Traylor reflects on bowl, COVID-19
As the UTSA football team was in Dallas making final preparations for the First Responder Bowl, coach Jeff Traylor was home, beginning to feel the first symptoms of COVID-19.
He tested positive Dec. 23 — three days before the Roadrunners’ finale — but felt fine up to game day. Only during the following week did he experience fever, body aches and other symptoms he described as similar to the flu, “but way worse.”
Still, UTSA’S bowl appearance to cap Traylor’s first year at the helm brought a rush of adrenaline. He used his laptop to connect to an assistant coach in the press box through Facetime, watching the game live rather than on broadcast delay and offering his usual coaching input.
At the end of UTSA’S 31-24 loss to a ranked Louisiana-Lafayette team, Traylor shifted his focus to rest and
recovery. He said this week brought an improvement to his symptoms, though he still lacked his usual energy. He planned to be retested this week, hoping the virus has cleared his system.
He also resumed working remotely, picking up conversations with recruits and making other steps toward next season while reflecting on a tumultuous 2020 campaign played through a pandemic.
“You can imagine the frustration of dealing with that every day, and then I had to start dealing with it from my own house, through a computer,” Traylor said. “I personally have never been through anything like it, and I know no one else has, either. I just think we’ll look back one day and be very proud of what we did. I think this is going to get more remarkable as time goes on.”
Traylor said his bout with COVID-19 included three or four days when he “didn’t get out of bed,” isolated in a back room of his home with his wife, Cari, delivering his meals.
He never faced any breathing issues — “not anything that’s been scary,” he said — but felt wiped out by the virus.
“I was gone to the world,” Traylor said. “I felt really, really bad.”
The days leading up to the game were mostly normal, Traylor said, as he remained plugged into team meetings and even the group’s Bible study through Zoom.
He addressed the players for the final time shortly before they departed the team hotel for the stadium. He said he maintained a normal, “open communication the whole time” with the coaching staff during the game — the same as he would on a headset in person. The coordinators handled the play calls, as usual, with Traylor offering input on pivotal third- and fourth-down situations.
NCAA national coordinator of officials Steve Shaw said in a September interpretations bulletin that any coach in quarantine “could not call into the press box or sideline for anything related to coaching purposes,” but Traylor said he worked with UTSA associate athletic director for compliance Steve Lautz to ensure he was operating within the guidelines.
Traylor said the biggest shift from live coaching was “not having a feel for the game,” and he often deferred to his onfield coaches to “go with your gut.”
When quarterback Frank Harris turned the ball over after a low snap early in the third quarter, Traylor wished he could have been on the sideline to offer support.
“I couldn’t see their eyes, or the emotion of the ball game,” Traylor said. “That was the hardest part. I felt very removed.”
In the next room, Traylor’s children Jake and Jaci were watching the telecast on ABC, experiencing the bowl about 20 seconds behind what Traylor was seeing in real time.
As the game went on, Traylor said he got in the habit of teasing when a big play was about to hit or warning if an unfortunate turn was coming.
“It’s actually a memory I will probably always take with me, because they were really into the game,” Traylor said. “None of it was fun, but that might’ve been the highlight of our day, when we were rallying and the momentum really shifted.”
The Roadrunners fell behind 24-7 early in the third quarter but bounced back to tie the score before the Ragin’ Cajuns secured the decisive touchdown.
Traylor said he was proud of how UTSA performed down 20 players and five staff members, many due to COVID-19 protocols. The disruptions were constant leading up to the game, Traylor said, as the Roadrunners lost their long snapper one day prior and had an assistant coach ruled out just hours before kickoff.
“We never got a good day of practice,” Traylor said. “It was the most chaotic two weeks we’ve been through as a program, and we’ve been through a lot of chaos. … The distractions were just too much.”
The Roadrunners left the game with one significant injury, Traylor said, as freshman running back Kaedric Cobbs suffered a torn ACL. Traylor said Cobbs is expected to return in time for fall camp.
Traylor said Harris also underwent surgery on his knee to “clean up” issues tied to an injury suffered this year and the lingering effects of two previous ACL surgeries. Harris is expected to make a “full recovery” in time for spring practice, Traylor said.
Traylor continues to work with UTSA’S seniors to determine who will be using an extra year of eligibility under a blanket waiver provided by the NCAA, with decisions expected to start becoming finalized when players return to campus for the first day of the spring semester Jan 19.
Looking back, Traylor said the First Responder Bowl was “pretty indicative” of UTSA’S 7-5 season, displaying the signs of progress through his opening year and exposing areas that need improvement.
“We’ve shown everybody we can play with the big boys, and it’s time for us to quit playing close,” Traylor said. “Can we take that next step? We’ll see.”