A Decade in C-USA: Football

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EDITORS NOTE: This is the third in a series of stories about the UTSA teams during their 10 year run as members of Conference USA.

Previously in the series: SOCCER | VOLLEYBALL

In the summer of 2013 when UTSA moved to Conference USA it was entering its third season of football and its second football conference.

The Roadrunner football team had played as an independent in 2011 going 4-6 before joining the other sports into the WAC in 2012. UTSA's first season of conference football had ended with an 8-4 record overall and a 3-3 record in WAC play.

Also joining UTSA in transitioning from WAC was Louisiana Tech. Another team UTSA played in 2012 was Rice, in 2012 that game was a non-conference game. A year later Rice welcomed UTSA to Conference USA.

When UTSA football arrived in Conference USA in 2013 the Roadrunners were still being led by Larry Coker. The 2013 team fell one win short of matching the 2012 team as they finished 7-5 overall and 6-2 in their first year in Conference USA. As they were in the third year of their four year transition to FBS, the Roadrunners were not able to play in a bowl in 2013.

Few would have guessed at the time but it would be eight years before another UTSA team won six games in a conference season.

In the Roadrunners first eight seasons in Conference USA they would lose more conference games than they won. The Roadrunners would also make two coaching changes. After the 2015 season Coker was replaced by Frank Wilson. Wilson would make it until the 2019 season when he was fired and replaced by Jeff Traylor.

Coker coached UTSA through its first three seasons in Conference USA, finishing 14-22 between 2013-15. In conference games Coker was 12-12. Wilson got four seasons with UTSA in Conference USA and finished with an overall record 19-29 and 13-19 in conference games. Wilson did lead UTSA to its first bowl game in 2016 (a loss in the New Mexico Bowl against New Mexico). Both Wilson and Coker had identical 7-17 records in their final two seasons.

In December of 2019 UTSA made Jeff Traylor its third head coach in program history and the turnaround was quick. The 2020 Roadrunners went 7-5 overall and were 5-2 in conference. A canceled game at Rice prevented the 2020 Roadrunners from trying for a sixth conference win.

Year two under Traylor became the best season in program history. UTSA started 11-0 and 7-0 in conference play, the best start ever by a UTSA football team. The Roadrunners lost their regular season finale at North Texas but rebounded to win their first conference championship by beating Western Kentucky in the championship game. The 2021 season also saw the announcement of UTSA's move to the American in 2023.

In 2022 the Roadrunners repeated as conference champions with a 10-2 regular season record and an 8-0 conference mark. UTSA knocked off North Texas to walk out of Conference USA with back-to-back titles.

In their 10 years as members of Conference USA the Roadrunner football team was 63-61 overall and 45-34 in conference play. UTSA was 36-25 at home (including both conference championship game victories) and 27-33 on the road (including the 2016 New Mexico Bowl). The Roadrunners were 0-3 in neutral site games.

Traylor finished his three years as a coach in Conference USA with an overall mark of 30-10 and 20-3 in conference games.

There were no shortage of moments for UTSA in a decade as members of Conference USA. In the first season alone UTSA knocked off Tulane, Tulsa and UAB but the highlight of that season came in November 2013 when the Roadrunners held on to beat North Texas in Denton to knock the Mean Green out of contention for the C-USA West division crown. UTSA's win at Denton allowed Rice to wrap up the West title en route to their first outright conference title since winning the Southwest Conference in 1957.

In 2014 UTSA opened the season with a win at the University of Houston on the night Houston opened their new on campus stadium. The game was televised nationally on ESPN2 giving UTSA an early boost.

The Roadrunners brought a large crowd to their first bowl game in 2016, giving a solid blue and orange side of the stadium to counter the red-clad fans of New Mexico. UTSA recorded its first win over a power five opponent when they beat Baylor in 2017. A second win over a power five opponent came four years later when UTSA opened 2021 with a win at Illinois.

That win at 2021 was the first of several big moments for UTSA in what became the greatest season in program history. The 2021 season saw the Roadrunners overcome their largest deficit in a 31-28 win over Memphis and the first division title being won on a last second touchdown from Frank Harris to Oscar Cardenas to beat UAB.

One thing that eluded UTSA in their 10 years in Conference USA was a bowl victory. The Roadrunners are 0-4 in bowl games but one day they will get over that hump.

Harris was one of several notable Roadrunners to play during the Conference USA period. It would probably take another piece to come up with an All-time UTSA conference USA team but among the notables would be Harris, Eric Soza, kicker Hunter Duplessis and Dalton Sturm.

Also notable was Marcus Davenport who parlayed his UTSA career into being a first round pick of the New Orleans Saints in 2018. He was the second Roadrunner drafted after David Morgan II. In 2022 UTSA had two players drafted in one draft when Spencer Burford and Tariq Woolen were selected by San Francisco and Seattle.

As the Roadrunners move into the American it isn't a stretch to imagine that more memorable moments will be seen and future Roadrunners will make their mark in the NFL.

Next in the series: Men's and Women's Cross Country

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