Top 5 Impact Players
- QB Eric Soza, So.
- RB Chris Johnson, Fr.
- RB David Glasco II, Fr.
- LB Steven Kurfehs, So.
- S Mark Waters, Jr
Pretty good list here, but I don't know if I could justify Glasco at #3, even though I'm a fan of his. I'd personally bump Kurfehs and Waters up a spot then add Kam Jones to the list.
UTSA's Offense
Offensive Line - C
Running Backs - B
Receivers - B
Quarterbacks - B
Perfect. I'd maybe add a + to the RBs and subtract the OL to a C-, purely due to a lack of depth.
UTSA's Defense
Defensive Line - B-
Linebackers - B
Secondary - B
Special Teams - C-
Pretty spot on as well. This publication ran prior to Ashaad Mabry's transfer, thus I feel the DL should be a B or A-. Otherwise great stuff.
For reference, Texas State ratings:
OL - B-
RB - B
WR - B+
QB - B+
DL - C+
LB - A-
Secondary - B-
Special Teams - C
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| Photo courtesy of Mysa.com |
The information in the main write-up is a tad outdated. It states that UTSA only has two players with FBS experience (Waters and Mike Sanchez) but of course that is no longer the case after Lekenwic Haynes and Patrick Hoog joined the squad. The article's pensmith brings up a few great points on UTSA:
- The Alamodome is the fourth-largest collegiate stadium in Texas, lagging behind only Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial, Kyle Field, and Rice Stadium.
- UTSA has 46 players on the roster from within a 100 mile radius of San Antonio. The actual number is certainly higher than at the time this article was composed, but it's still a great observation of the terrific job UTSA is doing in landing local talent and establishing recruiting pipelines.
- Coker listed TE and WRs as the strengths on offense, while touting Cole Hubble, Kam Jones, Brandon Armstrong, and Earon Holmes.
Some quotes from Coker:
- "It's tremendously exciting here because it's all so fresh. The program will follow whatever stamp you put on it, and we can decide the culture here right away. Whatever culture you establish is what you have. We can set the tone immediately for what we want this program to be. And what we want is to build it the right way, for the long haul."
- "We think he's [Soza] is going to be a great contributor. He's a very smart player who knows the offense. It's his job to lose. He executes, he's a leader-- he's just what you want a quaterback to be internally, plus he has skills to do the job."
- "We thought this was going to be a tough sell, but we have a lot of things that sell themselves. There's great high school football here, there's no other Division I team in the city, there's no professional team here, we've got a great facility in the Alamodome, it's a great city and we've got 30,000 students who voted overwhelmingly to fund and support this program."
A look at some of UTSA's 2011 opponents, as Dave Campbell sees them:
Sam Houston State
2010 Overall/Southland record (6-5/4-3)
Offensive Starters Returning - 11
Defensive Starters Returning - 9
Predicted to finish fourth in the Southland Conference. Roadrunners' keys to victory? Stop the run on defense, nail the big play on offense in spite of heavy blitzes.
Northeastern State
2010 Overall/LSC record (6-5/6-4)
- Won only two games in 2009. Won LSC North Division Title last year with its first winning season in TEN years.
- Trey McVay (887 yds, 12 TDs) was the LSC North Division receiver of the year.
- NSU boasts two all-conference offensive linement- gaurd Colton Ables and tackle Chris Cherry.
- Kenny Davis will lead the Riverhawks at QB in his senior year. Passed for 2,068 yards and 20 TDs last season.
- Bright side for UTSA? NSU allowed 31 points and ~400 yards per game. NSU did not face any FBS opponents last year.
- A trip to NSU's athletics site informed me that NSU's first game for 2011 will be broadcasted locally on Cox. They will face another 2011 UTSA adversary-- Bacone College. How nice of the two teams to provide UTSA with travel-free scouting!
McMurray
2010 Overall/ASC Record - (6-4/4-4)
- McMurray landed two players on the Top 5 ASC Players pre-season list: QB Jake Mullin and Safety Will Morris. Mullin passed for nearly 3,000 yards last year with 35 touchdowns in only eight games. Morris was an all-american last year and earned ASC Defensive POY after recording 58 tackles and five interceptions.
-McMurray returns nine starters on both offense and defense. This is McMurry's last season in Division III before moving up to Division II.
Oddities:
If you haven't done so already, I highly suggest this beautiful article on UTSA football from Texas Monthly's Jason Cohen. I think it's the best piece of writing I've seen on UTSA's infantile program. Here are a few quotes from Cohen from an interview he did with Texas Monthly after his piece ran; I agree with Cohen's views on the future of UTSA hoops.
What challenges did you find in catching an institution like UTSA in transition? How do you get across its underperformance in an area like sports without making it seem like you’re putting the college down?
Do you have tickets to UTSA’s first game?
So there you go. A fairly huge post to make up for a slow week over here at Coker Chronicles. 12 days until kick off.
I would say it’s less underperformance than irrelevance—which probably doesn’t sound any nicer, but it’s just the reality of being such a young and small-sport school in a state where the measuring stick is UT and A&M (even TCU is hot stuff now). I’ve followed or covered schools like Portland State, Montana, Gonzaga, and Xavier, so I see UTSA in that same “mid-major” light. The basketball team will probably never reach the heights Gonzaga and Xavier have, but the university has still been a March Madness player, since they’ve hosted Final Fours and A.D. Lynn Hickey is on the men’s selection committee. It’s possible the basketball team will benefit more from being in the WAC than football will—or at least, it will seem more impressive if they win a couple of tournament games than it will for football to win a Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.Other than wins, what are the factors that help create a football tradition, in your opinion?
It’s probably all wins, isn’t it? I mean, even the teams that now seem sad-sack, when they originally established the traditions that they cling to now, it was accompanied by winning. UTSA only started sports in 1981, and they have their own hand sign (as, it seems, does every Texas school) but it’s kind of like a little indie rock band, it’s a secret. And then the basketball team makes it to March Madness a few times, and the whisper gets a little louder. And now with football, everyone in the second biggest city in the state will come to learn it—if it’s winning football.Given the attention on profitability in higher ed, if college football doesn’t turn a profit, how does it justify itself?
Are either of them really supposed to be profitable? Are collegiate newspapers or theater productions supposed to be profitable? My understanding is most college football programs aren’t, and even many of the ones that supposedly subsidize all the other sports don’t do that as well as its adherents might claim, because they are still subsidized by student fees (as UTSA’s football team is with a fee increase the student body voted for). But I’m not convinced that means the money they get (and revenue they generate, even if it doesn’t hit the black) would otherwise go to other aspects of a university. Or that sports isn’t an equally legitimate part of what a state university should be.
Do you have tickets to UTSA’s first game?
I don’t have a ticket but I have a hotel reservation for Friday night, and I will probably choose to be in the stands rather than the press box. I imagine UTSA’s best memories on the field are still another season or two away, when they have a better team and better competition. But for a pure college football game day experience, the first-ever game ought to match the atmosphere of a bowl or big-time rivalry game. And if the game itself gets boring, there will still be time to get in the car and make the Texas–Rice kickoff.
So there you go. A fairly huge post to make up for a slow week over here at Coker Chronicles. 12 days until kick off.
