What If… Jeff Traylor went to Texas Tech

Previously in the What If Series: What If…No UTSA Football

Last week UTSA “What If” pondered a world where UTSA never starts football. Fortunately we don’t have to live in that world as UTSA did start football in 2009 with Larry Coker as the first head coach.

Coker led the Roadrunners until he was fired or retired, depending on who you ask, following the 2015 season. Coker left with a 26-36 record and was succeeded by Frank Wilson. Wilson led the Roadrunners from 2016-19 and got UTSA into its first bowl game in 2016 but couldn’t get back to a bowl in his final three seasons before getting fired in November 2019.

It appears the third time might have been the charm for UTSA. In December 2019 Jeff Traylor was named the third head coach in UTSA football history. As we know now it was probably the best hire in UTSA athletics history as Traylor is preparing for his sixth season at UTSA and the Roadrunners have become a national name thanks to Traylor.

A lot of that is thanks to the 2021 Roadrunners team that started the year 11-0 and won the first conference championship in program history. That team also had to deal with outside noise in the form of the Texas Tech Red Raiders who came knocking on the doors of the Alamodome wanting to see if Traylor might trade his hills of oak and cedar for the plains of Lubbock.

Traylor ended up staying at UTSA and Texas Tech found their coach in Joey McGuire, but how might things have turned out if Traylor had decided to swap his blue and orange for scarlet and black? What if Traylor had gone to Tech?

What happens to UTSA if Traylor left for Tech?

A lot of it is dependent on timing. If Jeff Traylor had accepted the Tech job the indications at the time were that he would be heading to Lubbock before the season ended. At the time the Red Raiders were courting Traylor at the end of October 2021, he had the Roadrunners sitting at 8-0 overall and 4-0 in Conference USA.

Even if Texas Tech had allowed Traylor to finish out the season the atmosphere around the team would have changed completely. There was probably no team in the country having as much fun at the end of October 2021 as the UTSA Roadrunners. They were reaching heights never before experienced in the program’s short history. A lot of that was thanks to Traylor and his personality. That all would have popped like a balloon the second it was announced Traylor was leaving. It’s possible that news is so disastrous for the Roadrunners that they fail to win the west division and earn a spot in the conference championship.

Traylor takes the 210 Triangle of Toughness to Lubbock and changes it to the 806 Triangle of Toughness. How would UTSA have picked up the pieces? Well for one thing the UTSA job in 2021 was in a better place than when Traylor had gotten there and UTSA would have had some options to fill the void of Traylor.

One interesting possibility is the man who in our timeline actually went to Texas Tech when Jeff Traylor turned down the Red Raiders: Joey McGuire. If Tech had hired Traylor and left UTSA as the place with the opening its possible McGuire sees something he can build in San Antonio and he decides to take the job. Or maybe UTSA takes a feeler on K.C. Keeler who was just a few months removed from leading Sam Houston to victory in the FCS national championship game. Keeler eventually left Sam Houston after the 2024 season for Temple but who’s to say maybe he’s convinced to come down to San Antonio in December 2021.

Another by-product of Traylor departing is what it might have done to UTSA as it transitioned from Conference USA to the American Conference. The Roadrunners who entered that conference with Traylor in our timeline were riding high off two straight conference championships. A 2023 Roadrunner team led by McGuire or Keeler or another coach probably isn’t riding as high into the American Conference.

Tech hasn’t been the only school to show interest in Traylor since he got to UTSA. Traylor also interviewed with Houston in 2022 and was considered a candidate for Texas A&M’s opening in 2023 but neither of those came as close as Tech came to prying Traylor from UTSA.

It might have been interesting if Traylor had left UTSA for Houston after the 2022 season because that would have meant his first game as the Cougars’ head coach in 2023 would have been against the Roadrunners. Or a Traylor that gets hired by Texas A&M in 2023 is now preparing to face his former school to open this season.

All of that is for some other timeline. As it is, Jeff Traylor remains the head coach of UTSA to this day where he becomes more beloved with each passing day and every win he brings to the Alamodome. Maybe he gets that if he had gone to Lubbock and been beloved by the Red Raider fanbase. I don’t know about that thought. I think Jeff Traylor is where he is meant to be: Leading the Roadrunners.

NEXT WEEK: What If…UTSA decides to become a basketball school in the 1990s