San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Remembering iconic moments
UTSA coach highlights career-defining matchups from his 15-year run at Gilmer
After 175 wins and three state championships across 15 years at Gilmer, UTSA coach Jeff Traylor can rattle off a list matchups that helped define his career.
The standouts range from noteworthy firsts and lasts, to close calls, to meetings that connected him with friends in and out of the coaching world.
Improbably, Traylor even had a chance to coach his own son, Jordan, against a quarterback who would go on to suit up against the Roadrunners in 2022.
Q: Of all the wins you compiled at Gilmer, do you have a favorite, or one you feel will stick with you the longest?
A: The first one. I got hired May 1 (2000), and I knew we played Gladewater first. We hadn’t had much success against them for 20 years, and that’s our archrival. Nine miles apart, same school colors, Gladewater Bears and Gilmer Buckeyes. Pretty much, if you beat them, you have a lifetime contract in that town. They were No. 5 in the state preseason, and we weren’t any good, which is why I got the job, because we weren’t any good. And we played them first, and we upset them. And I thought I had the whole world figured out. I was 31, beat the archrival, and went the very next week and absolutely laid an egg and got beat by Hooks, who wasn’t near as good as Gladewater.
But, it gave me a great dose of humble pie. So, that first one was pretty special.
Obviously, the first state championship, in 2004, was very special. That first playoff win versus Daingerfield (in 2003) was very special. We hadn’t beaten Daingerfield in 20 years, and that was big. Those state championships are all pretty special. The first state championship in 2004, and then the second state championship in 2009, against Abilene Wylie.
But the Cuero game, the (2009) semifinal game, was the one that was pretty special,
because it was very much like (UTSA’s 2022 game against) North Texas, where there were all of these lead changes right in the last four minutes of the game. Crazy lead changes.
As a matter of fact, the head coach of Cuero, Mark Reeve, and I are still close. He’s retired now. His son Charlie coached here (as the tight ends coach from 2012-15) with Kevin Brown (then offensive coordinator, now assistant AD for football), so he keeps up with UTSA like crazy.
Mark texted me after the North Texas game and said, ‘It was nice to see you did to North Texas what you did to Cuero. It was a lot easier watching you do it to them than it was to me.’
I actually went up to Mark
(in 2009) after that game was over and told him I was sorry, because I thought he had done a better job coaching than I had. I thought our players were just more talented, and I was sorry for Mark. I don’t believe Mark ever won one (a state title). He deserved to win many. He’s a great coach. And I had one, so I remember telling Mark I was sorry.
The next week we beat Abilene Wylie, which was the year that Matt Camp (one of Traylor’s longtime friends and the former play-by-play announcer for Gilmer football) had died (of cancer), at SMU, where he had graduated No. 1 and got his banking degree. That was a special one for me, because of Matt.
And then 2014, my last game there, was a state championship win before I started this crazy college journey. But I’ve said this many times: the wins are way sweeter from 2000 all the way through 2004, because it was the rise. Everybody is so grateful. And once you win it all, there’s really not anything you can ever do to make them that happy again. It’s almost like now with us, when you win 30-10, it’s like, ‘What’s wrong?’ Where on the way up, everybody is like, ‘We won on the road, 30-10!’ It’s just funny how that is. So, I know that’s a pretty long answer, but there were a lot of good wins.
Q: I actually thought you would go to 2011, GilmerCarthage, 39-36.
A: That was crazy, because (UTSA Chief of Staff ) Matt Turner, who was with me, we chose his son to be the quarterback over my son. That year, Jordan (Traylor) and Luke (Turner) had always rotated at quarterback. But we had a really good sophomore quarterback (Tanner Barr). And Jordan was so valuable to our offense, we were using Jordan at fullback, tight end, wide receiver, all of our trick plays. We didn’t let Jordan have any reps at quarterback for backup quarterback at all.
Against Carthage, Luke breaks his ankle, seven screws and a plate. One of the toughest kids I’ve ever coached. Probably the most complete player I’ve ever coached. A really complete football player.
It’s completely packed. This is the game everybody has been waiting on, and it’s tied with 4:30 left in the fourth quarter. Matt is my offensive coordinator, Tanner was the sophomore quarterback, and Matt said to me, ‘Jeff, Tanner is not ready. He can’t do this yet. Jordan is the guy.’
I’m like, ‘Matt, Jordan hasn’t had a rep at quarterback since the summer, probably.’ He’s like, ‘Jeff, the kid has been playing quarterback his whole life, he’ll be fine.’ I’m like, ‘Matt, I wouldn’t do this to anybody’s son, much less my own son.’
He’s like, ‘Jeff, he’s the one.’ I’m like, ‘He hasn’t even taken a snap.’ He’s like, ‘He’s the one.’
So, Jordan with two gloves on, looking like a tight end, goes out there and plays quarterback. He leads us right down the field, we kicked a field goal with no time left. That was crazy.
He took over at quarterback and then we won nine in a row, and he threw like 400 yards per game.
To this day, looking back at it, we probably messed that up. Luke should’ve been the tailback, and Jordan should’ve been the quarterback, probably. Both of those kids love to remind me about that, as does Matt. But yeah, that was really special, because it was my son, and it had been pretty tough on Cari and I when I made the decision to go with Luke and not Jordan. That wasn’t so good at the house, when you put your wife’s baby on the bench. He wasn’t my baby at that point. He was her baby.
It was very ironic how that all went down, and we hated losing Luke, because I think we would’ve won a state championship that year if Luke is at tailback, or quarterback. He was my punter and my kicker. He started at outside linebacker on a state championship team, started at slot receiver on a state finalist team, and he was a quarterback on a regional championship team. This kid was special. He could do anything. So yeah, that was a big one, 39-36. I’m glad you brought that one up.
And we lost to (current
North Texas quarterback) Austin Aune that year. We got beat 51-35 (by Argyle). Jordan completed like 30-something passes that night. It was crazy. He threw for 400-something yards (436, on 46-of-63 passing), and Austin Aune beat us. He ended Jordan’s senior year.