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Shout it loud from hills of oak and cedar to the Alamo. For the first time ever UTSA's football Roadrunners have won a bowl game.

The Roadrunners got the first bowl win with a 35-17 win over the Marshall Thundering Herd after falling behind 14-0 early in the second quarter. It was a memorable night for many reasons.

"We got off to a rough start, threw the two interceptions early but our defense just kept us in it." UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said. "It was the epitome of our team. We haven't been beautiful all year, we've been kind of a gritty triangle of toughness kind of team and we got it done tonight."

The first bowl win came in the Roadrunners fifth bowl at the site of one of their previous bowl defeats. Two years ago UTSA was on the losing end of a double-digit margin against San Diego State. This time the Roadrunners celebrated being the winners by a double-digit margin. The celebrations were filled with joy but also a tinge of the change that was experienced on Tuesday. It was the end of one era and the beginning of another.

All day Tuesday the rumors swirled that Frank Harris might not play in the bowl game. It was made official around 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday night when the Roadrunners came out for their first warmup and Harris was in sweats. The team put out a release confirming his absence just before kickoff. An injury on Harris's non-throwing hand that he received in the Tulane game had not healed to a point where he could play.

"If I was able to go out there and play I promise you I would have been out there playing," Harris said. "I physically was not able to go out there. It sucks but we are bowl champions and its not about me, we got our first bowl win in program history."

UTSA would have to win its first bowl game without the quarterback who had led the team to back-to-back conference championships and won 39 games as a Roadrunner.

In the place of Harris the starting duties fell to Owen McCown, the pride of Rusk, Texas who by the end of the night became the pride of San Antonio as well.

"Words can't describe what the seniors have done for this program," McCown said. "Frank wanted to play so badly and I wanted to win it for him."

McCown got off to a slow start but eventually worked his way to a final stat line of 22 completions out of 31 attempts for 251 yards and two touchdowns. McCown also threw two interceptions.

UTSA's first bowl win came with a redemption story. Joshua Cephus missed last year's Cure Bowl after being arrested for DWI. He made up for last year by leading the Roadrunners with 102 yards and a touchdown on seven catches, earning Offensive MVP honors in the 2023 Frisco Bowl. Cephus's touchdown came on a screen pass fro McCown that went 44 yards to tie the score at 14-14 with 8:53 left in the second quarter.

Cephus also set the school record for receiving yards in a season, breaking the record held by Zakhari Franklin.

"We always know, next man up. Owen started today and did a great job," Cephus said. "Owen is my dog. I believe in him so much."

Winning defensive MVP honors for UTSA was corner back Kam Alexander who had a sack of Marshall quarterback Cole Pennington, two passes broken up and an interception in the fourth quarter that helped set up the Roadrunners final score of the night.

Alexander nearly turned his interception into a pick-six but he was forced out of bounds at the Marshall 17 after returning it 58 yards.

"They rallied to the sideline faster than I thought they would," Alexander said. "We have a next man up mentality and just do your one-11."

The Roadrunner defense limited Marshall to just three points over the final 44 minutes of the game. It could have been an even more dominate performance for UTSA. Marshall's first touchdown came on a short field after the Herd intercepted a tipped pass from McCown and the Herd's second touchdown came on a 64-yard run on the first play of the second quarter. It is the longest touchdown run in Frisco Bowl history.

UTSA also had 135 yards on the ground through four different runners. Rocko Griffin led the Roadrunners with 43 yards on 11 carries. Griffin scored one touchdown in the Frisco Bowl and that came on the play after Alexander's interception.

Robert Henry led the Roadrunners with two touchdowns and 14 carries to go with 37 yards. Henry's first touchdown got UTSA on the board with 11:26 left in the second quarter and cut the Marshall lead to 14-7. Henry scored his second touchdown with 47 seconds left in the second quarter to give UTSA its first lead of the night, 21-17.

It was a lead the Roadrunners never gave up and added to with a 19-yard touchdown pass from McCown to David Amador in the third quarter and the Griffin touchdown in the final quarter.

As the final minutes of the game ticked down it was noticeable who wasn't on the field. UTSA had to win its first bowl game without two of the anchors of the triangle of toughness.

Rashad Wisdom left the game in the first quarter with an arm injury to his left arm, the opposite arm of the one that kept Harris out of the bowl game. The rest of the night Harris and Wisdom together transitioned from Roadrunner players to Roadrunner advisors, helping their teammates and looking on together as their fellow Roadrunners helped put the finishing touches on a bowl win that the two had worked years to try and achieve.

"We took it all in. This is our last one," Wisdom said. "We couldn't be more proud of the way that we went about things and how this program changed. Really happy about that. This was everything. This is the first (bowl win) in history. It's nice we were able to be a part of this and help coach get his first bowl win."

Whoever is voted to wear number zero in 2024 will have big shoes to fill on both offense and defense. Though they won't don the Roadrunner jersey anymore, Harris and Wisdom and the 16 other seniors who closed out their career with three trophies in as many seasons have left a legacy for the Roadrunners of the future to follow.

"When our class came in we said we wanted to change how people looked at UTSA," Cephus said. "The first thing was getting a ring. We got two of those and then the next thing was winning a bowl game. It feel's great to get that checked off the list."

Four times before Tuesday night UTSA had taken part in a bowl game and four times before Tuesday night the Roadrunners fell in their bowl game. It was a monkey on the shoulders of the program that they couldn't seem to shake off.

On Tuesday night the Roadrunners finally got that monkey off their shoulders and avoided joining Texas Tech as the only FBS schools in Texas to start 0-5 in bowl games. It was the final first to be checked off from a checklist of accomplishments that went back to the beginning of the program.

"I am grateful for our 18 seniors and all the way back to the very beginning of Larry Coker and the original 18," Traylor said. "For those guys to get to see us win our first bowl was huge."

Next year the Roadrunners will have to move on without the leadership of this senior class but if the rest of the team returns they will carry a piece of this senior class with them and have a new crop of Roadrunners to show how to embody the triangle of toughness.

The goals will also change next year. Now the Roadrunners will have the goal of trying to win their second bowl game in program history.

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