Jeff Traylor understands beating Texas will be a major challenge for his UTSA program
UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor appeared to understand the tall task his Roadrunners are faced with this week in facing the No. 2 Texas Longhorns.
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“Anything is possible in any game,” Traylor said. “They’ll have to help us quite a bit for us to have a chance.”
That’s not something that’ll cause Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian to let up in his preparation for the Roadrunners. Sarkisian mentioned Monday that UTSA is a dangerous team not only because of Traylor’s program-building efforts, but also because the Roadrunners’ backs are against the wall.
After a close win over Kennesaw State, who just rose to the Football Bowl Subdivision ranks this season, the ‘Runners lost to rival Texas State for the first time ever this past Saturday. The 49-10 contest indicates a beating, but it could have been worse than that.
Traylor likes his team’s ability to respond. But responding against the No. 2 team in the country?
“We’ve had, in my opinion, four losses (at UTSA) where we’ve had the crud kicked out of us,” Traylor said. “We’ve came back and won all four of those games the very next week. But we never have had the University of Texas the very next week.”
Traylor praised his team’s Wednesday practice, but his team is not whole. The fifth-year head coach, who has a 40-15 record in San Antonio with two 10-win seasons, two conference titles, and one bowl win, said there are a lot of injuries his team is dealing with.
“Why is there never a time that with the UTSA Roadrunners, you look out there and go ‘all 22 of them are right back out there the next week,'” Traylor said. “I don’t know what that is, but it seems like it’s something every year. Especially with the O-line. It’s unbelievable.”
What those injures are isn’t quite clear. However, the lack of front-line players poses a real challenge for the Roadrunners.
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“Unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of mismatches this week,” Traylor said. “There’s not a lot of places to really go. They’ve done a wonderful job. They’re really well coached. They’re just going to be tough to score points on. I think they’ve allowed one touchdown when their backups were out there. That’s what I’m told.”
There’s a significant amount of respect from Traylor for Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers. Ever the supporter of Texas high school football as a former state-champion coach himself, Traylor gave a shoutout to Southlake Carroll and head coach Riley Dodge in praising Ewers, who Traylor described as having a strong arm and as a success story from the crucible that is the Dragon football program.
“I know that Riley has thought the world of him for a long time,” Traylor said. “I know him through Riley and watching him play. I root for those kind of guys. I root for all Texas high school guys every week, except when they play the Roadrunners. I have a lot of respect for Quinn, what he’s come from, and how he’s developed.”
It’ll be a difficult challenge for the Roadrunners on Saturday, one Traylor’s tone on Wednesday indicated he thought might be insurmountable. However, he made sure to compliment his team’s effort in getting ready for the chance to upset the No. 2 Longhorns.
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“We were much better today than we were yesterday,” Traylor said. “That was a really positive sign. We were okay yesterday. You could tell we were still stung a little bit from Saturday, but we were much better today.”
