I'm JJ pre insid Runner Sports Greg Luca San Antonio Express News coming to you the day after a massively disappointing outing by the UTSA road runners Greg UTSA Falls 49-10 in a rivalry game against Texas State I don't even know where you want to start with this one a just hugely disappointing day for UTSA overall yeah there's a lot of different angles that we can attack it at and I hope we get into a lot of those because I tried to get a lot of thoughts together here I hope I don't look to disheveled I felt like a coach I got back and I wanted to go to sleep and I was like I have to watch the film like I don't understand what happened I end I was up till like six watching the game back trying to understand what's going on here CU I've never been more off base with like a prediction I kind of thought UTSA was going to be able to win this game and I thought the hype got got out ahead of where Texas State actually was as a program and I was just way off on that I mean Texas State looked to the part and again I don't want to make excuses for UTSA there's some stuff I want to mention later but you you jumped out on Twitter and you asked if it was the worst loss in UTSA history and the only one that I could think of that would be close would be North Texas and so I I would in 21 and I think I put this way ahead of that I don't know what your um what your gauge was after kind of seeing some of the responses or how you felt about that but I think that's a good place to start because in the big picture that's the kind of stuff we're talking about well well I left right after the Press conf conference and I I came home and went to bed and have not rewatched so we're on both ends of the spectrum here but uh also to that point I haven't even looked at at Twitter or social media so I'm sure probably a good play yeah yeah things are fine out there I'm sure but yeah I think it's um yeah I think by far it's the the the biggest the the worst loss the most disappointing I I think worse kind of encapsulates there's a lot to take that yeah so uh see that North Texas game is always going to sting I think if you look back into moments of the two Houston losses recently right people were would probably say man I I'd rather get blown out than than lose a a close one like that right well well well here we are and I don't I don't know that that's the case so yeah just just bad overall um obviously the college playoff football college football playoff implications that kind of throws that to the to the Wayside but let's be honest I think UTSA has bigger issues than you know trying to remain in the hunt for the cfp coming out of this one yeah it's really interesting I think there's a couple different things I want to say about that we when you talk about the worst loss even a game like that North Texas game we talked about it was very easy to have people say oh well maybe the UTSA was looking ahead to the conference Championship game next week since they already punched their ticket to that or maybe it was the rain and the and the weather being cold and things like that when when you when you look at this Texas State game I'm not sure that those same excuses come to mind as easily it just seems like there's really nothing to sort of mitigate how poorly this went from uca's perspective at least not that we've stumbled on to this point and I know you mentioned the college football playoff implications certainly to your point that seems like that's kind of out the window now I guess you never know how the season shakes out but they'd have to do something pretty incredible to get back in the conversation for that after how dominant another G5 team was against them yesterday and it's interesting because I know uh coach trailer did not shy away from those expectations before this season but in one of our little Q&A deals He also mentioned that he he's starting to fear that it was becoming playoffs or bust for UTSA because that was sort of the way the conversation had been developing around the team and it was interesting because after the game yesterday I I he probably thought it was just me being a smartass or whatever but I asked him like you know you've talked about this college football playoff as a goal and now that uh you've said there's no Mulligans and you've taken this this uh outcome that you had against Texas State how do you sort of reset the goals or like what's how does the message change going forward and didn't really have a great answer for that so I think that's going to be interesting to see just sort of how they refocus you can always talk about things they always used to talk about having you know chasing the chasing the conference title and and peing later in the year and rounding into Championship form as the season goes on and I think he's a good enough coach and the culture bit is strong enough that they'll be able to latch on to something like that but it is very interesting that in week two sort of the pre preseason goal is is out the window in a lot of ways and that's not a usual position for a team to be in yeah I I do also think like while the losses in the last five seasons haven't been as I guess gut-wrenching as as this one feels like I mean you could look back and and just look at those two Houston losses and it's a very the I mean those were games they probably should have won right and and those Seasons weren't over I mean they they still went on to do important successful Seasons so I don't know we'll see it's uh this is those are different teams right every team is different this I I I think that's maybe our biggest talking point here is how different this team is you know the the there's a lot of transfers there's a lot of new players a lot of different faces and different positions and it just seems like there's going to be a learning curve to see how how how does this team develop into a winning team and I don't know that we have an answer through two weeks of the 2024 season just yet yeah well the other really interesting narrative that I think we latched on to coming into the year was that even though some of F's teams at UTSA have started slow in the past obviously not all of them uh some of them have had some struggles early in the year especially last season and I think the idea was that playing More Physical in Camp or other kind of little steps they were taking were going to make it different so that they could Peak earlier and be in top form for a game like this and then be ready to contend for that spot because you need to be great for 12 weeks to be in the mix for a playoff situation like that and maybe it's just easier to say that and it's harder to do it when you know coach trailer's been doing this for a long time and he's got certain rhythms to probably how he how he operates a season and how he figures out what his team's strengths are and who his guys he can rely on are and I guess just saying you want to get that done quicker might not make it as easy as one would hope to get that done quicker so I do think just because we've seen the same trajectory in the past obviously nothing like this but we've seen a team in UTSA get better and better and better through the year I think it's a little premature to say this is who they're going to be for the next three months and um I sort of want to see how they develop and how that shakes out and how it looks differently as the season progresses because I don't think that there's no Talent or nothing that the coaches can do to kind of figure this out and get them in a better position as the season goes on let's get into game play Greg what what did you see on your rewatch I know man just after that first half it was it was tough watching obviously the offense struggled to get any rhythm on the day and I think we don't have to look much further than the offensive line play the running game the passing game it just there was very little to to to look back on and say Hey you know at least they could hang their hat on this moving forward well we can get into the exos for sure but when we talk about the why or you know what what led to it playing out this way I think the most important thing is actually on Texas State's side and I don't know if you uh listened to GJ Kenny's interview after the game or if a lot of other people saw it but he said some things that I thought were pretty fascinating um he said that they watch more film on UTSA than anybody else that this game has been the focus of their offseason that they've thought for a long time about how they're going to game plan and I thought fascinating was he said every roster move and every transfer decision they made was made with the question of does this help us beat UTSA and I think the other part of that is how much he admitted that they held back last week on film I think you add it all together and really this was uh the biggest game of Texas State season they built a lot of things around thriving in this moment and I think for UTSA it was a game on the schedule I don't think that they treated it with that same level of elevated you know because they tell you you're doing your perfect effort and all that for every opponent like it's sort of a routine situation there and that's certainly not always true there are some games they get up for more than others but it didn't seem like around the team this week that they were treating this with some huge level of elevated purpose and I think that Texas state was and it's just hard for UTSA to go into you know I we asked some people I think ke was on a couple different podcasts and I did K's own show last week and there was some conversations about is this the biggest game in Texas state's history you know what's in competition for that it's not every day that they sell out that venue it was just all of these different things around that program coming together to make it this massive moment for them and for UTSA it just didn't have the same Stakes or the same kind of weight and I think you just saw that in the level of intensity and the way that the teams played and so it's easy to overreact to that in the moment because it is your rival and it looked as bad as it looked but I do think Texas State's probably not going to play at that level again you know it's just hard to to put so much into a game and to reach that point and maybe I'll be wrong because I was wrong about them in this one and they'll just keep getting better and better and better but I think you saw a culmination of a lot of things for them not just like on any given day this team is that much better than UTSA I think they just delivered their their best game and their bigest moment yeah for sure you have to give Texas State their their flowers on this one after I I watch that Lamar game again it's like oh you know this team is this team better than their 2023 team right is the quarterback better than the 2023 quarterback and they went out and they showed it like that's a talented Squad they got depth they're physical and you know they kind of manhandled UTSA and I I think for the road runners my biggest concern moving forward is how do they get a rushing game going how do they get that offense to start clicking was it breakdowns is it schemes is it play calling like where do where where do the road runners start to pick up the pieces there Greg well I think a big part of that not to move too far off the previous point when you talk about like the matchup and the things that that Texas State kind of held back I don't know how much we've talked about this but in my opinion one of Jeff trailer's biggest strengths as a coach is his ability to look at an opponent on film and figure out where UTSA has a matchup advantage or how he wants to attack them I think just from the personnel of that he's really really good at sort of identifying these different things and then seeing scheme wise as well where the holes might be and what the opponent wants to run and so when you're a early in the season and B in a situation where Texas state admitted that they held back as much as they did offensively defensively and special teams are saved a lot of different wrinkles for this game they neutralized that advantage and maybe it's not a coincidence that their coach knows Jeff as well as he does and probably prepared some things understanding the way the way a trailer operates and how to sort of get a leg up on him in that sense and so I think that again when you talk about UTSA strengths and weaknesses I keep putting it off we can get into some of the little the EXs no and the details but I do think that's an important part of it too where it just seemed like they were not UTSA was not in a position to prepare for this matchup the way that they would and again when you think about big picture maybe that's why they've struggled early in the season relative to how they do late in the season because once they can see a team's body of work on film they do a better job of preparing and that's you add into their own internal adjustments and what they learn about themselves but I do think that that's just another reason that uh the deck ended up kind of being stacked against them in ways that I probably should have anticipated but didn't anticipate and that's why I was so caught off guard now your question about the running game I think you know the offensive line wasn't great but I think it was magnified by a lot of different things and I I look at the passing game first watching Owen Macau back first of all he just missed a lot of throws like I thought he really struggled in this game and I know I know Jeff afterwards um he will always sort of default to protecting the quarterback he was actually quicker to point to our receivers didn't play up to their usual standard and the tight ends were not up to the level that 's come to expect from them and things like that but to me Owen had opportunities and just missed throws and I think the other thing that I noticed from him that wasn't um or that was pretty alarming was it felt like in scenarios where Texas State showed pressure he was immediately going to get the ball out to his quickest read no matter whether that pressure actually got to him or materialized so you know one example I think is the the first first or second Drive of the game they had that fourth and eight play I don't know if you remember where they were kind of in no man's land and so they chose to go for it and Texas State shows pressure and Owen drops back and he throws the out route to mckuin or maybe it was a Crossing route but it was to the right sideline and it was short of the sticks and so mchan kind of Dives for it and so they got a 5 yard completion on Fourth and eight and and they have to turn the ball over on downs and that was the exact scenario I'm talking about where Texas State brought five but UTSA picked it up like there were plenty of times where the offensive line did what they were supposed to do and Owen took a lot of big hits in this game but they they Texas State finished with zero sacks so I think there was a level of Owen not necessarily trusting the protection and he got he when he read that it was coming he got the ball out quicker than he needed to and I think that's part of the reason you didn't see some of the downfield stuff connects in a way that it could have if he was more patient and it there were other scenarios where he did a great job of buying time and looking downfield but those were scenarios where Texas state was only rushing three or four so it felt like he was kind of relying on his ability to read pre- snap what was going to happen and then if it looked like he was going to be under pressure he was going to get it out quick because he just didn't think the protection would hold up and if he had if he thought he was going to have time he took it but I think probably as he gets more experience or just like the mark of a great quarterback in general is the ability to make that decision during the play rather than before this snap knowing when you have to get it out quickly to your outlet versus when you have time to look downfield and make something happen yeah I I I do think kind of some of the expectations on Owen maybe have been a little unfair right like we've seen him start his career at UTSA with better numbers than what Frank Harris started right so automatically I think maybe people expect him to be at a certain level already and he's just not there right he he may be ahead of where Frank was where Frank was but I I don't I the results are the results like everything you just said it was to a te like like he simply missed some stuff that he probably shouldn't have and the more he plays in this offense I think the better he'll get it's just what happens in the in the meantime right and and for all intents and purposes he was he was benched in the second half for I guess play right it we we saw him take some shots he took some shots in week one presumably he's healthy who knows but yeah it just there's the the film out there shows you know several misplays and you know to the offensive Line's credit I thought they played better albeit they're probably not going to get graded out better because they played a better opponent than from week one but it's all the offense seems like a complete work in progress like this is a whole brand new era of different Playmakers and I guess kind of the question I wanted to ask you next that that Jeff kind of mentioned in postgame was this this narrative about you know it's different it's different kind of inexperienced players and the one quote that caught me kind of by surprise was the the the bushy tail and bridey uh statement he put out there yeah I think that applies to the stuff that we were just talking about with Owen and the offensive line I don't want to give him too much of the a soft B I guess as Jeff would say but they' talked about um how those guys need to gel with the new starters and I guess just like the final point on that is I thought they played like a four out of 10 level and I think the Owen and the offensive play calling treated them like they were playing got a one out of 10 level do you know what I mean like they didn't really give him a chance to succeed there was even some obviously UTSA got out of positions to run the ball but early in the game there were plenty of scenarios where they put together successful running plays they didn't break any big ones but they had some seven eight nine yard gains on the ground there was it was I actually was impressed because I remember after I think it was after Texas State went up 213 UTSA came out the next drive and ran the ball three straight times and that's a scenario where you think that you're going to get pass happy but they you know they ran it for like 84 and two or something and then math doesn't work but they got they got a first down on third down there just three straight running plays and so I think that maybe the the commitment to that looks bad and the production looks bad because when you're down by a million points you're going to throw the ball more to try to get back into it but I do think that there's probably some potential there and maybe it's not as bad as it's as it's looked to this point I still think there's a good chance that with the talent of their running backs and in the offensive line being probably better than they're talked about right now albeit not great I like then there's a scheme part of it too because Kennesaw State game Jeff talked about this afterwards and it it stood out watching it back is they did a lot of really creative and successful stuff in the screen game yeah and there's just a lot of different ways to to to overcome offensive line issues we saw this team win games with Frankie Martinez and Walker batty at offensive tackle like they know how to scheme up around struggling offensive lines and this group is better than that group was and for whatever reason in this game whether Texas State just schematically was one step ahead because of all the extra emphasis that they put on this or how well they know trailer and his staff or whatever the case may be they weren't able to create any openings in that screen game I mean Texas state had a long game uh I it might even turn into a touchdown on a play where they kind of did like a look left roll left throwback screen to the right like that kind of stuff and those are things we've seen UTSA Thrive with in the past and instead in this game their screen plays it was just like they were outnumbered no matter where they went with the ball and so maybe I that's one where you'd have to see all 11 and then even then I wouldn't be super confident but I I we asked last week whether Owen is making all the right decisions at the snap with where he's going with the ball and these kind of screen and option plays and there was some pretty strong reviews for him I know Jeff said in some of the rpos maybe there were a couple slips in the second half but there's still times where it feels like UTSA is not getting the ball to where the numbers are and so that could be play calling or that could be the decision that's made in the option game right at the snap but there's something that's missing there for for those plays to have the level of success that you saw from Texas State where it felt like guys were just running through open field or they only had to make one guy miss or whatever the case may be that that led to them having some more chunk plays yeah I I'm sure without having spent a lot of time on social media the offensive coordinator is getting killed or hammered because of this kind how it works right yeah right and so it's kind of like you said it's a combination of everything and they do really need to try and scheme something up though right from from this point forward it's like you you seen two consecutive weeks of what Manny would consider subpar performances so you have to try and change something up there right yeah but I think that's part of when I talked about how this is like the perfect storm that Texas state was ready to Peak for this game and UTSA wasn't is that's this is how they operate is they like to give guys an opportunity to show what they can do and then they they dissect and self Scout and see what they can do that can be effective and then as the year goes on they start to figure it out and they just I guess especially with some of the Young quarterback the transition there Frank Harris made a lot of things right that might not have been right it's just you know there were times where it looked like he couldn't do some of the I shouldn't say couldn't do but maybe wasn't perfect at some of the NFL route tree basic fundamentals but made up for it with so many different intangibles and ways to get them into winning situations where the play call might not have been perfect or where the first or second option might not to come together and I think that's something that's either either an innate ability that ow M will never have that makes Frank ER special or it's just something that that a young player learns over time but somewhere along the line it needs to be sharper from the schematic standpoint where you don't have the guy to make up for that and I I don't know I don't want to I don't want to make it too too much of a negative on the coaching because we've seen them thrive in so many other areas but on this day it just felt like they weren't as prepared as the opponent yep what do you think let's turn to the other side of the ball what do you think happened on defense it seemed like they were okay to start the game but were continually put in bad field position because of the offensive struggles and some special team stuff happening there too yeah I actually think Jeff after the game was saying he kind of expected more from the defense and I have a I have a feeling by the time that they get done with the rewatch it'll probably be a little bit of a stronger review of the defensive performance and there was something weird with the play-by-play where they couldn't get the advanced stats that I usually look at to see how they did something's not uploaded yet or hasn't been corrected and hopefully it will be later but I couldn't get the right success rate metrics but from what they showed us in the playby playay and in what um just visually if anybody goes back and watches it which I wouldn't blame them if they didn't there were a lot of plays where the defense succeeded they just had a lot more good Downs than you probably remember and certainly there were plenty of breakdowns I'm not gonna it's hard to act like they played well in a half where they gave up 400 yards just about and so I'm not going to go that far but I do think that that it probably wasn't as alarming as it seemed in the moment and there were cases where they could have got off the field if things were just slightly different so you third think about the third possession James Wally Jr comes around with the sack and Jarius Lewis is called for a defensive holding I don't I I'm pretty sure I picked out the right guy but basically what happened was he saw like a guy coming across the field on a drag route and as um McLoud was sort of scrambling it seemed like he had kind of committed to the Run Lewis came up and just leveled this guy like like as if the kind of hit you want to see when a guy's about to make a catch and you want to jar the ball free and technically because McLoud was still a passer even though he had sort of changed to a runner you can't just impede the receiver's progress like that and so I think he got called for holding even though he didn't really hold him he just kind of destroyed him and so you know there's things like that that created a new first down and it just seemed like there were a lot of cases where certainly tackling wasn't great there were Texas State angles bad angles a few times yeah I don't I felt like there were scenarios where again you can't see the whole field but it felt like there were times where Texas state was motioning Guys across the formation to get numbers on one side of the other and UTSA wasn't moving in response and so then when they threw a screen over there they had an extra blocker if they ran an option to that side they had an extra blocker and it's you know they UTSA might shift the formation a little bit but if it seemed like they would have had to bring guys all the way across to create the kind of um matchup problems that they needed and I thought um you know I hate to call out individual guys but I think uh you know Jamal Lian didn't show up on the tape a lot in this game and I think there were cases where maybe this just isn't the kind of style of offense that a guy with his skill set thrives against he seems like maybe uh just the speed the Texas State's offense played with was a lot for him to sort of match up with and I don't know if they would have been better off putting even more defensive backs on the field because we talked about how Lian and French and brevan Randall all kind of deserve to be starters and are all strong players in the right matchups but I don't think that either any of them really were ready for the kind of speed and the kind of motions that Texas state was bringing you know they play a lot of 11 personnel so you would think that you would want the two linebackers out there but it just didn't feel like that was the right scenario to create the kind of stops that they needed against the way Texas state was playing yeah super super speedy and talented Dynamic players for Texas state in in those wide receiver positions and they showed it right so you got to give them credit as well um what what's going on with penalties with this team the is there is there an issue there's I mean I'd say maybe half of those penalties were trash not to make excuses right that's not why UTSA lost they can two things can be right right the the the referees were they missed some interesting calls and you know UTSA got destroyed you buy a better team on this day but do does UTSA have a a penalty issue yeah I don't know how deep we are in the video but I'm glad you waited at least that long to mention the rest because they were much bigger issues in this game but certainly those first couple drives it felt like it felt like there was some home cooking going on the UTSA was going to face an uphill battle regardless and even even as the game went on there was a pass interference penalty against tyan Milton in the end zone that I just didn't see at all the offensive face mask was very weird and so those had nothing to do in the big picture with why UTSA lost by the margin that they did but certainly that wasn't helping there were scenarios like we talked about where maybe one or two of those could have helped them get off the field and sort of start a different trajectory so yeah I don't think that was great does yous have a penalty problem um you know there were scenarios where the discipline didn't look great late in the game there was a penalty against marcelis Wilkerson he he had a hit on um on McLoud took him down and then as McLoud was trying to get up Wilkerson was standing over him and just shoved him back to the ground and he got you know you're going to get called for that every single time and so if you want to call that you know a selfish play or say he lost his head or however you want to phrase it it didn't really matter at that point you know they were they were down pretty significantly and the game was over probably just venting some frustration so I guess we would have to see in a game where it was in the balance a little bit more if that would change the level of discipline in the approach to that sort of thing but certainly they haven't been super promising in that regard if you want to look at the raw number once you're throwing in penalties for disconcerting signals and what was the other you know we had the disconcerting signals that we saw we had the offensive face mask and there was a third one that it's like I just never ever see this penal there was a some kind of like I don't remember if it was like an offensive holding or something weird happened that you just don't could hear the mic either the mics there were terrible the speaker didn't work I don't know but certainly it seemed like if you want to talk about the raw number there were some edge cases let's call them that might not that might not project well to the rest of the season so and we've seen trailers teams in the past that have been plenty successful some of them have ranked near the bottom of the country in penalties and some of them have been middling and by bottom of the country I mean most penalties like in a negative way they have never been great at being a team that's not penalty ized and it was actually kind of enlightening when Brandon Brown said because of kind of the it ties into the culture and the level of energy and and effort and the toughness and all that they play with that sometimes some of that extends after the whistle or or extends beyond the rules of the game within the confines of the Whistle Too so I think that maybe that's not something to be super worried about but you could add it to the list for sure do the road runners we don't talk a lot about special teams but do the road runners have an issue with special teams I I think it was more windy than we thought it was down on the field uh UTSA was not able to take advantage of that when they had the winds to their the wind to their back and struggled I guess punting when they were into the wi I think it was pretty high maybe 20 to 30 mower winds at times yesterday yeah we didn't get a great look at Chase Allen which was something I was curious about after the performance against Kennesaw where it felt like he missed and was not particularly close or as strong on two kicks that we've seen him prove he can make last year when he had an excellent excellent season and so that was a point of curiosity that we didn't really get to answer there's also a chance to punch us just not that good I don't you know I'm it's it's been two games but for me it's like if you are seeing the punter enough times to make that evaluation you have other things that are probably more pressing than whether the is that good yep Fair Fair Point Fair Point what happens next Greg how do the road runners pick up the pieces they play the mighty very strong Texas Longhorns in Austin coming off the Longhorns coming off a signature win this past week at Michigan and I mean it it's not going to get any easier there I mean what what can Road Runner fans expect from their from their team well I have two big picture thoughts I would like you to weigh in on and I know you said you kind of stayed off social media I tried to take in all of it I want to know what people are mad about and kind of what sort of things they want us to look into and I read uh even the youth comments on trailers's interview which uh brings me to this next point and I wrote before the year uh I pulled the quote CU I knew I was going to reference it I said unlike many coach quarterback Duos few observers seem interested in debating whether Frank Harris or Jeff Traer deserves more credit for utsa's back-to-back conference championships and Harris's 39 and 13 record as the Road Runner starter it was part of a larger column about trailer has basically said you guys got to give the new quarterback a break because he's going to be young and inexperienced and the and in the same interview couple minutes later he said we think we're good enough to make it to the playoffs and so he's putting a lot of that on himself essentially that he thinks he's put the program in a better scenario but even without that quarterback and proven leader it's it's potentially going to be an uphill battle for that position but he's not willing to back off expectations that UTSA goes up and up and up and up and so I felt like it was inevitable that at some point if anything went wrong you were going to have that debate that you always have of can Jeff trailer win without Frank Harris and I'm just surprised maybe it was because because Owen played in the bowl game and played well but I mean that question I think popped up you know nine months later than I was expecting someone to raise it so I don't know what's your take on that because it was the first time I saw it publicly other than me just kind of floating out that it's not there is uh you know people in the comments are saying I bet this guy can't get it done without Frank Harris now yeah I mean Frank Harris was maybe 75% of himself last year right I mean I guess that's part of it too yeah wasn't it wasn't full strength Frank Harris that you were placing yeah I I that I think the quarterback gets a lot of attention right some of that is fair and some of that's unfair and I think we'll see Owen get better and you know eventually I believe he'll be better than Frank which says a lot um but you have to go out and do it right and he at this point he hasn't done it and can that happen I I do think so I mean there's a I think there's a higher ceiling there's a higher floor I guess if you want to say and I mean it's just a matter of time but nobody has patience and there is no time it I mean look at the schedule look look at what's happened and you have conference play in three weeks and all of a sudden you were being favored in all of those games and now who knows if you're favored in against East Carolina on the road in three weeks the other thing that I thought was really fascinating is that this was the first time that I feel like since I've been covering UTSA that I was really pondering more broadly the place of the big rivalry in a college football program because you know you think about like the Ohio State Michigan thing where if you go 11 and one in the regular season but you lose to the other team it's a bad year and I don't we we've talked about all these different benchmarks that UTSA is getting closer and closer to BigTime football and to me it was another one yesterday where you lose to the Rival and everybody loses their mind completely like nothing else that's happened before or could happen after matters we're just going to all pop off with all these crazy takes and stuff and so I think it's actually an interesting conversation though in in a more grounded realistic sense of you know how important is it to be to State and because when I heard Kenny talking about all that they put into the effort to beat UTSA it struck me that from Texas State's side being 0 and5 in this rivalry and having this team just down the road that you did not compare favorably with for a long time it is reasonable that when they were interviewing for that job one of the questions was how are you going to beat UTSA and when Jeff trailer was interviewing for this job do you think anybody asked him how are you going to beat Texas State there's no shot that that came up and so I think that it's an interesting conversation because it's up to the fans really like if you if you out there would rather beat Texas State over everything else and have them take the Kenny approach where this is the film you watch most all year and you're building your roster around beating that team and it leads to a game like we saw this week then by all means make it make it known that you would rather you know beat Texas State than win the conference Championship and whatever else you might prioritize it above but I think that's sort of as this football culture gets set here that's a question that I think the fans still need to answer so you know what do you think about that how do you rank the Texas state rivalry against everything else I mean it's it's important it's it's up there I think it's kind of weird too because it's it's only been consecutive years these last two years it's kind of been spread out over years it didn't even play enough for that to be a conversation right so now you're getting into this contract where it's like every year you're facing each other and both teams are good let's be honest Texas State won eight games last year and that was their best season ever eight games at UTSA people are going to want massive changes if that happens this year right let's let's be completely honest so it's different um I I jokingly joke that they should cancel the series because I don't like that that nobody pays any money for it which is another topic of discussion but no it's it's as important as the north Texas rivalry because there's Conference Championship Games a part of that and now the cfp I think makes it even more important so um yeah an interesting an interesting time for sure Greg I think um man we'll see what is talked about this week any idea what to expect what the narrative is going to be coming out of this week yeah I mean I obviously with the Rivalry the trailer KY Dynamic ramps it up to another level and the thing about building around your opponent is you don't know how long that coach is going to be there I think it's it's this is going to do nothing but make three fan bases upset but if Baylor were to fire their coach tomorrow aenny might be ahead of trailer in the hiring list now and a lot that can change between now and then but just an interesting way how quickly these Dynamics can change and so your question about what the narrative is going to be this week it's a really good one because we have to we have to set that and in you know I don't know 16 hours or whatever when we talk to Jeff again so um it's a great question I really am not sure what direction they're going to be able to go it's probably going to be about sort of resetting the goals I guess that message I do think that message has to change as much as he brushed off that question after the game is now that you've had this number one goal and it's sort of Out Of Reach how do you what do you how do you refocus the guys and what are they chasing now and Inter they just haven't been in this position I mean when they lost to North Texas as convincingly as they did and the only other game that we could argue of the worst losses that UTA has experienced they had a conference Championship Game to get prepared for and they were 11- one it's just totally different from now how do you rebound from from this level of disappointment without those things in your back pocket to fall back on and it's kind of a new team and hasn't proven much and just doesn't have that same level of probably security and authority and feeling great about who they are and what they've accomplished so it'll be fascinating honestly I think um but we we'll probably be talking a lot about the quarterback position if you are somebody who who watched Eddie Lee marberger hit some slant passes against base defense and think now he's the guy then I appreciate your positivity I think you'd have to show something other than a a few completed throws and a 30-point blowout against the team playing prevent to convince me that you've now solved the quarterback issue but I understand if you guys want to give him a shot that's fine but I think that there's probably a reason that Owen was named the starter and there's probably some things he does that Eddie Lee doesn't do and so certainly EDD Lee didn't blow me away enough to feel like that's the answer now I don't know where do you fall on that yeah I I I I I think it's still Owen as long as he's healthy uh as far as the narrative goes it's just going to be I wrote that the the expectations need to be reset yesterday so we'll see I I think it's going to be an interesting two to three weeks in the road runners space as we you know wrap up the non-conference schedule and and and you know head head to the conference play to me that's the good news though right because yeah this weekend against Texas they were going to lose regardless and then the week after that against Houston Christian they were going to win regardless I know if some of you are are so down on the team that you have doubts about that I think you really need to to check yourselves there first so that should still be a pretty easy win for UTSA and so really it's that they have a three-week window now to sort of answer those questions which is better than if they were Facing East Carolina next week or a game that we felt like was more kind of in the balance so yeah I guess they're just going to have to get to work yep and and we'll be there to kind of monitor what they say and how they do so Greg I appreciate you joining me that'll wrap it up JJ Perez insid Runner Sports Greg Luca San Antonio Express News appreciate you guys watching thanks