’Runners focus on tweaking schemes
Traylor expects more in Conference USA to take team seriously
When UTSA football coach Jeff Traylor met with the Roadrunners’ seniors about their option to return for an extra season, the central question was if they were ready to lift the team culture to a “whole other level.”
Despite entering 2020 with minimal expectations under a first-year coaching staff, UTSA surged to a seven-win season and a second-place finish in Conference USA West. Traylor knows such early success will only raise the bar for 2021, and he said the key to reaching new heights is doubling down on the building blocks that created a winning season. realistic
As Traylor opens his first spring practice at the helm of the program Monday, UTSA’S more tangible goals include building depth and expanding the schemes on offense and defense.
With the bulk of last year’s roster returning, Traylor said on-field tweaks give the players reason for excitement and can counteract the increased focus he expects the Roadrunners to receive from the rest of Conference USA.
“I have a feeling there are going to be some guys paying attention to us this offseason and studying us, so we’re going to have to be ahead of the curve,” Traylor said. “We know people are going to be treating us a little more seriously.”
Installation on offense and defense was a consistent conversation last season. Traylor and his staff came aboard in December 2019, and their best
chance to implement schemes was stripped away when the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of last year’s spring practice.
With preseason practice condensed and players shuffling in and out of the lineup through the fall because of COVID protocols, the question of how much of the offensive or defensive system to lean on lingered through the weeks.
This year’s spring installation will center on many of the same plays and concepts the Roadrunners grew accustomed to, Traylor said, just tweaked to different presentations to add a layer of deception.
“We have to take it to a whole other level as far as scheme,” Traylor said. “We have to get more bullets in the gun defensively, offensively, special teams wise. We’re really trying to stress that.”
With 12 seniors set to return for an additional year of eligibility in 2021 under a blanket waiver provided by the NCAA, the Roadrunners bring back most of their major contributors from last season.
UTSA loses only five players who started a game in 2020, including just two who started more than half the season — wide receiver Brennon Dingle and defensive tackle Kevin Nelson.
As part of their pact to help raise the team culture, the returning seniors are assuming the responsibility of passing UTSA’S core tenets on to the younger players, Traylor said.
“Each one of those men have committed to doing that, and they’ve held up their end of the deal so far,” Traylor said.
Of the 21 newcomers
UTSA announced for the 2021 recruiting class, seven are on campus for spring practice, including a pair of freshmen entering from high school: quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger and linebacker Caden Holt.
Traylor said UTSA wants to use the spring to identify young players who can provide depth, noting that some positions were “scary thin” last season. Traylor highlighted linebacker as one of the areas of greatest need, welcoming Holt and JUCO transfer Noah Mitchell into the fold this spring.
“We were very, very thin, and we had to get some immediate needs in here,” Traylor said. “We felt like we did that, especially at linebacker.”
Traylor said quarterback Frank Harris will be at full speed for spring workouts after having surgery to “clean up” his knee during the weeks following UTSA’S appearance in the First Responder Bowl. Quarterback Lowell Narcisse will be limited to individual drills as he continues to recover from a severe ankle injury suffered against Army in October.
UTSA’S 15 spring practices are scheduled to run through May 1, marking a later start and finish than during a typical year. Traylor said the alteration gave the Roadrunners more time to train with director of strength and conditioning Ryan Filo before shifting to onfield workouts.
“Last year, we were still very behind on our conditioning, and strength, and nutrition, and just body fat and body composition,” Traylor said. “We really wanted to focus on that, so the more time I could buy Filo, the better we thought it was.”