WAC Jack Podcast Episode 1

Hey everyone I wanted to let you know that Jack Hopkins, formerly of bobcat report has a new show on the as-yet-revealed podcast network.

So think of this show as a sister podcast on which you will hear lots of college football goodness.

LINK



Talk about this post on twitter and on the Forum

Episode 24: Sombrero

This is the Wed night edition of the show -- Jared is throwing a margarita party on our usual Thurs for his birthday so he booted us! -- We talk spring practice, injuries, complicated offenses and defenses and more --- podcast@cokerchronicles.com

Danny Mac article we were referencing: LINK

You can find the links to the episode on the iTunes on Stitcher or just subscribe directly to the podcast.

Enjoy!

Episode 18: Mega Conference

Jared takes sick leave, Darrell from RowdyReport.com fills in. We talk Kevin Brown: new offensive coordinator, Basketball struggles, Mega-Conference, UTSA to the Sun Belt?, and other fun stuff.

Also, I postponed the voicemail stuff until later this week/next week. I am just working some of the kinks out. Thanks to the people who have left a message; we'll play our favorites on the podcast soon.


Audio links:

or here.

We also mentioned contributing: podcast@cokerchronicles.com

You can leave a voicemail for us at 210 701 0763. Keep it under a minute and we may play it on the podcast. Leave a comment, ask a question -- your choice. Bow before the magic of Google Voice!

Episode 16: Signing Day Live Podcast Chat!

We did a LOT of talking. This podcast is a whopping hour and 40 minutes. It is full of good stuff, though -- no lies. We covered National Signing Day, made tons of predictions, recapped the basketball game and even made very risqué jokes. (aztecskin did)

Audio links:

or here.

Episode 15: Live Podcast

We'll be here. Live on Thursday, Jan 26th. Watch us record the CC/EC podcast and interact with us live.

Weirdos.

The audio portion of the podcast can be found here:

or here.

Episode 14

Podcast is up! Click the link to the feed or click HERE

Rambling Reflection: Minot State

I didn’t go to the game. I did go to four of the six home games so I feel like I did my part to contribute to the NCAA attendance record for a first year program.

I is a fun little trivia tidbit that slightly disarms the unknowledgeable. It probably will impress a recruit or two. Wow, they think, must be legit.. *

*While out in Austin, my friend was absolutely shocked (shocked!) that SA had 1.2 million people. She thought it was a tiny town or something.

The problem next (aside from raising funds for facilities) is maintaining the momentum from November 20, 2011 to early September 2012.

We’ll do our part out of loyalty and fandom and the school’s athletic administration will continue to tout the benefits of becoming a fan and supporter.

So far it has been nothing but success. Thirty-five thousand plus every couple of weeks to see the Runners play a schedule full of Never-Heard-Ofs. The immediate goal of fielding a Division 1-A (FBS) team has been achieved. Fielding a successful team is a separate, more difficult undertaking.

You, the fan and/or student need to be in it for the long haul.

Minot state was as good as a bowl game. They laid down like a good has-been boxer for a former champion. They were the journeyman fighter for an aging Rocky in a montage.

Next year will bring tougher opponents and 2013, an even tougher batch. I believe in increasing the challenges. You don’t repeat level one in Tetris. We probably will get our asses handed to us more often and by bigger margins than at Southern Utah and UC-Davis.

It is all part of the experience. These kinds of games are fun and maybe a little useful. Stretching your legs against inferior opponents has to be good for confidence and helps protect your younger players from mentally checking out. This is supposed to be a little fun after all.

I’ll be back with more later.

*So crazy to see that north of the capitol building there is tailgating awesomeness and south of it, on Congress there is hipster awesomeness. Austin is such a cool city.

Jared is writing something, too. Right now I’m watching Liverpool v Chelsea and recovering from the Austin trip.* Also, don't forget to check out El Convo for our ramblings on the basketball team. They are really good and there will be lots of winning going on. If you need something to scratch your basketball itch you should definitely come out to the games and hang with us, yo. Also, don't forget to check out El Convo for our ramblings on the basketball team. They are really good and there will be lots of winning going on. If you need something to scratch your basketball itch you should definitely come out to the games and hang with us, yo.

Losing in Lake Charles: UTSA 21-McNeese St 24

The last time UTSA lost 24-21 it was to a team they should have probably beaten handily. That was September 10th. Nearly two months to the day that they dropped a decision to McMurray. This was another underachievement to another McTeam.

There is a tendency to dismiss this game like some of the others. I have been guilty of it at times. People say the losses don’t matter as much because they are not really playing for anything. It is true that they don’t matter but they shouldn’t be played as such.

That is the Big Challenge. We’ve mentioned it in this space before and probably will continue to do so. I cannot say for certain that guys on the team are checking out or not playing as hard or are pulling up with the finish line in sight. I do know that without senior leadership nor guys who have had to endure a full college season it seems likely that there would be fatigue in both the mental and physical varieties.

College football is a man’s game. It is mean and tough and usually takes three years to get built up to have success. Sure there are the guys that hop in and kick ass as 17 or 18-year olds. There are many more that need time in the weight rooms.

Maybe that accounts for the way Eric Soza seemingly has regressed. Maybe that accounts for all the arm tackles that allowed McNeese to rip through them for 190+ yards in the first half. * Maybe that accounts for all the fumbles, too.

*To be fair, Neal Neathery did some strategizing that stopped the bleeding and returned the Hardhat to the defense.

It is fantasy-shattering for some. No doubt it has and will affect attendance at the last home game. It already messed with the last one. None of that matters though. The “fans” have the luxury of being fickle and can wait until the team is good, playing for “something” or against a big name team.

The fact is that none of it matters. Sure there was a chance to capitalize on the initial excitement and fervor. Going a possible 4-6 with mostly freshman is impressive. The losses were freshman type losses. Turnovers, experience mistakes, being overwhelmed physically, and getting injured. Oh and losing to teams that they should beat.

There is a lot to look forward to. Not just next year but this week. I am excited to see Kam Jones do his thing like he has been doing live and not on a crappy internet feed. The dude has been killing it and Travis Bush has been getting it into his hands and putting him in space to do damage. Jailbreak screens, crossing routes, pitches.

How about Steven Kurfehs and Nic Johnson? Larry Coker thinks the former can play NFL ball and Nic Johnson is always making plays, yo. Also it is live college football for like fifteen bucks.

I know most of you who read this blog and post on rowdyville and rowdytalk are not hopping off the bandwagon but I needed to say it anyway.

Oh yeah and dammit I want some fireworks during the intros.

Go Runners.

Lake Chuckin' --UTSA v McNeese St.

Something Like A Preview of McNeese and More

There are lots of things to talk about. We have not touched on nary a one.

For this I apologize.

Anyhoo. We have a game this week. Apparently no one cares. Well, not as many people care as did in September. Fear not, loyal attendance watcher. This is November. There are a lot of other things occupying the San Antonian’s mind. All those students are taking a sobering look at theirs grades and gearing up for a hard run at the highest letter they can muster after giving less than full concentration in the first half. That means no skipping class, and being prudent with their time. Instead of reading college football blogs and perusing their favorite message boards, they are instead figuring what extra credit paper they can write to squeeze out an A, B or C respectively.

For those that have no chance, this is where they get angry at their professors and complain loudly that this “sucks man. They should work with [me] on this.” Some will decide that college “blows” and they instead will just get a job leaning heavily on the reasoning that “my [cousin, friend, uncle, etc.] makes $XXX,XXX a year and they didn’t even go to college.” That or “college isn’t for everyone.”

For the non-student, there is Thanksgiving to think about. Where are we having it? What are we eating (besides the staples)? How in the hell will I deal with (insert troublesome family member here)? Trips take some time to plan and can be fairly pricey. Time spent on priceline.com is time not spent on cokerchronicles.com and rowdyville.net.

What is your excuse?

Regardless, we have McNeese St this week. They are a solid team with some guys that can play. Darius Carey is a North Texas transfer and was expected to be the top guy in Denton until being unceremoniously let go because of a riff with the new staff. He transferred to McNeese and is now the leading pass catcher with 38 catches for 451 and 2 scores.

Fortunately they have been having trouble keeping Cody Stroud upright and the offense has been lackluster because of the offensive line. Sam Houston kicked their asses and had six sacks. The next week Stephen F. Austin rocked them for eight sacks off a simple four man rush.

Not only is their line terrible but injuries are killing them. Their starting linebackers were out and DE Desmund Lighten was hurt for the majority of the game. The replacement for the two injured starting corners was also taken out midway through the win over Nicholls State that stopped a four game skid.

So in a game that was billed by this site as a tough one looks like it could be a cakewalk. Yeah I said it. They are hurt, mentally beaten and barely scratched out a win over Nicholls State -- another hapless squad.

Their line is a sieve and their defense is injured. I’m predicting our first road win, guys.


PREDICTION: 34-10 on Senor Night in Lake Charles, LA. Home to 70,000 people.

Bye Week Randomness

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.

Episode 8: Mid Season Review

In this week's episode, we review the Sam Houston trip Jared took, take stock of the team at mid-season, and preview U of South Alabama. We also experience technical difficulties that wipe out 25-30 minutes of quality, quality podcasting.


We recorded part two Wednesday night and it is now up.

Enjoy!



Part 1 Download


Part 2 Download

Game day: Sam Houston State

It is game day. Be sure to check out Rowdyville, Rowdy Talk, and Mysa’s game chat for updates. 

As of this posting, we are about 30 minutes away.

Gonna try this last minute chat thing. For those of you who don't want to mingle with n00bs and/or don't  want to wait for message board updates only. 

Episode 7: Bacone and BearKats

In this week's episode, we review the Bacone game and look ahead to the Huntsville trip.

Enjoy!



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Perspective Post

Doesn't that make you feel better?

We all hoped it would last just a little bit longer. Hell, I thought it would last at least until next week and most definitely not at home.

Alas, we are become normal. We are regular ol' fans of a team with a digit in both columns. No doubt the Haters are appeased, if only slightly. Their teams could not claim the title Undefeated.

It is good. We now get to experience the full breadth of fandom. We won, we lost. We've overachieved, we've underperformed.

The team is going through growing pains. By all accounts the first win went to the young team's head a little. We didn't help them much though. We have a lot to learn as a fan base if we want to be ready for Wacdom.

***

Please stop doing the wave.

Please don't cheer when we are on offense.

Please stop doing the wave.

Also, No Wave.

***

We do have the glorious luxury of a pressure-free season. We didn't cost ourselves a WAC championship or a shot at a bowl game here. If that lets you keep your blood pressure under control then take it. Use it. Don't die. There is plenty to be frustrated about come next season. Also, plenty the season after that.

Good news is that we recovered --albeit only slightly--in the second half. The offense ended up with nearly five-hundred yards and we we were one stop away from winning the game (even if we should have been killing them).

More good news? This week's practice will be nice and crisp. Everyone's pride is smartin' a little and as Jared said, it will make us a better team.

That's your mini-perspective post for the day.

Last Post before Kickoff

Photo courtesy of the Express News

Nine hundred eighty-nine days of anxious, sometimes painful waiting are about to end. At 1:00 pm on Saturday the first ever University of Texas at San Antonio Roadrunners football team will emerge from a dark tunnel at the Alamodome in front of a nearly sold out crowd. Years of preparation and planning, millions of dollars, and an unquantifiable amount of sweat and hard work have gone into building an FBS football program that San Antonio can, and should, be glad to call their own. Due to class, work, pep rally, etc. this will be my last post until after the game. As always, follow @CokerChronicles on twitter for constant updates this weekend.

For someone who has been around UTSA for awhile, this past month has been remarkable. Campus, and arguably San Antonio itself, has been revamped. I remember how shocked and disgusted I was when I stepped onto campus my freshmen year to find UTSA students wearing other colleges' garb, traveling to College Station and Austin to support a university that they never have, nor never will, attend, and failing to support an always competitive, sometimes brilliant, men's basketball team.

Enter UTSA football.

The past two weeks of school this year have been an absolute joy for me. Campus is a 30,000-deep sea of orange and blue, football talk dominates all conversation and small talk, and students are finally proud to declare themselves UTSA Roadrunners... without the "but I'll probably transfer to UT next year" suffix.

Without taking Saturday into account, my fondest UTSA football moment thus far has almost nothing to do with football. On November 11th, 2010, UTSA officially joined the Western Athletic Conference. UTSA will be the fastest school in NCAA history to transition from zero football to bowl-eligible football. The WAC will also provide increased opportunities and exposure for athletes in every sports program the University sponsors, while bringing the school and city into a national spotlight.

I will never forget the 30 minutes leading up to the WAC invitation acceptance press conference. I read on Facebook (while in class, great student I am) that UTSA would be holding a press conference in the upcoming minutes. I swiftly shoved all of my crap into my backpack and sped to find the room where the press conference was being held. I wasn't the only one. I ran into a couple of guys that I wasn't too fond of due to previous altercations. In a moment of euphoria, we put aside our petty differences and sprinted to find the press conference where we would shove our way into a room over-spilling with cheerleaders, athletes, band members, fans, boosters, administrators, and coaches-- all beaming with excitement.

This moment sums everything up for me. Football is so much more than a game. It has already provided educational opportunities to over 90 young men, while also leading to new opportunities for female student-athletes thanks to Title IX. Football gives us a higher identity; it makes us a part of something bigger than ourselves. And most importantly, it bands us together as human beings. Many say that football is a religion in the South. I wholeheartedly agree. Whether UTSA goes 0-50 the next four years or is "Still Undefeated" come bowl eligibility, the University has already been "saved" and Saturday will be our first Communion. Thank you all for reading/listening/following, and get ready for a full year of terrific content. Go Runners.

 --Jared

 *** 

It is weird. My birthday is Saturday. My present is Hometown Football. While a good portion of the Site's followers so far are alums or students, I represent the City -- perhaps only in my head but it that is just as well. I remember when the Dome was built. I wanted to believe Red McCombs would bring us the Vikes. I wanted Tom Benson to bring us the Saints, both before and after Katrina. I wanted Paul Tagliabue and then Roger Goodell to let us have pro football. There were lots of excuses from those owners and politicians and commissioners. I was too young and too naive to know how this world worked.

In my adult-college-grad form I became a lot more patient. When UTSA announced they were fielding a squad I happily read the news from my Denton apartment while telling myself to be calm.

 Settle down. It is going to take about five to ten years to get it all up and running.

 Nope.

It is weird. It was fast tracked. It is here. We have our own team. You don’t need to hold a degree from UTSA . Just need some years put in the Alamo City or Countdown City or SA-Town.

I’m excited for you if you are an alum, though. I have lots of friends who went to UTSA and had to make do with only basketball. This isn’t New York. Texas doesn’t get down with any other sport like it does for football. I love me some basketball but it doesn’t get 55,000 people in one place quite the same way that football can. College football provides is a spectacle unlike any other collegiate sport and more personal than any pro outfit can muster. Your school football team is a super-connection to your college years.  I get decked out in green & white for my alma mater and blog and tweet and obsess. I am glad that my buddies get that experience.

San Antonio isn’t just Silver and Black. It is Orange and Blue.

--Adam


Also ...

I really want to thank everyone for showing us some love. What started out as just a blog has turned into a whole lot of fun. Can't wait for Saturday.

Go Runners

UTSA Picks up a Transfer from Fresno State

Add another former San Antonio standout to the list of players to transfer back home and play for Larry Coker in the Alamodome. Erik Brown, former first team all state corner back at Converse Judson, will be transferring to UTSA. Brown received offers from Arizona, Colorado, and Utah State in 2008 before signing on with Fresno State. Erik has decent size for a corner back at 5'11, 185 lbs and was redshirted during the 2009 season. Unsure of his eligibility at this point in time. I believe Brown will be eligible as a redshirt junior next fall.

After coming within three points of a state championship with Converse Judson in 2007, Brown transferred to Saguaro HS in Arizona, where he would earn first team all state honors and lead his team to an undefeated championship season. Erik will join Cory Williams as the second former Judson Rocket in the UTSA program. All reports on Brown praise his athleticism and high ceiling.

There's your proof of Brown's athleticism.

Of course, players transfer for a reason. It seems like things weren't working out for Brown at Fresno State. In fact, I still haven't found anything saying that Brown has seen the field since high school. Here's a blog report from Fresno's fall camp last year.

As was the case last season, Erik Brown had a bit of a rough camp. He was oft-exposed by faster receivers and seems to always be a step late in reacting and closing. The potential is there for him to be a solid player down the road, but right now he's limited. Still, based on amount of reps, coaches seem to favor him slightly over fellow redshirt freshman J.B. Dock. 

DaCo on Brown: Erik Brown possesses the desired athletic ability for a corner, but over-thinks way too much on the field. When he lets himself go, you can see his potential. If he's gonna develop, he'll do it here, because the receivers he practices against are the best he'll see all year. 

So there you have it. A talented athlete, albeit a wildcard. Sound about par of course for this UTSA team? I think so.

Podcast Episode 4: Season Preview Edition

This week we had special guest Darrell from Rowdy Report to join us on a big community podcast special for the season preview edition.

This is a crazy two hour podcast. Enjoy:

1min: roster talk. Depth chart breakdown. We go position by position.

40th min: Player Interview Review and we talk mess about Mike Taylor of Ticket 760 a little.

50th min: Fearless Predictions!!

Hour+6 min: Northeastern State vs Bacone College breakdown and preview of Northeastern State.

Hour +16 min: Gameday talk, looking at Mysa Downtown Blog

Hour+25 min: Facial Hair talk with Jared. We rank the best facial/head hair styles on the squad.

Hour +32 min: Why Tx-San Antonio instead of UTSA.

Hour +43 min: Wrap up. Shout out to our twitter followers and other important info.








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Podcast Episode 3: Two Weeks

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UTSA in Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine

I often have moments where I take a step back and it hits me. UTSA has a Division I football team. I had one of those ethereal moments this weekend when I picked up my annual copy of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine. Dave & Co. seem fairly high on the Roadrunners. They received some good marks in the ratings section, and their recruiting prospects and commits were highly touted throughout the high school section of the magazine. I'm not going to scan the magazine or copy and paste every word because I sincerely want you all to buy a magazine. At 376 content-rich pages, the magazine is an absolute steal for $10-- bathroom reading material for a month.

Top 5 Impact Players

1. QB Eric Soza, So.
2. RB Chris Johnson, Fr.
3. RB David Glasco II, Fr.
4. LB Steven Kurfehs, So.
5. 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

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?

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.