I don't know about you. I'm exhausted. This last week has been another one of those stupid ones that go by quickly while seemingly taking twice as long at the same time. This is normal when you start a new job.
My sleep cycle hasn't adjusted to waking up an hour earlier so by the time I get home I feel like napping for nine hours. Yep, I am officially an adult now. I come home look for a beer and fall asleep on the sofa watching sports.
Well, at least for this week.
Seems everyone needed a little recovery. For the RoadRunners, it was a week to reflect on the three game losing streak (2-5 overall) and plan for the last three games. This thing doesn't really need much tweaking, just more honing. I still maintain that a young squad can't be held to the same standards of a 100 year-old program. In addition to the normal expectations and worries of an upstart are the hopes and dreams of an entire city.
San Antonio is an odd bird, man. There is an inferiority complex combined with an sense of entitlement that creates an odd situation for UTSA. They are expected to dominate like the Longhorns but with 15% of the support. I'm fine with it, however. I've said in this space before that the accelerated timeline and alternative forms of entertainment as competition gives the program an edge. The credit goes to Lynn Hickey and Larry Coker for that. This thing is set up to compete on the next level. They are not a struggling setup that is in over it's head.
The Alamodome has given the team a net gain in recruiting. For all the good that a weight room does to woo a player, the gameday experience has and will always be the most influential. Fact is that when you dream about playing college football you dream about doing it in front of a big, loud crowd and not in a half-empty 4000-seater.
The ideal model has always been something akin to South Florida. They set the attendance record that we broke and routinely put 40K+ in Raymond James every home game. To be fair, they also made the AP top ten within ten years of having the first coaches meeting under a tree.
Everything so far says that something similar can be done. UTSA football doesn't need need to get that 40K, 25-30K would be just fine, thank you. They don't need a top ten ranking within ten years to be a success, a conference championship push would be satisfactory.
I say all this as we wind down this inaugural season and the realities of big time college football become clearer. There is much work to do but the program has people in place to do it and do it well. For that I am glad.
