THE COUNTDOWN: No. 124: Texas-San Antonio

No arguments here, minus one: Texas-San Antonio is building from the ground up – literally, with bricks, mortar, steel – yet chose, as its inaugural head coach, an individual who took the built-in foundation at Miami (Fla.) and reduced it to rubble. In the program’s defense, the Roadrunners needed not merely a head coach but also an ambassador, and for any of his coaching faults, Larry Coker does provide the university with a noteworthy face for the program. But the time for press conferences and banquets is over, starting… now. I hope Texas-San Antonio saved a few shovels from all those groundbreaking ceremonies: the Roadrunners are going to need to dig themselves out of more than a few holes in 2012.

Last year’s prediction

Not applicable. This is a Countdown first. Though not a last, with Massachusetts, South Alabama and Texas State to follow.

2011 recap

In a nutshell Welcome to football. It’ll get easier, I swear. But the schedule will only grow harder, so don’t get used to the cream-filled slate from last season — you’ll get a Southern Utah and U.C. Davis every once in a while, but not every Saturday, as was the case last fall. Texas-San Antonio’s football program, as fresh as a daisy, went through your typical growing pains in 2011: four wins, six losses, zero games against F.B.S. competition. What was strange — or disappointing, if you dig schadenfreude — was the lack of Keystone Kops-like stumbling and bumbling. U.T.S.A. was bad, but not… that bad. Many were expecting worse from a ragtag bunch of walk-ons and youngsters; many were expecting the Bad News Bears without the late-year turnaround. U.T.S.A. played nobodies, beat a few nobodies, lost to a bunch of nobodies, but the team wasn’t terrible. But is this team ready for the F.B.S.? That’s the big question.

http://www.presnapread.com/no-124-texas-san-antonio/