The blazing Texas sun is out in full force, and the sound of helmets on shoulder pads carried over the practice fields on the first day of fall camp for the 2013 Texas State football team. The steady and loud blast from Coach Dennis Franchione's whistle sounded a welcome respite, and players started to converge on the video observation tower, under which a table is filled with drenched ice towels, cups, water bottles, and coolers. Like a gift straight from the gates of heaven, it's one of the scheduled water breaks during the day's practice.

Senior Tyler Arndt and redshirt freshman Jordan Moore, battling for the starting quarterback spot, talk routes with the offensive coordinator in the background. A clearly flustered fourth string quarterback takes off his helmet and lays it on the ground as his close friend and high school teammate Brice Gunter hands him a cup of water.

True freshman Tyler Jones takes a knee, subconsciously takes a quick sip of the water as he pushes his hair back and confides in the wide receiver, "I'm lost out there, everything is moving too fast." It was a humble admission by Jones that his stellar prep career was over, and he was swimming upstream in a bigger pond. Gunter offers some words of encouragement, but he too is only a freshman and learning as he goes.

A Living Legacy

Erath County is located southwest of the bustling metropolis that is the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, and being the state's leading milk producer, on an average day dairy cows and mesquite trees outnumber people. The town of Stephenville, the county seat, is the type of town that gives the term country a literal meaning. Everything here moves at a slower pace, in sharp contrast to the twin cities 70 miles away.

Despite a controversial UFO sighting capturing the nation's attention in 2008 and the rodeo being a big draw every year, nothing is bigger than the lights from Tarleton State's Memorial Stadium on Friday nights when the Stephenville High School Yellowjackets play at home. Along with agriculture, milk, and five State Championships, Stephenville is a steady producer of quarterback talent at the collegiate level.

Branndon Stewart brought home the first state championship in 1993 and was a consensus All-American, before playing in 11 out of 12 games as a true freshman at the University of Tennessee and battling fellow true freshman Peyton Manning for the starting spot. The next year, Stewart transferred to Texas A&M to finish out his collegiate eligibility. Kelan Luker brought another state championship in 1998, and set a single season state record at the time of 4,697 yards in a season on his way to a scholarship at Southern Methodist University.

More recently, Kevin Kolb from the University of Houston and later the Philadelphia Eagles, and Jevan Snead from Ole Miss (via transfer from the University of Texas) who became a Tampa Bay Buccaneers undrafted free agent signing, carried on the quarterbacking legacy. Both would also gain recognition as Heisman candidates for their respective Universities as seniors.

It was this rich tradition that a young sophomore quarterback was forced to step into when the starter was lost early in the 2010 season. All Jones did was lead his team to a come-from-behind 17 point deficit win that Friday night.

The legend was born, and before the book was closed on his prep career, he had engineered thrilling late game heroics for three years on his way to being 3A Offensive Player of the Year and leading the Yellowjackets to a 2012 State Championship. During the championship game, he methodically shredded El Campo's defense to the tune of 422 passing yards and 5 touchdowns, to go along with 125 yards and 4 more touchdowns on the ground. Jones made sure that Stephenville's quarterbacking legacy remained intact.

Trial by Fire

By the third game of the 2013 season, against Texas Tech, it became apparent to Coach Franchione that the quarterbacking experiment was over. Moore had fallen behind in the rearview mirror. Jordan would eventually leave the team and Arndt was faltering with the spread offense.

During the team's bye week, rumors circulated around San Marcos that Franchione would leapfrog another senior in Duke DeLancellotti and start Jones. Practice was closed, the offense was simplified, and with the season on the line, the reins were handed to Tyler, the true freshman.

Head Coach Dennis Franchione considers he is a steady quarterback mentor, and as such, used the tried and true paradigm that a quarterback's best friend is a solid running game. Behind two workhorse performances by sophomore running backs Rob Lowe and Chris Nutall, who would combine for five rushing touchdowns on the night, the Bobcats upset the 10 point favorite Wyoming Cowboys.

Jones had a steady night, completing 14 of 18 passes for 196 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Not even a four hour rain delay in the game could have dampened his spirits the night of his first collegiate start.

The next game brought a rough welcome to the world of collegiate football when the University of Louisiana - Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns, led by dark horse Heisman candidate Terrance Broadway, frustrated the young quarterback on the way to a lopsided 48-24 loss. The week after that, against the University of Louisiana at Monroe, was even worse. Jones was benched after throwing two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns in a 21-14 loss to the Warhawks and Arndt finished out the game.

Jones would later recall that he felt he was thrown into the fire, and the experiences proved valuable learning tools. But the coaches saw something in Jones and decided to stick with him as starter. They were rewarded with a 6-3 finish and a possible bowl berth if Texas State could win one of the last three games on the schedule.

Fate would not prove to be a willing party to those plans, as Tyler Jones broke his throwing hand against Arkansas State the next week. Although he finished the game, it became apparent that his season was likely over.

Franchione turned to senior Tyler Arndt again to start against Western Kentucky, but with three interceptions in his first five passes and a bowl game berth on the line, Jones was once again called upon to try and rescue the fading post-season hopes. It was not meant to be, and after another demoralizing loss for the Bobcats, his tumultuous freshman season was over.

Flashes of Brilliance

At the start of fall camp for the 2014 season, there was no quarterback controversy in San Marcos; Tyler Jones was back from his broken hand with a year of experience under his belt. The passes were sharper, his demeanor was more relaxed, and his command of the offense was palpable.

Having tasted success and being now in the second full season at the FBS level, the talk below the video tower and the water coolers from the staff and onlookers was significantly more enthusiastic. There was talk of a possible top 25 ranking to finish the season. There was chatter regarding the different bowl games and tie-ins, and the sights were set on a possible at-large berth to a January 1st bowl.

Then the whispers started, and they were comparing ULL's returning Heisman dark horse Broadway with Jones. By this time next year, Tyler Jones could be a Heisman dark horse from the Sunbelt was the consensus feeling. It could have been dismissed as preseason euphoria, especially after Navy delivered the Bobcats a through 35-21 thrashing at Bobcat Stadium. Then Texas State went up against the Big Ten's University of Illinois Fighting Illini.

In a nationally televised affair, the now sophomore Jones gave a preview of things to come when he threw for 336 yards and four touchdowns while adding another one on the ground. Not since 2009 had a Bobcat signal caller thrown for over 300 yards, and the ESPN announcers dubbed him "The Magician." He can beat you with his arm, or surprise you with his nimbleness afoot.

Coach Franchione is known for his "control-the-clock" running teams who play sound defense and special teams. It was telling that he trusted Tyler Jones enough to revamp the offense around him to an up-tempo, spread attack. Against Georgia Southern late in the year Jones attempted 51 passes for 302 yards, and one week later threw 43 times for 300 yards against the University of South Alabama, and Franchione's intuition proved correct.

For the third time in two years, with the season on the line, Franchione had thrown down the gauntlet and trusted the quarterback he had once called a special talent to carry the Bobcats on his shoulders. The kid delivered, and the Bobcats finished the season 7-5 and were bowl eligible for the second year in a row.

All the right pieces

Motivation in sports can come from many different directions, and the 2015 Texas State Football team was handed one reason on a silver platter last December. Coach Franchione summed up the team's feeling when he said at the team's media day "How a team (Arkansas State) that we beat by 17 points gets invited to a bowl game and we don't is beyond me."

Already, Tyler Jones sits near the top of most passing statistical categories in the school's history, and owns the best season completion percentage at 65.4%. Earlier this summer, an ESPN article tabbed him as the 4th best clutch quarterback in the country on third and fourth downs with a similar 65.9% completion rate in those situations. Only USC's Heisman contender Cody Kessler is returning this year that boasts greater statistics.

Franchione, starting his 40th year as a collegiate coach, is a seasoned observer. He understands that it takes a team effort to be able to garner the type of attention that would help individual players in the national spotlight. On offense, he is comfortable with having nine returning starters from a unit that was 31st in the country in scoring, 20th in rushing yards per game, and has four experienced offensive linemen to protect Jones.

Coach Fran jokes that as a freshman, all he could get out of Jones were polite "yes sir, no sir" type of answers. Talking to senior tight end Lawrence White, you get the sense that Jones understands his leadership role now. White says, "He will definitely command all of us to the huddle, or if I'm a little off on a route, he will pull me aside and gently remind me 'hey, we need to work on that a little more'."

Gone is the flustered freshman that seemed to be way in over his head on his second collegiate start against Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns. Tyler Jones doesn't feel pressure anymore - he knows he belongs. When asked how he feels coming into this season, he says his mindset is that he is underrated, both as a recruit in high school, and now in the national conversation.

If you ask Coach Dennis Franchione why Texas State was the first major program to offer Jones a scholarship, long before TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech, Houston or SMU came knocking at the door, Franchione will just say, "It's because he's a winner."

Into the limelight

Now the sun is setting on the horizon behind Bobcat Stadium's luxury boxes on the 11th practice of 2015's fall camp, and a solitary figure is down on one knee on the supercat logo at midfield. Tyler Jones is visualizing his passes and getting ready for 11-on-11 drills.

Coach Fanchione's whistle breaks through the hazy evening air, and the team rustles back to life, break is over. Jones proceeds to surgically run the offense through play after play, occasionally clapping his hands and crossing his legs in a relaxed position when a pass is slightly off target.

What a difference experience and time can make in the transformation from a deer-in-the-headlights freshman watching two interception returns for touchdowns, to an unquestioned, gritty leader who put a scare into the Big Ten's Fighting Illini at their own stadium.

El Campo learned the hard way in the Texas State Championship game that ESPN's insight this year into Tyler Jones being a clutch quarterback is not smoke and mirrors. Deep down Dennis Franchione probably feels vindicated for being the first FBS squad out of the gate to offer Jones a scholarship. For the first time since his days at TCU with LaDainian Tomlinson, Franchione has a bona fide dark horse for the Heisman Trophy candidacy in junior signal caller Tyler Jones.