What If… UTSA blows the 2021 C-USA Championship game

Previously in the What If Series: What If… No UTSA Football | What If… Traylor went to Tech | What If… UTSA became a Basketball School | What If… UTSA didn’t leave Conference USA | What If… Shaq takes up UTSA’s basketball offer | What If… UTSA baseball wins an earlier NCAA tournament game | What If… Some close UTSA wins were close losses

As the 2021 football season moved along it looked like UTSA might be a team of destiny. It beat a Power Five opponent for the second time ever with a season-opening win over Illinois. Got the first shutout in program history in week two with a 54-0 win over Lamar and then followed that up a few weeks later with the first conference shutout in program history with a 45-0 win over Rice on Homecoming. UTSA overcame a 21-0 deficit at Memphis to win 31-28 and opened conference play with a six point win at Western Kentucky.

There was the Roadrunners’ first ever win in Ruston when they walloped Louisiana Tech 45-16 on the Bulldogs’ Homecoming. That game also marked the first time UTSA took the field as a member of a top-25 national poll. UTSA started the season 11-0 and won the Conference USA West Division with a last second touchdown over three-time west division champions UAB.

A rainy loss at North Texas prevented the 12-0 season but didn’t dampen the hopes of the Roadrunners with the knowledge that they would get to face Western Kentucky in the Conference Championship Game in the Alamodome. A place where at the time they had only lost once in the two seasons under Jeff Traylor.

It was UTSA’s first trip to a conference championship game in program history. Western Kentucky was in its third trip to the Conference USA Championship game with a 2-0 record. The Hilltoppers beat Southern Miss in 2015 and Louisiana Tech in 2016 with both of those games being played in Bowling Green. WKU came close to hosting UTSA in 2021 but a Clarence Hicks interception in the final seconds of UTSA’s win in week six helped keep UTSA’s hopes of hosting alive.

Perhaps because of their history in championship games compared to UTSA’s newness or perhaps because of the Hilltoppers’ high-flying offense, Western Kentucky was three-point favorites going into the conference championship game. In the early going the Hilltoppers’ offense was on display as they scored on a 60-yard touchdown pass on their first drive of the night. UTSA answered to tie the score at 7-7. WKU then took what became their last lead of the night with a field goal to go up 10-7 before Sincere McCormick gave UTSA a 14-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.

UTSA outscored WKU 14-3 in the second quarter to take a 28-13 lead into halftime and pushed the lead out to 42-13 with two touchdowns early in the third quarter. WKU scored twice in the third quarter and went for an unsuccessful two point conversion after the second touchdown to cut UTSA’s lead to 42-26. The Hilltoppers cut further into UTSA’s lead with a touchdown and two-point conversion early in the fourth quarter to make the score 42-34. UTSA responded with a touchdown pass from Frank Harris to J.T. Clark to go up 49-34 with 6:18 left in the fourth quarter.

WKU cut the UTSA lead to 49-41 on their next drive as Bailey Zappe threw his fourth touchdown of the night with 3:58 left in the fourth quarter. UTSA had to punt on its next drive and WKU got the ball with a minute left down eight. The Hilltoppers moved to the UTSA 47 as time neared its expiration but, as had been the case in Bowling Green, the game ended with UTSA intercepting a Zappe pass in the final seconds to help UTSA hold on for its first conference championship. But what if WKU had been able to comeback and force overtime? What might have happened to UTSA if it had the worst collapse in Conference USA championship history on its resume?

What if UTSA blew the Conference USA Championship Game to WKU in 2021?

If Jahmal Sam hadn’t intercepted Zappe’s pass in the final seconds of the fourth quarter and WKU had gone down the field to score they still would have needed to make the two point conversion. If they make it to force overtime it’s possible that with momentum on their side the Hilltoppers win in overtime. It’s also possible that UTSA is able to rally in overtime and pull out the win. WKU might have also been going for the win late if their missed two point conversion earlier in the game had been successful and they had reached 28 points instead of 26. That would have cut UTSA’s lead to 14 and not 16 and possibly changed the momentum of the game.

It’s fair to say that UTSA losing to WKU in December 2021 after being up 42-13 in the third quarter could have been detrimental to the growth of the program. Coming a week after losing to rivals North Texas in Denton, UTSA would have gone into the bowl game on a two-game losing streak after starting the season 11-0. It’s possible UTSA gets a different bowl trip with the loss in the conference championship game, perhaps not the Frisco Bowl but the Boca Raton Bowl where WKU went in our timeline.

Maybe losing the conference championship game provides motivation for the Roadrunners to win its first bowl game in program history but it’s also possible that having lost two in a row the Roadrunners adopt a mood of “lets just finish the season” and UTSA goes into 2022 with the three-game losing streak hanging over them after the 11-0 start.

A loss in 2021 might provide inspiration to the 2022 team to finish the job. In our timeline the motivation was to leave Conference USA as repeat champions. A loss in 2021 means UTSA would be looking to leave the conference as first-time champions.

The biggest hangover for UTSA from a loss in 2021 would be that they lost after being up 42-13. Even if they had come back to win a year later there would still be the discussion of how close they had come to possibly being back-to-back champions if they could have just held on in 2021. A loss in 2021 would have also put a damper on the legend of the Alamodome being a formidable place to play for opponents. WKU would have also improved to 3-0 in conference championships and their high-flying offense led by Zappe would have gotten even more fame from the large comeback on national TV.

Had UTSA lost the 2021 Conference USA championship game its after effects would still be felt today. Every year at Conference championship weekend they would show the comeback and Roadrunner fans would have to relive the pain. Instead UTSA was able to hang on for the 49-41 win, Jahmal Sam became a Roadrunner legend, and there are two conference champion banners hanging in the rafters in the north end of the Alamodome.

NEXT WEEK: What If… UTSA goes west instead of east and joins Mountain West in 2013