How UTSA found a physical edge early in preseason practice

Walking off UTSA’s practice field after the third day of preseason camp, veteran offensive lineman Ben Rios was already sporting bruises on both cheeks, across the bridge of his nose, and above his right eye.  

Entering his fifth year with the Roadrunners after a standout high school career at Central Catholic in San Antonio, Rios has learned that the first day of full pads is always a physical battle. That is the day newcomers try to prove themselves while returners aim to show they still deserve their starting spots. During one of UTSA’s first full-team practice periods Friday, Rios and fellow fifth-year stalwart Tai Leonard ended up going to the grass in a tussle that extended long past the whistle.  

Rios credited the chippy atmosphere to a mix of first-day jitters and shared passion.  

“I definitely can tell one thing that was better than the other years is just the team having that juice,” Rios said. “We all, as a team, know it’s us versus anyone. And no matter what’s happening on the sidelines, what’s happening behind the scenes, we know we’re a team, and we have each other’s backs.” 

READ MORE:Veteran Owen McCown leads UTSA into first day of preseason practice

Coach Jeff Traylor said he wants the Roadrunners to live right on the edge of the boiling point, and through six years his teams have delivered plenty of those sparks on the practice field. He acknowledged that he wants to see a little more composure in some cases, channeling that physicality within the rules rather than resorting to fisticuffs.  

But after offseason efforts to help the Roadrunners come together quicker, Traylor can sometimes live with the players’ instinct to settle disputes the same way he and his brothers used to – through backyard scraps.  

With less than four weeks remaining until kickoff against UTRGV on Sept. 5 in the Alamodome, UTSA is already cranking at full throttle, and Traylor is happy to be more worried about reining the group in rather than firing them up. 

“I’m just not going to get in there and break them up anymore,” Traylor said. “I’ve got a lot of younger guys going to do that for me.”  

Asked about some of the more heated moments from Friday’s practice, Leonard could only laugh. Emotions running high on the first day of pads is normal, and any jostling with his roommate Rios is “all good” and “just all ball,” he said.  

As one of the leaders on the team who has spoken through his career about the challenges of wrangling his emotions, Leonard said he’s tried to stress to his new teammates that the intensity on the practice field is “never personal.”  

“It’s one thing to try to take it off the field and be that guy who doesn’t leave it where it’s at,” Leonard said. “But you have older guys who understand it’s a sport, and football’s played on the field for a reason. It’s not played in the locker room. So, we try to separate those two things, and make sure that things don’t get dragged on.”  

One of Traylor’s points of emphasis this year has been helping the players understand not just the team’s identity, but also their individual identities – “what is it that makes you use your fist on someone’s helmet?” Traylor said.  

In an era of college football redefined by the transfer portal, Traylor has described each season as a “one-year team.” The process of building chemistry and understanding individual personalities must be quicker, Traylor said, starting in the spring instead of the fall.  

One of the Roadrunners’ team-building exercises includes group conversations around what Traylor calls the four H’s – heroes, history, highlights and hardships. Instead of unfolding through the next few weeks, the Roadrunners held those sessions leading into spring practice, entering the fall with a deeper understanding of what makes each other tick.  

As one of just two returning starters on a defense facing significant transition, Leonard said the process was more vital relative than in previous years with veteran groups.  

“Being able to know our guys and go into fall camp knowing our guys is a lot better than figuring out this dude three weeks before the season starts,” Leonard said. “It’s like, ‘Dang, I could have approached him differently.’ There’s just so much things that you can do better when you know who that person is. So being able to do that early definitely helps a lot.” 

Looking back on some of the shortcomings that led to consecutive 7-6 finishes the past two seasons, Traylor said that he found the Roadrunners had an “identity problem.”

Meeting the demands of the program’s culture is a piece of the puzzle, Traylor said, but the process starts internally. 

“We’re trying to start with a person first, trying to get every single person on our team to have a real identity, who they are as a human,” Traylor said. “What is it that makes us who we are as humans? We’re really trying deep to get an identity.”  

Subscribe

There’s more to San Antonio with the Express-News. Subscribe today for just 25¢.

This article originally published at How UTSA found a physical edge early in preseason practice.