Hey there, I am Adam Shafer, but since the CC boss is also an Adam, I’ll just use the Shafer part. I graduated from UTSA in 2000 and am proud of that. You know how a lot of UTSA haters like to call us a commuter college? Yeah that’s me. In fact I am a second generation Roadrunner commuter with my mother getting both her bachelors and masters at a “non-traditional” age. That is all part of the cultural evolution of the school. Current students will have a totally different experience than I did attending the school, but I am just fine with that. In fact, I am very happy to see it.
For many years, I was a fantasy football dork, I didn’t have a college football team to root for, with football all I cared about was NFL statistics. In fact, I grew up in a Cowboys house, but never fully bought into them being “my” team; after all, they are 300 miles away. I held out hope that San Antonio would get an NFL team, but realized after the Saints stabilized in New Orleans that this dream will never be realized.
Football at UTSA was always something hoped for, but never expected. I have been following the journey of the program since the students voted to raise athletic fees back in 2007. This isn’t when the baby was born, maybe it was the ovary releasing the egg. Months later, impregnation occurred when the Board of Regents approved UTSA’s plan to pursuit football. Since then this story has been a whirlwind, with so much falling into place. If I was a beat writer, I would have journaled the entire process, it would make for a great book. I swear, if UTSA was playing in the Southland I still would have been there for every game, excited to see my school finally playing football. Amazingly, this is not how the story has gone. Despite being so young, the ride has given so many thrills. I am absolutely in love with the story.
You will see my perspective more focused on the experience of being a fan and what the athletic programs do for the profile of the school.
The game day experience has quickly become my favorite pastime, getting up early to tailgate and enjoying seeing my team play. The first game was absolutely incredible, tailgating was insane, and there was just a great atmosphere. Walking into my section for the first time and seeing the upper deck with thousands of people, almost made me emotional. This gave us a view of what we need to shoot for. If we can make that first Saturday, every Saturday, we will have made it.
It is good for people outside of Texas to know what UTSA is; it just makes my degree worth more! Who we align ourselves with in athletics gives a certain perception of the school, whether that is appropriate or not is for someone else to decide. This is why I find the realignment game so exciting. Trying to figure out what kind of opportunities present themselves, analyzing the domino effect and trying to figure out where UTSA will end up is all very interesting to me. The idea of your town your team is something I am really big on. It is this concept that will decide how far this star can rise(geeze, it has already risen so much). If UTSA can harness the power of San Antonio’s T-shirt, bandwagon fan base, watch the hell out. And there is no reason to think they can’t, not a single person can look at what the program has done and say, “oh well, they will just always be a small time program.” The conferences see it, the TV execs see it, and the reported upcoming invite proves that.
So I will be chiming in regularly, I won’t be diagnosing the 4-2-5 defense, but I will have plenty of opinions to share, both on and off the field (or court).
P.S
A couple of thoughts on what is going on right now. Curious to see what happens with UTEP. I had been banging the drum that we needed them to move to MWC for our chances to get in to one of the conferences. Now that it looks like we are in, I hope they are staying in CUSA. That would put us in a division that would include 4 Texas schools, that is bad ass. There is some speculation that Tulane will move to CUSA east to facilitate this. Very surprised to hear that, as the ECU admin have been clamoring about becoming more regional. FIU would be only team added in the East, and it’s pretty far from both ECU and Marshall. So as of today, this may be what it is looking like…
West- UTEP, UTSA, UNT, Rice, Tulsa, La Tech
East- Tulane, Southern Miss, UAB, FIU, ECU and Marshall
If this is how it works out, I will be very excited.
Word today is that SJSU and Utah St are to be added to MWC. This gets them to 10, which makes me think UTEP may indeed not move. 11 is a funky number. Comments by UTEP coach makes it sound like they are moving, but as the two conferences appear to be doing their own thing maybe this is no longer the case.
