UTSA Routs North Texas To Make Case For CUSA West

This CUSA week was supposed to hold at least two league games at the start of the day. Rice was supposed to host UTEP and UTSA scheduled to host NT. Instead the only game played was in San Antonio as UTEP had positive COVID tests come in.

At the Roost has more. Meanwhile, in a rivalry game that was supposed to be more competitive, UTSA dominated and made its best case for the West division crown. Although UAB has the head-to-head over UTSA, the Blazers are stuck on 2-1 because of Coronavirus cancellations and postponements.

The Roadrunners have played eleven games and won seven, including five winning games in CUSA West. If there was a deserving team, simply having completed the schedule is maybe the qualifier for the crown.

While UAB is still the best team by many measures, UTSA has the best resume. If the league title is going to be contested, it makes sense to give Marshall a quality opponent and it might as well be UTSA.

UTSA 49 NT 17

UTSA had the challenge of bottling up the best offense in the league. They did that and more. While NT looked dangerous here and there, the two first half interceptions slowed the slow-starting NT offense even more. Jason Bean was wild throwing the ball and Rashad Wisdom grabbed one interception. UTSA also forced a turnover on downs early in the game to make it three stops of NT. They countered that with a smart game plan that allowed Frank Harris to build rhythm — starting 8/8 on short, quick routes to big receivers to move the chains.

Then they threw the haymaker that is Sincere McCormick. He bulldozed and sprinted his way to 251 yards rushing against a poor NT defense that had experienced something of a small revival the last two games. UTSA kept it simple but used some big gains on simple cutbacks by McCormick and later Frank Harris to open up the game. They led 28-7 at half, and blew that open late when NT essentially conceded defeat. It was the most points scored in this rivalry series which is now tied at 4 apiece. UTSA dominated on the ground — especially in the second half.

Jeff Traylor has seven wins in his first season and is 1-0 in this rivalry. UTSA is also 3-1 in San Antonio vs UNT.