Top 10 UTSA Football moments, part II

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The Roadrunners are off this weekend. In two weeks they will play the 100th game in program history when UAB visits the Alamodome. In honor of that we are looking back at the Top 10 moments in UTSA football history. Today we count down number 5 to 1. Click here for number 10 through 6.

For a program with such a short history the Roadrunners have had no shortage of players getting a chance in the NFL. One Roadrunner even went to the NFL before there was a football team. Only two Roadrunners, David Morgan II and Marcus Davenport, have been selected in the NFL draft. Only Davenport has gone in the first round.

Most Roadrunner fans thought the San Antonio Stevens product may go second or third round. His college stats were impressive. In four years as a Roadrunner Davenport had 185 total tackles and 95 solo tackles. He recorded 37.5 tackles for loss and 21.5 sacks. Davenport also forced six fumbles, recovered two and ran one in for a touchdown his senior season.

Davenport showed his skills in the Reese's Senior Bowl, recording a sack against Heisman-winner Baker Mayfield. Davenport gave a good showing at the NFL combine and moved into a late-first round grade.

The 2018 NFL Draft happened to be hosted at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Davenport got invited to sit in the green room. He didn't wait long. The New Orleans Saints traded up in the first round to take him with the 14th overall pick. Davenport has stepped into the Saints defense and through 16 career games has recorded 34 total tackles, 5.5 sacks and two passes broken up.

Thanks to Davenport, UTSA became the 11th FBS school in Texas to have a player go in the first round. He showed that its possible to be a Roadrunner and get drafted in the top 15 picks.

Prior to September 9, 2017 the Roadrunner football program had played nine games against Power-5 opposition since the 2013 season. Their record in those nine games was 0-9. Then on a warm Saturday night on the north bank of the Brazos in Waco the Roadrunners broke through and beat a power-5 opponent for the first time.

The lucky team to get the first loss handed by a UTSA team to a power five team was the Baylor Bears. Their 2017 version wasn't very lucky as they finished 1-11 and had lost at home to Liberty the week before playing UTSA. UTSA wasn't able to play anyone the week before as their season opener with Houston had been cancelled because of Hurricane Harvey.

The first quarter came and went with neither team able to score. Baylor got on the board first with a touchdown in the second quarter but UTSA answered with a touchdown pass from Dalton Sturm to Josh Stewart with 27 seconds left before halftime to tie the score at 7-7 going into intermission.

UTSA added a touchdown in the third quarter when Sturm tossed a 29-yard score to Kerry Thomas Jr. Victor Falcon made it 17-7 in favor of Roadrunners with a 38 yard field goal in the first minute of the fourth quarter. Baylor answered with a fourth quarter field goal but then ran out of time.

Baylor got their revenge the next two seasons and UTSA is still searching for its second win over a power-5 opponent. For one night though the Roadrunners showed they could hang with a Big-12 foe.

When the 2016 season began few people picked that year to be the year that UTSA would make its first bowl game. The Roadrunners had gone a combined 7-17 in the previous two seasons, including a 3-9 in 2015. First year head coach Frank Wilson had arrived in January and set a goal of making a bowl game.

As things got going in 2016, the goal seemed unattainable. UTSA started the season with a home win over FCS-level Alabama State and then lost their next three, including the conference opener against Old Dominion. After the 1-3 start the Roadrunners went 5-3 to close out the season and earned bowl eligibility with a win over Charlotte in the regular season finale.

The Roadrunners reward was a trip to Albuquerque for the Gildan New Mexico Bowl. Their opponent would be the New Mexico Lobos in whose stadium the bowl would be played. Even though it was a home game for New Mexico there was still a strong contingent of Orange-and-Blue who made their way to Albuquerque. They witnessed a windswept game that didn't end as they would have hoped.

UTSA scored first on a Victor Falcon field goal in the opening quarter. New Mexico answered with a touchdown and led 7-3 after one quarter. The two teams traded field goals in the second quarter and the Lobos went into the half up 10-6. In the third quarter the Lobos went up 16-6 but had their extra point blocked by the Roadrunners.

The Roadrunners cut the deficit to 16-13 early in the fourth quarter with a Dalton Sturm-to-Trevor Stevens touchdown. New Mexico went ahead 23-13 with a touchdown drive that ate up 7:21 of the fourth quarter. UTSA made the score 23-20 when Sturm connected with JaBryce Taylor for a touchdown with 25 seconds left.

For Roadrunners who were alive at the time, September 3, 2011 will always hold a special place in their memory. It was the day that seemed would never come. When it did it seemed as if the previous 42 years of school history had been building to it. After the athletic program had gone 30 years in the wilderness without football the day of the first game had arrived.

Football is bigger in Texas. UTSA proved that in their first ever game as 56,743 fans took up seats in the Alamodome. It set a new NCAA record for largest attendance at a college's first ever football game, breaking a record set by South Florida in 1997.

The Roadrunner fans were treated to a memorable game as UTSA walloped Northeastern State 31-3. Eric Soza made history as the first Roadrunner to score a touchdown when he ran in from 14 yards out at the 11:35 mark of the first quarter. Sean Ianno added the first extra point in program history to put UTSA up 7-0. Before the first quarter was over the Roadrunners had scored two more touchdowns to go up 21-0.

Northeastern State kept the Roadrunners off the board for most of the second quarter but Ianno had other ideas as he kicked a 21-yard field goal at the end of the quarter to send the Roadrunners into the halftime break up 24-0. In the third quarter after Northeastern State got a field goal David Glasco II became the first UTSA running back to score a touchdown when he ran in from seven yards out at the 5:21 mark of the third quarter.

The game ended with Roadrunner fans rushing the field and a number of them being tackled by law enforcement. Eventually no charges were filed on any fans. For another week the Roadrunner fans were still able to wear their "UTSA FOOTBALL: STILL UNDEFEATED" T-shirts.

On March 6, 2009 the San Antonio media gathered at the University Center Ballroom III for the introduction of UTSA's first head football coach. He was a well-known football coach who had won a national championship at the University of Miami in Florida and nearly won a second there.

His name was Larry Coker and his hiring at UTSA gave the program instant attention, even if the program only consisted of a helmet, a football and a dream of what could be. Coker had a tough challenge, he had to build the program from scratch and do it in less than 18 months because the opening game was scheduled for September 2011.

In December 2008, UTSA had been given the approval by the University of Texas Board of Regents to add a football program. They searched all over the country for their first head coach. Larry Coker was chosen over two other finalists, Paul Randolph, who at the time was associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Tulsa and Mel Tjeerdsma, who at the time had completed his 15th season as head coach at Northwest Missouri State.

Coker's national championship ring, even if it was won at Miami, was a big help for UTSA when it was building its program. By the time September 2011 rolled around Coker and the Roadrunners were ready to go.

The Roadrunners experienced the highs and lows of a startup program under Coker. They went 4-6 in year one, 8-4 in year two, 7-5 in year three and then 4-8 and 3-9 as Coker rode off into the sunset after the 2015 season. Coker helped the Roadrunners transition from an FCS independent to the WAC to Conference USA in the first three seasons of the program. His last two years might not have lived up to expectations but its hard to imagine what UTSA football would look like today if they hadn't hired Larry Coker in 2009.

FORUMS: UTSA Boulevard | Roadrunner Way