The University of Texas-San Antonio did not have a varsity football program when it started the 2011-12 school year.
It built one, though, from the ground up, opening its 2011 season with a game in the Alamodome before a crowd of more than 56,000 fans. The foe? Northeastern State. The newly formed team nicknamed the Roadrunners finished its inaugural season 4-6.
And they have been speeding along ever since, including this week’s game against Marshall University in the inaugural Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl. UTSA ended up winning that Frisco Bowl contest, 35-17, after experiencing a sluggish first quarter and part of the second quarter before exploding for three touchdowns before halftime. The victory was the first bowl game win for the program.
It didn’t take the Roadrunners program long to find its stride. UTSA has hired three head coaches in its dozen years blocking and tackling opponents. UTSA followed up its first year with a dramatic improvement, going 8-4. In 2013, UTSA became bowl eligible, as it had been ineligible for postseason play as a “transitional” FBS school.
Associate director of athletics Kyle Stephens, who’s been at UTSA for 20 years – and, thus, witnessed the birth of the football program – credits the school’s leadership with a successful launch in 2011. “Our previous athletic director, Lynn Hickey, had a vision when she helped create the program,” Stephens said. “We didn’t have a pro football team nor did we have a Division I college team,” he explained, “so then she went out and hired Larry Coker as our first coach.” Hickey served as AD from 1999 to 2017.
Stephens said Coker, who had won a national college football championship at the University of Miami, “brought instant name identity to us.” Stephens said that “support in the city has been fantastic. It’s been really great.”
The Roadrunners went to their first bowl game in 2016, “just six years after the program was built,” Stephens said, adding that it was among the quickest bowl appearances in national collegiate football history. The Frisco Bowl was the fourth consecutive bowl game in which UTSA participated.
UTSA has been on a meteoric trajectory ever since. Not bad for a school that built its football program from scratch. Roughly 35,000 students are enrolled at UTSA. It is, though, part of the University of Texas system, which of course features an elite football program at its Austin campus; indeed, the Longhorns will play this year as one of four teams competing in the college football playoff to determine the national champions.
The Roadrunners’ current head coach is Jeff Traylor, a 55-year-old graduate of Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches. With the win over Marshall, Traylor’s record at UTSA stands at 39-15. Traylor’s record figures to keep improving as the Roadrunners continue their upward climb.
Stephens said Traylor has taken UTSA “on a new trajectory.” Stephens credits Traylor’s much of success at UTSA to his reputation around the state as a successful high school coach. “I am pretty sure he knows everyone in the state,” Stephens said. Traylor’s knowledge of “everyone,” Stephens said, likely has helped him recruit top-flight student-athletes to UTSA. “The players love playing for Coach Traylor,” Stephens said.
Sean Catrell, associate AD in charge of strategic communications, echoed Stephens’s view of Traylor. “Coach Traylor’s hiring was a game-changer,” Catrell said, praising the leadership of the current AD Lisa Campos for helping “boost ticket sales” and facilitating a move to the American Conference, a move he said has “elevated our visibility.”
The Roadrunners finished their 2023 season at 9-4. It’s not the best single-season mark they have notched under Traylor’s leadership. In his second season, UTSA finished at 11-1, accounting for the most wins in the school’s brief football history, as well as the longest winning streak in UTSA program history.
To be sure, many college football programs struggle for years before reaching bowl-quality performance levels. That hasn’t been the case with UTSA.
Another aspect of UTSA’s football history has to do with its rivalry with Texas State University, based in nearby San Marcos. The Roadrunners, though, own a 5-0 record against Texas State, which one could surmise means it hasn’t actually developed – yet! – into much of a “rivalry.” They call it the I-35 Rivalry. So, give it time and it well might turn into an event that rivals UT-A&M in intensity.
Stephens said that in 20 years working for the schools’ athletic department, he has been to “every game except for one” since the founding of the football program. It took a family commitment to another athletic event to keep away from the UTSA game, he said. “So, I had to send one of our assistants to cover for me at the game,” he said.
It seems a good bet that he is unlikely to miss any more games for the foreseeable future, given the success that UTSA continues to enjoy.