Free 30-Days | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram

Contact Us | Refer-a-friend Promo

For the fourth time in program history UTSA took the field for a bowl game on Friday afternoon at Orlando's Exploria Stadium. There they met the Troy Trojans in a Cure Bowl battle of teams with 11-2 records and 10-game winning streaks.

By the time Friday afternoon had turned to evening in Orlando the Roadrunners found themselves in the same situation as the last three bowl appearances. On the short end of the scoreboard in an 18-12 loss.

"Congrats to Coach Sumrall and Troy," UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said after the game. "It was a hard fought football game. We thought it would a low scoring, NFL-type football game and it was."

UTSA had their chances to win but the Roadrunners gave up five turnovers, two of which led to 15 points for Troy. The Roadrunners defense only managed two takeaways. That wasn't the only cause of UTSA's downfall.

"It was a lack of execution on third down. We were three for 11 on third down," Traylor said. "We dropped some passes."

The Roadrunner defense certainly had a day to be proud of. UTSA had 13 tackles for loss on defense compared to three for Troy's defense. The Roadrunners also had six sacks to two for the Trojans defense. But the difference in the game was the turnovers, the defensive category that Troy won.

"I'm proud of our guys," UTSA linebacker Trey Moore said. "We heard a lot about their defense this week and how great they were. We came in with the mentality that we were the best defense on the field and I feel like we showed that with our performance."

For the first 28:23 of the Cure Bowl the UTSA Roadrunners appeared to be in a good position to finally get their first bowl win in program history as well as the first win over a ranked opponent.

After both teams punted on their first two drives, Troy's offense had a bad snap at their own three yard line go into the back of the end zone for a safety. With 3:58 left in the first quarter UTSA had a 2-0 lead.

The Roadrunners received the kick following the safety and drove down the field on a 15 play, 75 yard drive. The drive resulted in a two-yard touchdown pass from Frank Harris to Zakhari Franklin with 12:30 left in the second quarter. UTSA pushed its lead to 9-0.

Six minutes later the Roadrunners added a field goal to go up 12-0 with 6:21 left in the second quarter. Roadrunner fans from Orlando to San Antonio were feeling good about UTSA's chances.

That all changed with a turn of events starting in the final two minutes of the second quarter. Troy had the ball, 3rd and six at the UTSA 36. The Trojans pass was intercepted by Clifford Chattman but before he turned up field it was punched out by Troy and ruled an incomplete pass which would have brought 4th and six for Troy.

The Mountain West officiating crew decided to review the play and decided after review that Chattman had completed the interception at the UTSA 16 and then fumbled with Troy recovering the fumble at the UTSA 13. Two plays later Troy was in the end zone to cut UTSA's lead to 12-7.

It didn't get any better for UTSA. After the Troy touchdown UTSA had four straight drives, one in the second quarter and three in the third quarter, end in turnovers. The costliest came with 5:11 left in the third quarter when UTSA had 3rd and eight at the Troy 9. Harris's pass intended for Chris Carpenter was intercepted at the Troy two by the Trojans and returned to the UTSA 37. A penalty against UTSA gave Troy another 15 yards and the ball at the UTSA 22.

Five plays later Troy was in the end zone after a 12-yard pass from Gunnar Watson to RaJae' Johnson. The Trojans went for two and converted to take a 15-12 lead with 2:43 left in the third quarter.

Troy added a field goal with 9:18 left to play in the fourth quarter to go up 18-12.

UTSA got two more chances in the fourth quarter to try and win the game. The first chance came on the drive after Troy's field goal. The Roadrunners got the ball to the Trojans three with a first and goal but were unable to punch it in. A possible game winning touchdown went just off the fingertips of Carpenter on 2nd and goal.

The Roadrunners second chance came on their final drive which started with 2:41 left to play in the fourth quarter. UTSA started at their own 31 but the drive stalled at the Troy 42 and the Roadrunners had to convert a 4th and 9. Harris's pass to Franklin was broken up by Troy and the celebrations began for the Trojans.

"On offense I felt like we left a lot out there," UTSA Running Back Kevorian Barnes said. "Nobody on offense feels good about this one."

Of all the bowl losses, the loss in the Cure Bowl might have been the most painful.

Even with the loss in the Cure Bowl, the 2022 season was a successful one for the Roadrunners. Though they fell short of last year's 12-2 record, the 11-3 record of 2022 is still more wins than some schools with decades of history have ever reached in a season.

UTSA made it through a tough opening stretch with a 1-2 record and were a few plays in the Houston game away from starting the season 2-1. After losing to Texas on Sept. 17 the Roadrunners went on a 10-game winning streak that started with a win over Texas Southern on Sept. 24 and went all the way until Friday when it was snapped by Troy.

The Roadrunners had their most successful conference season in school history, going 8-0 in their final season as members of Conference USA. That undefeated record allowed UTSA to host the conference championship game for the second year in a row. For the second year in a row UTSA won the conference championship in front of the third largest crowd in both program history and the history of the Conference USA championship game.

In the last two seasons UTSA has gone 23-5. That is a two-year run that every school would love to experience. It has been a memorable run for UTSA the last two seasons but now the attention turns to entering the American Athletic Conference next season. A bowl win on Friday would have been nice but even with the loss UTSA will be entering their new conference home with quite a bit of momentum.

Next year's schedule will give UTSA a chance to get noticed in the race for the New Years six bowls. In 2024 when the playoffs expand the Roadrunners could have a good chance at being one of the 12 chosen.

Someday UTSA's football team will finally be able to break through and reach the heights of a bowl victory. There will come a time when UTSA has won not one but two or three bowls. Someday UTSA will go into a bowl game and come away with a new trophy and a chance to lift a bowl champion banner in the Alamodome.

Friday wasn't that day but, that day of bowl victory will come. Sooner or later, the Roadrunners will win a bowl game.

FORUMS: UTSA Boulevard | Roadrunner Way