Roadrunners stay undefeated despite bleak second half

Kin Man Hui/SA Express News 

As the age old cliche goes, it was truly a tale of two halves in the Alamodome this afternoon. The Roadrunners flew out of the gate, jumping out to a 24-3 halftime lead over the Texas A&M Commerce Lions. From there, UTSA seemed to go blank, scoring just three points in the second half against a miserable Division II squad. Though the 30,000+ in the Runnerdome certainly would have like to see a bit more separation in the score, UTSA came out ahead 27-16.

The victory pushed the Roadrunners to the .500 mark, the program's best since the infamous loss to McMurry. Dating back to last season, UTSA is currently on a three-game winning streak and have rushed for over 170 yards in all three affairs. Rushing the ball has continued to be a huge point of contention for the Roadrunners as they took every opportunity they could to keep the ball on the ground. As Commerce coach Guy Morris put it, "I think they felt they could run the ball on will and they pretty much did it." While UTSA's recent emphasis on rushing the ball may not be as sexy as Soza hitting Brandon Freeman in stride, the rushing game has been extremely efficient. Each ball carrier averaged over 4.0 yards per carry, outside Aaron Grubb who had one carry-- a busted jet sweep. Another promising factoid: The Runners have yet to fumble the ball on a designed running play in 2012.

While UTSA did a fantastic job toting the pill, Commerce was miserable at it. UTSA's defensive line and linebackers held the Lions to 16 rushing yards and a cool average of .7 yards per carry. Wow. The front six also brought constant heat to the Commerce backfield, racking up nine tackles for losses, five sacks, and four quarterback hurries. Jaron Harris and Cody Rogers were particularly outstanding on the pass rush. This is the way bigger schools are supposed to knock smaller schools silly. Domination in the trenches.

Now to the miscellaneous thoughts department. Going bullet style cause I'm feeling lazy.

- UTSA experienced what was likely their worst kick returning performance in program history. Kenny Harrison and Kenny Bias both lined up as the return man throughout the game, averaging just 6.3 yards per return. I feel like coaches across the NCAA landscape are experimenting with their return game following the rule changes that we saw in the offseason. It didn't work at all, but Blake Terry and Lekenwic Haynes were lined up in front of the return man on kickoffs. Being two of the team's hardest hitters, I guess the coaching staff wanted them to land a big block or two and hopefully spring the Kennys for a big return. Things got pretty awkward when middle linebacker Blake Terry caught a directional kick though...

- Eric Soza's offense went 4-4 in the redzone this afternoon to come to 6-6 on the season. I think that's a huge testament to the improved and enlarged offensive line who can actually get a surge at the line of scrimmage now. Most of the credit should go to Sean Ianno, who I heard once kicked a 73 yarder in practice (without a defense to kick over, but impressive nonetheless).

- Not sure what his injury was, but Darrien Starling became the second Roadrunner cornerback to miss a game this season. Crosby Adams started in his wake and did a fairly admirable job. That should be a good confidence boost for the young CB who has struggled to solidify his playing time despite flashes of great potential. Adams delivered a forceful (illegal) blow to a Lion receiver and sent the Dome into a frenzy.

- Kevin Brown's infatuation with running the option to the short side of the field is starting to drive me nuts. The offense's speed becomes underserved when placed within a shallow boundary and it becomes much, much easier for safeties and cornerbacks to come up to help stop the run on a short field. Just feels like overcoaching to me, unless there's something I'm missing.

- Commerce's quarterback Deric Davis performed admirably under great pressure. His offensive line really let him down, but the 220 pound, lefthanded signal caller did his damned best to keep the ball moving up the field. He had some pretty wildly errant throws but placed the ball decently enough on the short stuff to keep the Lions in the game. I doubt many people cared but myself, but I was immensely impressed with the moxy, determination, and strength he showed on his own half yard line. With a physically imposing defensive line to his front, and a drunk and loud student section to his back, Davis made sure that the defense would not be coming off the field with a safety. At one point Davis had about three or four Runners piled up on him, but Davis kept his feet moving to get out of the endzone.

I think that's a decent enough amount on a sort of tune-up game for the Runners. Next up we rematch with the Georgia State Panthers who just fell to 0-2 on the year after being smoked by Tennessee 51-13. I'm gonna try to take a bus out to Hotlanta for the game, so keep your eyes peeled on the forum for more info on that, as well as an eye on the blog for more info on the Georgia State Panthers.

The Bizarre Power of Social Media

By all means, I am a child of the Internet. Graced with a high reading and writing capability at a young age, I grew up lounging in AOL chat rooms via a 56k modem and a Netscape Navigator browser. As I entered adolescence, Netscape turned to Firefox, dial-up turned to broadband, and I continued to learn about the world through the communal power of the Internet. By challenging my morals and convictions throughout my young life, the Internet has certainly been a large factor in my life. That being said, I still don't understand it sometimes, and I was heavily reminded of the fact this week. A YouTube user named MrHurriicane uploads live streams of himself playing video games while providing commentary for his audience. Lately MrHurriicane has been streaming his latest project-- an NCAA Dynasty of the UTSA Roadrunners. By all accounts, it has been his most successful video series yet, with over a thousand viewers at the series' peak.

In his dynasty, Eric Soza, Evans Okotcha, and Kam Jones are some of the team's stars. The passionate followers of the UTSA Dynasty took to Twitter to see if any of the UTSA players they loved watching in virtual form were on Twitter. From there, things got weird.

I was watching Evans retweet all of his many, many mentions in real time, so when this tweet rolled through, I lost it. A couple of days later, Evans saw his followers count grow by over 700. His shoutouts to his teammates such as Darrien Starling and David Glasco also gave them hundreds of followers. Hell, Evans even had some fan Twitter accounts show up. Celebrity status?

MrHurriicane put up a video detailing how the Twitter blow up happened

And Okotcha and the rest of the "Big 3" put up a video thanking MrHurriicane and his followers

How cool is it that people from all over the world are now following these guys and rooting for UTSA? Stories like these are why the NCAA franchise is so important to relatively small-time football programs like UTSA. The exposure is priceless.

UTSA v. UIW 7 on 7

Dropped by Incarnate Word's campus today to check out a 7 on 7 scrimmage between the Lone Star Conference Cardinals and UTSA's Roadrunners. Most of UTSA's skilled position players were present, amounting to around 35 to 45 players by my guess. In contrast, UIW only had around 25 guys and did very little substituting. A cautionary tale: I was sitting quite a ways away from the action and the players weren't wearing any form of identification, so take player names with a grain of salt as I could have screwed up. Except Carter, can't miss that flame-red ginger dome of his.

New comer quarterback Tucker Carter started the scrimmage by leading the Roadrunner offense down the field on a crisp and efficient drive without a single incompletion. Carter threw exclusively and quickly to under routes with a strong plant step and a clean follow through. The Roadrunner defense was equally impressive on the defensive side of the ball on the first series as Darrien Starling picked off the Cardinals' quarterback on a tipped pass on their third play in the series.

Sorry guys, phone picture is gonna have to do for this one

Following the interception, incumbent QB1 Eric Soza took over under center for Carter. Not to be outdone, Soza lead an even more efficient drive for a touchdown. Soza's footwork looked near perfect and his throwing motion was swift and compact. Eric often quickly cycled through three check downs before finding an open receiver to dump off to or hit in stride. After two drops, Soza found pay dirt by nailing a slanting Mike Wilburn (I think) through two defenders in traffic for about 17 yards. On the following play Soza threw up a perfectly-placed bomb to Marcellus Mack on a flag route in the end zone.

After the Roadrunners came to a 2-0 lead over the Cardinals, the team started to lose focus as the Roadrunner secondary let a Cardinal streak past the defense for a touch down on UIW's first play following the UTSA touchdown. Soza would remain at quarterback for the majority of the scrimmage, presumably in an attempt to build a repertoire with the UTSA receiving corps. Soza dug deep through his options to throw to nearly every player UTSA had on the sideline, from walk-ons to guys I swear I have never seen before. Neither Soza nor Carter ever looked particularly deep on routes, opting to work on their short throws and check downs instead. Overall the Roadrunner quarterbacks performed generally well, with Soza missing on a few passes and Carter having a little bit of trouble with his release in his last series.

If anyone was wondering about Nic Johnston's injury, he was present at the scrimmage without any type of protective wear on his foot or a noticeable limp. While Johnston didn't play, he was coaching up several of the Roadrunner newcomers on the sideline throughout the evening with some occasional help from Mauricio Sanchez. Interestingly enough, JUCO transfer Cody Berry showed some leadership following a defensive break down that led to a UIW touchdown by pulling the secondary aside to talk over the play and the unit's assignments. Not only does this show that Berry has the psyche mettle to lead, but also that he has absorbed UTSA's defense in just a few months. Kid's gonna be special.

Individual highlights include a 10 & delayed out route from Sean Hesler that ended in the RS FR. dragging an inch of his toe over the turf for a first down and drawing a gasp from all of the players in attendance. Hesler's speed is impressive, as he shot off of his defender with a sudden and violent burst. It was tough for me to identify some of the lower profile players from my seat in the stands, but Cody Berry and who I believe was Spencer Phillips had a strong pass break up on a Cardinal receiver at the goal line. Gonna dub that one the Cedar Hill Shutdown.

In the "Why isn't this kid getting hype" department, I had my first chance to see the menacing Jordan Gray play football. I've seen this dude at the gym every day this summer so I can ensure you that he's a physical specimen. GOUTSA lists him at 6'4", 250 lbs. which is SEC size at tight end. Gray only lined up for two plays so I didn't get much of a chance to see him move in space, but on his second play he caught a hard pass from Soza with impressive dexterity on a curl route. He was covered by a kid that was around 5'10", 170 lbs. Don't think homeboy would have brought down Gray before he rumbled for a handful of additional yards. I can definitely see UTSA adopting a tight end-first passing game with Gray and David Morgan, similar to the Patriots current system with Gronkowski and Hernandez. Kam Jones is Wes Welker.

The most impressive play of the game was the last. With UIW leading 3-2, Soza lofted a pass to the back of the end zone. David Morgan, who looks like a new man after going through an intense spring strength training regiment, broke off of his defender and dove backwards over a good three yards of turf to come down in bounds with a batshit crazy touchdown. GOUTSA lists Morgan at 225 but I'd guess he's at around 235~240 off the eyeball test. Morgan's rambunctious catch brought the 30 minute scrimmage to an end at a 3-3 draw.

Pretty funny moment towards the end of the scrimmage-- UIW was driving and in the red zone when a Cardinal attempted to beat Erik Brown on an out route. Brown swatted the ball away, causing a UTSA player to yell out "don't let him score with New Balances on!" A couple of UIW's players took offense, and let the Roadrunners know they were moving to Nike gear this year, causing another UTSA player to rebut "we've got the Nike shit you boys won't see for years." UTSA is an Adidas school, but the premise was both true and hilarious. I kind of still can't believe the triple stripe is hooking us up with custom print gloves next year.

Miscellaneous: Our friend Kevin McGuire at No 2 Minute Warning recorded a podcast with Coach Coker this afternoon. It's about 10 minutes long and is a great listen. Pay close attention when Kevin ask Larry about potential rivalries. Listen here.

How Sweet It Is - Bacone College Recap

Eric Soza shows love after the win. Pic via mysa.com

Sandwiched between two road games against nationally-ranked FCS opponents, 2011's Homecoming game was an opportunity for UTSA to bolster their confidence before making the three hour trek to Huntsville next week to face a very salty opponent. A 54-7 romp of NAIA opponent Bacone College (hopefully) provided a renewed sense of confidence and swagger for a team that had been severely lacking in composure in several facets of the game the past two weeks. 

Defensive pass coverage and special teams play were improved ten-fold; a monumental step up from weeks Two and Three, even if this showing came against lesser talent. Today's win proved the answer for a crucial question in UTSA's first year of football: This team full of inexperienced freshmen showed that they can in fact correct deficiencies in their game, perhaps a response to strong coaching. Bacone only picked up one yard from UTSA’s three punts, and 101 yards on eight (!) kick offs for an average of 12.6 yards per kickoff return. UTSA also blocked a punt near the Warriors’ end zone and recovered a muffed punt to set up the Roadrunners’ first of many touchdowns of the day. Sean Ianno did a magnificent job, going 4 for 4 on field goals (21, 25, 42, 45 yards) and averaging 67.1 yards on kickoffs, resulting in three touchbacks and horrible field position for the Warriors for the duration of the game.

UTSA’s defense terrorized Bacone for four quarters, forcing the Warrriors to punt ten times, netting Bacone a mere 260 yards of offensive production. Coach Neathery’s staff was only one play away from pitching a shutout, as a brain-fart in coverage allowed the Warriors to get on the board with a wide-open 71 yard touchdown pass. If you were to negate that play, Bacone would have only amassed 118 yards through the air in their spread offense, a telling statistic for the UTSA D. Most importantly, Bacone converted only three of their 15 third down attempts. As I’m sure all of our astute readers are well aware, the Roadrunners have had a very tough time containing opposing offenses on third down this season with McMurry and Southern Utah both racking up third and fourth down conversions with ease.

We’re starting to see a sense of stability in the secondary with the addition of Erik Brown at cornerback. Starling and Brown give the defense two guys that they can trust to make plays on the corners. Starling had yet another great performance with four tackles and two pass break ups. Darrien was crashing in on receivers hard, jarring the ball out of the opponents’ hands with strong licks. Starling did make one big mental mistake when he released off of his coverage in an attempt to come down with an interception that he narrowly missed. His coverage assignment ended up catching the ball instead and picked up a first down. That’s a play I’m willing to let fly since it’s an easy six points if Starling can snag the ball. While we’re on the subject of the secondary, Nic Johnston had a monster game with **deep breath** two tackles, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, lock-down pass coverage, and an interception that he returned 12 yards up the field. Triston Wade also had somewhat of a breakout game on the heels of his ejection from the Southern Utah game. Wade provided strong coverage and brought down an interception for 29 yards. Triston racked up six tackles (four solo), forced a fumble, had a tackle for a loss of one yard, and broke up a pass. That’s called putting in the WORK right there. Another freshman safety, this time Joseph Lizcano, also threw in a strong contribution by blocking a punt and pulling down a 23 yard sack.

Looking at 54 points on the scoreboard, one would assume that the Roadrunner offense was firing on all cylinders. In reality that was not necessarily the case. While Bush’s offense didn’t have a huge problem moving the ball, there was plenty to be discouraged by. In general, Soza looked frazzled and off-kilter, throwing balls into the turf, rushing throws, hitting receivers on the wrong shoulder, and focusing too much on a sole receiver. Soza was not able to establish his running game, losing a total of 17 yards while gaining 12. I feel like Soza gets in certain zones when he’s playing, either “pick up first downs with my feet if nothing’s open”, “try to create a big play however it comes”, or “work methodically up the field by using check downs and short route audibles”. Once Soza gets into one of these zones he tends to stick to those guns, often to fault. Obviously Soza is going to be at his best when he learns to incorporate all three of his different styles into his repertoire.

Today’s offensive player of the game is without a doubt “Evil Evans” Okotcha. Okotcha needed only eight carries to move the ball 106 yards, willing his way through defenders while toting the rock. The sturdy Roadrunner halfback finished with one touchdown and became UTSA’s first running back to ever surpass 100 rushing yards in a single game.

The receiving corps was very inconsistent in this game. There was many a drop, including three in a row as the Roadrunners were marching towards a touchdown right before half time. Kenny Harrison continued to show his speed and agility, while Brandon Freeman reeled in any pass sent his way. Bush played around with the Wild Runner formation yet again, this time using Kam Jones as the lone upback with a motioned jet sweep.

For the most part, Soza enjoyed great protection in the pocket. While Bacone recorded four sacks, I still felt like the offensive line did a great job. At least two of the sacks came when Soza panicked upon finding none of his receivers open, then attempted to scramble forward only to be met by Warrior defensive linemen. Can’t blame Soza for not trusting in his pocket security given previous performances from the big boys up front. This offensive line is growing steadily. Let’s see how they do against more D1 competition in the next couple of weeks.

All in all, a good win for the Runners. It’s great to get a truly dominative victory under your belt, demoralizing your opponent in the process. The crowd was terrific, coming in at 2,000 higher than the McMurry game. I personally can’t wait to play some D1 talent in the Alamodome.

Oddities: Southern Utah smashed UNLV tonight. Told you guys they were good. UTSA gave Southern Utah a much better game than what they saw out of Mountain West member UNLV.

Southern Alabama lost to Kent State and Georgia State got demolished by Case Keenum and the Houston Cougars. This week’s opponent, Sam Houston State, upset FBS opponent New Mexico in overtime during their homecoming. SHSU's stud sophomore running back Tim Flanders had five touchdowns. After the game New Mexico's program pretty much fell to dust. Much more coming on Sammy State later in the week. Be sure to check out our podcast on Tuesday/Wednesday for good times.