The UTSA Roadrunners will host their annual Military Appreciation game this Saturday evening when they welcome the Rice Owls to the Alamodome.
UTSA’s Military Appreciation game is a tradition that goes back to the team’s inaugural season in 2011.
“We live in the Military City of America and we’re really proud of that,” UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said. “We understand San Antonio is as well. It’s a big deal to us. Every one of our special team units is named for a military unit. We talk about it quite a bit with our team — what our military does for our country.”
Most years the Military Appreciation game has fallen on the second weekend of November, and this year it falls squarely on Veterans Day. The Roadrunners have gone 7-5 in its Military Appreciation games.
This Saturday will be the second time UTSA (6-3 overall, 5-0 in the American Athletic Conference) has played Rice in the Military Appreciation game.
UTSA (6-3 overall, 5-0 AAC) vs. Rice (4-5, 2-3)
When: Saturday, Nov. 11, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Alamodome
If you go: VIA Park & Ride service is available from Crossroads Park & Ride. This is UTSA’s annual Military Appreciation game.
How to watch: ESPNU
“My house is right down the street from Randolph Air Force Base so I grew up around [the military],” said UTSA safety Rashad Wisdom, who attended Judson High School in Converse. “It’s big for us down here and it’s important. We take pride in it down here and I’m really looking forward to [the game].”
On Saturday, UTSA teased “a special military-related delivery of the game ball” before kickoff. The Spirit of San Antonio, UTSA’s marching band, and Rice’s Marching Owl Band will perform together to honor the military, and a ceremony will be held at halftime as new military recruits take the Oath of Enlistment.
The last time UTSA and Rice met for the Military Appreciation game was in November 2015. UTSA won that day, 34-24, for its first win in the series against Rice after the Owls won the first three in a row, from 2012 to 2014. That win in 2015 started UTSA on a seven-game winning-streak in the series that continues to this day.
During the winning streak against Rice, the Roadrunners have outscored the Owls 205-81. In the last two seasons the Roadrunners have outscored the Owls 86-7. All of that is in the past.
“This is not the same Rice that we are used to,” UTSA safety Ken Robinson said. “They leveled up over the offseason and got some key guys. They have playmakers on the offense so we’ll have to be ready for them.”
In the last two weeks the Owls (4-5, 2-3 AAC) have nearly come away with upsets of Tulane and SMU, the other two teams battling with UTSA for berths in the American Athletic Conference championship game.
“Rice is a really good football team,” Traylor said. “They’ve got competitiveness. They’ve got some swag to them. They have recruited well on defense. Mike [Bloomgren, Rice’s head coach] has done a good job there. They’ve lost two, really, heartbreakers the last two weeks to two of the best teams in our conference.”
Rice could be without their starting quarterback JT Daniels, who left the game against SMU early with an injury. Regardless of who leads the Owls, they will have the full respect of the Roadrunners.
“They’ve been playing a lot of really good teams close,” Wisdom said. “They’ve been really good as a team. They have some studs on offense. They are coached well and they will get after you if you let them. We’ve got to get after it.”
