Larry Coker built the Roadrunner program from one helmet and one football to a full-fledged team between 2009 and 2015. But what if someone else built the program?
The What If Series: What If...An Earlier Debut
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Friday March 6, 2009 was a big day in the city of San Antonio. For many reasons. At dawn the 173rd remembrance of the fall of the Alamo was held. Later that day across town a new phase of UTSA history began in the south wing of the University Center on the Main Campus.
A little after 11 a.m. in what was then called the UC Ballroom III UTSA introduced its first head football coach to the gathered media and the world at large. The man who had been tasked with building a program from scratch was Larry Coker. UTSA would be built by a man who had won a National Championship and came just short of a second National Championship.
But What if it was someone different who was tasked with building the Roadrunners. How different might the program look today. Here we go down What If Lane...
What if it is one of the other finalists who get the job in 2009?
Between the board of regents approving the creation of UTSA football in December 2008 and the hiring of Coker in March 2009 the Roadrunners went through a lot of candidates for their head coaching position. By the end of the process they had whittled down the list to three finalists. Those finalists were Coker (60 years old in March 2009), Paul Randolph (43 years old in March 2009) and Mel Tjeerdsma (62 years old in March 2009).
At the time Randolph had finished his second season as the co-defensive coordinator/defensive line coach at Tulsa. Randolph had never been a head coach and had been coaching since 1998. When not chosen by UTSA Randolph stayed at Tulsa through the 2010 season. After that he was a co-DC/DL coach at Pittsburgh in 2011 and at Arizona State from 2012-14. Randolph was an associate AD at ASU in 2015 before heading to be the defensive line coach at Memphis from 2016-18. Prior to last season Randolph became the DL coach at Texas Tech.
In the spring of 2009 Tjeerdsma (pronounced Church-Mah) was head coach of the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats, a Division II power. Tjeerdsma had been at Northwest Missouri since 1994 and won D-II National Championships in 1998 and 1999 (He would win a third in 2009). Tjeerdsma had led the Bearcats to four straight appearances in the D-II National Championship game from 2005 to 2008 but lost all four games. Tjeerdsma's last season as head coach at Northwest Missouri was in 2010. He was AD at NW MO from 2013-18.
What might have happened if UTSA had chosen Randolph or Tjeerdsma?
Both likely set UTSA on a different path from the one they took under Coker. If UTSA goes with Randolph they are starting the program with a coach who has no head coaching experience. It is possible that unproven coach and unproven program come together but it is also possible that the foundation set by Randolph is not as strong as it might have been in the Coker timeline.
If they go with Tjeerdsma they have a coach who knows how to win at the D-II level but does that translate to the FCS level. It is possible that Tjeerdsma gets a second wind at UTSA and sets the Roadrunners on as good a foundation as the one Coker set up.
Whether its Randolph or Tjeerdsma leading the Roadrunner its probable that the Roadrunners schedule differently than they did under Coker. That different scheduling could either be a benefit or a curse for UTSA. I'd say it is likely they don't get some of the big name programs scheduled as early as 2013 under Randolph or Tjeerdsma like they did under Coker.
What if Coker never leaves Miami? UTSA needs a different big-name candidate
In January of 2002 Larry Coker lifted a National Championship trophy to cap off his first season as head coach of the Miami Hurricanes. A year later in January 2003 Coker came close to lifting a second consecutive but his Hurricanes lost to Ohio State in double-overtime.
That proved to be the high point of Coker's Miami tenure. By the end of the 2006 season he was fired and moved on to work as a college football analyst on ESPN.
Then in 2009 a new football team in San Antonio needed a head coach. But things might have turned out differently for Coker and UTSA if he's not in the running in 2009 because he's still at Miami or had gone to another school.
It is not hard to imagine that if Coker wins back-to-back National Championships at Miami he is likely able to avoid being fired in 2006. If he's not fired in 2006 it could be up to him how long he stays at Miami. In real life Coker's successor at MIami, Randy Shannon lasted until 2010. It's possible Coker, if not fired in 2006, is still at Miami in the winter of 2009 when UTSA is looking for a head coach. It helped UTSA that Coker wasn't coaching in early 2009 and had the itch to coach again. If he's still leading the Hurricanes there is no chance that UTSA is able to convince him to trade South Beach for the Hills of Oak and Cedar.
Without Coker the Roadrunners have to look elsewhere for a big name hire. After the 2008 season there was no shortage of then-big time coaching candidates. Among the names UTSA might have considered are Hal Mumme, Sylvester Croom and Dennis Franchione. Few had the bling that Coker brought with him. If UTSA were to consider a coach who was working for ESPN they might have gone after Lou Holtz.
Imagine a UTSA being led by Lou Holtz from 2009 onward. It looks different doesn't it?
So what might UTSA look like with a different First Coach?
I kind of hinted in last week's "What If" at how lucky UTSA was in its football program infancy. The fact that UTSA had a coach like Coker no doubt helped both locally and nationally.
Locally, having Coker helped give UTSA a presence in the city that another coach wouldn't have been able to provide. Having Coker as the first head coach helped get the interest in UTSA up to a point where the record breaking attendance figures of 2011 was possible. With a different coach, say Paul Randolph or Mel Tjeerdsma, it is very likely that the attendance figures are still good for a startup program but not near the record breaking heights reached in real life. San Antonio was hungry for football in 2011 and having Coker lead the program was a fine icing on that football cake.
Nationally, UTSA under Coker immediately started out with a higher level of attention paid to it. Just 20 months after UTSA hires Coker the athletic program accepts an invitation to the Western Athletic Conference. Eventually UTSA is able to climb up to Conference USA just a year after joining the WAC. With a different head coach UTSA is just another startup program at the turn of the decade trying to get it's foot in the door. It is possible that with a different first coach UTSA's fast rise from FCS Independent to Conference USA in three seasons is not as fast and possibly leads to membership in a different conference.
With a different head coach UTSA football develops differently. Those early years are likely tougher as the different head coach recruits different players and maybe not as talented as the ones that Coker got to sign with UTSA. The first touchdown in school history might not have been scored by Eric Soza in a timeline where another man other than Coker starts the UTSA program. Imagine a UTSA football that never has Marcus Davenport play for it. That is a possibility with a different first head coach.
UTSA was lucky to have a coach like Coker guide it through the growing pains of starting a football program. Someday when UTSA is in the business of putting up statues for Roadrunner sporting heroes they need to give Larry Coker strong consideration for one of those bad boys.
NEXT WEEK: What If...The Saints come marching in to San Antonio and stay.
FORUMS: UTSA Boulevard | Roadrunner Way
