UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 16, 2024

Jeff Traylor

Press Conference

UTSA 48, North Texas 27

Q. You guys put up a historic number offensively tonight. How did you guys do that?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Just what I've told you all year. I know y'all were thinking I was just giving y'all coach talk, but those kids show up every day. They have their notes. They are on time. They don't cause problems.

It's the greatest testimony to our culture since we've been here, and I've never seen a team overcome what these guys have overcome. They battled their butts back, and they got a chance to go to a bowl. I got 28 seniors, the highest I've ever had. We got a chance to get it done here Friday night.

I couldn't be more happy of the way my kids have held themselves together all year in spite of some really, really tough fourth quarter leads that we've blown or not been able to finish.

Just happy for my kids, man.

Q. What led to this offensive outburst today?

JEFF TRAYLOR: It started up front and our backs just committing to running the football better. We just kept going at it.

The fourth down and one we had a better play called, and I overrode Burke. That was on me. I think it's a mindset there that, by gosh, we got to be able to hand the ball off and run behind our freaking guards and center and run the ball, and we didn't. It's okay. I just told them, We're going to keep chipping away at it. It was a mindset.

It starts with our defense. They had 2 for 11 on third down. That's incredible. That's a great offense, man. That's one of the best offenses in the country.

Fourth down, 1 for 5, Coach Loepp and those guys, man, they just kept battling and battling. They can make you look stupid very quickly, which they did a few times, but our kids kept battling.

It was a total team victory. Special teams... the onside kick that Tate pulled off was unbelievable. Caile did a great job getting a snap one time. Tate Sandell made great field goals.

It seemed like every time our offense got back be out there, I'm not sure we had a three and out. I'll have to check my stats on that, but we had drives. Even though we were not wanting to settle for field goals, we were at least keeping the ball from them. I believe we had the ball again like 40 minutes. We ain't Army, right, so for us to keep it 40 like that, and they only have it 20, I think we're 18th in the country in time of possession.

It's just a bunch of coaches and players in spite of unbelievable injuries that don't listen to the noise, and we keep our head down. I know it's coach talk to you guys and we trust the process. We believe in our culture, and we're getting better still. We're just getting better.

Q. What can you say about the play of Owen? It looked like that first half he was as good as we've ever seen him?

JEFF TRAYLOR: It's just who the kid is. He is ticked at himself. He underthrew the vertical. He barely underthrew it. He missed a couple, but he didn't miss many. We had two touchdowns early, and we didn't get them caught. The kid was fantastic.

Whenever you break a school record for offense and he followed the four years that he's followed with Frank Harris at the helm, it's phenomenal how these guys have just hung in there.

Q. You alluded to it, but what did it take to keep this team together through some of the lows to deliver the kind of results we've seen the last two games?

JEFF TRAYLOR: It really is our culture. You were the main one and J.J., and I understand you got to report what you are hearing, challenging our culture. Our kids just, you know, they spit back at you. So keep challenging them.

It's easy to play ball when you are winning and you are 10-2 and 11-1, and 12-0, all the things we've done. Where are you when that crap gets hard?

I think this team is going to be one of those ones we'll always remember, Greg, for just not giving into it. That's tough in this new world. That's tough. We didn't deal with that when I was young. We didn't have all that, but our kids have literally been amazing.

I can't be more proud of them. You have every right to challenge our culture and what that looked like. I wasn't being a smart aleck. Our kids have shown it back, like what they really are made of.

Q. You guys continued to pound the ball in the running game and then at the end Robert Henry was able to break that big one. Was that a gratifying moment for you?

JEFF TRAYLOR: As good a moment as we've had all year to be honest with you, Greg, just because it's been so frustrating, Bubba, and we had been so close so many times.

Robert, his other touchdown run might have been better. I mean, that one was literally just him saying, I'm getting in the end zone.

During the break we challenged our backs. Like, how many times have they cut on air before they got to the line of scrimmage? Those backs did a good job of grading themselves, and they graded themselves very hard. They had gotten spooked so many times all year. They weren't trusting it, and tonight they trusted it and just hit it up in there, and it came through for us.

Q. When North Texas got it to 33-27 early in the fourth quarter what was the messaging on the sideline to the team between the coaches or the players?

JEFF TRAYLOR: We thought we had to score 50 to win the ball game. We weren't going to blink. I know our arm chair quarterbacks want us to and the ball off and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We ran the low trick play. I liked it because of the name of the play. I'm not even going to tell you what the name of the play was. It's a nice little name. I'll just let that go, but it was a great call and very well-executed.

What's funny, in practice Willie never comes open like ever, but Amador is always open on the cell cut, and they covered Amador like a blanket, and they turned Willie loose.

You can practice this stuff. The double pass we threw back to Owen, we practiced that things 10 trillion times. We run that thing as much as we do inside zone. Owen looked like he ran 37 yards backwards before he caught it.

Football is a crazy game. Y'all are welcome to come to practice. We actually work this stuff all the time. It looks like we don't sometimes.

Q. You mentioned Amador, a big night for him. What's his impact since returning from the injury?

JEFF TRAYLOR: It's his whole life. Go watch him in North Shore. Everybody says, He is too short, he is too this, he is too that. When he was there for us to take, I couldn't have thanked my lucky stars enough.

We have so much offense in through that kid. He's just unique. He's Jim Thorpe-like. He can throw it. He can run. He'll block. He can catch it. He literally is just that kid.

The first screen I might could have scored on, but the next one I bet he broke four or five tackles. On the bubble out there where they flipped him up and hurt him a little bit, he's just that guy, man. You're going to keep seeing more of him.

I hope we can get McCuin back too. I would really like for you all to see what we had planned all year.

Q. What happened with the offensive line? It looked like you were shuffling some guys out there. Was it injury?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Yeah, we lost our left tackle and right tackle. We'll get an update, but I'm really proud of Buffalo and Meade for stepping up.

We already had Lapeze lost for the year early and then we lost Finley for the year and then we lost Makai Hart for the year. When you are already down three and you lose two more, it's really amazing what these kids have done.

I really hope somebody will pull back and just appreciate what all these other kids have done. It's been phenomenal.

Q. Is there any vindication for the offense that your offensive coordinator took a lot of heat in the first half of this season, and I don't think many people saw a record coming this year?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Somebody was giving my offend coordinator heat? They need to watch football. I mean, the guy is a hell of a coach. Those kids have never given up on him, not once.

He went through a rough stretch there, there's no doubt. We were frustrated, but those injuries were tough. That quarterback has hung in there, and that offensive line, all those kids have hung in there.

Y'all, if you'll pull back and just be honest and look at all the kids that have been out there, it's unbelievable. I'll even have to look at, Who is that kid, Who is that kid?

I don't ever look at it that way, J.J., because here is why. The moment you start giving coaches credit, you just know me, I'm not doing it much. I'm going to give the players credit, and we're always going to take the blame, and that's just the way it's going to always be.

Am I happy for my offensive staff? Yes, but because of how they've held in there and those players have kept believing in them. That's why.

I can't believe somebody said something bad about my offensive coordinator.

Q. How did you look at the defensive effort today and the big picture? They knew they were going to give up some yards, but they came up with some big stops and some big takeaways as well.

JEFF TRAYLOR: That's what I have said all year. I know we've all been frustrated about the untimely penalties. We've been frustrated about certain things.

You can't question our kids' effort. You cannot question one time the entire season have our kids ever just tapped out. They play. Every single coach I see before the game are, like, Y'all the most unlucky snake bit team I've ever seen, and your kids just keep playing their tails off. They do. They just do.

Q. You mentioned the trick plays, doing that on back-to-back plays. Was there any kind of mindset coming into the game that you guys had to go for it or bring something extra to the table?

JEFF TRAYLOR: No more than usual. It's just you can't just call trick plays to call them. You have to have certain guys that have a skill set to do the trick play.

It helps when you get guys that can throw back there, and then you put David back there and do something with David, and everybody is -- you can see their defense as soon as David gets back there in a spot he's not supposed to, they're all going crazy. We move Owen.

It works because of the players. It just does. Getting Amador back makes all that happen.

Q. What does it mean to be able to reach bowl eligibility at a home game next week?

JEFF TRAYLOR: I think it would be huge. I bet if we took odds, you would be about to tell me the odds, J.J., there wasn't a lot of people that would have thought we were going to be a home dog to Memphis. Double digit I'm assuming. I don't even know. Pull that off and home dog again and then pull that off, and now we got a real chance against a good team.

Coach Drayton, who I have a lot of respect for. Stan is a good man. I know he'll have his guys come in here and play hard as heck Friday night.