Head Coach: Jeff Traylor is entering his 5th year with the Roadrunners program, he’s been immensely successful with a 39-14 record. Traylor has won 2 conference championships and last season brought the program their first ever bowl victory. It’s been pretty amazing he’s been with the program this long, he’s long been a candidate to be poached but Roadrunner fans won’t complain, they’re going to be great as long as he’s here.
Program Outlook: UTSA’s program has been advancing rapidly. They are in a prime location, San Antonio is a big city without any pro football programs so they’re the show in town. They moved from CUSA to the American last year which led to a slight regression to 9-4 but it’s still clear the Roadrunners are going to be an AAC contender every year.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: There’s a few more questions than usual this year. For one, for the first time in what feels like a decade, Frank Harris is not the QB. Owen McCown is projected to be the starter, he did lead the Roadrunners to a win in the Frisco Bowl. They have a good group of RBs, but took some losses at receiver and the offensive line. There wasn’t a high quantity of guys lost to the portal on defense, but the quality of the ones they lost was tough. They may not have their stars but there’s more experience back at least, this side of the ball does need to improve because they gave up way too many big plays and weren’t effective at stopping opponents from scoring in the RedZone. Generally this program has recruited very well and developed players so I do have confidence guys will step up at some of the questionable positions.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: First of all, I’m very excited that UTSA managed to be the only program to play all 4 Owls teams this year. The Roadrunners will look to claim superiority over all of the Owls. The non-conference schedule includes some tough tests against Texas State and Texas. It’s an incredibly favorable conference slate as the Roadrunners avoid Tulane and South Florida, plus get Memphis at home. Rice and Army on the road will be potential roadblocks to winning the conference.
Vegas Projection: UTSA’s win total is set at 8.5 with the odds geared toward the under. Essentially the expectation is a reasonable path where they lose to Texas and Texas State along with a couple conference games.
2024 Best Case: It took a year adjustment but UTSA is ready to take over the American behind an offense that’s good once again and an improved defense. The Roadrunners start 2-0 after picking up a big win over Texas State on the road to set up a showdown against Texas. The Roadrunners race out to a lead against the Longhorns and don’t give it up until the very last minute in a heartbreaker. They ride the momentum into a showdown with an undefeated Memphis team that captures national attention. The Roadrunners win a fun shootout to take command of AAC title contention and they finish it out strong by winning the last 3 games. They get a matchup with a 1 loss Tulane in a win and in the playoff AAC championship game. The Roadrunners step up to the challenge and pull off the win at the last moment to make the playoff. They are marched with Alabama in the first round and battle hard before losing at the last moment again. Yet it’s still a strong season that has the Roadrunners position to continue to compete, and yes Traylor still sticks around.
2024 Worst Case: This is the most transition since year 1 of the Traylor era and it shows immediately. The season gets off to an incredibly disappointing start when the Roadrunners are surprised by a tougher than expected Kennesaw State Owls team, and it doesn’t get easier suddenly the season is already off the rails with an 0-3 start and they never recover during conference play. An upset loss to ECU to open the conference slate sets the tone for a disappointing 4-8 season. Despite the disappointing season big programs don’t forget about Traylor, he’s shown what he can do despite this set back and he gets poached by Baylor.
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