Texas State article (long); future threat to NT?

[NT80]

For Texas State football, a new identity

School shed its regional label, then found national success in I-AA

10:45 PM CST on Thursday, December 8, 2005

By JEFF MILLER / The Dallas Morning News

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State stands on the verge of playing for a national football championship for the first time in a generation. Returning to this height has been anything but a steady climb; be warned that recapping the events of recent years could cause motion sickness.

School regents gave their blessing in 2000 to jump from NCAA Division I-AA to I-A, only to see that effort quietly fizzle out. Every Bobcats fan had to restock his game gear in 2003 when the university changed its name from Southwest Texas State in an effort to shed a small-school image. And there was the matter of firing a football coach after only one season – one week before signing day in 2004.

Yet Texas State will host Northern Iowa in a Division I-AA semifinal tonight at Bobcat Stadium, every seat having been sold since Tuesday. The winner will play in the final next weekend in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Such football excitement hasn't been seen here since the early 1980s. Jim Wacker coached ol' SWT to two Division II titles before taking his frenetic approach to TCU. The Bobcats moved into Division I-AA and the Southland Conference in 1987 but never claimed a league championship trophy until sharing this year's title with Nicholls State.

At the center of the swift ascent are two contrasting figures. Denise Trauth stands 5-4, dabbles in aerobics and became school president in the fall of 2002. David Bailiff is 6-3 and not far off the 228 pounds he carried as a team captain and honorable mention All-American with the 1977-80 Bobcats. He's in his second year as Texas State coach, hired after Trauth boldly dismissed Manny Matsakis (and athletic director Greg LaFleur) after Matsakis' one traumatic season.

Matsakis, brought in from Texas Tech, was into innovative motivation. He had players busting boards with their palms and assistant coaches describing how he persuaded them to walk on hot coals.

But one top-level Texas State booster said Matsakis' persona didn't click with the locals. Albert Gonzalez, a local pharmaceutical salesman, said Matsakis was arrogant toward them.

No mending fences

"I told him one time that he was going to have to mend some fences in the business community," said Gonzalez, who attended Southwest Texas in the early 1970s. "His response to me was that he wasn't going to mend any fences. He was just going to build new ones."

Matsakis also worked his players well beyond NCAA time limits and persuaded at least some of them to falsify their version of timecards. Trauth said she was alerted to that in an anonymous letter. An internal investigation confirmed a dozen NCAA rule violations, including some committed under previous coach Bob DeBesse.

Teddy Jones, a senior lineman from Fort Worth Southwest, said players were given punishment exercises for missing summer workouts that the NCAA had mandated as voluntary. He called Matsakis' overall approach brainwashing.

"No one violation was that great," Trauth said. "Some you look at and say, 'How does this merit firing a coach and athletic director?' But when you put them all together, what you saw was a pattern. It was just not acceptable."

The NCAA later placed Texas State on three years' probation starting this season but with no postseason sanctions.

Trauth said there was no way to hold off on the firings until after signing day. The school lost only a handful of commitments.

"We were dealing with a breakdown in integrity with the NCAA violations," she said. "It was important for the university to show integrity itself ... so we weren't deceiving any students into thinking who the head coach was."

Associate athletic director Larry Teis was left as the ranking official in the department to lead the coaching search and immediately targeted Bailiff. They had worked together at multiple schools, including TCU, Teis' alma mater. Trauth and Bailiff made a connection in their first meeting.

"What she asked me to do was get the kids going to class, get 'em doing the right thing," said Bailiff, Gary Patterson's assistant head coach with the Horned Frogs in 2001. "Fill the football stadium. Win games, and graduate 'em."

Gonzalez said Bailiff's hiring saved the athletic department.

"The entire LaFleur-Matsakis fiasco inflicted wounds on this community, on this university," he said. "David was the only person that could have healed those wounds."

Matsakis returned to his home state of Ohio, where he operates a business that works with coaching clinics and sports camps. He said he accepts responsibility for the violations – "some of those things happened; some of them didn't" – and added that the NCAA didn't prevent any member schools from hiring him.

Trauth proudly noted the collective football grade-point average has improved each semester under Bailiff and is no accident. Excitement has spilled over into San Marcos, where the mayor hosted a pep rally at City Hall.

Memorable start

Texas State's playoff opener will be discussed around town at places like Herbert's Taco Hut for years. The Bobcats trailed Georgia Southern, 35-19, with less than five minutes remaining in the third quarter. They then scored the final 31 points behind the spectacular play of senior quarterback Barrick Nealy from Dallas' Adamson High School to win, 50-35. Nealy, who finished fifth in I-AA's version of Heisman Trophy voting, accounted for a staggering 526 yards.

Senior defensive lineman Fred Evans said he isn't surprised at the success in Bailiff's second season.

"The athletes were here," said Evans, invited to the Hula Bowl all-star game. "He just brought the right mentality."

Tonight's crowd surely will scream out the new cheer that followed the school name change, the alumni side yelling "Texas!" followed by the student side with "State!" ("We'd need three sets of bleachers to do that with the old name," Bailiff pointed out.) Trauth will entertain people in her private box above the 50-yard line, extolling football success as a great campus connector that helps increase student retention. And someone probably will pull aside Teis, now athletic director, and ask again about going I-A.

How often is that topic raised? "This year? Every day," he said.

That push began to subside three years ago after the NCAA stiffened its attendance requirements. Texas State is refocused on consistent excellence in Division I-AA on the field and off. The Bobcats haven't had consecutive winning seasons since 1990-91, Dennis Franchione's two-year hitch.

With tonight's game, five of the top 11 crowds at Bobcat Stadium (which now seats 15,218) will have come this season. Improvement and expansion of facilities is just gaining traction in a department that began seriously pursuing major financial donors only six years ago.

"One year doesn't make a trend," Trauth said. "This is all such new territory for us."

E-mail jmiller@dallasnews.com

NCAA Division I-AA football semifinals: Texas State (11-2) vs. Northern Iowa (10-3), 7 p.m. today, Bobcat Stadium, San Marcos, Texas (ESPN2)

BIG CHANGES

It's been a tumultuous decade for Texas State football:

February 2000 – Exploration to move from I-AA to I-A approved by school regents, then aborted.

December 2002 –Athletic director Greg LaFleur hired Texas Tech special teams coach Manny Matsakis as head football coach.

September 2003 – School changed name from Southwest Texas State University to Texas State University-San Marcos.

January 2004 –Matsakis and LaFleur fired one week before signing day.

February 2004 –TCU defensive coordinator David Bailiff hired as coach; associate athletic director Larry Teis promoted to AD the next month.

March 2005 –Received three years' NCAA probation, with no postseason sanctions.

Fall 2005 –Team advanced to Division I-AA semifinals.

[MeanGreen61]

Why the "future threat to UNT" in the title ?

[NT80]

Why the "future threat to UNT" in the title ?

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Sorry if it implied it was in the article, I was just asking the question.

As the article mentions they are making significant jumps out of the regional limelight lately and the next obvious step is out of the Southland and 1-AA. Many on the boards have promoted them as possible candidates for the SBC. They are in our recruiting area and have some momentum right now with the name change and football. That makes them a threat to NT, in my opinion, if they continue. We once were equal or ahead of 1-AA UCF, USF, Marshall, Boise, and Troy. Now?

[Michael Scott]

Sorry if it implied it was in the article, I was just asking the question. 

As the article mentions they are making significant jumps out of the regional limelight lately and the next obvious step is out of the Southland and 1-AA.  Many on the boards have promoted them as possible candidates for the SBC.  They are in our recruiting area and have some momentum right now with the name change and football.  That makes them a threat to NT, in my opinion, if they continue.  We once were equal or ahead of 1-AA UCF, USF, Marshall, Boise, and Troy.  Now? 

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They kept mentioning they are not going to rush anything. Don't look for them to be a threat next year - look out to 10 years from now. That's when will know who got where. If we get the new stadium and raise donors all will be fine. I just don't share the confidence of everyone here that that is a lock.

[DeepGreen]

North Texas had their day in the sun for four straight years. I'll take four NO Bowls over a D1AA semi final game or even a D1AA championship game anyday. Forget about Texas State-San Marcus. By the time they qualify for D1A and are a member of the Sun Belt, NT will already be in CUSA.

[bflan]

North Texas had their day in the sun for four straight years.  I'll take four NO Bowls over a D1AA semi final game or even a D1AA championship game anyday.  Forget about Texas State-San Marcus.  By the time they qualify for D1A and are a member of the Sun Belt, NT will already be in CUSA.

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I can't see that. By the way....each playoff game is like Bowl win. It's like playing four bowls in one year. The atmosphere is unbelievable. They keep getting better and better. There is NO doubt in my mind that TS would have beaten us this year.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

Worst mistake they made I think is changing their name, but either way, I would love for them to challenge UNT. Frankly, playing them wouldn't be a bad idea. Now, if they beat us, that might not be a bad thing either. Might get someone's attention.

[DeepGreen]

I can't see that.  By the way....each playoff game is like Bowl win.  It's like playing four bowls in one year.  The atmosphere is unbelievable.  They keep getting better and better.  There is NO doubt in my mind that TS would have beaten us this year.

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Sounds exciting. Yawn. Why don't you start following Texas State-San Marcos are some other d1AA school. I prefer D1A. BTW, did you attend any of our games in New Orleans?

[FirefightnRick]

Our playoff games aginst ULM in '87, Marshall in '88 and Boise in '94 were NOTHING like a bowl game. Not even close.

Rick