Larry Coker officially announced on Tuesday that he will be stepping down as head coach of the UTSA Roadrunners. The university will immediately begin the search for a football coach to replace Coker.
Coker, 67, was the first head football coach in UTSA history and built the team from the ground up.
“Larry made NCAA history in developing our program and he will always be recognized as a true ambassador for UTSA,” Associate Vice President and Director of UTSA Athletics Lynn Hickey stated in a press release. “I want to thank Larry for taking on the huge challenge of starting up this football program. It required an incredible amount of hard work and dedication over the past seven years. There were a lot of challenges and unknowns, but Larry was able to represent the university and the city of San Antonio in a first-class manner.”
Coker proved to be a positive asset to the fledgling program, bringing with him three conference championships and the 2001 National Championship with the University of Miami Hurricanes. He was twice named national coach of the year, and carries an overall record of 86-47, but his record at UTSA was 26-31.
While building the program at UTSA for five seasons, Coker coached 14 all-conference selections, 17 academic all-conference selections and in 2015 saw the naming of UTSA football’s first All-American, David Morgan II.
The football program has been a boost for the university, and for San Antonio’s rising school spirit. Breathing new life in the Alamodome, the team set NCAA startup program records for an inaugural game with 56,743 in attendance in September 2011. The Roadrunner games drew an average of 35,521 fans each and have continued to draw more.
Coker leaves behind a legacy at UTSA as it seeks Tier One status, and in San Antonio as the city continues to prioritize higher education.
For his part, Coker looks fondly on his time with UTSA, and has high hopes for the program he built.
“The future of UTSA football is very bright and I look forward to watching the Roadrunners’ success in the future,” said Coker.
*Top image: Outgoing UTSA Roadrunners Coach Larry Coker. Photo courtesy of UTSA.
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He’ll always be a Roadrunner in my book.
I once saw his wife drop off his sack lunch to him in the parking lot. That’s how i will remember him.
What a fine coach!!!!
What a legacy he leaves. Not everyone gets to start from scratch. No one can say he hasn’t been successful. Ask the young men he coached.
He will be missed. He always have the local kids a shot
I wonder what the reason is for Coker’s departure. Is he ill, or has he lost his passion for the job? Did Athletics Director Hickey force him out?
Coker’s salary was one of the lowest in Division 1 football, and other Conference USA teams are spending big bucks to lure up-and-coming D1 assistant coaches to take over teams and install exciting offenses. The University of North Texas, for instance, just hired Seth Littrell, the former offensive coordinator at the University of North Carolina, for $1.2 million, four times what Coker was making.
To compete, UTSA is going to have to open up the purse strings.
From a larger perspective, should colleges spend so much money for big time football? After all, these programs at the Conference USA level all lose money overall. Let’s say the new coach at UTSA is successful; he will then leave and get a job at a “bigger, name” school, and the coaching carousel continues.
Thank you for everything, Coach Coker! You are a great coach and exceptional person.
My hope is that this was truly his decision and he was not forced to leave. It takes an incredible amount of work to start any major program/entity. I suspect not many experienced college coaches would have taken that challenge knowing the impact it would have on that coach’s record. I also believe a change in head coach is not going to translate into a winning football team. If the AD thinks UTSA will become a football powerhouse like UT or Texas A&M by changing coaches, she probably never has worked in a college football program. UTSA should have been happy to have Coach Coker for as long as he wanted to stay. The football team for UTSA is a cultural enhancement to the university and certainly not a money making change. UTSA should focus on obtaining Tier 1 status and not worry about the win/loss record of their football team. Also, I’m curious about the win/loss records of all the athletic programs at UTSA. I don’t hear much about those programs in the news.
I truly hoped Coach Coker would stay one more year and take the Roadrunners to a bowl game. I know that if the Roadrunners do reach a bowl game this year, their success will be based upon the foundation built by Coach Coker.
Thank you Coach!
What is crazy is that the new head coach hire at Texas State, Everett Withers, has just signed a contract to pay him $650,000 per year. From what I understand, there was a stipulation at Texas State that the head football coach could not make more than the college president who now earns roughly $425,000. The Board of Regents must have revoked that rule.
Is UTSA willing to pay that kind of money for a new head coach, not to mention all the assistant coaches?
These types of decisions in higher ed are not surprising. Public higher education in Texas takes billions of dollars from taxpayers in the form of appropriations and an equal amount from students in tuition and fees. The waste in higher ed would be tolerated about one week from leadership in a corporation or privately owned business. All decisions to spend money in a public institution of higher education are politically motivated by the governor appointed board of regents who 99% of them have no knowledge of the operations of a college or university so they are blind to the waste or acquiesce to it because the faculty has an inordinate amount of power over the purse and most of them struggle to manage their own household budgets. I suspect a regent or powerful donor is stuck in his or her college days where he or she fell in love with football because it filled a social void or the football team boosted his or her self-esteem wants to recreate his/her football experiences 30 or 40 years ago. The A&M Chancellor and BORs got so excited about Johnny Football they paid $450M for a stadium renovation. When that did not continue the success of the team they invested in new uniforms that were not the traditional colors of the school football team-that did not work. No telling what is next for UTSA. I can say with confidence, the decisions about the football program will defy logic. My advice to institutions of higher education-focus on education.