UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 26, 2022

Jeff Traylor

Press Conference

UTSA - 34

UTEP - 31

Q. Jeff, you guys come from behind today, biggest comeback in school history. How did you do that in the second half?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Well, we got behind. Obviously we were just getting physically whipped up front on the O-line and D-line. Weren't fitting correctly in out backers and safeties. UTEP had a great game plan and they executed very well.

It was big for Cephus. Kind of hid some really bad offensive play by getting 7. Then Dadrian made an unbelievable play and the block by Trey Moore on the quarterback down the sideline to get to 14. When you get totally outplayed that bad, at halftime you're only down 10, you feel you're in a good spot, right?

Then we come out, get them three-and-out right off the jump. I thought we got pushed in our helmet, which made him change his trajectory, ran into the punter. The officials did not agree with my opinion. That was a killer. They went back ahead of us and we answered.

It was just a really good football game by two teams. We're limping home. Losing Brenden Brady was a huge loss for us. Losing Gavin, such another devastating injury.

I've done this for 33 years and I've seen maybe three of those in my life. Two of them were this year for us. Personally I've seen that. I've seen it happen to other people.

Q. What had to happen to get the offense going the way it did in the second half?

JEFF TRAYLOR: I really don't get onto my guys very much. I don't. I was mad. We got our tails physically whipped. I got after it. They knew I was right. It's a player's game. They went out there and are the ones that got it done.

No team in college football is talented enough to not play your best. But we just have to be on our game. We just have to be. That's one thing I will say about my kids, our kids, that's 12 straight games, man, where they freaking give it up now. Their competitive spirit is like no one's.

I already knew when it was 24-0, freaking Greg and J.J. are going to be asking me why is Frank still out there, why ain't I pulled the kids yet.

I was going to tell them, We going to come back and win the game.

By God, we did.

Q. You finished 8-0 in the conference for the first time in program history. What does that accomplishment mean to you and the guys?

JEFF TRAYLOR: I think the way we've done it makes it more special, overcoming so much adversity, so many lead changes, so many times we've been behind.

Grit, mental toughness. The quarterback that got gimped up out there, refused to let me take him out of the game. These kids are special, man. It's emotional. Senior days are tough. I tried to warn them.

That's my 18th Senior Day. I bet we've been behind in darn near half of them because we were all crying so dang much in pregame. It's hard seeing the moms and dads.

We pour into those kids. We love those kids. I know every coach says that. It hurts me to see them go. Me and Dadrian Taylor, Maka. Corey Mayfield. We've been through a lot together. Kevin Davis. I am going to miss those guys, man.

It's emotional. We really weren't plugged in to play. We got to get that fixed or North Texas will embarrass us on Friday night.

Q. Your defense gave up some yards and points. The last four UTEP drives were punt, punt, interception and punt. What does it say about that unit to be able to answer the call?

JEFF TRAYLOR: They did what Coach Loepp asked them to do, what the head coach asked them to do, which is freaking let's be physical, man. It's hypocritical to say you're a triangle of toughness and you don't play tough.

We don't want to be fake. We want to be real at all times. Doesn't mean you're always going to win. It's hard to win in college football. It's hard.

But there's a certain way the game's supposed to be played. We represented that the second half. We were fortunate, to be honest with you, in the first half, fortunate.

Q. What does it do for the group heading into the Conference USA game?

JEFF TRAYLOR: I guess that remains to be seen, right? I'm really nervous about certain spots on our team right now just because of injuries. There's some things that I'm upset about the way we played.

Do you risk injury during practice during the week? That's my major concern right now, is me thinking, How do I get this team ready when I thought we did not win up front today?

That's something that has to be addressed. We got to figure that out. That's what we're going to do this week somehow.

Q. I know it just happened, but can you give us an update on Gavin and Brenden?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Neither one of them look very good at all. We'll find out more. I would say Gavin's is for sure really bad. Brenden's is probably 50/50 really bad.

Q. How much of a factor was the crowd in this one?

JEFF TRAYLOR: I would have left if I was the crowd. 24-0. They're the reason we come back and won the game. Our team is a lot like our city: we're just stubborn and tough in San Antonio, right? Our crowd is just stubborn and tough.

I did have some fans that honestly admitted they almost left. They said Cephus made that catch and it got them interested. Day-Day made that play and they decided to stick around a little longer. I said, well that would be a shame if you missed the greatest comeback in the history of UTSA.

I tell them the truth, I would have left, too, if I could have.

Q. Knowing it's going to be North Texas next week, what is your first reaction to having a rematch?

JEFF TRAYLOR: That's the first I've heard. I didn't know. I appreciate you letting me know. I didn't know it was North Texas.

Q. (No microphone.)

JEFF TRAYLOR: There you go. Thank you for letting me know. I'll be in early in the morning. I'll be trying to prepare for those suckers. Congrats to them. They're a great team.

Our crowd's got to be here. How many we have here?

Q. (No microphone.)

JEFF TRAYLOR: We got to get to 45 if we got a chance. If we don't hit 45, we in trouble Friday. We are out of people, right? We need the city to show up. It's got to be like tonight, times two for us to have a competitive chance.

We worked hard to get that home field. We can't waste it, man. We cannot waste it. We need to get this place packed. We should be shooting for the record. I mean, c'mon, it's the second competitive championship at home. This is hard to do, man.

We got to get 50,000 people in here. If I got to go around town, whatever it takes, we got to get 'em here. It's important, man. We got to get this thing done Friday.