Jeff Traylor’s team travels to Austin after one of the worst losses of his tenure in San Antonio.
For the second time since the UTSA Roadrunners added football in 2011, the Roadrunners will make their way up I-35 to Austin to face the Texas Longhorns.
But unlike the first time that the two programs met two years ago, Jeff Traylor’s program is trying to find its footing after longtime quarterback Frank Harris moved on from football, multiple other stars graduated, and Traylor’s ability to develop players turned UTSA into a feeder program for larger schools through the NCAA transfer portal.
It’s starting to show in UTSA’s record — after a 7-5 season in Traylor’s first year, the Roadrunners went 12-2 and 11-3 over the next two years before falling to 9-4 last year.
The cracks really began to show last Saturday when UTSA was demolished 49-10 by Texas State
“I thought Texas State definitely outplayed us. They were more physical. They broke a lot of tackles. Defensively, we just did not play where I thought we were going to,” Traylor said on Monday.
The hope was that the Roadrunners defense would keep them in the game long enough to make some plays offensively. Instead, the Bobcats scored 14 points in the first quarter and 21 points in the second quarter to turn the game into a rout by halftime.
Traylor put the loss among the four worst of his tenure. On previous occasions, his teams were able to bounce back, but that’s a massive challenge this week with the Longhorns looming in Austin.
“Honestly, though, we didn’t have the University of Texas waiting on us, the No. 2 team in the country and arguably the best team in the country and the loudest place you can play, arguably in the country,” Traylor said.
The odds reflect the enormity of the challenge awaiting UTSA — at FanDuel, the line has climbed from 30.5 on Sunday morning to 35.5 on Wednesday afternoon.
“We’re still trying to figure out exactly what our identity is on all three parts of the ball right now,” Traylor said.
Offense
Where UTSA has regressed the most noticeably is on offense. Last season, the Roadrunners ranked 36th nationally on offense, scoring 31.9 points per game, averaging 5.7 yards per play, and converting third downs at a rate of 47.7 percent, 12th in the country. Harris was rock solid at quarterback and benefited from the ability to target his 1,000-yard wide receiver Joshua Cephus, as well as Tykee Ogle-Kellogg, who averaged 17.4 yards per catch. Cphus and Ogle-Kellogg combined for 17 of the team’s 25 receiving touchdowns.
This year, the Roadrunners currently rank 81st offensively in SP+ and only scored one touchdown against the Bobcats.
Replacing Harris, Colorado transfer Owen McCown got off to a strong start this season, throwing for 340 yards and three touchdowns against Kennesaw State in the season opener, but he struggled in the loss to Texas State, completing 10-of-23 passes for 105 yards and giving way in the second half to Eddie Lee Marburger, who only played marginally better. Traylor said that McCown remains the starter, but how much latitude he receives to make mistakes is something to watch on Saturday.
UTSA faces multiple problems offensively that the quarterbacks can’t solve themselves, including the lack of playmakers at wide receiver, dropped passes, and an inability to run the football behind an offensive line that Traylor tried to rebuild through the transfer portal at left tackle, center, and right tackle, where Texas and Houston transfer Jaylen Garth is starting as Makai Hart works his way back physically after missing most of the last two seasons. Hart played 11 snaps on Saturday.
Against the Bobcats, the three returning running backs for the Roadrunners combined to gain 37 yards on 20 carries and did not have a run of longer than nine yards.
“We’ve got to help both those quarterbacks more — both those kids are good quarterbacks,” Traylor said. “We’ve got to help them better. You’ve got to be able to run the ball. You’ve got to protect them better. And when they throw it out there, you got to catch it.”
Although Texas State did not record a sack in the blowout win, the defense was credited with 11 quarterback hurries on 50 pass attempts by UTSA. The wide receivers dropped four passes.
Part of the short-term solution may be reducing the number of plays that the Roadrunners carry into games.
“We’ve got too much offense in right now. We’re confused. I want that cleaned up,” Traylor said.
Defense
A defense that ranked 74th nationally in SP+ last season had to replace AAC Defensive Player of the Year Trey Moore, the standout edge who transferred to Texas during the offseason, as well as cornerback Kam Alexander, who left for Oregon, and linebacker Avery Morris, now at New Mexico State.
Also gone is the team’s third-leading tackler, safety Rashad Wisdom, but UTSA does return linebackers Jamal Ligon and Jimmori Robinson, the latter of whom recorded 11 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks last season in addition to 10 quarterback hurries and a forced fumble.
Through the transfer portal, Traylor landed former five-star prospect Denver Harris, now at his third schools in three years after signing with Texas A&M and then transferring to LSU. A handful of other transfers are on the depth chart, but not starting, including linebacker Kendrick Blackshire, who spent the spring at Texas after leaving Alabama.
The defense played poorly against Texas State, allowing quarterback Jordan McCloud to throw for over 300 yards and two touchdowns with nearly half of McCloud’s passing yardage and both passing touchdowns recorded by wide receiver Chris Dawn Jr. On the ground, running back Lincoln Pare ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns on just 11 carries and McCloud scored two rushing touchdowns of his own. Overall, the Bobcats piled up 195 rushing yards on the Roadrunners.
Discipline was lacking for UTSA defensively, too, allowing five first downs via penalty.