Sunday Lookahead: University of Texas San Antonio

This week’s Sunday lookahead peaks at the second team the Baylor Football team will play in the 2018 season, the UTSA Roadrunners.

Bears fans will surely know not to take UTSA lightly this season, as the Roadrunners got the best of the depleted and disarrayed Bears in the second game of last season at McClane Stadium. Now Baylor will travel to San Antonio on September 8th to face the Roadrunners.

UTSA ended up putting together a 6-5 season in 2017 that saw plenty of ups and downs. They dropped a number of close games, losing by 7 or less in four of their five losses. They had a game against Houston cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey and even though they were bowl eligible, they were not selected for a bowl game.

UTSA head coach Frank Wilson enters his 3rd year, with an even 12-12 record during that time. UTSA’s main issue was an offensive funk it suffered after its first three games. That offense will have to start over in 2018, replacing its quarterback, multiple runningbacks, its go to wide receiver, and a significant portion of the offensive line. The defense, which was the bright spot for the Roadrunners throughout the season, is mostly back other than the loss of a standout pass rusher. However, both sides of the football will have new coordinators so it will be interesting to see how the offense and defense, especially early in the season, will handle and adapt to adversity.

Clearly, Baylor will have a certain amount of revenge on the mind after an embarrassing loss to UTSA last year. While a road game, there are plenty of Baylor alums in and near San Antonio to likely make the atmosphere close to 50/50. Baylor should out talent and out class UTSA in nearly every spot, it will simply be a question of if the techniques, strategies, and efforts make that difference apparent.