arkansas of Denton, DL Joseph Motumbo of Keller, CB Mo Bility of Dallas, QB AJ Padgett of Frisco, RB Quinton Jackson of Fort Worth, WR Landon Ransom-Goelz of Trophy Club, RB Juma Otoviano of Arlington, CB Jeremiah Williams of Dallas, LB Andrew Awe of Mansfield, S Tyson Flowers of Fort Worth, S Plae Wyatt of McKinney and DL De’Braylon Carroll of Duncanville.

Among the Metroplex standouts listed for the Sun Belt Conference-contending Bobcats are WR Ashtyn Hawkins of DeSoto, safety Darius Jackson of Red Oak, RB Donerio Davenport of Mansfield, QB CJ Rogers of Argyle, CB John Blunt Jr. of Arlington, WR Chris Dawn Jr. of Dallas, WR Julian Ortega-Jones of Fort Worth, WR Drew Donley of Frisco, WR Dylan Rhodes of McKinney, S Kaleb Culp of Dallas, CB Amarion Atwood of Mesquite, RB Ismail Mahdi of Murphy, and S Shawn Holton of Fort Worth.

Obviously, Houston-based Rice draws dozens of potential standouts from the talent-laden Bayou City proper and its suburbs, and the San Marcos-area Texas State squad does not have to look far for prospective football talent in the Southwest portion of Texas as their primary talent bases.

Interested Rice quarterback great and longtime Goodyear Cotton Bowl board member Bruce Gadd of Richardson, National Football Foundation chief operating officer and All-Southwest Conference nose guard Matthew Sign of Arlington (now a Plano resident) and several other DFW area leaders cut their football teeth with the Owls and have been pleased with their rejuvenation.

Add to that, Texas State head coach GJ Kinne starred as a high school quarterback in East Texas and later at Texas and Tulsa before gaining a solid array of experience. He has been an assistant coach at SMU (he was acting offensive coordinator for the 2017 Frisco Bowl under then-Mustangs head coach Sonny Dykes – now at TCU), at Arkansas, with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, at Hawai’I and at UCF. He then was head coach at FCS power Incarnate Word in San Antonio (finished with a 12-2 record and made the NCAA semifinals in 2022) before taking the reins at Texas State prior to the ’23 campaign. He did all of this by the age of 35 (which he turned on Dec. 2).

That recruiting savvy and knowledge of all areas of football in Texas cemented Kinne’s solid reputation and has led to even more sterling commitments for the 2024 Bobcats.

It is apparent that these Texas born and bred college football programs will supply an afternoon of true, bulldogging, roping, and maybe even calfing displays on the gridiron at Ford Stadium where the student-athletes have displayed their wares and where the coaching staffs have ample experience and much Lone Star pride on the line. 

For ticketing and additional information, please access Firstresponderbowl.com.

-Firstresponderbowl.com-