UTSA Roadrunners Look To Build Momentum As Full Member Of FBS Division

The start of the college football season is just a few months away and while many teams are excited, there are none more thrilled to get the season underway than the University of Texas – San Antonio (UTSA) Roadrunners. The reason behind this is due to the fact that this season will be their first as a full member of Football Bowl Subdivision after spending their previous two seasons as a transitional member and unable to participate in postseason bowl games. Even more impressive is the the fact that UTSA didn’t even have a football program as recently as 2009.

The man who has been leading this campaign into foreign waters is Larry Coker who has been the only head coach for the school of just under 30,000 students. Coker has had great success in the past as a collegiate football coach taking the Miami Hurricanes to back to back BCS National Championship Games in 2001 and 2002. In those games Coker led the Hurricanes over the Nebraska Cornhuskers 31-24 in the first game while tragically losing in double overtime to the Ohio State Buckeyes the following year; a game that many people call one of the best National Championship Games of all time.

Since building the program from scratch in 2009 Coker has taken the Roadrunners to to an impressive 19-5 record and bringing them to within a game of playing in the Conference USA Championship Game after winning their final five games of the regular season. UTSA plays at the Alamodome which saw them only lose one C-USA game there in 2013. UTSA football tickets averaged $48 a season ago at the Alamodome and will be in the same range for the upcoming season with their most expensive game coming in Week 3 at Oklahoma State which is going for $83 on average. The Alamodome also is the host of the annual postseason Alamo Bowl which has been played there since 1993. There have been some great Alamo Bowl games in the past but none as exciting than the record setting 2011 game between Washington and Baylor.

That year Alamo Bowl tickets averaged $212.85 on the secondary market, 10% higher than normal and saw this game break nearly every offensive record in college football as the two teams combined for 123 points, 17 touchdowns, and 1,397 total yards in Baylor’s 67 – 56 victory. All of those records are still standing except Baylor’s record of 67 points in a bowl game lasted less than a week as the West Virginia Mountaineers broke it in the Orange Bowl where they beat Clemson 70-33. The University of Texas – San Antonio Roadrunners are one team to watch moving forward as they have taken tremendous strides in their first few seasons under Larry Coker and could be one of the best non-automatically qualifying programs in the country if they continue to improve as quickly as they have.