Myrtle Beach Bowl: UTSA Turned Season Around After Tough Start

This has been the rockiest season for UTSA since Jeff Traylor became the program’s head coach. 

Their six regular season wins are the fewest for the Roadrunners during Traylor’s five years leading the team. 

However, the season could have easily gone differently.

The Roadrunners played in four one-score games, losing three of them. The only one-score game they won was a 44-36 victory over Memphis in Week 10. It sparked a three-game win streak in the final month of the season where the Roadrunners were playing their best football. It was their only winning streak of the season. 

The three one-score losses were decided by a combined eight points, including a 29-27 loss to Rice, a 46-45 loss to Tulsa, and a 29-24 loss to Army in the regular season finale. 

In all three of the losses, the Roadrunners surrendered a fourth quarter lead. Against Rice and Tulsa, those leads vanished in the final minute of the contest. If UTSA was able to prevail in those games, there’s a chance the Roadrunners could have entered the Army meeting with just one league loss, which was a 30-20 defeat to East Carolina.

Who knows? Depending on how everything played out, they might have even been playing for a spot in the AAC title game. College football betting odds had the Roadrunners at +475 to win the league prior to the season, which were the third-shortest odds.

The campaign could have also gone the other way and turned out much worse for UTSA. 

Instead of calling it quits following the disappointing loss to Tulsa, the Roadrunners rallied to win those three games in a row, defeating North Texas and Temple after the victory over Memphis. Each of those contests were played at home, and the Roadrunners didn’t fail to take advantage of the opportunity to earn bowl-eligibility.

The tides on the season turned as the Roadrunners quickly went from a discouraging 3-5 record to 6-5 overall and 4-3 in conference play. 

A lot of teams may have clocked out when they realized they weren’t going to meet expectations, but the Roadrunners remained tuned in and nearly knocked off Army to end the season on a four-game win streak.

One thing that looked a little different from early in the season compared to the final month was UTSA quarterback Owen McCown finding success with his legs. He averaged 60 rushing yards per game during that four-game stretch compared to 7.7 YPG in the first eight contests. 

McCown garnered more attention from defenses, and it opened things up for the offense. UTSA averaged 47.6 points per game during its three-game winning streak.

The return of David Amador II also played a key role in UTSA’s emergence.

Amador was battling a hamstring injury for most of the season and missed the first eight games. He returned against Memphis where he played a handful of snaps before catching 23 passes for 260 yards over the final three games. 

He’s a threat the Roadrunners could have utilized, and he helped bring some life into a program that needed some uplifting throughout the year.

Like Amador, though, the Roadrunners weren’t fazed by the setback and battled back to finish the regular season strong. They’ll look to avoid their first losing season under Traylor with a win over Coastal Carolina in the Myrtle Beach Bowl.

Myrtle Beach Bowl Prediction

I predict UTSA will win but Coastal Carolina will cover the 10.5-point spread as an underdog. 

Coastal Carolina has lost a handful of players to the transfer portal who aren’t expected to play. That includes first- and second-string quarterbacks Noah Kim and Ethan Vasko. The Chanticleers are expected to start freshman quarterback Tad Hudson, who has zero career collegiate snaps. 

CCU is playing on its home field, so I think the fans could provide a home-field advantage. 

UTSA linebacker and AAC Defensive Player of the Year Jimmori Robinson announced he is declaring for the NFL Draft and won’t be playing in this game. The Roadrunners will still have most of their starters, though, who I anticipate will help them pull out the win.