Spice Production in the Desert Set to Reach New Heights in 2024
On Texas State's latest QB transfer acquisition--Jordan McCloud
When is a gift not a gift?
- Baron Harkonnen, ᑐᑌᑎᕮ I (2021)
In the late stages of February, the College Fantasy Football (CFF) community received a gift from the gods. Former James Madison (JMU) QB Jordan McCloud—who finished the previous season as one of the top QBs in all of College Football (CFB) statistically—announced he would be transferring to fill in for Texas State’s QB vacancy left behind by TJ Finley, and later Jayden De Laura, who stopped by campus for a brief spice bath before heading back into the portal.
Fun fact: Texas State university—while not technically being located in a desert (between Austin and San Antonio)—the town of which it is located is called San Marcos, which happens to be the name of an unbuilt luxury resort planned for Arizona called ‘San Marcos in the Desert’.
Its football program is also fertile grounds for CFF production; equipped with a system waiting only for the right personnel to unlock its full potential. The architect of the Bobcats new offence is a man named GJ Kinne, who has been tasked with leading Texas State out of the shadows of the SBC—a conference rife with other deadly entities. Many will remember his WR1 from 2023— Joey Hobert, who returns this season. Hobert is generally selected fairly high in the drafts I’ve seen so far. Soon, his QB will be too.
But first, let us take a closer look at the infrastructure in place.
Coaching & System
The head coach of the program is a man named GJ Kinne— a sociopath who also happens to be hyper-intelligent. Kinne joined the Bobcats last offseason by way of Incarnate Word (IW). He orchestrated a productive offence in the FCS, where his Cardinals produced a QB who threw 60 TD passes, a RB who ran for over 1400 yards on 212 carries, and two 1200+ yard receivers. That’s a lot of production— Raban from House Harkonnen could probably learn a thing or two from Kinne about how to run a commercial operation in the desert.
The QB’s stat line from that year is particularly insane, passing for the aforementioned 60 TDs but also running in another 11 on 132 carries.
Prior to Incarnate Word, Kinne was the co-OC of UCF in 2021. His QB1— a name you may recognize, one Dillon Gabriel, was off to a torrid pace on the year, scoring over 30 points in his first (and only) three games before going down with a season-ending injury. The replacement—another name you may recognize—Mikey Keene, wasn’t quite as effective. Keene finished the year with 1730 yards and a 17-6 TD-INT ratio, while rushing for another score on 35 carries.
Safe to say, Keene didn’t really fit the mold of what Kinne looks for in a QB. Kinne was also only the co-OC of this team, so his influence might have been limited. Still, that’s two for two in terms of QB1 production patterns. Let’s keep going.
Prior to UCF, Kinne got his first shot at calling plays when he served as the OC of Hawaii. In nine games, Chevan Cordeiro passed for 2083 yards, 14-6 TD-INTs, and ran for an additional 483 yards and seven scores on 116 carries. His numbers would have averaged around 24 PPG in four-point passing TD formats.
The OC is a man named Mack Leftwich, who served as the OC under Kinne at IW in 2022, before joining him at Texas State. Before Kinne arrived at IW, Leftwich was the QBs coach for IW from 2019 to 2021. This was Leftwich’s first college coaching job.
In 2021, Leftwich had another name you might recognize— Cameron Ward, now of the Miami Hurricanes, formerly of the Wazzou Cougs. Ward went apeshit that year, passing for 4690 yards and 47 to 10 TD-INT ratio. Ward also rushed in another score and 61 yards on 77 carries. His passing attempts number is the most staggering to me— he attempted 590 passes in 13 games (average of over 45 a game).
Evidently, Kinne thought enough of Leftwich to promote him immediately upon arrival, and then also took him with when Kinne moved to Texas State. This is a pretty gnarly tandem whose QB1s have produced some wicked sick stat lines recently.
QB Jordan McCloud — 6’0, 200
In addition to ‘the Mahdi’ at RB, Texas State’s staff will also have one of the greatest CFF assets in the known universe at QB— Jordan McCloud, by way of JMU. McCloud is coming off a spectacular season, passing for 35 TDs to only 10 INTs, and rushing for another eight scores. He averaged just ~29 PPG last year, despite a few duds at the beginning of the season.
McCloud’s been quite a journeyman in his CFB career, switching teams more times than that of many 10-year NFL vets. He began his career at USF, where he played for three seasons, including becoming the starter in 2019, but never really established himself. In 2021 he transferred to Arizona, where he rode the bench for two seasons. In 2023, he made his move over to JMU, where he finally broke out. Now, in 2024, he is in his fourth program.
The pros here are that he has already demonstrated an ability to execute an offence at a high level, and has also demonstrated his dual threat potential. Bare in mind his previous stop was also very QB-friendly under the QB Whisperer— Curt Cignetti. Personally, I’m surprised that Cignetti didn’t bring McCloud along with him, instead opting for a transfer from the MAC in Kurtis Rourke, but that’s neither here nor there.
Closing
This fit is fantastic from an optics angle, and immediately puts McCloud back into the top-five CFF QB discussion. Bonus points for the fact that he’ll have a strong supporting cast with him via the RB and WR positions. Texas State returns about 64% of snaps on OL, so that’s another plus.
The caveat we should consider though before we start partying in our spice tubs is that there might be static in McCloud’s transition from one program to the next. It’s not a given that he’ll seamlessly fit into the system, even if his skill set appears well tailored for it.
I should also point out that McCloud’s been in CFB for awhile, and only just last year did he become CFF relevant. We’ve seen Cignetti work wonders over there at JMU, so it does raise the question: how much of the success in 2023 was simply due to the coaching staff being elite at developing QBs?
The good news is Texas State plays in the same conference JMU does—the SBC, so the competition doesn’t change. From that sense, the 2024 season should provide a sufficient assessment of who McCloud really is— the journeyman who struggled to see the field at USF and Arizona, or the Pig Baron that he became at JMU. Only time will tell.
Overall, I like McCloud’s profile a lot, and I view him as a QB1 type of player in CFF for 2024, with top-five QB finish well within his potential.
Lead them to Paradise, JM.
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