SAN ANTONIO -- From the second Jeff Traylor walked into the building for his introduction as head coach at UTSA, one thing was clear: the Roadrunners are going Texan.
A dozen of Traylor’s former players at Gilmer and other high school football coaches took up seats at the AlamoDome for his introduction. Converse Judson legend and former executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association D.W. Rutledge spoke.
Two days after Traylor was introduced, he drove 45 minutes up the road with athletic administration to meet with the board of the THSCA, still wearing the Roadrunners hat he donned at the introductory press conference.
“Everybody I talked to, especially over the last 10 days, said the connection to Texas high school coaches is so critical,” UTSA president Taylor Eighmy said. “Not that we’re not connected already, but to have the deep, deep connection is essential to taking it to the next level. That was the missing ingredient we needed to realize more than any other ingredient.”
If Texas is what you want, Traylor is your man. He spent 15 years as the head coach at Gilmer High School in East Texas and won three championships with a pair of other state title game appearances. He spent time at the University of Texas and SMU before leading recruiting for Texas high school legend Chad Morris at Arkansas. His brother, Kurt Traylor, is the head coach at Tyler Lee. Texas football runs through his blood.
“It’s the same game,” Traylor said. “It’s just played by bigger and faster guys in bigger stadiums. It’s still ball. Ball is ball, played by players, players win games, it’ll always be that way.”
Traylor is so dang Texan that when he got the call last Friday night that UTSA athletic director Lisa Campos, he prepped by watching the movie “The Alamo.” Well, at least he rewatched the pivotal scene of William B. Travis drawing a line in the sand about seven times so that he could set up his new recruiting hashtag, “#DrawTheLine.”
All of these Texas shoutouts and ties are about one thing. UTSA wants Traylor to recruit the heck out of the state of Texas.
“I’m more prepared for this job than I’ve been for any other job,” Traylor said. “Think about what I’ve done. I was a head coach for 15 years. I was an associate coach for five years at three different places. I’ve been the lead recruiter on three different staffs to get the deal closed and get players in. That’s what the game is about. That’s what we’re going to do.
“We can’t just lock down the city of San Antonio? The game is about players. It always will be about players. Somehow, in this great game of college football, we’ve lost sight of that.”
Traylor is right in a sense. The best teams are built by recruiting the best players – that’s why Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State win. Even at the C-USA level, Lane Kiffin built FAU into a consistent winner through strong recruiting. Rutledge recalled that another coach drove almost straight from his introductory press conference to the THSCA board meeting to build relationships: Mack Brown at Texas.
Traylor has a great product to sell. UTSA is in the seventh-largest city in America – and the single largest that doesn’t have an NFL team. UTSA has a fertile recruiting footprint that is arguably among the best in the Group of Five. Mixing college football investment with untapped urban centers – Memphis, San Diego State, UCF – and you can create results.
Traylor has proven recruiting chops. He helped put together a pair of top 10 classes during his time at Texas and earned Big 12 Recruiter of the Year. Even as Arkansas stumbled out to a 2-10 record, Traylor helped tie together a top 25 class with many contributors from Texas. There’s plenty of untapped potential at UTSA, one of the youngest major programs in America.
Sign In