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Frank Harris saved his best performance as a Roadrunner for his final game in the Alamodome as he accounted for a school record 513 yards of offense in UTSA's 49-21 win over South Florida Friday night.

The Roadrunners as a team set a new school record for total offense in a game with 645 yards, breaking the previous record of 624 set back in November 2020 in the Alamodome against North Texas.

"You couldn't have written a better script to send Frank Harris off," UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said. "After all he's done here the last four years."

Through the week there has been speculation on the future of Traylor at UTSA as he is a candidate for the Texas A&M head coaching job. If Friday was his last home game at UTSA the Roadrunners sent Traylor out in fine fashion.

Traylor didn't confirm nor deny the rumors, instead choosing to recognize the 18 seniors who played their final game in the Alamodome Friday night.

"We had 18 seniors play tonight, and it's a shame really that (A&M opening) is what everybody talked about," Traylor said. "Any second someone was talking about Jeff Traylor and not Frank Harris is a travesty towards those 18 seniors."

In the early going the game appeared like it would be a shootout. South Florida went down the field on their first drive of the game to take a 7-0 lead on a 16 yard run by Nay'Quan Wright with 12:37 left in the first quarter.

UTSA answered on its opening drive with a 30-yard touchdown pass from Harris to Devin McCuin to tie the score 7-7 with 9:23 left in the opening quarter. McCuin finished the night with 91 yards on seven catches.

"I'm excited that we went out there and got a win," Harris said. "It couldn't have been any better for me."

South Florida retook the lead with 13:38 left in the second quarter on a 50 yard pass from Byrum Brown to Yusuf Terry.

It looked like the game was headed for a shootout after UTSA answered with a 33 yard pass form Harris to Tykee-Ogle Kellogg on the next drive to tie the score at 14 with 10:40 left in the second quarter. It turned out to be Ogle-Kellogg's last catch in the Alamodome as a Roadrunner as he was injured on the scoring play.

The Roadrunner defense settled in on the next drive and forced the Bulls to punt. Harris needed just two plays to give the Roadrunners a lead they would not surrender. His second play of the drive was a pass to Joshua Cephus that went for 64 yards and a touchdown with 8:15 left in the second quarter.

Cephus finished the night with 163 yards and a touchdown on nine catches.

"Frank is a bad man," Cephus said. "It felt great. he's a good dude and he deserved this. He does some amazing things with the ball."

Harris put UTSA up 28-14 with 20 seconds left in the second quarter when he scored on a 15-yard run.

The Roadrunners got the ball to start the third quarter and were able to put the game away with a 40-yard touchdown run by Harris with 13:06 left in the third quarter.

"Coach talks about the middle eight all the time. The last four minutes of first half and the first four minutes of the second half," Harris said. "He always says that's the most important part of the game to get momentum and just get everything going."

Robert Henry gave UTSA a 42-14 lead with 5:14 left in the third quarter. South Florida's Brown cut the deficit to 42-21 with a five yard score at the 3:43 mark of the third quarter before Harris scored the final touchdown of the night on a 25-yard run.

Harris finished his night with 411 yards passing and 112 yards rushing. He was three yards short of tying his school record for passing yards in a game. Harris became just the 15th quarterback in FBS history to have a game with 400 yards passing and 100 yards rushing.

"He's a beast," Rashad Wisdom said of Frank Harris. "It's always a good feeling seeing the opposite side of the ball doing what they're supposed to be doing. The way they were handling things tonight. I get real excited watching good football and watching people doing their 1/11s. I was glad we were able to do that tonight and send the seniors out right."

Wisdom led the Roadrunner defense with eight tackles in his final night in the Alamodome.

Another notable senior was Oscar Cardenas who caught four of Harris's passes for 37 yards.

Whether or not this was the final time in the Alamodome for the 18 seniors they depart with a game that will long be remembered in San Antonio. The Roadrunners will have one more chance to keep their hopes of hosting the conference championship game alive.

It is possible the Roadrunners will be able to host the conference championship game for a third straight year. For that to happen they will have to beat Tulane next week and have SMU lose either this Saturday or next. If UTSA beats Tulane to finish 8-0 and SMU finishes 8-0 in conference it is likely the Mustangs who would host at Ford Stadium in Dallas based on a higher ranking in the computers.

The important thing from Friday night, other than the record performance from Frank Harris and the offense is that the Roadrunners kept their place in the game of musical chairs for one of the two spots in the American Conference Championship game. Now they will go to Tulane next week to try and beat the Green Wave for one of those two chairs.

"I'm looking forward to this matchup because the respect I have for Willie Fritz. Look where he's always done it. He's taken tough jobs and always won. He's always had character," Traylor said. "Willie is like legendary in our profession. As good a human you'll have be around, good a coach, he's about the right stuff."

UTSA has taken it one week at a time all season, especially in conference play. That has allowed them to go from 1-3 in non-conference to 8-3 overall going into the final week of the regular season.

It might have been hard to imagine in September but UTSA is right where they want to be heading into a Black Friday contest in New Orleans: Battling for the conference title.

You couldn't have written a better script for the conference season. Now its time for the Roadrunners to write the final chapter and attempt to overcome the final step to a chance at another conference title.

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