3 takeaways from Jeff Traylor’s fall camp preview 

Football season is just around the corner. UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor spoke with the media earlier today before the team’s fall camp practices commence on Wednesday. Here are the three biggest takeaways: 

Owen McCown is ready to roll

As we noted in our quarterback room preview, McCown was far from 100% throughout the 2025 season. Traylor described McCown last year as a “shell of himself,” with lower body injuries and a shoulder injury limiting McCown’s mobility and, by default, limiting the team’s play-calling options. Now, the redshirt senior signal-caller is fully healthy for fall camp. 

Traylor also emphasized the impact new offensive coordinator Rick Bowie has had on McCown throughout the spring and summer. 

“Rick is extremely confident. He believes in what he believes,” Traylor said. “[Bowie] has spoken a lot of clarity into Owen. [Bowie] doesn’t live in the grey. Rick is very black and white. I tend to live in the grey. So, it’s good for me to have a Rick to keep me black and white. I think he’s done that for Owen. Owen needed those answers, and I think Rick has given him those answers.” 

Establishing an identity in fall camp

Offensively, the Roadrunners have a solid core of returning players for 2026, but defensively, not so much. In the current landscape of G6 college football, teams are built, destroyed and reconstructed every single season. UTSA’s fall camp is about learning which players give the team the best chance to win. 

“I’m just continuing to learn my team,” Traylor said. “[I’m excited about] getting to know them, being around them and seeing who we are and what we are. They’ve been fun to coach this January. We have enough nucleus to come back on one side of the ball. Obviously, defensively we lost so many players. We had to bring in so many. It’ll be interesting to see how all those pieces come together.” 

Traylor takes accountability for past two seasons’ failure

The past two seasons have been rough for the Roadrunners. Two seven-win seasons and a 2-10 road record are a far cry from what Traylor expects from the program, but he did not shy away from placing the blame solely on himself. He feels the past two seasons were coaching failures.

“I’ve got to get with it. I’ve got to be better,” he said. “I’ve got to figure out a way to get this thing better. There are too many good things about this place for us to stay focused on the few things we don’t have. We’ve got to get all we can out of what we’ve got. 

“I think I’ve had a 10-win football team for the last two years, and each of those teams won seven. I don’t think we’ve had 12-win teams. I don’t think we’ve had 13-win teams. I think they’ve been 10-win teams and we’ve won seven. I think three of those [losses] have been on coaching.”