We’re in the horrible purgatory between spring ball and media days in the summer when all we can do is pretend to love the NBA playoffs (Go Spurs) and hope that the summer flies by so football can come back. Building the 2026 summer magazine only makes me miss college football sooner. The tour I take to each of the 13 FBS schools helps provide numerous answers, but that doesn’t mean I don’t leave those stops with a few remaining questions. 

As we enter the dog days of summer, here is my top question for each G6 team in the state. We dove into the Power Four on Monday. 

North Texas Mean Green

Question: Who starts at quarterback?  

There are 13 FBS programs in Texas and we know the Week 1 starter for 11 of them. The only two that are relative question marks are Texas Tech – because Brendan Sorsby is under investigation for sports wagering – and North Texas. Neal Brown added Tayven Jackson (UCF) and Chaston Ditta (East Carolina) to a quarterback room that includes redshirt freshman Chris Jimerson Jr., who won a state championship at North Crowley. 

The favorite to earn the start in Week 1 is Jackson, a 6-foot-4, 212-pound senior who has spent time at UCF, Indiana, and Tennessee. He’s started 16 games in his career and that experience is a huge advantage, especially considering that the Mean Green start the season on the road against the defending national champions. Throwing in a young player like Jimerson might be a stretch in that type of environment. Still, it is something to monitor even if Jackson is the Week 1 starter because many people behind the scenes feel like Jimerson is the future. And that future might come during the 2026 season. 

Rice Owls 

Question: Can the defense create more turnovers? 

Defensive coordinator Jon Kay is so desperate for his defense to create turnovers that he made ball skills a priority in the transfer portal. The Owls ranked last in the American Conference with seven total takeaways last year, including only three interceptions. That resulted in a -4 turnover margin despite the offense tying for second in the league with only 11 turnovers lost.

Rice added potential playmakers to all three levels of its defense. Preston Zinter (Notre Dame) and Tariq May (Eastern Washington) are edge players who can help cause strip sacks or force quarterbacks into mistakes. Jesus Machado (Houston) and Austin Harnetiaux (Nevada) are new at linebacker. The secondary added over a handful of new faces, including safeties Koa Akui (Sac State) and AJ Brown (UAB) and cornerbacks Jamir Benjamin (UCLA) and Tariq Watson (UAB). 

Sam Houston Bearkats 

Question: Is the wide receiver room improved? 

No Bearkat accounted for more than 38 catches or 460 receiving yards during a 2-10 season, the first for Phil Longo as the head coach in Sam Houston. Only one player – Chris Reed – registered more than a single touchdown reception and the whole team only caught 12 in 12 games. Some of that was inconsistent quarterback play behind a poor offensive line. But most of it was a lack of talent out wide. 

Longo & Co. feel like every position on the roster was improved through the portal in the offseason, but wide receiver might be the most pressing concern coming out of spring camp. The slot room is mostly known with returners such as Darrick Bledsoe III and Grady O’Neill. But the outside receiver room was overhauled in through the portal and newcomers such as Kyan Berry-Johnson (Wisconsin), Kaleb Mitchell (Utah State), Kamari Maxwell (Austin Peay), Christian Zachary (N.C. State), and Alijah Cason (Holy Cross) are other transfers to watch.

Texas State 

Question: Can Wil Windham fix the defense in Year 1?  

The Bobcats need to allow fewer points and create more turnovers, and head coach G.J. Kinne hired Will Windham to do just that. Texas State was ranked sixth in scoring defense in the Sun Belt last season at 29 points per game but that ranking is misleading. If you account for only conference play, they ranked 13th out of 14 while allowing 33.4 points per game. They allowed 41.2 points per game in six losses and 42.8 while going 0-4 in the month of October. 

Texas State could experience a North Texas in 2025 type jump if Windham can improve the defense in Year 1. The Bobcats will score points with QB Brad Jackson and WRs Beau Sparks and Chris Dawn Jr. still on campus. The defense doesn’t need to be the ’85 Bears or the 2000 Ravens, it just needs to create more turnovers than the 12 they managed last season. 

UTEP Miners 

Question: Is EJ Colson what the Miners were missing? 

No team in the FBS threw for more interceptions than the Miners in 2025. UTEP threw 20 picks in a disappointing 2-10 season in Year 2 under Scotty Walden. Walden searched far and wide for a portal quarterback who is a natural leader with a proven track record of taking care of the football and identified UIW transfer EJ Colson quickly. He was named the starting quarterback after spring ball. Walden said the QB room threw for half as many picks in the spring as they did last year, which he believes is a great sign. 

Year 3 is an important one for Walden, who has brought energy and passion but not enough wins to El Paso. The move to the Mountain West is one that the fan base clamored for but that makes the Miners’ road to a bowl game tougher. The UTEP defense has been good enough in Walden’s tenure despite a revolving door of coordinators. It has been the offense – Walden’s offense – that has let the team down, especially in close games. Maybe Colson helps flip the script. 

UTSA 

Question: Can the Roadrunners fix the road woes? 

The Roadrunners have fallen from conference contender to middle of the pack for one obvious reason: road losses. Jeff Traylor’s program is 10-2 at home in the regular season since the start of 2024 compared to 2-10 in road games. They’ve beaten the top dogs such as Memphis and USF in 2024 and Tulane in 2025, but they’ve also lost to Rice, Tulsa, and Temple on the road over that same period. 

UTSA simplified the offense when it hired Rick Bowie as the new play caller and that should help in the chaos on the road. QB Owen McCown also said that one of the keys to improving away from San Antonio is by bringing their own juice. Road trips in the American include a lot of mostly empty NFL stadiums and that’s led to some flat efforts by UTSA.