GJ Kinne knows the 40 Acres, and he knows what’s coming.
Nineteen years ago, Kinne was wearing a Texas uniform and backing up Colt McCoy every Saturday. A year later, he transferred to Tulsa when it became obvious nobody was going to knock McCoy off Mack Brown’s depth chart. After a few years in the NFL, Kinne eventually moved into coaching and climbed his way to the Texas State job.
Now he’s the head coach of the Bobcats, and Texas is waiting in Week 1 of the 2026 season.
Kinne hasn’t worked directly with Steve Sarkisian, who took over at Texas in 2021, but he’s spent enough time around the program to know what he’s walking into. And he’s been clear about the respect he has for the Longhorns’ play-caller.
"He's elite, s--- he's probably the best out there right now, to be honest with you," Kinne said about Sarkisian's play-calling abilities. "He's so good, has so much experience.
The way he sets up the plays... He's got great weapons at his disposal, and I think this is probably the best group he's had."
That praise came as Kinne was digging into Texas ahead of the matchup, and he didn’t stop there.
"He's got a veteran quarterback with a couple of draft picks at receiver and running back," Kinne said of Sarkisian's depth. "I"m not excited to play him, but I will be excited to go in there on Sunday and watch it, and maybe add some stuff that they do."
The gap in experience is obvious. Sarkisian started coaching in 2000, when Kinne was 12 years old, and has since been a head coach at Washington, USC and Texas. Kinne’s coaching path began in 2017, when he got his first job as a graduate assistant at SMU.
That background is part of why Kinne’s tone matters here. He’s not pretending the Bobcats are stepping into anything less than a difficult opening matchup. But he also sounds like a coach who knows the value of studying a sharp offense up close, even if it means staring straight into the belly of the beast.
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The matchup is not just a tune-up, either. Texas State arrives with G.J. Kinnes fast-moving offense, a returning quarterback in Brad Jackson and key weapons back at receiver, which gives the Bobcats a little more bite than some Week 1 opponents. On the Texas side, Sarkisian said injured players Trevor Goosby and Laurence Seymore are expected to be available, easing one concern as the Longhorns try to start clean before the schedule gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]