Roadrunner redux

What will UTSA look like in a pivotal fifth season of football?UTSA will play football games for just the fifth year in program history this fall, and for the first time expectations have been dulled. The Roadrunners were on the rise to become the next non-P5 school in the state, winning 15 games combined in 2012 and 2013, setting up what was supposed to be a 2014 season that ended with the program’s first bowl berth and possibly a division and conference championship.“Maybe we allowed expectations to get too high going into last year,” Larry Coker has said about a 2014 season that ended with a 4-8 record. “We had some adversity and we never recovered how we wanted. That shouldn’t be an excuse because every team suffers injuries.”The Roadrunners were the most experienced team in college football heading into 2014. The Original 18, the name given to the first 18 scholarship players, were heading into their senior year. The whole offensive line was back, as were the skill position players minus a tight end. Defensively, UTSA only had to replace one true starter. It was supposed to be the year. Instead, UTSA could never find a consistent replacement for multi-year starter Eric Soza at quarterback because of youth, inexperience and a rash of injuries.After beating Houston on the road to start the season and nearly knocking off Arizona at home in the second game of the season, it all came crashing down. No bowl berth. No division championship. No run to the CUSA conference championship game. UTSA was left at home and with the realization that a program started from scratch was now in a position to where it needed to start all over.UTSA graduated over 40 seniors and double-digit starters from the 2014 season, meaning it will be time for the young faces in the program to step up. While the lack of inexperience will be viewed from the outside as a bad thing, the truth of the matter is that the talent level at UTSA has never been higher.“The size and speed difference is very noticeable,” Coker said. “We look like a real FBS football team at practice now. Now, all we have to do is transfer that over to the field.”It won’t be easy, especially early on in the season. UTSA starts off with out-of-conference games against Arizona, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Colorado State before even getting into CUSA games. A winning season seems unlikely. A bowl berth appears further into the horizon. But, the foundation has been laid for future teams and the Roadrunners have still arrived as a legitimate FBS program in the state of Texas. Mike Craven is the publisher of BirdsUp.com and a TexasFootball.com contributor.