IN THE INAUGURAL meeting between UTSA and rival Texas State, the Roadrunner football team walked away with bragging rights and a 38-31 victory over the Bobcats. The teams faced off in front of 39,032 fans — the second largest home crowd in UTSA’s short football history.
“This was an exciting ….
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win for our program,” head coach Larry Coker said
following the game. “I’m proud of our players and coaches. [Ending the season] 8-4 is well deserved.”
Quarterback Eric Soza threw for 200 yards with three passing touchdowns, and ran for one more. The Roadrunners led by 17 points during most of the game, holding off Texas State in the much anticipated contest. The game marked the final time the two teams will meet as both schools will go to separate conferences after this season. The earliest the two could meet for a nonconference game is 2016.
After this season, the Roadrunners will move to Conference USA, joining five other teams to replace the four former C-USA teams who’ll go to the Big East in 2013. The Bobcats will move to the Sun Belt to replace C-USA-bound North Texas. “I’d like to do this,” Coker said of the possibility of the two schools meeting up in non-conference play. “To me, this is like a Florida State/Miami series.”
As the Roadrunners face the reality of conference realignment, they do so with the confidence of an 8-4, 3-3 record in their first conference campaign. UTSA attained their record with a series of streaks, first with a 5-0 start followed by a 0-4 swoon from Oct. 13 to Nov. 3. The team took advantage of FCS-member McNeese State with a 31-24 victory in San Antonio Nov. 10, and took a 34-27 decision from Idaho at the
Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho Nov. 17.
The Roadrunners will need that confidence as they prepare for the challenges presented by C-USA. Their first experience with the conference ended in defeat when the Rice Owls defeated UTSA 34-14 in Houston. Future C-USA member Louisiana Tech held off the Roadrunners, 51-27, in Ruston Nov. 3.
UTSA’s 2013 schedule outside of Conference USA will include games against Oklahoma State and Houston in the Alamodome, and on the road at New Mexico and Arizona.
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