2024: UTSA Preview

UTSA Hate Week

November 15, 2024・7pm・ESPN2・MGRN・Alamodome(73K)・San Antonio, TX

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No matter what, three straight losses will never feel good. Memphis and Army were something like moral victories. You can be somewhat proud of the effort and how close things were and some of this and some of that. You can talk about how the team battled through adversity and this and the other. We did that a lot last season after this same stretch of games.

The difference is that there is more weight and expectation on this final stretch of games than before. North Texas is favored in this game, and will be looking to exorcize some demons from recent history. NT is on a three-game losing streak against this team, losing all three matchups since upsetting UTSA in Denton a couple of years ago. Since they dropped a close game in San Antonio last October followed by an AAC title game trip that same December. Last season, the squad dropped one in frustrating fashion on Denton. Turnovers and defensive mistakes. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

UTSA is coming off a bye following an upset win over Memphis. They exploded for some offense and have been coming up with lots of points this season. Injuries have devastated their roster but Owen McCown and some others have stepped into the void to make plays. UTSA started the season with a struggle-fest vs Kennessaw St, were embarrassed at Texas State and Texas. After that they beat Houston Christian and then were dominated at ECU¹. They were upset by Rice on the final play, then escaped FAU. Tulsa pulled a comeback on them after looking like they were blown out. Finally they bottled up Memphis and outscored them 44-36 at home.

Are they good? No. They were expected to challenge for the league on the strength of their depth and the head coach’s resume. They like to use their tight ends, run at you, and do some RPO and throw the ball deep to big, speedy wideouts.

Jeff Traylor is 43-19 overall, and at UTSA in five seasons. Eric Morris is 34-29, 10-11 at UNT in six seasons.

NT is 5-4, 2-3.
UTSA is 4-5, 2-3.

Both coaches over-praised each other, talked about their times in San Antonio and how much they respect each other’s work. Traylor said NT has “been good, and got a good coach.”

Morris said Traylor has done a “great job.”

For all that, the fans don’t like each other. Vito spent his press conference question ammo on asking if ‘it has turned into kind of a rivalry, huh?”, a question he has asked for the last six years or so.

It is a rivalry, albeit not nearly the level of the Holy War or anything else in college football. Hate is a function of caring, and both programs have struggled with that. UTSA has won more recently than NT, but are a young program and will struggle for attendance in a down year, on a Friday night. It is high school football that will take precedence. Yet we will play.

So it goes.

Each week the opposition praises Chandler Morris and the North Texas offense, but everyone knows that last week vs Army was a poor performance. Chandler Morris threw two awful interceptions and Army killed 4 of 6 NT possessions with a turnover (two downs, and two interceptions).

It was the worst performance by the offense all season and everyone is rightly upset about it. The defense battled and came up with a couple of turnovers against an Army squad that simply doesn’t turn it over. The main takeaway is that NT has some anger, while UTSA is rested.