A first that had eluded the UTSA through the first 119 games in program history was finally attained in the 120th game on Saturday, September 11, 2021 in the Alamodome.
For the first time in program history the Roadrunners held an opponent off the scoreboard when they defeated the Lamar Cardinals 54-0 before a crowd of 16,229.
“The crowd was incredible today,” UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said. “They were so good to our kids after the game, everybody was high fiving. It was fun. Everybody was so supportive.”
It was quite a night for the Roadrunners in addition to the first ever shutout.
It was also the Roadrunners largest margin of victory in a game in program history, surpassing a 53-point margin set back in 2012 when they beat Northwestern Oklahoma State 56-3.
The Roadrunners limited Lamar to 122 yards of total offense, the fewest yards allowed by UTSA’s defense in program history. The Cardinals 33 passing yards were the second fewest given up by the Roadrunners defense.
“I was just really proud of our kids,” Traylor said. “It would have been very easy for us to overlook Lamar and we didn’t.”
There had been close calls in the past where UTSA was one possession short of a shutout. Finally, on Saturday night, the Roadrunners were able to check off another milestone in the growth of a football program.
Fresh off a win at Illinois the Roadrunners arrived in the Alamodome for their home opener against a Lamar Cardinals team that was also 1-0.
Lamar won the coin toss and elected to start with the ball, perhaps trying to set a tone early.
It turned out it was the Roadrunner defense that set the tone early. Lamar’s first drive went five plays and 10 yards before they had to punt from their own 35. Sheldon Jones fielded the punt at the UTSA 25 and found a hole to run through. A convoy of blockers helped Jones complete the second punt return touchdown in program history.
“Hearing the crowd roar is one of my best memories from that play,” Jones said after the game. “The hole was humongous, my blockers cleared out a way for me.”
With 12:04 remaining in the first quarter the Roadrunners held a 7-0 lead. The defense was quick to get Lamar off the field, forcing a three-and-out on the next possession.
UTSA’s first drive of offense began at their own 43 yard-line with 9:30 left in the first quarter. The Roadrunners got to the Lamar 28 before the drive stalled and Hunter Duplessis was called on to try the first of his three field goals on Saturday. Duplessis knocked down all three, including the first one from 46 yards out to put UTSA ahead 10-0 with 8:18 left in the opening quarter.
Duplessis added his second field goal, a 46-yarder on the Roadrunners next possession with 3:11 left in the first quarter. UTSA would take a 13-0 lead into the second quarter.
UTSA pushed its lead to 20-0 just 56 seconds into the second quarter when Sincere McCormick scored from 18-yards out.
Lamar drove into UTSA territory on their next drive. They got as far as the UTSA 48. On their first play in UTSA territory there was a bad snap. Charles Wiley scooped it up at the Lamar 44 and rolled down field for a touchdown to put UTSA ahead 27-0 with 9:14 left in the second quarter.
“The coaches said somebody was going to come up with a ball today,” Wiley said. “It couldn’t have been a better fumble. It literally popped up into my hands and I had a great convoy blocking behind me.”
McCormick pushed UTSA ahead 34-0 right before halftime when he took the handoff on 3rd and 1 from the Lamar six and crossed the line into the end zone with 0:55 seconds left. It was his 21st career touchdown at UTSA, setting a new school record. Lamar chose to run out the clock on the first half on their next drive.
UTSA nearly created more history on the opening kickoff of the third quarter. Dadrian Taylor fielded the kick at the one and needed one more block to break into the open field for what might have been the first kickoff return touchdown in program history. Instead Lamar was able to bottle him up at the UTSA 42.
The Roadrunners opened the third quarter with Josh Adkins in at quarterback. Frank Harris was able to take the second half off after completing 13 of 15 passes in the first half for 118 yards.
Adkins showed he was also willing to fling the ball around. On his first drive of the night Adkins completed three of four passes, including a 32 yard gem to Zakhari Franklin that put UTSA ahead 41-0 at the 13:42 mark of the third quarter.
“He can run the offense. He’s played a lot of football in his career,” Traylor said of Adkins performance in the second half. “There weren’t a lot of incompletions out there between Frank and Josh.”
Adkins finished the night completing 11 of 13 pass attempts for 134 yards and two touchdowns. His second touchdown pass came in the fourth quarter when he threw a 16-yarder to De’Corian Clark with 14:06 left in the fourth quarter to put UTSA up 51-0.
Between Adkins touchdown passes, Duplessis kicked his third field goal of the night, a 41-yarder with 7:29 left in the third quarter, to put UTSA ahead 44-0.
Duplessis appeared to be injured on his final extra point attempt when a Lamar player dove at him late and took out his feet. Duplessis was able to walk off the field on his own power after being looked at by the training staff.
Perhaps as a precautionary measure, or to give Everett Ornstein a chance to kick, the Roadrunners switched to their second string kicker in the fourth quarter. Ornstein came on to kick the final field goal of the night, a 23-yarder with 4:58 left in the fourth quarter.
Most of the fourth quarter saw Eddie Lee Marburger in at quarterback for UTSA. Marburger was serenaded by the Roadrunner fans with chants of “Eddie Lee.”
In total there were more than 80 players who saw action for UTSA on Saturday night.
“Lamar is a very young team and I was hoping we’d get ahead so I could put our young kids against their young kids,” Traylor said. “I told my kids we were going to put them out there and there shouldn’t be any drop off. Those kids (on Lamar) are the same aged kids you are playing against. Our older kids were out there bullying them around, and then we put our younger kids out there and there was no drop off.”
UTSA finished the night with 427 yards of total offense. The Roadrunners ran for 106 yards and threw for 321 yards in the win over Lamar.
UTSA (2-0) will return to the Alamodome next Saturday for the Conference USA opener against Middle Tennessee. Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.
“I would encourage everybody, kind of like when I did Vacation Bible School, we’d tell everybody ‘bring a friend next time and we’ll have double the crowd’,” Traylor said. “I’d say to everyone bring a friend next Saturday and we’ll have this place really rocking.”