SAN ANTONIO — A dozen UTSA football seniors have elected to return to the Roadrunners for an extra year of eligibility in 2021, taking advantage of an NCAA blanket waiver for all 2020 fall sports student-athletes.
The 12 Roadrunners who will return for their "super" senior season include:
Myles Benning, TE
B.J. Daniels, RB
Lorenzo Dantzler, DL
Hunter Duplessis, PK
Jalyn Galmore, OL
Jaylon Haynes, DL
DeQuarius Henry, LB
Clarence Hicks, LB
Antonio Parks, S
Dominic Pastucci, OL
Leroy Watson, TE
Charles Wiley, LB
All fall sports student-athletes will be eligible for an extra year of eligibility under the waiver. The extension of eligibility for fall student-athletes follows a similar measure approved by the NCAA in March 2020 with spring student-athletes who had most of their 2020 seasons erased by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Traditionally, a student-athlete has five years to play four years of their sport. An extra year means a current college student-athlete would have six years to play their four years. This means NCAA student-athletes can compete in all or a portion of the 2020-21 season, but it won't be counted against their years of eligibility depending on their division level specific eligibility rules.
UTSA is coming off a 7-5 campaign that ended with the program's second bowl appearance, a narrow 31-24 setback to 16th-ranked Louisiana in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl on Dec. 26 in Dallas. Head coach Jeff Traylor guided the Roadrunners to the second-most wins in school history and to a second-place finish in Conference USA's West Division with a 5-2 mark in 2020.
The second season of the Jeff Traylor era will kick off on Sept. 4 at Illinois before UTSA hosts Lamar for the home opener on Sept. 11 at the Alamodome. The Roadrunners also travel to Memphis on Sept. 25 and host UNLV on Oct. 2 to close out the non-conference slate.
UTSA will play eight C-USA contests beginning with a home date against Middle Tennessee on Sept. 18 at the Alamodome.
The Roadrunners will travel to Bowling Green, Ky., to face WKU on Oct. 9 before returning home to host Rice on Oct. 16. UTSA then will close out the October calendar at Louisiana Tech on Oct. 23 in Ruston.
After their only idle week of the regular season, the Roadrunners will make the bi-annual trip to El Paso to face UTEP on Nov. 6 before hosting back-to-back home contests against Southern Miss on Nov. 13 and defending C-USA West Division champion UAB on the following Saturday.
UTSA will round out the league's regular season schedule on the road against North Texas on Nov 27 in Denton.
C-USA's 17th annual Championship Game, pitting the champions of the East and West Divisions, is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 4.
It is important to note that all games are subject to date changes and some dates are expected to move in the coming weeks in order to accommodate national television. A schedule of televised games will be released at a later date.
Season tickets for all six of UTSA's home games are on sale now. Please call or text 210-458-UTSA (8872) or click here. Payment plans for all season ticket packages are available.
-UTSA-
