UTSA steamrolls Louisiana Tech
UTSA closes series with Louisiana Tech in dominant fashion with 51-7 win
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The last conference game played between the UTSA Roadrunners and Louisiana Tech Bulldogs was a memorable one. For Roadrunner fans it will bring happy memories. Louisiana Tech fans will likely hope to forget what happened Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 25,409 in the Alamodome.
What happened was complete domination by the Roadrunners over the Bulldogs. The 210 Triangle of Toughness was on full display as UTSA clobbered Louisiana Tech 51-7.
UTSA got points on nine of 10 possessions. The Roadrunners scored on their first four possessions. It was a balanced offense too. UTSA had 258 yards rushing and 226 yards passing against Louisiana Tech.
"We've got a really good quarterback and a bunch of really good players out there doing a great job and doing what we ask them to do," UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said.
The Roadrunner defense had five takeaways, including three interceptions and two fumble recoveries. Those five takeaways led to 20 points for the Roadrunners. UTSA also kept Louisiana Tech off the board the three times the Bulldogs were able to venture into the red zone.
Jared Sackett was perfect on field goals going three-for-three and only once did Lucas Dean have to come onto the field to punt. Dean's only punt went for 39 yards.
"Coach and the play calling and just how we practiced this week was very, very good," UTSA quarterback Frank Harris said. "We went out there and executed, and all the prep we did this week, we went out there and showed it today."
Getting such a lopsided win over Louisiana Tech will make longtime Roadrunner fans happy. In a strange twist, the 51 points scored by UTSA in the final game against Louisiana Tech matched the points scored by Louisiana Tech in the first game between the two. That was on November 3, 2012. That day in Ruston the Bulldogs beat the Roadrunners, 51-27, when both were members of the Western Athletic Conference.
For much of the history of the series it was UTSA on the short end of lopsided losses to Louisiana Tech. The most lopsided of those came six years ago on November 12, 2016 when the Bulldogs beat UTSA 63-35 with 21 fourth quarter points.
Now, for the foreseeable future, the most lopsided margin in the series between UTSA and Louisiana Tech is 44 points set Saturday by the Roadrunners. The Roadrunners also depart the series with a three-game winning streak having won 27-26 in 2020 and 45-16 last year in Ruston as well as Saturday in the Alamodome.
A fun day in the Alamodome
It wasn't all bad for Louisiana Tech on Saturday in the Alamodome. The Bulldogs called heads on the opening coin toss and when the coin came to rest on Rowdy at the 50 the side facing up was heads.
The Bulldogs chose to receive the opening kick. Their first drive started at the LA Tech 25 after the kickoff was a touchback and reached the UTSA 47. That was where it ended when a bad handoff ended up on the ground and UTSA's Jamal Ligon fell on it at the Louisiana Tech 49.
UTSA took advantage of that gift and covered the 49 yards in seven plays. The seventh play was a nine-yard touchdown pass from Harris to Josh Cephus with 10:35 left in the first quarter. It turned out to be the only passing touchdown by the Roadrunners but the scoring was just getting started.
After Louisiana Tech shanked their punt on the next drive UTSA started at the Bulldogs 46. Harris handed to Kevorian Barnes who sliced his way through the Louisiana Tech defense and didn't stop until his feet came to rest in the end zone with a touchdown. UTSA was up 14-0 with 9:30 left in the first quarter.
"O-line blocked it up perfectly and I get a one-on-one," Barnes said. "It was my scholarship vs his so I just tried to make the most of it."
The Roadrunners added to their lead about six minutes later when Brendan Brady got in on the scoring with a one yard run at the 3:48 mark of the first quarter.
UTSA's Killer B's of Brady and Barnes were able to each score two touchdowns and racked up 53 and 103 yards respectively against the Bulldogs.
Louisiana Tech scored late in the first quarter on a 32-yard pass from Landry Lyddy to Smoke Harris to cut the Roadrunner lead to 21-7.
That was the closest the Bulldogs got to making it a game. UTSA scored 13 points in the second quarter and 10 in the third quarter. Halfway through the third quarter the starters were pulled and the backups got a lot of time.
"We had to keep our foot on the gas. Everybody execute what they had to do in the second half and make sure there's no dropoffs," UTSA linebacker Trey Moore said. "Make sure we finish the game off strong."
The Roadrunners added the final touchdown of the afternoon on a 19-play 80 yard drive in the fourth quarter that took 11:27 off the clock and ended with Justin Rodriguez scoring on a one yard run.
"There's no one that does more for our program than Justin Rodriguez. He's the scout team running back every single day. He's the guy on punt, the kickoff. He's scout team, everything," Traylor said. "For him to go out there and have that success, I think you could just tell by our sideline how much it meant for those kids to get it in the end zone. I tell the kids we've got a modern day Rudy. We might have to have a movie."
The movie of the 2022 UTSA football team still has a few scenes to play out. There are two regular season games left and UTSA has a magic number of one to clinch hosting duties for the conference championship game.
Next week it is the final road trip of the regular season as UTSA heads to Houston to face the Rice Owls. A win in Houston and the Roadrunners road to repeat will be a lot more open.
For now though the Roadrunners will take 24 hours to savor getting a lopsided win over Louisiana Tech in the last game between the two as conference foes.
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