In an area renowned for producing some of the world’s finest citrus, the idea that a college football team would one day blossom under the South Texas sun was planted in the backyard of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. 

Just a few months ago, the Vaqueros Performance Center, north of the baseball stadium, was a mound of dirt in the middle of a field acquired by university leadership years ago. Once complete, it may be a step above what some FBS schools have. 

By 2026, the university will wrap up 13 capital projects currently either ongoing or being finished. Over the previous 50 years, there had been one, when UTRGV’s soccer and track and field complex was completed. 

Now, after years of planning and the merger of The University of Texas-Pan American and the former University of Texas at Brownsville, the UTRGV Vaqueros are set to play their first-ever home game at what used to be H-E-B Park, once home to the RGV FC Toros, now renamed to honor two of the biggest university donors: Robert and Janet Vackar. 

The Vackar family, the owners of Bert Ogden Auto Group, donated $20 million to UTRGV athletics in March, believed to be in the top 40 donations in the history of collegiate athletics, according to the university.

Before millions flowed into the athletic department, the framework for a college football team in the Valley was laid out before UTRGV’s president Guy Bailey in 2017.

The presentation followed a feasibility study chaired by legendary Texas head coach Mack Brown, local community leaders and students at UTRGV like Julia Perez, a former tennis player for the Vaqueros who now serves as the Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Services at UTRGV.  

“I remember the first meeting that I attended, coach Mack Brown was there and I thought that was really cool,” Perez said. “So, they brought them in as consultants and just tried to get a feel of what football would mean to the Valley … if it was feasible or not.” 

Perez would go on to graduate the next semester following her work on the committee, but not before that seed of hope was planted. 

“I knew personally, that it would be the best thing to happen to UTRGV,” Perez said. “So, I didn’t think there was a doubt at all, not in my mind. I know that the Valley is ready for it. And it was more of ‘where are we going to play?’ And that kind of thing that would pop into people’s heads, that type of question. But now that it's here, and I feel like all the puzzle pieces have fit perfectly, there couldn’t have been a better time to start this program.”

Final approval for the team would come in Fall 2022, paving the way for one of the nation’s newest FCS programs to take shape within the Southland Conference. 

The team is led by head coach Travis Bush, son of RGV Sports Hall of Famer Bruce Bush, who returns to familiar territory in South Texas. Travis spent two years in the Valley while his father coached at PSJA High School. His wife, Diana, grew up in McAllen and his mother, Ida, is originally from Mercedes. 

“Some days it’s pretty surreal to come out here, to be on the field and see the VPC being built right there,” Bush said. “We had a meeting a few weeks ago with Chasse (Conque), and I remember the first day after our press conference when we got hired, me and him met up the next day… with really a sheet of paper, listing what we needed and ideas of the plans and kind of this was a square on the map and what we’re going to build. So, now to kind of see everything unfolding and realize it’s flown by already, and the next 300 days are going to fly by pretty quick, too, and we’ll be kicking off.” 

Everyone on the current Vaquero roster will redshirt ahead of the 2025 season, leading to unique conversations on the recruiting trail. 

To Bush, it’s all about the opportunity presented in the Valley. 

“Not playing is an opportunity to come in here and utilize that full year to get started off right in the classroom and really to develop your skills,” Bush said. “Everyone everywhere else in the nation that’s a redshirt is playing scout team. These guys are getting every rep, every single day, competing, competing for spots, live scrimmages. So, developing more as a redshirt to give them that opportunity to play for four years when the time comes.” 

The Vaqueros signed 51 student-athletes in their first-ever recruiting cycle. Bush says one major program goal is keeping homegrown talent that makes the team feel authentic to the 956. According to Bush, the Valley is underrecruited and the players who go on to play at the next level all play with a chip on their shoulder. 

“I think a lot of that, that’s the culture down here, because of people not knowing what the Valley is like, and there is a chip on your shoulder to prove yourself,” Bush said. “People think, you know from the outside, well there is not talent down here, there is not good football teams, there is not good coaching but there is … It’s just that mentality to prove yourself and to go fight and work. I think it’s a mentality down here of people that know how to work. They've worked their whole life, they’ve worked for everything they have. You see it with our guys on the field. I mean they don’t complain about anything. They are undersized with a lot of our guys, but they’re the ones right now that are doing some of the things the best.”

The team hashtag, #RallyTheValley, is more of a call to action, inviting everyone across the deep South Texas region to buy in on the home team. 

Hype, noise and passion are all flowing around the greater Edinburg area. This month, the athletics department announced that season tickets for the inaugural season were sold out after 6,000 deposits were placed. 

Early in September, a crowd of just under 2,500 watched the Vaqueros hold a full-team practice at Robert Flores Stadium in Edinburg. 

But, the expansion into a football school has not come without growing pains. 

Just before the team’s first open practice, three Vaquero Football players were arrested in connection to a hit and run car crash that sent a man to the hospital. 

The incident happened about seven minutes away from where the team practices now. 

According to the university newspaper, The Rider, a gray Chevrolet Silverado, drove away from the scene after the crash. Following the wreck, one of the men involved contacted the Edinburg Police Department and admitted his connection to the crime. 

The incident is still under investigation.

On a team made up of mostly freshmen, maturity, character and poise are rare traits sought after now more than ever by the coaching staff. 

Transfers like Gabriel Dougherty from Navarro Community College hope to come in and develop themselves while also imparting some wisdom when and where they can. 

“I took on a mentorship role because a lot of these guys are brand new to the setting,” Dougherty said. “I mean, as a guy who left the Valley to go play college football, it was rough for me in the beginning. But when I got with those guys at Navarro, they kind of took me under their wing and made it feel like home over there. So, I hope I’m really doing a good job with these new guys coming from outside of the Valley, helping to make it feel like home.” 

Dougherty, like other players native to the Valley, is used to both the literal and metaphorical heat the team now has to play under. That negative headline adds to the pressure the team is under to ensure the money spent to expand into a football school is not in vain. 

The players on the roster from South Texas are used to playing in brutal temperatures, Dougherty says the team just wants to make the people who call the Valley home proud. 

“I want them to know that we will represent them,” Dougherty. “We have a lot of people who are really hard workers in the Valley and they always have to look at UT to go cheer on or A&M to go cheer on. But we want to make sure that they cheer on us, the Valley team, like we want to set the foundation.” 

UTRGV is set to kickoff for the first time on Aug. 30, 2025. Regardless of the opponent or score at the end, it’ll be another historic moment for the team, players and region.