UTSA will close out its non-conference schedule on Saturday afternoon when it visits the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.
The game will mark a milestone for the Roadrunners as it will be the team’s 150th game in program history. Among the other Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools in Texas, UTSA is the fastest to reach 150 games, doing so in the fourth game of its 15th season.
“It’s incredible for how young the program is,” UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said. “We’re playing a really tough opponent on (game) number 150. What Coach (Josh) Heupel has done there has been really remarkable. Tennessee has always had every single thing you need to win. We’re going to be playing an angry team that lost to their rival, so we know we are going to get their best.”
Prior to UTSA, the fastest it had taken a Texas FBS team to play 150 games was the University of Houston, which played its 150th game in the ninth game of its 15th season. The Cougars are also the most recent Texas FBS school to reach 150 games played, having done so in 1960.
“It’s really an honor,” UTSA defensive lineman Brandon Brown said of getting to play in the 150th game. “This school has a short history, so just being a part of that, I am really excited for that.”
The Roadrunners have played many of their milestone games at home, including the first game, 50th game, 75th game and 100th game. None of the opponents in those previous milestone games compare to the Tennessee team UTSA will face this weekend.
“We are excited to play,” UTSA offensive lineman Ernesto Almaraz said. “It’s going to be a good environment against a good team.”
Tennessee welcomes UTSA to Knoxville coming off a 29-16 loss to its rival, the Florida Gators, on Saturday. The Volunteers saw their ranking drop from number 11 to number 20 in the Coaches Poll.
“They were a top 10 team last year and are a great team (this year),” UTSA offensive lineman Luke Lapeze said. “They’re going to be a great challenge for us, especially up front.”
UTSA enters the game coming off a 37-29 loss to Army on Friday. Much like they did against Army, UTSA will go to Tennessee with Frank Harris considered a game-time decision on whether he will play or not. Harris was unable to play last week, but backup Eddie Lee Marburger filled in for him and threw for over 200 yards and three touchdowns.
“It will either be Frank Harris or Eddie Lee Marburger. Owen McCown had another great day,” Traylor said when asked about the quarterbacks on Tuesday. “We had planned on getting Owen in on Friday but that didn’t happen. If Frank can go (against Tennessee), he will start, and if not, it will be Eddie starting and you’ll see Owen some in the game, we hope.”
Tennessee will be the second Southeastern Conference (SEC) school that UTSA will play. The Roadrunners are 0-2 against the Texas A&M Aggies. UTSA was scheduled to open the 2020 season at Louisiana State University, but that game was canceled when the SEC went to a conference-only schedule that year. It will be the second time in as many seasons that UTSA plays in a stadium with a seating capacity over 100,000. Last year, the Roadrunners played against the Texas Longhorns before a crowd of 102,520 at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
UTSA at Tennessee is scheduled for a 3 p.m. CDT kickoff. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
