The First Season: Part 1

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EDITORS NOTE: This is the first installment of a story series looking back at the 2011 football season.

There was excitement in the air throughout San Antonio. Saturday September 3, 2011 was a warm and sunny day typical for that time of year when south Texas transitions from summer to less summer. Not since the Spurs won their fourth championship in 2007 had the city looked forward to a sporting event with so much anticipation.

At 1 p.m. on that first Saturday in September, UTSA would join the list of football playing colleges when the Roadrunners took the field at the Alamodome for the first time ever. It was the culmination of one journey and the beginning of another.

Since UTSA had begun as a university in 1969 and more so since starting an athletic department in 1981 one topic of discussion that flowed throughout was if the school would ever add a football team. In 1999 the first pieces of the eventual UTSA football puzzle came into place when Ricardo Romo became university president and Lynn Hickey became athletic director.

The next pieces came into place four years later. In 2003 the students of UTSA passed their first vote in support of a football program. Another four years passed before, in 2007, a new crop of students voted a second time in favor of launching a football program. In December 2008 the UT Board of Regents voted in favor of allowing UTSA to start up a football team.

Hickey moved fast to find a coach to lead a football team that at this point was mostly a dream on paper. Three months after the board of regents ok'd the program, UTSA had their man. Larry Coker was introduced as the first head football coach in program history on March 6, 2009. By the time he was hired the program had grown from nothing into being the proud owners of one helmet and one football.

It took just 30 months from the hiring of Coker to the day of the inaugural game. In that time, while Coker worked from an office in a double-wide to the north of the Humanities and Social Sciences building, the program grew from the humble beginnings of one helmet and one football to a team of players drawn from all over Texas and as far away as Oakland, California.

The rise of UTSA football had sparked a lot of interest around the country. Having a national champion as head coach certainly didn't hurt. Fox Sports Southwest had been running a series about the start of the program called "UTSA: Birth of a Program" that would finish later in September with an episode about the inaugural game.

San Antonio was buzzing as the days counted down to the inaugural game. Local business leaders led by Red McCombs carried the slogan "Fill the Dome" in an effort to get as many people to attend the inaugural game. The hope was to try and break the NCAA record for attendance at an inaugural football game. The University of South Florida had claim to that record as they had welcomed 49,212 fans to their inaugural game against Kentucky Wesleyan in 1997.

In the Rivercenter mall, Texas College Gear now had as much, if not more, UTSA gear for sale as they did for other "local" colleges like Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. VIA offered special rates for those willing to park at the main and downtown campuses of UTSA and take the bus down to the Alamodome.

While all this had been going on the Roadrunner football team went through its second fall camp. In 2010 the fall camp had lasted most of the fall as the team scrimmaged against itself in preparation for the 2011 season. The 2011 fall camp had a little more pop to it as the coaches and players realized the long awaited first game would arrive soon.

On September 3, 2011 that first game arrived. The Roadrunner football team had no past, all future. The questions of how many people would show up for the game and how would the Roadrunners do in their debut would soon be answered.

The Alamodome doors opened to fans about 11 a.m. There were two hours between the opening of the doors and the scheduled kickoff. In that time the fans found their way into all three levels of the seating bowl.

It was apparent by the time the Roadrunners and their opponents, the Northeastern State Riverhawks, took the field that the dome was filling up. UTSA might have a shot at setting the attendance record for an inaugural game.

"It was even better than what I pictured. During warmups when we ran by the student section and they exploded, I got chills all over my body." UTSA Quarterback Eric Soza said to the media after the inaugural game. "I was ready to play right then and there an hour before the game."

The crowd grew more raucous as the afternoon unfolded. By 1 p.m. there were only a handful of empty seats available in the very top of the upper deck. During the game it would be announced over the public address system that 56,743 were in attendance. UTSA had the record for largest crowd in an inaugural game. The Alamodome capacity is 65,000.

"It was just like in the SEC. I've never been around anything like that, and that's being honest," Coker said in his press conference after the game. "I've played for national championships and I've never been at any event like today. It wasn't any false emotion."

By the time the announcement was made the Roadrunners were rolling toward victory in the inaugural game.

The game began with Northeastern State kicking off to UTSA at 1:06 p.m. UTSA scored on each of its first three drives. Soza wrote his name in the record book with the first touchdown in school history when he scored on a 14-yard run with 11:35 left in the first quarter. Sean Ianno chiseled his name into the record books by notching the first extra point in program history.

It took 5:01 of game action for UTSA to score its second touchdown. With 6:34 left in the first quarter Soza connected with Jake Wanamaker for the first passing touchdown in program history, a six-yarder. Ianno added another extra point and UTSA led 14-0.

Before the first quarter ended UTSA led 21-0 when Soza and Kam Jones connected on a three-yard touchdown pass with 1:26 left in the quarter.

Ianno kicked the first field goal in program history as time expired in the second quarter when he made it from 21-yards out.

As the second half began UTSA held a 24-0 lead and the atmosphere in the Alamodome was celebratory. Even when Northeastern State kicked a field goal at the end of their first drive of the half it didn't seem to phase the record crowd.

That 22-yard field goal by the Riverhawks at the 10:41 mark might have been the first points allowed in program history but they also were the only points scored by Northeastern State that day. There were groans from the crowd when the field goal went true but then it was quickly back to celebrating the Roadrunners.

UTSA fans were still on Coker's mind after the game.

"The crowd was awesome today," Coker said. "They responded like an old veteran crowd. This might be an old 'Cleveland Dogpound' crowd out there. They were great."

The crowd wasn't the only thing that was great on that afternoon. The Roadrunner defense held the Riverhawks to 307 yards, only 36 of which came on the ground. Most of the Riverhawks yards came in the second half. The Roadrunner defense held Northeastern State to just 51 yards of offense in the first half.

UTSA added their final points of the game later in the third quarter. David Glasco II became the first Roadrunner running back to score a touchdown when he found the endzone at the end of a seven yard run. Ianno added his fourth extra point of the day. There was 5:46 remaining in the third quarter. UTSA led Northeastern State 31-3.

That proved to be the end of the scoring. It wasn't the end of the excitement. When the clock struck zero in the fourth quarter the fans decided to carry the celebration onto the field. Hundreds of Roadrunner fans spilled from the stands to the field to celebrate. Some high-fived players, others just wanted to experience the feel of being on the field where so recently the Roadrunners had been victorious. An unlucky few got to feel the field literally as they were tackled by police officers.

All charges against those who stormed the field and got caught by the police were later dropped. It was quite an ending to the first Roadrunner football game. What did the next nine games have in store? The autumn of 2011 would reveal the results of those games. For the time being the only thing to do was to celebrate that the Roadrunners were still undefeated.

NEXT WEEK: The Roadrunners second game checks off more program firsts

FORUMS: UTSA Boulevard | Roadrunner Way