With Longhorns out of reach, why UTSA now can aim for better targets

AUSTIN – Their own head coach warned everybody not to expect a miracle. So the UTSA Roadrunners walked into Royal-Memorial Stadium on Saturday without any delusions.

More than a half century earlier, when President John F. Kennedy posed the question, “Why does Rice play Texas?” while imploring mankind to shoot for the moon, his message was about how no goal is too ridiculous to reach. 

But last week, when another noted orator named Jeff Traylor asked the same question about UTSA, his point was exactly the opposite. To hear him tell it, for a program in 2026 with the Roadrunners’ budget, playing on the moon is more realistic than beating the No. 1 team in the country.

And when his players got an up-close look at the big, bad Longhorns before a game UT won 30-6? They had to admit, they noticed a discrepancy, too.

“I saw so many diamonds, I thought, ‘My God,'” UTSA linebacker Brandon Tucker said. “Coming into the game, they were blinging and shining. I could see where the $50 million (roster) rumors were coming from.”

 Just as Traylor predicted, money mattered Saturday night. In college football these days, it matters as much as it ever has. So maybe the Roadrunners can find some solace in the fact that a team that reportedly cost 10 times more to assemble scored only five times as many points as they did.

For its trouble, and for its role in providing an admirably compelling three hours of content for a crowd of 103,753 and a SEC Network TV audience, UTSA will receive a $1.7 million payout. That’s enough to cover almost half of its estimated $4 million player payroll.

And if the Longhorns, who are reported by The Athletic to have spent between $45-55 million on their collection of future NFL draft picks, find themselves in need of an extra cornerback or two in a few months, they might drop $1.7 million more to lure brothers Asaad Chapman and Ahamad Chapman away from the Roadrunners. Or maybe use it on UTSA running back Will Henderson, instead.

See, that’s what programs like UT can do, and it’s why Traylor publicly questioned the wisdom of continuing to play the Longhorns. Saturday night, the Chapman brothers each spent time covering a super-talented wide receiver named Cam Coleman, who reportedly received an offer in last year’s transfer portal equal to the amount of money UTSA spent on its entire team.

The Chapmans, long and skilled and athletic, both made Coleman work. They acquitted themselves well. And Coleman still scored two touchdowns.

When it was over, Traylor was proud of them. He was proud of his whole defense, which did a better job against Arch Manning for most of the night than Ohio State did against him in the fourth quarter last week. But the coach who lost more than 20 players in the transfer portal last offseason also knows what every noteworthy performance by his current team means.

“Trust me, after the way they played tonight, there will be 19 (transfers) taken from us again next year, I promise you,” Traylor said. “We’ll have to reload again.” 

And if that kind of honesty seems depressing, Traylor doesn’t mean it to be. His Roadrunners took a big step by beating Texas State last week, and they proved against the Longhorns that they should be able to hang with anyone in the American Athletic Conference.

Maybe the whole roster will turn over again in January. But before that happens, the Roadrunners will have plenty of opportunities to make the most of this one. They can put together another winning streak like they did in the 2021 and 2022 glory days. They can compete for a league championship. They can pick up some Top 25 votes.

Their season won’t be judged based on what they did Saturday night against the guys wearing all of those diamonds, and it shouldn’t be. Getting pushed around by the Longhorns will pay plenty of bills. But it’s not really a measuring stick.

Not the one that counts, anyway. 

“We can’t worry about this,” Traylor said. “Texas, LSU, A&M – that’s another stratosphere. Our kids did all they can do. We have to celebrate that. (But) we have to go capture North Texas, Tulane, Memphis, South Florida. Those are our targets.”

And the great thing about those targets?

They’re a lot closer than the moon.

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This article originally published at With Longhorns out of reach, why UTSA now can aim for better targets.