UTSA football enters its first season as members of the American plus Stephen gives his predictions for the season.
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Every year that UTSA has played football there has been some level of excitement among the team, school and fanbase as the calendar turned to football season. In recent years it seems that excitement has been getting higher with each season.
In 2020 it was the excitement of the unknown as UTSA embarked on the Jeff Traylor era. Traylor became the first coach in program history to start a season 3-0 in his first year at the helm. The 2020 Roadrunners finished 7-5 and took part in just the second bowl game in program history. The excitement hasn't gone down since.
A year later, in 2021 the team went into year two with Traylor in hopes of surpassing their 2020 record. As it turned out the 2021 team surpassed that win total by October, starting the season 11-0 and claiming both the Conference USA west division (the final time a west division title could be won in C-USA) and the Conference USA Championship. The 2021 Roadrunners finished 12-2 but lost their bowl game for the second season in a row.
UTSA also found a new conference home in 2021 when they were invited, along with five other teams, to join the American in 2023.
Last season UTSA was trying to repeat as conference champions in their final run as members of Conference USA. The Roadrunners might have come up one win short of their 2021 win total in 2022, finishing 11-3, but they did accomplish the bigger goal of repeating as conference champions on the way out of Conference USA and into the American.
Now the Roadrunners turn their attention to the 2023 season. The excitement among the players and fanbase is built up from the past two seasons but also from the unknown of being in a new conference. Granted, the Roadrunners will play four conference games against schools that came to the American with them, there are four other conference games against teams UTSA has either not played before (Temple, East Carolina, South Florida) or haven't played in 10 years (Tulane).
UTSA is also looking to make history this season by winning three-straight outright conference championships in two different conferences. Only one FBS school in the Lone Star State has won three straight conference championships in two different conferences, the 1994-96 Texas Longhorns who shared the 1994 Southwest Conference title with four other teams before winning the 1995 SWC title outright and the inaugural Big 12 Championship in 1996.
If UTSA is able to win the AAC in its first season its possible the Roadrunners could make a push for the group of five spot in the New Year's Six bowl
