The UTSA Roadrunners win in the Alamodome. It’s just a fact of life.
Head coach Jeff Traylor entered Thursday night’s marquee matchup in the American Conference with a 25-1 record against conference opponents in the Alamodome. But his Roadrunners found themselves in unfamiliar territory against South Florida: trailing in the fourth quarter in their beloved building.
UTSA hadn’t staged a fourth quarter comeback at home since 2022, but the resilient Roadrunners never panicked. They marched 75 yards down the field in 10 plays spanning 101 seconds. When it came time to deliver the finishing blow from the 1-yard line, UTSA knew exactly who to call.
Running back A’Marion Peterson previously scored twice on direct snaps Thursday night — first on a 53-yard burst, then on a 3-yard plunge. With 15 seconds remaining, Peterson punched in his third touchdown to complete the hat trick and cap a stellar 92-yard performance, his most productive career outing against an FBS opponent.
“That’s a short yardage play we been working on all year,” UTSA quarterback Owen McCown said of Peterson’s three direct snap touchdowns. “AP is a big back, one of the three really elite backs that we have, so any time he’s in we trust him 100 percent to get that one or two yards. And in that scenario with all the guys hunched down with it being short yardage situation there, a gap could pop like that and that’s happened. We’re proud of AP, but ultimately the guys up front also.”
Peterson’s third touchdown, coupled with an ensuing two-point conversion, sealed a 31-24 victory, improving UTSA to 26-1 against conference opponents under Traylor in the Alamodome.
South Florida took a 24-23 lead with 1:56 remaining on a touchdown connection from Michael Van Buren Jr. to D.J. Crowther. UTSA responded with one of the more unconventional two-minute drills in recent memory. The Roadrunners netted just five yards on three passing attempts, instead leaning on a ground game that produced 70 yards on seven carries. Two of those plays — including a critical 3rd-and-5 conversion — were designed passing plays on which McCown found daylight and scrambled for significant pickups. Another was a 26-yard scamper by Will Henderson III that brought UTSA to the 1-yard line, setting the stage for Peterson’s game-winning score.
“We knew they were going to mix up a bunch of different coverages, so it wasn’t so much about what they were doing. It’s just executing the plays that were called,” McCown said on the approach to the final drive. “I thought Coach (Rick) Bowie did a great job really timing when to run the ball, because there were such light boxes. You know, those safeties and DBs are out there thinking it’s a bunch of pass.”
Late-game execution has become a defining feature of this UTSA team. The Roadrunners were involved in a one-score game in the fourth quarter for the fourth time this year, and they improved to 4-0 in such contests. Four weeks earlier at Texas State, UTSA delivered similar late-game heroics while trailing in the final two minutes, with McCown leading the charge.
“Yeah, kid is special. I’m glad y’all get to see him healthy,” Traylor said of McCown. “I wish I could have seen him that way all last year. He took a lot of unnecessary flack, and I’m glad he’s healthy… Kid is just special. Some of it was design, some of that was just effort, and some of that was just guts. When you’ve got a great quarterback, man, you always got a chance.”
UTSA finished with 277 rushing yards, nearly matching South Florida’s 288 total yards of offense. Peterson led the way with 92 yards, Henderson added 86, and McCown chipped in 52 — his highest rushing total in his last 17 starts.
“Just trying to be the athlete I am,” McCown said of his success running the football. “Once again, being healthy helps a ton. So just if it calls for me to go scramble and make a play, then that’s what I’ve been coached to do and that’s what I will go do.”
South Florida’s offense had sputtered through the opening halves of its first four games against FBS competition, scoring just 16 first half points in the form of one touchdown and three field goals. But the Bulls came out firing in the Alamodome, putting up 14 points in the opening quarter. Crowther concluded a successful opening drive with a 15-yard touchdown run, and Bryson Rodgers later sprinted past the UTSA defense to haul in a 42-yard bomb from Van Buren.
“We’ve got to do a better job of keeping that momentum,” Van Buren said. “At the end of the day, that’s our standard. To be able to play to our standard, we have to sustain our standard. It all starts with me, and just being able to stay on the field and make the routine routine.”
That first quarter offensive momentum would later subside. From the start of the second quarter until after the two-minute timeout in the fourth, UTSA held USF to a mere field goal. The Roadrunner defense didn’t even need turnovers to swing the momentum. Instead, they relied on consistent stops, even after leading tackler Brandon Tucker Jr. was ejected in the first half for targeting. In Tucker’s absence, defensive end Jeremiah Bailey overwhelmed the Bulls’ offensive line with consistent pressure, while outside linebacker Owen Pewee recorded a team-high eight tackles to stifle South Florida’s run game.
“Everybody was up. Everybody was hype. Everybody was cheering for each other. Everybody was talking to each other, making sure we encourage each other to keep going,” Pewee said of the defense’s second half response. “The score is 0-0 coming out of halftime. That’s our mentality, so we just got to go out there and just prove it.”
The offense capitalized on that defensive succcess. UTSA trailed 17-10 at halftime but scored on all four of its second half possessions to secure its fifth victory of the season — and its second while trailing in the fourth quarter.
“You could just tell at halftime. I keep telling y’all this. The measure of a man or woman is, where are you at a time of crisis?” Traylor said. “It’s easy when you go home and there is money in the account and car’s got gas and children aren’t crying. Air condition is right at 72. That crap doesn’t happen very much in life. Most of the time, car is out of gas, don’t have enough money, children are crying, wife is mad, and you got to hang in there. We’ve been down a lot this year, way too much for my liking. I think we’ve been behind almost in every freaking game, but we are calm in the moment and our kids listen and they believe every word we tell them and they go out there and execute. You don’t get groups like that very much, man. They’re just special, special humans.”
South Florida (4-2, 1-2 American) was the American’s last unbeaten team as recently as the afternoon of Oct. 3, but the Bulls now have two conference losses on their résumé. Despite a heartbreaking defeat in the final minute, head coach Brian Hartline sees signs of progress from his retooled roster. He hopes that growth will soon translate to wins, starting with next week’s non-conference finale against Kent State.
“In the end, we are building,” Hartline said. “As much as I hate saying that, we are getting better. Just not good enough, fast enough. So, as a group, we need to make sure we’re continuing to put in the work to give ourselves a chance. I look forward to the day when the coin turns. But I’m proud of the guys and effort. We’re just not consistent enough. There’s lots of flashes, just not consistent enough.”
UTSA (5-1, 2-0 American) is off to its best start since 2021. The Roadrunners have yet to qualify for the American Championship Game, but they are already showing signs of the resilience required to contend. They’ve won offensive shootouts. They’ve won defensive battles. And, most importantly, they’ve repeatedly found ways to prevail when the games are in balance.
Traylor attributes that to his program’s culture.
“If you can get a group to believe — I know it’s corny as hell; I sound like Ted Lasso right now — we’ve got to out-culture people. We’ve got to beat them with our culture,” Traylor said. “Now, you got to have some help. You can’t go out there with nothing. But you got to have some help. But you can out-culture people in this new world, and I think we just caught lightning in a bottle… We just got some great freaking kids, man.”
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