San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Transfer Pierce makes big first impression
Suiting up as a receiver at McNeese State for three seasons, Mason Pierce watched with a sense of awe each time the Cowboys’ defense faced Incarnate Word.
The Cardinals have ranked in the top five nationally in passing offense for four straight years, building a brand and a reputation around the FCS through the Air Raid system installed by Eric Morris and refined by G.J. Kinne and Clint Killough.
Pierce had been productive at McNeese, churning out 75 catches for 964 yards and 10 touchdowns from 2020 through 2022, but he still wondered how he might fare in a different attack. He tried a year at Marshall but found that “offense really didn’t suit me either,” he said, yielding a quiet season with 16 grabs for 171 yards.
He wanted to prove his merit in UIW’s system, where a 5foot-6 slot receiver can thrive both in the short passing game and on option routes down the field.
“I was really a fan, watching this,” Pierce said. “Seeing, ‘Dang, I can do something special in this offense, if I get a chance to.’ And thank God, I got a chance to.”
Pierce joined the Cardinals in January and flashed his potential in UIW’s spring game Saturday at Benson Stadium, hauling in a short touchdown pass from Zach Calzada and then adding another nearly 40-yard score up the seam.
As one of four incoming transfer targets using the spring to get up to speed in the system, Pierce is hoping to help maintain an offensive reputation he first experienced from the opposite sideline.
“Around the league, they’re scared of this offense. I’m not going to lie to you,” Pierce said. “A lot of people are looking at UIW’s offense as the standard, especially in the Southland. There’s a lot of teams that are not really doing what UIW’s offense is doing.”
The Cardinals enter 2024 with the challenge of replacing their top five targets from last season, not returning any player who had more than 100 receiving yards.
Killough set out to fill the need through the transfer portal, adding four fresh faces. Pierce is joined by Jalen Walthall, a Manvel product who spent the past three years at Hawaii, as well as fifth-year transfer Jaren Mitchell from Northwestern State and seventh-year transfer Anthony Stell from Eastern Washington.
None of the newcomers eclipsed 300 yards receiving last season, but Pierce said he has faith the offensive system will help the group rise to maintain the UIW standard.
“Just the level of production that they’ve had over years, all the receivers that came in, they’ve been putting up numbers,” Pierce said. “I feel like the offense from that standpoint is there. We’re just filling in pieces to make it better all around.”
Killough said the process of
finding those pieces was different in his second season at the helm. With Kinne leaving for the job at Texas State last year and bringing the bulk of his assistants with him, a large chunk of UIW’s roster chose to transfer, with Killough saying he lost 66 players.
Riding high off a run to the FCS semifinals, the Cardinals last February announced a signing class that included 14 transfers from four-year schools, including six from Power Five programs.
This year, UIW has 12 returning starters and suffered just one significant loss to the transfer portal with the departure of defensive end Steven Parker to Texas State. The Cardinals continued to look to the portal to plug holes in the roster, but none of the newcomers enter
from Power Five schools.
“Last year, with all the turnover, you’re sitting here recruiting these kids like, ‘Hey, I need you to come in right now and be a guy,’ ” Killough said. “We addressed it the same way. Let’s find what we need. Let’s find what fits.”
The Cardinals were snubbed from selection to the FCS playoffs despite a 9-2 record last season, and Killough said he believes the bonds formed through that setback are part of the reason UIW avoided losing more players to the portal.
The group talked about the feeling of rejection at the annual selection show watch party that had been a celebration in recent years, and the players carried that mantle through the spring.
“The biggest thing is, if anybody is slacking, all we have to
do nowadays is just say, ‘Remember that feeling,’ ” linebacker Tylan Foster said.
Pierce looked at UIW and saw offensive production built into the culture, and winning at an elite level is starting to become just as expected.
The Cardinals hold the fifthlongest streak in the FCS with 37 straight weeks in the top 25, and while Pierce knows his stint at UIW could be a chance for some gaudy numbers, he said he’s more concerned with the team goal of pushing for an FCS title.
“We got snubbed out of the playoffs last year, and they felt like they really had a chance to make a run,” Pierce said. “So this year, it’s extra motivation to come out and roll through people. The national championship is really on everybody’s mind here.”