UTSA ROADRUNNERS NOTES:
« OPENING DRIVE »
• UTSA will make its fourth straight and fifth overall bowl appearance on Tuesday when it faces Marshall in the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl. • This will mark the Roadrunners’ second showing in the Frisco Bowl in the past three years, as they played San Diego State in the 2021 game. • UTSA is 0-4 in bowl games with three of the contests decided by seven or fewer points. • UTSA and Marshall will meet for the fourth time on Tuesday in a series led by the Thundering Herd, 2-1. • The Roadrunners are 38-14 (.731) in the Jeff Traylor era, the most wins and best winning percentage by a UTSA head coach. • UTSA is 8-7 all time in weekday games including 0-1 on Tuesday. • A total of 16 Roadrunners earned All-American Athletic Conference accolades this season including five first-team selections. • UTSA was one of 13 FBS teams to receive the 2023 AFCA Academic Achievement Award for posting the highest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) in the nation.
SETTING THE SCENE
UTSA will make its fourth straight and fifth overall bowl appearance on Tuesday when it faces Marshall in the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. at Toyota Stadium and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. UTSA is 8-4 overall and finished third in the American Athletic Conference with a 7-1 mark in its debut campaign in the league. The Roadrunners and Thundering Herd (6-6), members of the Sun Belt Conference, will meet for the fourth time in a series led by Marshall, 2-1, with all three previous meetings during their time as members of Conference USA. UTSA is 0-4 in bowl games with three of the contests decided by seven or fewer points.
TUNING IN
Tuesday night’s game will be televised nationally on ESPN and ESPN Deportes and it also can be streamed on Watch ESPN / Watch ESPN Deportes and via the ESPN mobile app. Jorge Sedano (play-by-play), Rocky Boiman (analyst) and Dawn Davenport (reporter) will call the action, while Eitan Benezra (play-by-play) and Ramiro Pruneda (analyst) will handle the ESPN Deportes broadcast. UTSA Sports Media Network will air the game live in the San Antonio area on Sports Radio AM 760 The Ticket. Andy Everett (play-by-play), Jay Riley (analyst) and Pat Evans (reporter) have the call. There will be a two-hour pregame and 45-minute postgame show. Bowl Season Radio will provide a national broadcast of the game, which can be heard on SiriusXM 84 with Toby Rowland (play-by-play), Elvis Gallegos (analyst) and Chris Mycoskie (reporter) on the call.
GOING BOWLING
UTSA will make its fourth consecutive and fifth all-time bowl appearance when it faces Marshall in the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl on Dec. 19. The Roadrunners now have been bowl eligible six times overall, including in each of the first four seasons under head coach Jeff Traylor. UTSA is 0-4 in bowl games with three of the contests decided by seven or fewer points. UTSA dropped a 31-24 decision to No. 16 Louisiana in the 2020 First Responder Bowl, a 38-24 contest to No. 24 San Diego State in the 2021 Frisco Bowl and an 18-12 matchup against No. 23 Troy in last year’s Cure Bowl. The Roadrunners made their first bowl appearance in the 2016 New Mexico Bowl, falling to New Mexico, 23-20. UTSA was bowl eligible in 2017 with a 6-5 regular season record but was left out of the postseason picture. Additionally, the Roadrunners were 7-5 in 2013 during their second year of reclassifying to FBS, but all bowl slots were filled by full-fledged FBS teams.
SCOUTING MARSHALL
The Thundering Herd enter the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl with a 6-6 record. Marshall is averaging 23.3 points and 357.8 yards of offense per game while allowing 28.2 points and 375.8 yards per contest. Rasheen Ali is the top rusher with 1,043 yards and 14 touchdowns on 203 attempts (5.1 ypc), while Caleb Coombs has a team-high 39 receptions for 310 yards and a pair of scores. Defensively, Eli Neal paces the team with 85 tackles, including 8.5 for loss and two sacks, while Owen Porter owns 57 tackles, 15 TFLs and five sacks. Head coach Charles Huff is 22-16 in his third season at the helm.
SERIES HISTORY
Tuesday will mark the fourth meeting on the gridiron between UTSA and Marshall. The Thundering Herd lead the series, 2-1, with the Roadrunners’ lone win a 9-7 home triumph on Nov. 18, 2017. All three previous meetings occurred when both teams were members of Conference USA.
LAST MEETING
Marshall tallied 505 yards of offense and held UTSA to 137, including minus-26 on the ground, in a 23-0 victory on Nov. 17, 2018, in Huntington, West Virginia. Isaiah Green completed 19-of-36 passes for 387 yards and two touchdowns, Tyre Brady caught six balls for 162 and a TD and Obi Obialo had five grabs for 103 to lead the Thundering Herd air attack. Bryce Rivers came off the bench and threw for 158 yards on 16-of-31 passes for UTSA. Greg Campbell Jr. was his favorite target with seven catches for 84 yards. C.J. Levine posted 14 tackles while Josiah Tauaefa turned in 12 stops to pace the defense. After falling behind by 20 at halftime, the Roadrunners yielded just three points and 179 yards in the second half but could not find the end zone all afternoon in suffering the second shutout in program history. One current Roadrunner saw action in that last meeting, as defensive lineman Brandon Matterson registered three tackles as a true freshman.
WHO’S COUNTING?
Now in their 13th season of play, the Roadrunners will play the 159th game in program history on Tuesday when they face Marshall in the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl. UTSA is 83-75 all-time and 0-3 in neutral-site contests. By comparison, Marshall started playing football in 1895 and owns an all-time record of 605-555- 35. UTSA
IN WEEKDAY GAMES
With the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl falling on a Tuesday, UTSA will play on a weekday for the fourth time this season and 11th time under fourth-year head coach Jeff Traylor. The only previous Tuesday contest in program history was two years ago in the Frisco Bowl, a 38-24 setback to No. 24 San Diego State on Dec. 21, 2021. The Roadrunners have played 15 non-Saturday games in their 13-year history and they tote an 8-7 mark in such games.
WORKING OVERTIME
The Roadrunners were working overtime in 2022, with a program-record three contests needing extra periods to determine the outcome. UTSA played the first back-to-back overtime games in program history to open the campaign. The Roadrunners dropped a 37-35 decision to No. 24 Houston in triple overtime in the opener. One week later, UTSA rallied from a 14-point, second-half deficit to score a 41- 38 road triumph over Army West Point in one extra period. On Nov. 5 in Birmingham, the Roadrunners outlasted UAB 44-38 in double overtime to improve to 2-1 last season and 5-3 overall in overtime games. UTSA played overtime, double-overtime and triple-overtime games last season and joined Houston, Navy and Texas Tech as the only FBS teams to have played three overtime contests last year.
MARSHALL THUNDERING HERD NOTES:
Going Bowling!
Marshall’s appearance in the 2023 Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl will be the Thundering Herd’s seventh consecutive appearance in a bowl. That figure leads the Sun Belt Conference and is a Marshall football program record, surpassing the old mark of six consecutive years set from 1997 to 2002. This will be Marshall’s 2nd appearance in a bowl game in Texas – the 1st being the 2004 Fort Worth Bowl.
Contrast of Bowl History
Marshall comes into the 2023 Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl boasting of the top bowl winning percentage in FBS among teams who have appeared in at least 10 bowl games or more. The Herd has a 13-5 mark in NCAA-sanctioned bowl games, which is a .722 winning percentage. Of note, that does not include the 7-0 loss to Catawba in the 1947 Tangerine Bowl, which was not an NCAA-sanctioned bowl. UTSA will be making its fifth appearance in a bowl game and the Roadrunners have yet to earn their first bowl victory. One of UTSA’s bowl losses came in the 2021 Frisco Bowl when they fell to San Diego State, 38-24. The Roadrunners are also 0-2 in bowl games against Sun Belt Conference opponents, falling 18-12 to No. 24 Troy in the 2022 Cure Bowl and 31-24 to No. 19 Louisiana in the 2020 First Responder Bowl.
