“He's the only recruit that Coach Bailiff and I have had who's asked us if we knew a realtor,” said Wright.
George had a little money socked away from that day in 2000 when the Cincinnati Reds took him in the 12th round of the first-year player draft. A native of New Braunfels, Texas, he'd planned to follow in his brother's footsteps and play both football and baseball at Texas State - just down the road in San Marcos - upon graduating high school.
“It's a small world,” said George, who pitched in parts of three seasons with the Billings Mustangs of the Pioneer League. “Here I am, going back to Missoula, Mont., to play football.”
George, a 26-year-old junior, isn't the only Bobcat who took a circuitous route back to Texas State. Wright, an alumnus, would be another. He was content to be the head coach and athletic director at Canyon High when Bailiff began calling him back to San Marcos in 2004.
“It took him a good month to convince me,” said Wright. “But I finally said, ‘You know what, I want to help this program get turned back around,' and I thought David was the one to do it for us.”
In the 20 seasons between Bailiff's arrival and since the Bobcats' last Lone Star Conference title in 1983 - they won back-to-back Division II titles in 1981-82 - the program had gone 91-129 with just four plus-.500 seasons. In Bailiff's second season, 2005, they went 11-3 and reached the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals.
A year later Rice University started calling Bailiff.
“We were all out on the road and I get a phone call Sunday evening and he's saying that he was one of the five finalists,” Wright remembered. “We'd gone 5-6, and I didn't put a lot of stock into it.”
Bailiff went to Rice. Wright stayed - “I didn't want to live in Houston. I'd done the Houston thing,” he said - and continued the rebuilding process. His first Bobcat team went 4-7.
“We changed some things around in the offseason, last January,” said Wright. “And our kids bought into it, after they stopped hating me.”
Wright is talking about offseason conditioning, but there were other eye-catching changes.
One was to take Morris Crosby, a starting receiver for three years at Texas State, and convert him to cornerback last spring. Another change came from outside linebacker Courtney Smith; he'd moved from offense to defense and back again, and had a total of 45 tackles from 2005-07.
Thus far in 2008 Smith has 103 stops.
“We didn't really know what to do with him,” said Wright. “Is he a fullback? Is he a linebacker? All of a sudden his senior year the lights kind of went on and he's had a great year.”
No Bobcat defenders were first-team all-Southland Conference this season, and Texas State is surrendering 31 points a game. But the offense is definitely playoff ready.
George struggled early, didn't play in the Bobcats' 38-35 win at Big Sky Conference member Northern Colorado and has thrown for 2,382 yards and 24 touchdowns in his last nine games.
Two guys have helped make his job easier. One is Karrington Bush, a sophomore out of Whitewright, Texas, who already has two 1,000-yard rushing seasons to his credit.
“He's from a little old 2-A school in metro Texas,” said Wright. “I don't think he was offered by anybody else. We just thought he was kind of overlooked, and that he was pretty good.”
Another factor is Cameron Luke, a native of Klein, Texas, who in 2005 was playing defensive back at Utah State. Now he's the Southland's career leader in TD receptions with 31. Luke has 16 this season.
“He doesn't look like he's moving that fast, but his biggest attribute is he's physical,” said George. “He's a good, physical, possession receiver. One of those guys who makes a quarterback look good.”
The 2005 Bobcats were a throw-first team, but this team has managed balance while averaging the fifth-most yards in the FCS. Fullback Brent Burton is first-team all-Southland for a second straight year, which means the Bobcats can go I-formation as well as five-wide.
They've thrown the ball as many as 53 times (in a 34-20 loss at Southern Utah that Wright classifies as the low point) and as few as 16 (in a 34-10 win over Nicholls State).
Triggering it all is the former opening-day starter - in 2001 - for the Billings Mustangs.
“I said I was going to do it about five years,” George said of playing pro baseball. “But I was still in A ball and had some arm problems. I'd actually signed up for shoulder surgery and then backed out and came home and got a third and fourth opinion.
“It's never hurt me throwing a football, knock on wood.”
George seems destined to become Texas State's career passing leader; currently he's third with 6,249 yards. The wins came slower than the yards, but the Bobcats are 6-2 since the Southern Utah loss. They own their first outright conference title since winning the Lone Star in '83.
Wright feels at home, and so does George. Just ask his coach.
“Except he's two houses down from me,” says Wright. “Not very smart.”
Up Next: No. 23 Texas State at No. 5 Montana
Saturday, 12:05 p.m. (MST)
Washington-Grizzly Stadium (25,200, Sprinturf)
Mix a 26-year-old former minor leaguer with a coach willing to put down roots at his alma mater and two dynamite skill kids and you have explosive Texas State, winners of four straight.
Location: San Marcos, Texas
Enrollment: 29,125.
Series history: First meeting.
Man in charge: Brad Wright (Texas State, 1981) is 12-11 in his second season as the Bobcats' coach.
Ones to watch:
6 Cameron Luke (6-2, 211, sr., Klein, Texas): Before this former Utah State defensive back came back to Texas, the Bobcats had never had a 1,000-yard receiver. Luke has reached that milestone two years running.
9 Bradley George (6-6, 230, jr., New Braunfels, Texas): After five years of pro baseball George has taken on the mantle of FCS quarterback. Now he's sixth in the nation in passing efficiency, with 25 TDs and just five interceptions.
23 Karrington Bush (5-10, 182, so., Whitewright, Texas): His rushing totals (1,039 yards, 11 TDs, 8.1 yards per carry) are eye-popping by themselves, but Bush has 2,226 all-purpose yards, 980 of those coming on kick returns.
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