Following the storylines and surprises that unfolded on the gridiron this weekend.
SAN ANTONIO — It was not the best weekend for San Antonio-area college football; UTSA, UIW and Trinity all lost on Saturday. It was one of those clean sweeps, unfortunately.
With two full weeks of the college football season in the books, here’s what we know about those programs and other powerhouses around the Great State Of Texas. (Oh, and Florida State has even more problems than we first thought, but enough about that.)
UTSA
I was standing near the Texas State team tunnel Saturday as they exited the field after pregame warmups. One of the players, and I have no idea who it was, made a slight diversion to hug a family member just off to my immediate left.
I heard the family member say, as he was approaching: “Are you ready?” He winked, which I saw before he ran past me, and said, “Oh, we’re ready.”
The final score a few hours later: Texas State, 49. UTSA, 10.
The Roadrunners just looked one step slower, and I was only at UFCU Stadium for the first half, but that’s all we needed to see as it turned out. Clearly it wasn’t what anyone expected, at least on the visitor sideline.
I’ll admit my thoughts were fuzzy prior to kickoff. The Roadrunners looked pedestrian in their opener against Kennesaw State. The Bobcats did win their opener at home over Lamar, but only by seven points, and that didn’t look or feel dominating either.
But I harken back to G.J. Kinne’s midweek press conference, where he said things like, It’s time for us to measure up in this series. It’s time for us to return the atmosphere favor that they experienced at the Alamodome last season.
It was time for Texas State to become relevant in the series, and did they ever. UTSA Head coach Jeff Traylor said after the game that his team has been whipped before and didn’t blink, but this seems a little bit different. They not only lost to their Interstate 35 rival… they were thoroughly outplayed from start to finish.
And it’s not like a Kennesaw State-caliber comes calling for an immediate “get right” game to put UTSA back on the right mental track. No, the Roadrunners travel to Austin next week to play the team that just might win the national championship, the Texas Longhorns.
That would make me blink, and I’d bet they will between now and Saturday.
Texas State
You can refer to the above thoughts to know how life is gonna be for the Bobcats this week. They just won their September Super Bowl.
Dennis Franchione told me years ago that Texas State taking the field against UTSA is like playing your little brother, and nobody wants to lose to their little brother. They finally didn’t for the first time in six tries.
Head coach G.J. Kinne will definitely redirect the 24-hour celebration rule and not one minute later now that the UTSA beatdown is in the rear-view mirror. Texas State now gets the opportunity to validate Saturday’s success with power five Big 12 opponent Arizona State coming to San Marcos.
The ‘Cats first three games this season are at home. Imagine if they get all three before conference play starts!
Texas
The last time the Longhorns won the national championship, they played their second game of the year on the road. Such is the case this year, at a Big Ten school, like that year, at Ohio State, a game which they won 25-22 in route to an undefeated season and the 2005 title with the legendary Vince Young under center.
Over the weekend they handled the Michigan Wolverines, college football’s all-time winningest program, 31-12, and with not many issues. Don’t you just love the instant gratification world we live in? Everything right now? Everyone is proclaiming Texas to be back. “For good! Forever!”
Huh? Can’t we wait and see how they navigate their first season in the SEC, please? They may very well do it to the tune of one of the top spots in the College Football Playoff, but until we see much more: deep breath, everyone. Again, please.
Texas plays host to UTSA this weekend. They’ll be heavy favorites for the obvious reasons. Quinn Ewers just looks poised to play his best ball right before our eyes. He’s the early Heisman Trophy favorite. I’m sure Steve Sarkisian will do all he can to safeguard his team against the dangers of facing an opponent that they should easily handle.
And don’t forget about UTSA Head coach Jeff Traylor’s “blink” thing after his team’s Saturday disaster in San Marcos. Will UTSA bounce back? It doesn’t seem, in the moment of writing this, that can happen. Maybe in their own minds they’ll play better, but it wouldn’t seem likely that’ll be on the case on the DKR scoreboard.
Texas A&M
Should they have bounced back against McNeese State? Yes, they should have. And yes, they did.
But imagine showing up to the practice facility on Sunday knowing that Northern Illinois just beat Notre Dame in South Bend. How do you feel about that? Well, college football is seemingly more and more like the NFL with the whole week-to-week thing, but still… that had to make the Sunday weights a little heavier to finish than usual. What might have been…
So now it’s Mike Elko’s first SEC adventure as the Aggies new head coach, and that’s on the road at Florida, a team that was hammered by The “U” to open their year, but then rallied against fellow cupcake Samford last week to even their record at 1-1 as well. The Ags then have Bowling Green traveling south the following week, and don’t assume anything there; they just scared the heck out of Penn State in Happy Valley.
But isn’t that Texas A&M football in a nutshell? It’s always an adventure. It’s almost like Jimbo Fisher retains some bizarre curse over the program. Time will tell as this season moves forward.
Texas Tech
The Red Raiders probably feel like they should be 0-2 and are very fortunate to instead be 1-1.
Abilene Christian was a two-point conversion away from stunning TTU in Lubbock last week. And then there was Saturday night in Pullman, where the revered Mike Leach was being honored during the game.
Tech fumbled the opening kickoff, and that seemed to set the tone. Joey McGuire’s team turned it over four times despite running up almost 500 yards of total offense. Coach McGuire’s seat is not hot, but it is on the September-warm side.
His team has their next three at home, including matchups against includes sneaky good North Texas (2-0), Arizona State (2-0) and Cincinnati (1-1). They’ll need to fill the win column before four of their last seven conference games on the road.
Other notes…
Some other mentions from the Saturday gridiron happenings.
Houston lost at Oklahoma, although Sooners Head coach Brent Venables said his team should have lost. I guess that’s giving the 0-2 Cougars some credit where it was deserved.
Baylor went down 23-nothing at Utah, and that was just way too much to overcome. The Bears are 1-1.
SMU dropped their first of the year, losing at home to the BYU Cougars, 18-15. The Ponies are 2-1.
And I’ve seen UTRGV coaches and support staff over the last two weeks at UIW’s season opener and Saturday at the UTSA-Texas State game, scouting how things work and how they’ll want the process to work down in the valley starting next season.
