UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 15, 2023

Jeff Traylor

Press Conference

Army - 37, UTSA - 29

JEFF TRAYLOR: Congratulations to Army and Jeff Monken. His team played an absolutely perfect ballgame. They had zero penalties, zero turnovers, 85 snaps, 450 yards. They did a fantastic job.

His team was very well prepared to play. Ours was not. That's on nobody but me. Congratulations to Army.

Q. Jeff, that Army offense looked unstoppable at times today. How can you explain their 6 for 6 on fourth down and just their yardage production?

JEFF TRAYLOR: We just can't handle them in the trenches. They physically man handled us up front. They did a great job on their scheme. They were one play ahead of us on all calls.

Fantastic job by Coach Monken again. We got out coached, we got out physicaled. They deserved to beat us tonight.

Q. Did you see it as more of an issue with individual battles, or how much was there deception in the option game?

JEFF TRAYLOR: The double pass was nice, but that would be -- we busted a coverage, which was the first time we've done that all year. We turned somebody loose on a check, and we've got to get that correct.

It's on us. They're all looking to me, man, and I didn't have them coached up and ready to go.

Q. Coach, you had -- aside from the loss, it was a good night for Eddie Lee Marburger in his first start. What were your thoughts on the offense?

JEFF TRAYLOR: I was very proud of the kid. He stepped up and played his tail off. Eddie Lee Marburger wasn't the reason we lost the ball game, I promise you that.

Q. Jeff, in three years, is the most disappointed you've been after a loss?

JEFF TRAYLOR: It's kind of been the whole year so far. It's a perfect storm so far. It's getting Army on a short week. We played a darn near rival game versus Houston, a darn near rival game -- a rival game versus Texas State. Fall up short with Army, now we go to Tennessee.

We're just not doing well. I don't know what it is. It's obviously the football coach because we ain't getting it done right now.

Q. You played Army and Monken a few times here, but did this one feel different with a new offensive coordinator and the formations they were throwing out, going more to shotgun than usual?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Yeah, it was different, there's no doubt about it. They did a fantastic job. It's a nice plan of what they've done before. They just added a new wrinkle to it. The quarterback played an unbelievable ballgame. The kid is a scrapper. We couldn't get him down.

Then our defense finally gets him off the field, get the ball back, eight-point game, five minutes left, all of our timeouts, and we can't get it done. Had a great box to run the ball into, and then we went -- we had a good shot down the field for Devin, safety came across and made a really good play on that one.

Then on third down and seven, we got frickin' sacked. If it had just been fourth and two, I'd have gone for it. Fourth and four, I'd have gone for it. But we gave the sack up. Frustrating, man. There's got to be an easier way to make a living somewhere else.

Q. Third quarter, it looked like you guys had the momentum rolling. You called that squib kick.

JEFF TRAYLOR: Didn't hit it good. It was a good call. They called the correct call. We blocked before the ball went ten yards because we didn't hit the ball very well. It was there. We didn't execute it.

On the head coach. Got to do a better job.

Q. Jeff, regarding Frank Harris' injury, what are some of the factors that come into determining whether he played, and how much does conference game versus non-conference game factor into it?

JEFF TRAYLOR: No doubt. We've got Tennessee next week. We got an open week the next week. When we go to Temple, we're going to be 0-0, and America is going to write us off because we're not a very good football team right now. So we'll be a pissed off, healthy football team when we go to Philadelphia, we hope.

Q. Understanding it's hard to force a turnover when they run the ball 65 times, is there something missing that you guys haven't been able to generate?

JEFF TRAYLOR: That's a great question. I don't know what the frick that is. We're one of like eight teams in the country that haven't caused a turnover yet. I don't know. If you figure it out, mail it to me, and we'll get to work on it.

Sorry. Apologize. That's embarrassing. God bless. Birds up.