UTSA coach Frank Wilson knew what he wanted when he began his search for a new offensive coordinator. He wasn’t looking for pro style or spread, scheme was secondary. He wanted a flexible style from a coordinator who could fit that year’s attack around the personnel on the roster. He interviewed 12 candidates and even flirted with running the offense himself. 

Eventually, he landed on Al Borges, who’s made stops at UCLA, Auburn, Michigan and more in his nearly three decades as an offensive coordinator.
“I just wanted to have comfort with someone I thought could bring to bear what would give us our best chance: That was an offense that took the personnel we had and maximized it, and not limit us,” Wilson said.

Borges spent last season as an analyst at Auburn, but he was the brain behind a pro-style offense with Jason Campbell, Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown that went undefeated in 2004 and helped Shoelace—also known as Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson—set the Big Ten ablaze with 1,000-yard rushing seasons in 2011 and 2012.

“Everywhere he went, you saw a guy with an uncanny ability to maximize the potential of the quarterback and the people around him,” Wilson said. “Whatever we have, let’s make it the best we have.”

But that’s the question plaguing UTSA’s offense in 2018. What, exactly, does it have? Wilson and Borges might not know until well after the season kicks off this fall. Quarterback Dalton Sturm, a three-year starter, is gone. That ignited a battle between sophomore Bryce Rivers and juco transfer Cordale Grundy for the task of replacing him. The Roadrunners also added SMU transfer D.J. Gillins in April. They’ll be working behind an offensive line that lost three starters from last year. They’ll also try to find a new top target without Josh Stewart, Kerry Thomas Jr. and Brady Jones, the three leading receivers from last year’s team. Senior Greg Campbell Jr. a 6-1, 190-pound target who caught a career-high 27 passes last year, will be first in line to have Borges calling plays that look to get him the ball.

The Roadrunners will likely lean more on senior running back Jalen Rhodes, who split carries with Tyrell Clay in 2017 and averaged just under five yards a carry on his 134 carries. UTSA leaned more on Clay later in the season—he had 57 carries in the season’s final four games compared to just 30 for Rhodes—but it’s Rhodes’ time now. And Wilson’s stance on the offensive change is clear. He doesn’t care how it looks. He just wants it to work. 

“We’ll probably be a little more diversified. I don’t feel a pressure to be spread or air raid,” Wilson said. “I feel a pressure, from the outside and on my own, to win.”