TXST Release
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Ismail Mahdi had 316 all-purpose yards and scored four touchdowns, including returning the opening kickoff for a score, and Texas State staved off a Southern Miss comeback attempt to beat the Golden Eagles, 50-36, on Saturday at M.M. Roberts Stadium.
The Bobcats (4-1, 1-0 SBC) opened up its conference schedule with a win for the fourth time in the last five years thanks to taking a 42-10 lead into halftime. Southern Miss (1-4, 0-2 SBC) pulled within a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, but the Texas State defense got a stop and Malik Hornsby took a quarterback keeper in for a 14-yard touchdown to seal the game with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
The victory lifted Texas State to its best start to a season since 2005 and matched its win total from all of last season.
Mahdi’s big day started with a first for Texas State in 64 years when he returned the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. He became the first Bobcat to do that since Willard Dearing in 1959.
Mahdi finished with 89 rushing yards, 89 receiving yards and 138 kick return yards on 18 total touches.
The two teams finished with 500+ yards of offense, led by Texas State’s 516 on 58 plays.
TJ Finley was 19-of-24 passing with 338 yards and two touchdowns. The 338 passing yards were the most by a Texas State quarterback since Brady McBride had 443 in November 2020.
Finley’s primary targets were Joey Hobert (10 catches, 126 yards, TD) and Ashtyn Hawkins (5 catches, 101 yards). It was the first time since October 2008 that Texas State had two different players with 100 or more receiving yards in the same game.
While the Bobcat defense surrendered 510 yards of offense on 91 plays against, it had two takeaways, two sacks and 7.0 TFLs. Thirty-one different players registered at least one tackle.
After Mahdi helped make it 7-0 on the game’s first play, Brian Holloway quickly returned the ball back to the Bobcats with an interception on Southern Miss’s opening drive. Texas State turned that into points when Finley found Kole Wilson for a five-yard touchdown pass with just over three minutes into the game that made it 14-0.
Texas State scored two more touchdowns in the first quarter – a Mahdi three-yard rush and Hobert five-yard reception – to take a 28-3 advantage into the second quarter.
Southern Miss scored its first touchdown thanks to a roughing the punter call extending their drive to start the second quarter. Frank Gore Jr. capped the nine-play, 75-yard drive with the first of his two rushing touchdowns.
Mahdi added two more rushing touchdowns later in the second quarter, including a 23-yard scamper that capped a four-play, 84-yard drive that lasted all of one minute and 28 seconds midway through the quarter. Of the six Texas State scoring drives, three lasted under a minute-and-a-half.
Coming out of halftime with a 42-10 lead, Southern Miss chipped away at the deficit with a 11-yard touchdown reception by Tiaquelin Mims that trimmed it to 42-16 after the extra point was blocked.
However, towards the end of the third, Texas State felt the pressure of Southern Miss mounting. First, with the ball deep in their own territory, Finley evaded a sack near their goal line and flipped a pass to Mahdi who raced down the Texas State sideline on his way to his fifth touchdown of the night. As Mahdi neared the end zone, though, Jay Stanley batted the ball out of Mahdi’s hands from behind and the fumble went out of bounds in the end zone for a touchback that returned the ball back to the Golden Eagles.
Southern Miss scored on its subsequent drive to make it 42-23, and then got the ball back again when Mahdi fumbled the ball after rushing for 21 yards on the first play of the Bobcats’ following drive. The Golden Eagles converted that turnover into another touchdown to make it 42-29 with 10:47 remaining.
The Bobcats punted on their next drive and then Southern Miss used five plays to go 73 yards in about two minutes to make it a one-touchdown game with a one-yard rushing score by Gore Jr. that made it 42-36 with 6:16 left.
Southern Miss eventually got the ball back on their 12-yard line after a Texas State punt with 3:12 remaining, but the Texas State defense stood tall thanks to a Ben Bell sack that made it second-and-17. Back-to-back incompletions returned the ball to the Bobcats on a turnover on downs, which then resulted in Hornsby finding the end zone. The Bobcats then made it 50-36 with a successful two-point conversion.
From Head Coach GJ Kinne
Opening Statement
“Really proud of the guys. A win is a win. It’s really hard to win in college football on the road against a quality opponent. We started fast, which was the emphasis all week. With the second half, it’s always weird when you’re up that much and you’re on the road. I left some guys in, but we have some guys banged up, so I wanted to make sure they were healthy since I felt the lead was in hand. But that’s my fault. We’ll continue to be aggressive from here on out.”
On possibly running out of gas in the second half due to some guys being banged up…
“It just changes when you don’t have some of your key guys, one or two guys not out there and it changes things. The coaches did a good job, but we just got to learn how to finish. We got to be able to play more than just the starters. Like I said, though, a win is a win. That’s the most important thing.”
On Southern Miss…
“Give credit to them (Southern Miss). They didn’t give up. They played hard in the second half.”
On electing to receive the opening kickoff after winning the coin toss…
“We talked about starting fast. We feel really good about our kick returners. I wanted to get the ball in their hand, and they didn’t something special with it. (Mahdi) is a special player; he really is. We’re excited to keep on building him.”
On Mahdi’s kick return…
“It really set the tone. Any time you can score a special teams touchdown, it excites the team. It gets everyone going. I’m really proud of those guys and the coaching staff and everyone involved in it.”
On the defense’s stop late in the fourth quarter…
“We had some guys really step up. Some big-time players got in there. It was Ben Bell who got the sack – that was a huge play. That’s a good football team, and we were able to get a stop when it mattered. The defense played too many snaps in the second half. We got to continue to let them rest a little bit. On offense, we were scoring fast in the first half, and they were playing up on the snap. The crazy (Mahdi) play that resulted in a touchback. It was one of those weird things. But I thought the defense played really well. The offense played really well at times.”
On Ismail Mahdi and leaving him in after the fumbles…
“He’s a special player, but he’s still a young player, too. He’s still coming into his own. It was kind of a fluke play, but it was a great learning moment for him and for the coaches. He then fumbled at the end, and obviously that’s unacceptable, and he knows that. We have a lot of confidence in Ish, and he’s a big-time player for us. We’ll continue to coach him hard and get him better because we’ll need him.”
Stats To Know
It was Texas State’s largest road win since Sept. 19, 2020 at ULM (W, 38-17).
Ismail Mahdi is the first Bobcat to have a rushing touchdown, receiving touchdown and kick return touchdown in a season since Karrington Bush in 2008.
Ismail Mahdi is the first Bobcat with four touchdowns in a game since Robert Lowe had four rushing touchdowns on Nov. 20, 2014 against Arkansas State.
The win snapped a four-game conference losing streak on the road. It was the Bobcats’ first road win in conference play since since the 2021 season finale at Arkansas State (W, 24-22).
Head coach GJ Kinne became the first Texas State head coach to start his Bobcat career with a 4-1 record since John O’Hara in 1983.
Texas State improved to 2-0 all-time in Hattiesburg.
Texas State’s Standout Performers
QB TJ Finley: 19-24, 338 yards, 2 TDs
RB Ismail Mahdi: 316 all-purpose yards
14 rushes, 89 yards, 3 TDs
1 catch, 90 yards
3 kick returns, 138 yards, TD
WR Joey Hobert: 10 receptions, 126 yards, TD
WR Ashtyn Hawkins: 5 receptions, 101 yards
QB Malik Hornsby: 2 rushes, 17 yards, TD
S Kaleb Culp: 8 tackles, FR
LB Brian Holloway: 6 tackles, INT, 4 hurries
DE Ben Bell: 6 tackles, 1.0 sack, 1.5 TFLs, 4 hurries
Up Next
Texas State continues its start on the road to the Sun Belt schedule with a Oct. 7 matchup at Louisiana. The Bobcats and Ragin’ Cajuns will kick off at 2:30 pm on ESPNU.
