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When all is said and done on the 2021 UTSA football season there might be a few games that will immediately spring to mind for Roadrunner fans. One of those games will likely be the game that occurred in the Alamodome on November 13. The Roadrunners had to dig deep and hold off a game Southern Miss team for a 27-17 victory.

On a cool November day, the Roadrunners returned to the Alamodome with their record still unblemished after a month away from home in which they had won their two road games by nearly 30 points on each occasion. With a 1-8 Southern Miss Golden Eagles coming to town it appeared ready made for another runaway for UTSA.

It turned out to be anything but. UTSA had to scratch and claw with a Southern Miss team that looked the part of perfect season spoiler for much of the afternoon. For Roadrunner fans of a certain age there must have been flashbacks at times to that second ever game when UTSA lost to McMurry. If UTSA had lost to Southern Miss it would have joined that second game in the ignominious portion of UTSA football history.

Instead the Roadrunners were able to get a couple of late turnovers and convert those into 10 points for the margin of victory. In doing so they sent most of the 30,105 who had made their way into the Alamodome home happy. It might not have been the prettiest win for the Roadrunners this season but the Traylor Park Kids didn't seem to mind.

"Y'all call them ugly. We just call them wins," UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said. "I understand the perspective of its an ugly win but there is no such thing as an ugly win. They are all beautiful to me."

After UTSA won the opening toss and deferred their option to the second half Southern Miss received the opening kickoff. When the Golden Eagles offense came out on the field they had their star running back, Frank Gore Jr. in at quarterback. That would be their strategy on offense for the entire afternoon until Gore had to leave the game with an injury.

The noise of the Roadrunner crowd also affected the Golden Eagles as they had several false start penalties on the afternoon and had to use all three of their first half timeouts at times where the crowd noise was making it difficult to get plays off. It should be noted they took a lot of delay of game penalties which seemed to be an example of gamesmanship in trying to keep UTSA's offense off the field.

"All those penalties were allowing them to get 40 more seconds so they would take 40, snap it on one (or) get a penalty and get 40 more seconds," Traylor said. "They were getting a minute and a half every time they were snapping the ball when you get that many penalties. Our defense found a way."

Whatever the Golden Eagles were doing on offense allowed them to keep the ball for 37:14 of the game compared to UTSA's 22:46.

That lack of time of possession possibly played a role into why the Roadrunner offense seemed to struggle for much of the afternoon. UTSA managed only 143 yards rushing and 227 yards passing.

"As an offense we didn't play up to our standard and that's not acceptable," UTSA quarterback Frank Harris said. "They are a good defense but I think it was a lot of self-inflicted wounds. I don't know what it is but we are going to figure it out on Tuesday."

Harris finished the night completing 17-of-30 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions, including a pick-six in the third quarter.

Sincere McCormick finished with 90 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown. Two Hunter Duplessis field goals accounted for the rest of the scoring for UTSA.

All of that was to come later. As far as the first quarter was concerned points were non-existent. For one thing, for all the flash of the Golden Eagles offense they seemed allergic to the end zone in the first quarter.

"Regardless of what their record is they are a great team," UTSA safety Rashad Wisdom said. "We were able to play all four quarters but the first three were definitely a struggle. Being able to play the way we did shows we are ready to play for however long we need to."

Southern Miss had their best first chance when they got to the UTSA two yard line but penalties and a fumble pushed them back to the UTSA 26. The Golden Eagles attempted a 43 yard field goal but missed it.

UTSA finally solved the riddle of the scoreboard when they got a 23-yard field goal from Duplessis with 13:00 left in the second quarter to take a 3-0 lead.

The Roadrunner lead lasted for just 2:28 of game action. On the ensuing kickoff Southern Miss returned the kick to the UTSA 33 and then received 15 more yards after a facemask penalty against UTSA. The Golden Eagles punched it in on a 4th and 1 from the UTSA nine with a run by Gore Jr. With 10:32 left in the second quarter the Golden Eagles had taken a 7-3 lead.

After UTSA went three-and-out on its next possession, Southern Miss went on an 11-play drive of 49 yards before settling for a field goal to go ahead 10-3 with 2:19 left in the second quarter.

The Roadrunners offense seemed to find its groove on the next drive. After a sack on first down, Harris ran for 10 yards and then threw a 29-yard pass to Zakhari Franklin to set UTSA up at the Southern Miss 40. Harris then threw a screen pass to Joshua Cephus. Cephus eluded the attempted tackles of several Golden Eagles and made his way into the end zone to tie the score at 10-10 with 1:21 left in the half.

The score would remain 10-10 going into the intermission as Southern Miss elected to run out the remaining 1:21 of the second quarter by taking two kneel downs.

UTSA received the opening kickoff of the third quarter. Fans hoping to see the first kickoff return for a touchdown in program history would have to wait a little longer. The kickoff was a touchback.

The Roadrunner offense then lost two yards on a run by McCormick before Natrone Brooks jumped the route and intercepted a pass from Harris on the sideline. Brooks ran it back 34 yards for a touchdown. Southern Miss was back in the lead, 17-10, with 14:13 left in the third quarter.

UTSA's next drive got to the Southern Miss three yard line but Harris was unable to convert a 4th-down-and-one. Southern Miss had turned the Roadrunners away on the doorstep of the end zone with 12:03 left in the third quarter. The Roadrunners got another chance for points later in the third quarter but Duplessis missed a 47-yard field goal at the 6:48 mark of the third quarter.

After the pick six by their defense the Golden Eagles offense only managed to pick up one first down on their first two drives of the third quarter.

UTSA finally found the endzone again on the last play of the third quarter. It came on a 24-yard pass from Harris to Leroy Watson. Duplessis added the extra point to tie the score at 17-17.

"They went Cover-2 and we went verticals and Frank dropped a dime in there and Leroy made a heck of a catch," Traylor said.

The score remained locked at 17-17 for much of the fourth quarter. UTSA finally retook the lead with 4:39 left in regulation with a 24-yard field goal from Duplessis.

Southern Miss started their next drive at their own 25 but a false start penalty backed them up to the 20. On the first play of the drive Corey Mayfield strip-sacked the Golden Eagles Quarterback, Antavious Willis. Charles Wiley recovered the fumble and returned it eight yards to the Southern Miss nine.

“The call was a corner blitz and I initially took a bad angle but he stepped up a little bit and tried to throw it," Mayfield said. "I was able to reach around him and get the ball and hit his arm and cause that fumble. It was a big turning point in the game.”

That fumble set up the Roadrunners final score, a nine-yard run by Sincere McCormick. With 4:19 remaining UTSA had a 27-17 lead.

Things took another turn on the Golden Eagles next possession. Faced with a 3rd and 24 Willis threw a ball downfield that was intercepted by Antonio Parks at the UTSA 46 and returned to the Southern Miss 10.

"It was huge," Parks said of his interception. "It was one that I needed. It was one that the team needed. It was super important to get that interception."

This time the Roadrunners elected to run out the clock and move to 10-0 on the season with a 27-17 win that was made possible in large part by the fans in attendance.

"Our home crowd was definitely as much a difference in the ballgame as our defense," Traylor said.

Added Parks, "I had a lot of fun today. It was really fun to play in that atmosphere today."

The Roadrunners will need the crowd behind them at least one more time this season. Next Saturday the Conference USA West Division Championship--and 11-0--will be on the line when the UAB Blazers pay a visit to the quad spires of the Alamodome.

"We had a terrible, terrible taste in our mouth when we left Birmingham last year," Traylor said. "We know we are a much better team. They are a really good team. To be the champ you have to beat the champs and the champs are coming here Saturday. They've won it three times in a row. To win the first is always the hardest one. Once you win the first one you learn how to do it."

So far this year the Roadrunners have won all 10 of their games. The 10th might have been the hardest to get but now the work turns to trying to get that 11th win and with it a division championship. To accomplish that they will need one more push from the raucous Alamodome crowd.

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