Texas State football is out to make a name for itself within the vast universe of college football.
The Bobcats may be more than a few paces behind a program like Michigan — the winningest football program and the reigning College Football Playoff National Champions — but they do share an objective: winning games.
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This objective drove Texas State administration to hire G.J. Kinne away from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio to be its new head football coach in 2022. The hire appeared to galvanize the program and student body. The Bobcats won eight games in Kinne’s first season, capped off by a three-touchdown victory against Rice in December’s First Responder Bowl. It was Texas State’s first bowl win since the program moved up to Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS, in 2012.
Transfer portal giveth and taketh
Some college football fans consider the transfer portal – the NCAA’s method for how student-athletes are allowed to leave one school and compete at another level without delay – as another way for the richer or more dominant programs like Michigan to recruit talent from smaller schools like Texas State.
However, during Kinne and his staff’s short run in San Marcos, they were the ones stockpiling players from big-time programs.
Out of the 17 transfers brought in for the 2023 football season, 12 of them previously played for programs like Texas, Oklahoma, Auburn, Houston and SMU.
One of those transfers was Auburn quarterback T.J. Finley who rejuvenated his college career in 2023 in San Marcos. His 3,439 passing yards became a new Texas State record for a quarterback.
Finley wanted to keep the good times rolling with the Bobcats, announcing on Jan. 11 his intention to return for one more season.
However, the Bobcats had another quarterback coming in from the transfer portal, which caused Finley to reassess and eventually enter the portal himself.
Jayden de Laura was set to be Texas State’s 2024 prize from the transfer portal. The quarterback was coming in from Arizona where he had an injury-shortened 2023 season.
De Laura, the 2021 Pac-12 Offensive Freshman Player of the Year, still had plenty of big-play ability. He also had an unresolved civil sexual assault lawsuit stemming from an incident that happened when he was a high school student in Hawaii.
Details of settlement brought to light by University Star
Most media outlets simply covered de Laura signing his letter of intent on Jan. 17 to attend and play football at Texas State. This was not the case for The University Star, Texas State’s student-run newspaper.
“At that point, it was about, ‘How can we pick up the story from there?’… We needed to get the court documents,” Star managing editor Nichaela Shaheen told KSAT.
Shaheen had to start somewhere. She said she assumed that the high school de Laura attended in Hawaii would be somewhere close to the area where the civil lawsuit was filed. She found web stories connected to the incident, which also involved Kamo’i Latu, de Laura’s high school teammate, who recently played football at the University of Wisconsin.
Shaheen then received help from The University Star director and faculty adviser Laura Krantz.
“She [Krantz] was able to get the court documents for us. From there, we had what we needed,” Shaheen said.
Last August, a Hawaii judge struck down an agreed-upon settlement in Dec. 2022 between de Laura, Latu and the victim, citing the figure as “too low.” In the current age of college athletics, student-athletes are able to make money off their name, image and likeness.
“I contacted the lawyer of the plaintiff [the victim], asking if we could be notified when they reached a settlement,” Shaheen said. “On that court docket, there had been 228 logged interactions between the parties. It said that there was supposed to be a meeting this month to reach a settlement. Two hours later, the lawyer responded to my email, saying a statement that both parties have agreed to share.
“We went from being the last ones – we didn’t have anything (written) out about de Laura committing — to being the first ones to report that he had settled the civil suit,” Shaheen said.
Forced fumble
In a follow-up story, Shaheen reached out to the university and Kinne for comment in a story published on Jan. 19.
“First, Jayden never pled guilty or was convicted of criminal charges, and he recently settled a civil case from an incident that occurred in 2018 when he was a minor in the state of Hawaii,” Kinne told The University Star in an emailed statement. “During the recruitment process, our coaching staff visited with several of Jayden’s former coaches from his two previous schools, Washington State University and the University of Arizona, as well as others that know him closely. Each person not only spoke highly of his character but how he has developed into the man he is today.”
After the paper’s reporting, Shaheen said some in the campus community began to make their voices heard.
“There was a protest planned for this Friday (Jan. 26) at 4 p.m.,” Shaheen said. “They were going to protest the fact that they believed that Jayden de Laura should not be on the team. A mother of a Texas State student started her own protest this past Monday (Jan. 22) at 9 a.m. When I interviewed on Wednesday, she had more than 3,600 signatures (on a petition). I believe it affected the community so much that one protest from a parent began and another was set to take place.”
A university official confirmed to KSAT on Jan. 23 that de Laura was “currently enrolled” at Texas State, beginning with the Spring 2024 semester.
The next day, Texas State announced on its website that de Laura withdrew from the university and will no longer be a member of its football program.
It wrapped up a noisy nine days in San Marcos: de Laura and Latu’s civil lawsuit was settled (Jan. 16), Texas State officially announced de Laura’s arrival (Jan. 17), Kinne responded to criticism of the program signing de Laura (Jan. 19), Craig Stutzmann, a lead recruiter of de Laura to Texas State, left for a job at San José State (Jan. 22) and de Laura’s withdrawal from the university (Jan. 24).
Student journalists punching up
The University Star’s reporting is the latest entry of a student media organization beating out national outlets to a story with ripple effects beyond campus.
Two years ago, Stanford University’s student-run newspaper reported on inaccuracies in laboratories overseen by school president Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Tessier-Lavigne later resigned from his post.
Last year, Northwestern University’s student-run paper spoke with former players who alleged hazing practices and a pattern of racism happening in the football program. Those reports led to the university firing Pat Fitzgerald, the winningest coach in program history.
“I think it has to do with work ethic, which is not to say that other outlets don’t have work ethic at all,” Shaheen said. “It’s just that we [The University Star staffers] basically live in the newsroom. … It came from us wanting to give our audience everything that they deserved to know and staying hungry to give them that information.”
Before transferring to Texas State, Shaheen was a student at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi and editor-in-chief at The Foghorn News, the student-run newspaper on campus. Shaheen said the journalism students produce is every bit as vital as the journalism experienced professionals produce.
“As long as you use your platform, and you are reporting to an ethical standard, then you’re a journalist,” Shaheen said. “Just because I’m a student does not make me any less of a journalist than anybody else, given the type of reporting that we’re doing. All that matters is the ethics that you have attached to the journalism that you’re doing.”
“I think breaking stories like this proves to people that all along we are professional journalists. Just because we’re also students doesn’t mean we’re less than. It means that we’re putting power to our words, just like journalism is intended to do.”