Texas Tech football: 5 things to know about UTSA’s Jeff Traylor

He’s doing unfathomable work at UTSA

Most Texas Tech fans have likely never watched a UTSA football game.  That’s because that program has been largely irrelevant for the duration of its existence.

What’s more, it hasn’t even been in existence for very long.  The Roadrunners first began playing football in 2006, the year that a sophomore named Graham Harrell was leading the Texas Tech football program at QB.

As a whole, UTSA was just 52-66 coming into 2021.  What’s more, they boast only two bowl games in their history.

In other words, this is a program that has little in the way of tradition to build upon.  Yet building is exactly what Traylor has been doing since the moment he arrived in the Alamo City.

So far, Traylor is 15-5 as head coach of the Roadrunners.  He’s already locked up his second consecutive winning season after going 7-5 last year and taking his team to the First Responder Bowl.

When you consider that in the six seasons prior to his arrival, UTSA had just one winning season and had never won more than six games in any year, it becomes clear just how great of a job Traylor has done.  After all, he currently has UTSA at 8-0 and ranked No. 23 in the nation.

For his excellent start this year, he was recently named to the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award Coach of the Year watchlist.  That’s almost unfathomable for a UTSA coach.

Now, he’s almost certain to parlay his excellent work with the Roadrunners into a hefty raise.  But the question that begs to be answered is whether he is a rising star or just a flash in the pan.