2020 UTSA Football
Media Roundtable
Sept. 14, 2020
Head Coach Jeff Traylor
On what stood out about the win on Saturday at Texas State …
"How clean we were the first half. How well we executed. I was extremely pleased with how well our special teams played in the first half. I think they were the difference, in the first half, of the game. It was a tale of two halves. The second half, we were not as crisp. Pretty sloppy to be honest with you. Conditioning had a huge aspect to do with that. Our special teams group was as bad in the second half as they were great in the first half. It totally affected the entire game. We take great pride in the triangle of toughness and playing complementary football, being able to run the football, being physical on defense and being great on (special) teams. And we didn't play great, complementary football in the second half. Our kids did give all they have. They were basically writing a check with their minds that their bodies couldn't cash, just because of the heat. I just hadn't done a good enough job of getting them in shape, honestly, and that is something we've got to get better at so we can play more than two quarters."
On if conditioning can be improved on throughout a 12-week, 12-game season …
"We'll stress it but there is only so much you can do in practice, you kind of have to play your way into that, especially this year of all the years. No matter what, we've only played a game and we still missed spring ball and summer. I'm not making excuses for our players, you guys know me well enough by now to know that I try to shoot it as straight as I can with you guys, unless it gives our opponent a tremendous advantage."
On adjustments made in the second half …
"Jake (Spavital) did a good job with some adjustments. I knew when I saw his O-line coach working on slide protection at halftime, I went to (defensive coordinator) Tyrone (Nix) and said, 'they realize they can't block us, they are fixing to max protect and throw this thing deep a bunch right now,' and they got quite a few DPIs (defensive pass interference penalties) that made it easier to keep doing that and that hurt us and got the momentum turned and our special teams didn't help either. We got conservative offensively. That was intentional. We didn't want to turn the ball over. We wanted to make them have to drive the field on us. The choice by me to punt the football late, I should've just punted it out of bounds. We tried to punt the ball to the right, and angle them up, and we kind of got the ball in the middle and I'm just glad my kids overcame a bad choice by their head coach."
On potential conservative offensive play calls in the second half …
"All that would not be typical. I'm really mad at myself on third down and seven in the four-minute offense that I didn't go ahead and throw the football down the field to my guys, but I wanted to try to make them drive it 90 yards with no timeouts left. But I wish I had that call back as well. I told Frank (Harris) we were going to try to do that. We thought our defensive line could get after them, we felt good about that matchup. We returned the opening kick of the third quarter to the 12-yard line and when you are up 17 you just don't want to get too nonchalant with the football."
On a chance to win the game in the four-minute offense in the fourth quarter …
"I'm just so disappointed that we didn't finish it out in that four-minute offensive aspect. We had second and five. We needed five yards to go to victory formation and so it is hard for me to say we dominated when we didn't close the game out on our side. Our defensive line, I would say early that is correct. We didn't get home the second half. We just wilted and melted in my opinion in the second half. I'm going to take responsibility for that just because it's my responsibility to have those kids in shape and we're just not quite there yet."
On the tight ends factoring into significant portions of the offense …
"We have a very strong tight end room. We tried to not say that too much before the game because it was going to be pretty obvious what our plan was going to be. I remember when y'all interviewed my brother (tight ends coach Kurt Traylor), he only mentioned one of them on purpose. We're not trying to be that sneaky but it was also game one and y'all mentioned that was our one advantage we had is that they didn't know what we were going to do. Twelve personnel, we thought was a really good plan. His brother (defensive coordinator) Zac (Spavital) does a really good job. He's a great coordinator and they tear guys up on short edges. We're just trying to lengthen the edge because they brought so much edge pressure and they are also really good players. We felt good about our third and fourth and fifth tight end. We feel really good about Oscar (Cardenas), Allen Horace and Dan Dishman. We feel good about all five of our guys, we really do."
On having tight ends that are versatile enough to split out wide…
"No doubt. When you get to playing tempo and you have guys that can do multiple things, it's a huge advantage. Obviously, when you sub, the other team is going to sub and slow down the game. We want to play as fast as possible. Unfortunately, when we were going as fast as possible in the second half, we were still barely getting the ball snapped and we were trying to go as fast as possible. If you were to watch the video, you'd be shocked at how different our legs looked from the first half to the second half. I didn't even warm them up in the second half. I don't know if you guys noticed, we didn't even warm them up coming out of halftime. We were so dead in the locker room and I looked at (strength coach Ryan) Filo and coach was like, 'We don't have much left. I don't know if warming them up is going to do them any good.' I said, 'Boy, we got to hold on.' We brought those tents over there, whenever we play them over there again and it's a day game, we're going to have to get a bigger tent or something. It was hotter than heck on our sideline."
On playing a lot of players at several positions …
"Philosophically, I just believe that if kids practice well, they should play. It's great for competition, safety of kids, and team morale and locker room. We have always taken great pride in playing a lot of players on the roster and we will continue to do that. (C Ahofitu) Maka and (QB) Frank Harris are the only players who played every snap on offense. The other nine positions on offense we rotated as much as we could."
On the historic performance from sophomore RB Sincere McCormick …
"Him and Brenden (Brady) both. That is a two-headed monster back there. They both finished with their pads and were very physical when they ran. His attempt, carries, that is a little high in my opinion for a first game. I wished that had been a little bit more balanced between him and Brenden but both of those guys played extremely well.
On taking deep shots down the field offensively…
"We wish we had let him do that a little bit more. Both times we did that we connected. Unbelievable catch by (Brennon) Dingle and (Joshua) Cephus. Frank (Harris) was just masterful at running the offense. He did a great job. We only had four penalties on offense. One of them was my fault at the very end. We were wanting to run quarterback draw to see what happened. If we didn't get a good play off we were going to go to overtime. We were just so exhausted I thought it was better to play on a 25-yard field instead of a 100-yard field. We had just four penalties on offense. One of those was Cephus running out of bounds, that is a crazy penalty. One of them was a delay of game, trying to decide to go to overtime or not. I was very pleased with how Frank, basically two penalties and no turnovers, 23 out of 31, he rushed for three touchdowns and threw for another. I'm so thrilled for that kid, what he's overcome to come back, it is pretty phenomenal."
On if he's reflected on his first collegiate head coaching win coming in such a dramatic fashion …
"Everybody has asked me that and ideally it wouldn't have, but for UTSA to get an extra hour of national exposure. All the recruits and Scott Van Pelt talking about us and (Joey) Galloway talking about us, and having the SportsCenter play of the day. I hit up all 20 recruits on the way to the game. We have 19 committed, we have a silent commit we haven't told anyone about, but we really have 20 kids. And all 20 kids hit me back up within two minutes on the bus. Our recruits were so into the game. Out of those 488 texts that I had, I bet 100 of them were from my recruits loving the game, loving our uniforms, loving the kids. It was just a lot of fun. It was a great look for us. I wish we had played better in the second half but it worked out just perfect for us. Rashad (Wisdom) and the pick six and Bryce (Wisdom) blocking both those extra points, basically, it was a special day."
On how he rates the play of the secondary …
"I know they are getting beat up pretty good but if you go back and watch the film closely, they played really well. I would say obviously I'm not going to comment on penalties because I'm not allowed to but our kids played really well and I understand that it looked like they didn't maybe because that is what was being called but go back and watch the video. We were very proud of our corners. It might look real simple out there on an island by yourself but it is not. If you notice the kid that made the play, on the last play, that set up the field goal was Tariq (Woolen), number 20. Our kids never quit. They kept giving great effort, perfect effort. I was extremely pleased. We want to be more physical, to go up and play those balls better, no doubt, but I was pleased with our kids. Some of those catches were just crazy. Some of them were just unbelievable catches. They get scholarships too now. Their coaches get paid to coach and they work at practice so we have a lot of stuff to clean up, don't hear me wrong, but I'm not beating them up like those guys on social media are letting me know about it right now."
On how many players missed Saturday's game due to medical protocols …
"Eight was the final count. Depth hurt us. Special teams hurt us. But that is what the season is right now. We just all have to get used to it. It is the new norm. Like I told our kids, we have 115 on the roster and 107 of them are ready to go. So let's go play with 107. I believe it ended up being a few more out because of injuries so we probably had 102 or 100 ready to roll. Coaches nowadays, you have to find a way to make a roster right now."
On, from practice, watching the building walls raised for the new athletic facility …
"We had so much negative for so long. Basically every time I spoke to y'all, from March until not long ago, it's just been negative. It's just so uplifting to be practicing down there in such an economic stressful time, our commitment from our university and boosters, for our kids to see that facility going up. I don't know if you all understand, because of social distancing, our team meetings, there is a wall between our team meetings right now. We have defense on one side, offense on the other. We are social distancing. Our kids, they deserve that building and the commitment from our university and our boosters is extremely uplifting. Every day we practice, we look up there and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It's been a real pick-me-up for my guys."
On if it meant something to see the walls being raised …
"Totally. I told them, we stopped on the day the first wall went up. I said, 'men, I know you don't get it because you're not old like me, but there is going to be a day that you're going to look back and tell your children and grandchildren that you were on the field practicing when that very first wall went up in that building.' Some of them took pictures from the practice field. We talk about it a lot because I want those kids to know, there are just so many people that have paid it forward, because they believe in football, athletics and coaches. The gift from James Bodenstedt, five million dollars, the largest gift supposedly in the history of our school. In this time, in this crisis, it's unbelievable how those guys believe in coaches and players and how the game is used as a microcosm of life."
On his ties to Saturday's opponent and his alma mater, Stephen F. Austin …
"It's deep. My mother and my father both have a bachelor's and a master's from there. My wife and I both have a bachelor's and a master's from there. I have a brother that graduated from there as well. Pretty much, when you are raised in East Texas and you want to be a ball coach, you go to SFA. I have so many coaching buddies that are instrumental in my life. We all went to school together back in the day. I interviewed for that job when it came open last time. Coach Carthel, I have tremendous respect for Coach Carthel, and Ryan Ivey, the athletic director. They are good now. They gave UTEP all they could handle. They are athletic. They are physical. They believe in their head coach and they played hard. It's going to be a great game Saturday and you are going to be in for a barn burner."
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