UTSA Champions
San Antonio, TX – Jeff Traylor called this season his favorite “for a number of reasons” and listed injuries, adversity and reference some mystery things that he felt were special. In winning the league on Friday night 48-27 over UNT, the Roadrunners cemented themselves as one of the league’s best teams. WKU, FAU, UAB, and UTSA are all two-time winners over the last ten years.
The crowd was good – 41,411 was the announced number. There were about 1200-1500 North Texas fans. That itself was a good number considering the NT program has a skeptical relationship with the Littrell-led NT program. Littrell came into this game 0-6 in post-season games, 0-5 in Bowls and 0-1 in league title games. He added another loss to that number in this one.
UTSA were the favorites but North Texas jumped out to a 10-7 lead early in the first quarter. The run game that disappeared in October had returned for North Texas, with one 56 yarder unleashed from the NT 1-yard line. The only thing that stopped Ikaika Ragsdale was his own speed limit.
Austin Aune forced a ball to Jyaire Shorter after a UTSA punt, and the Runners down 3. The pass was behind the target, and there were cries for a flag, but it fell to a UTSA defensive back and UTSA scored on the next possession. They never trailed the rest of the way.
Seth Littrell’s bunch fell apart shortly after that, and combined a three-and-out with a kneel down to end the half doing basically nothing. UTSA ended the half up 24-10.
The story was Frank Harris, who completed 11-11 behind the line of scrimmage, and more just past it. He said he was not prepared for the cover-zero blitzes from NT last time out, but was more ready and also allowed some freedom to make changes at the line. He looked in control, and there was nothing the NT defense could do to get him. He converted a 3rd and 18 easily when NT rushed four and sat in man-coverage. He simply ran to the marker.
North Texas got within 7 points in the game, but by then there was no stopping the Runner offense. North Texas then got desperate and took chances, throwing the ball deep aggressively. They were calculated risks, and part of the offense. One was thrown short, and Robinson, the UTSA back, picked off another Aune pass.
By then it was done, and UTSA added another TD. NT conceded with a late punt with just minutes to go in the game. A white flag punt.
UTSA are your 2022 conference champions. They, along with the others including North Texas, will play in the AAC next season.