Welcome to the Texas Talk.

I'm Gilbert Garcia, metro columnist with the San Antonio Express-News.

On this show, we bring you in-depth one on one conversations with some of the most fascinating figures in Texas politics, culture, sports and business.

Tonight's guest is Jeff Traylor, head football coach for the Utsav Roadrunners.

The charismatic Traylor was one of the big stories in college football in 2021.

In only his second year of UTSA, he took its young football program to new heights, posting a record of 12 wins and two losses, earning the school's first national ranking and capturing its first conference, USA championship.

He'll talk about his career, his coaching philosophy and what he plans to do for an encore.

Let's get started Coach Traylor, thank you so much for being on Texas Talk.

Thanks for having me.

Glad to be here.

Well, you're coming off the greatest season in UTSA football history.

12 and two record conference USA Championship.

You've got a strong recruiting year.

You were on the cover of Texas Football Magazine, which the Bible of football in Texas.

What is this summer been like for you coming off of that great season and looking to the upcoming 20, 22 season?

It's almost been like a perfect storm, but a storm in a good way.

You have to remember, I got hired December 20, 19 and then Kolb.

It happens in March of 20.

So pretty much the world shut down.

Yeah.

And then we had, you know, an unexpected great season that first year, but still the world wasn't up and going again.

And then we had the unprecedented season that we had last season.

So coming off of that, I hadn't really got to go out and meet as many people as I wanted to.

So it's been a very, very busy time meeting a lot of people, speaking to a lot of people.

But it's, it's been very exciting.

Exalt in exciting because we're really so committed to the road runners and, and getting our brand out there and making sure we become the team of San Antonio.

It's been our mission since we got here.

And we want to be UTSA team for sure.

But we also want to be San Antonio's team.

Well, it kind of gets to what I was going to ask you next, which is that you your responsibility when you came in in December 2019 was not only to build a culture with the program, but also to build support in a city that loves football but didn't really have a tradition of college football.

Did you see yourself in the beginning as like, I need to be an ambassador for college football in San Antonio?

Yes, sir.

If you go back and watch my very first press conference, it was it was my biggest charge.

I remember telling I remember saying some people can just like a tweet, some people can take a picture.

Some people have the ability to buy a ticket, buy the season tickets, buy sweets.

Some people have the built in a nice building, a name, a building out to them.

Right whatever your ability to give is.

I've been challenging the city lately.

Just I want to see more Road Runner gear.

When I saw encouraging to our players, you know, and our coaches when they're in the city and people give us the birds up signal or they've got on a cab or they got on a shirt and it all matters Every little bit matters.

So whatever you have the ability to do, if all you can do is just give me a bird's up side, it's all you got.

Yeah.

It still matters because it encourages us and encourages our players because we do want to be, you know, the football team of San Antonio.

Now, you have emphasized that you really want to recruit in San Antonio and work your way up from there.

And you've done very well with that.

I'm curious what what the reactions have been like from San Antonio high school players when you first got here.

I know that first recruiting, the first few months recruiting, that was probably complicated by Koven, but what what reaction you were getting from high school players in the area when you first took over versus what how they're responding to you now?

Well, we we started what we call our hashtag to one old triangle of toughness, culture.

And and what we mean by that is to win, as is obviously very close to San Antonio.

And that's where we start recruiting and we work ourselves out from there.

And the reception when we first got here, we were not in a great facility when we started.

We hadn't won a lot of ballgames but since then, we're in a $45 million facility, the race facility, which is as nice as anybody in the country.

We play in the Alamodome, which is nice as anywhere in the country we have what I think is the coolest city in the country.

In San Antonio.

We have a great university.

There's a lot of things to make our players in our city stay here.

Now we're only then playing ball, you know, going on, you know, ten or 11 seasons now, depending on how you want to count where they practice one year and then any play.

And so our kids are way more receptive to us now than obviously they were then.

We have increased that number.

There was about 11 to 15 on the roster when we got here from there from our area, and now we're around 30 to 40.

So we're, we're trying, we're very committed to that.

Obviously, we can't take every kid in San Antonio there's only so many scholarships and only so many spots, and there's some kids that I know are dying to play here that we just didn't have room for them.

It's a good problem to have.

But we want to if we don't get them and they go somewhere else, we want them to at least have had a positive experience with my coaching staff, how we deal with them and how they visited our campus, what they say about us.

We've had a lot of success with kids that might have chosen the first time, but they go up north and they realize it's a lot colder than I thought it was.

They might not realize they miss Mom when that's all they're going to miss Mom.

And when they come back home, they have a great experience.

Growing up, I was a big fan of Texas A&M football, and they had a coach in the 1970s, Emory Ballard, who I think kind of brought the program into the modern era.

And like you, he had been an assistant college coach.

He was the architect of the wishbone offense at the University of Texas.

Like, you know, he spent most of his career coaching at Texas high schools, and he won three state championships just like you did.

And I always thought that the connections that he had with Texas high school coaches, with Texas high school programs really had a lot to do with his ability to attract players and sort of build the program at Texas A&M.

Has that connection?

I mean, you had all those years coaching in Texas, Texas high school at that level.

Was that has that been a big help to you?

No doubt.

I mean, we had our convention right here today.

And of course, we just came from there.

And, you know, there's 15,000 Texans, high school football coaches in our city right now.

And I've spoken probably you know, five times in the last two days.

So if I sound like my voice is shot, I sell out my strength.

Coach Ryan Farlow right now, my voice is because I've been hanging out with those guys, those relationships.

There's more than we practiced.

If I had over a hundred Texas high school football coaches at our facility and our practice field this morning.

So those relationships.

But how many of them did you know personally?

I mean, coming out of your.

Oh, at least by Wayne, it's all of them.

Yeah.

But, you know, a deep relationship you probably have.

But even then, we're all kindred spirits because they know where I came from.

And I, I carried that heavily like I want to do well because I understand in order for my buddies to get a chance that my dream job that I'm getting to do, I need to go do well.

And I've got all my staff in Texas, high school football coaches on our staff.

So and they're not just like in positions, they're like in powerful positions.

They're not BFO, Marvin, the coordinator, my defensive coordinator, my wide receiver coach, my old line coach.

Those guys are all Texas high school football coaches.

So we have a lot of connections in the state and without those guys, we won't make it.

And those guys feel that.

And they're they're my buddies and I'm proud to be that.

I'll always consider myself a Texas high school football coach that just happens to coach college football coach.

You talked about the Triangle of Toughness, just something you brought to UTSA and which is is basically these characteristics that you want to see from your players and the players who best exemplify that.

We get to wear the jersey.

There was 21 which matched the San Jose area code.

I'm curious what what it was like that first day when you introduced the concept to your players and how they responded.

Did they did they get it right away?

I didn't make them do it.

And I told them it's an idea and that's what they want to do it.

And they loved it.

I didn't I mean, we vote for those numbers.

I mean, zero through nine.

No single digit is given out.

You know, you have to earn that.

You know, the guys that get the most votes were the two, the one on the zone after that first year.

But then I l was transfer portal.

So I went back to them again.

I'm like, man, the audience goes, Yeah, think about it.

In a time where people are transferring, we had nobody leave that of a bad experience.

We had a couple of guys that want to go play and they weren't going to play for us.

We had to find a place, but we had we didn't have like anybody leave in a negative connotation.

And they all were adamant that they wanted to vote and where they'll say origin.

So I wanted to think about that.

So Frank Harris was zero.

Yeah, right here from San Antonio.

Then Clemens Rashard with them was zero right here from coverage.

Judson and all those kids take those numbers off in the spring.

I think Frank or number 11 and the spring on the side for 39 in the spring in a time where kids are all over the country or leaving cutting deals our kids are old school, taking their numbers off Revoting for their numbers will vote for them here in a couple of weeks and we'll find out who gets them and it's really a breath of fresh air to know there's still people like that out there and it's just a good fit.

This job's just a good fit for me.

Because the city of San Antonio is very much that way.

It's more of an old fashioned culture.

Family is very important.

Values, morals are very important.

And my team there, there's a reason those kids chose to come here that they, I believe, like minded people surround themselves with like minded people.

And I'm blessed that I've got Frank Harris and Rashad Wilson winning my team to San Antonio.

Kids that have really bought into their ball coach.

They bought into me and because of that, they leave that locker room.

And that's why we've had the success we've had.

You know, you had for 15 years from 20 to 20, 14 you had a lot of stability in your career, you know, coaching at your home town of Gilmer and great success there.

And then you had a phase where you moved around quite a bit.

You were an assistant college coach at USC in Texas.

You were SMU and in Arkansas.

Was all that moving around tough for you during that period?

Yeah, I didn't like it at all.

I don't like it.

There's a reason Dr. Campos and President, I have not signed a ten year contract.

Yeah, I know there's going to be ups and downs in this business and you need that.

You need that stability.

You need people you can trust.

You need people that you can count on.

That was very comforting for me to realize that this city was that committed to me.

But I also hope that I've reflected how committed I am back to the city I hope everybody can tell how hard my staff work and how passionate we are about making this as good as we possibly can make that be at Gilmer it was I could have left many times.

I turned down many college jobs, many high school jobs.

You know, it's just kind of who I am.

I love people I love real relationships.

And it takes time.

I say to my players all the time, you know, trust is truth over time.

And I like having deep relationships.

And when I was in Texas, you know, my family was still back in Gilmer.

I was living I was I realized that I was a little more will die.

I'd have to coordinate right now for a year.

Then when I went to SMU, my daughter and my wife were still in late Travis and Austin.

I'm live in an apartment in Highland Park with Julian Griffin, my running back over of them.

Finally, my kids are out of the house and Carrie and I are in Fayetteville together for a few years, and then we're here and I don't like doing that.

I hope and pray this the Lord's willing that, you know, this can be a long, successful journey for all of us.

You know.

You we were talking before talking about how you played basketball as well as football nights where you were center on the football team at Gilmer also played basketball.

And I didn't realize until you mentioned it to me that you coached basketball as well.

You were also coaching football.

And you talked a little bit about how that that experience of coaching both sports, how maybe that kind of enriched, you know, the coaching experience for you also.

I still think it has value.

We talk about basketball all the time.

I love the hoop.

I love watching hoops.

Yeah.

I go to the Spurs every time I go, I'm out there.

I love watching basketball.

I did coach basketball for ten years, for a decade, and in the nineties it was not it was kind of frowned upon to be a basketball coach and a football coach because it was almost like you were soft because you loved going to the gym.

You loved the hoop, I believe, is what started my career.

I was very happy and Big Sandy and loved the Dalai Lama.

The head coach of Jacksonville, the McLellands, were great quarterbacks.

They were coming through.

They loved to play basketball.

Interesting they only heard that I was a really good basketball coach and a good football coach and I was really good with basketball kids.

So he hired me in Jacksonville.

I didn't even apply for the job.

He just called me and offered me the job.

But now, looking back at it, I know what he wanted me to go on that jail and bring those receivers back down to the football field, which is what I did there, and the McLellands and I played basketball every Sunday night, and those receivers were in the gym with us playing basketball.

And they then me back.

I still love to play.

Obviously, I'm a little older and that because I used to be.

But I tell my guys once we play that they had to apply the Kobe rules.

They got to give me six feet of space.

So I get my tools that shot off.

Yeah, I still love him.

And it's been a very valuable thing for me as a Jared Franklin, one of my very best wide receivers, love the Hoop Dodge those guys also love the hoop, and I don't play a lot of football coaches.

Like, don't go in the gym.

You might get hurt.

You think of all the times you're catching.

You catch it a thousand balls in the gym or football coach trying to do.

I don't catch the ball without a job.

Well, I'll meet up and wait.

Right.

What's follow?

Make them do do vertical jumps.

I mean, it's just common sense.

And you know what Benjamin Franklin says about common sense?

It ain't so common.

Is there one coach in particular for you that was I know you had you've worked with many and and you had several coaches, but was there one that was kind of foundational for you where you thought this is really kind of the the example that I want to follow in my own career?

The greatest influence in my career is Matt Turner.

I named my second child after Matt, and his name's Jacob, Matthew Traylor.

And Matt's my chief of staff here at UTSA.

I actually started working for Matt and that he's not a 30 he was all day long staff in Jacksonville.

And so I worked for Matt for six seasons.

Then I got hired at Gilmer in 2000 and Matt came with me to Gilmer and he worked with me for all those years and now he's come to UTSA with me.

He's just a man of character loves the game, but he understands the game's way, way more about making meaning out of boys than it is winning a bunch of games.

And he was a tremendous influence on me spiritually, mentally, psychologically, as a father, a husband, a friend.

He's just that guy.

I mean, he hey, I'm in heaven.

The Lord got like a special relationship.

I mean, I think he can pick that phone up right now and get his call.

And immediately he's just that guy and I'll never be like that.

We tease him.

He's like little undercover Jesus on our staff.

I mean, he's just a model of what you'd want your son to be like.

He's just a great human being.

That's tremendously influenced me.

But also a whole generation of coaches.

All he does for me, coach my coaches, I mean, he just coaches, coaches and does a fantastic job.

Was there ever a time when you thought you might want to do something else with your life?

I know you got started in coaching very young, but was there anything else that kind of pull that, you.

Know, my entire life I wanted to coach ball it's all I've ever wanted to never been confused about that, you.

Know.

A lot of time coaches get into coaching because they can't do anything else.

I could've done a lot of things.

I was called to be a coach.

Now, in the beginning, I'll admit I wanted to do it themselves.

Competitor?

Yeah, and I wanted to know.

I want to call plays.

I want to coach you now.

Scheme you I wrote a book, The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren in the early nineties, and it says, when you can get your purpose and your passion all lined up together, that was a game changer for me, you know.

And Stephen Covey, seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Successful People early on and all those things were real.

And Matt getting in my life really showed me how you could use the game as kind of a carrot to encourage kids to go to class, to go tutorials, to do community service.

Because if I took the ball away, that motivated them.

And when I gave them the ball back, that motivated them.

That ball has been a tremendous motivator for a lot of knucklehead young men, including myself, to make us do things we might not want to do at that age.

But as we get older and look back, you go, Man on why somebody made me do that.

You said your motto for this season is The Bull Don't Care.

Yeah, and which I when I heard it, I thought, is that kind of like, don't believe the hype?

Or is that something along those lines you're trying to convey to your team?

You know, it was, you know, tough.

He admitted one to the National Bull Rider of the Year championship three times in a row.

And I just read where he got on a bull called Bodacious.

And that bull just really messed him up.

And he broke his face, broke his ribs and tough had a quote in there where he talked about that bull don't care.

Like, it doesn't matter.

We won the conference championship last year.

It didn't matter that tough.

He team had ridden that bull so many times when he got back on that bull.

That bull did not care.

Right?

Nobody cares.

I mean that we want it all.

I mean, nobody cares.

And that's we've got a lot of kids getting pre season awards right now and you keep seeing me put it on top of the bull don't care.

The bull don't care.

So I know a lot of people understand exactly what we mean by that.

But I appreciate you give me the opportunity to explain that.

The first three games you got, Houston Army, University of Texas, just thinking right now, thinking of the.

Bull don't care about you.

Bebo does not care.

These are three of the toughest tests that the program has had in its you know, in its history.

Right off the bat.

I mean, where would you like I think you're more process oriented than results oriented, no doubt.

So and as you said, you can play well.

You can do all the right things and it's not always going to go your way.

But just where would you like your just your team to be after those three games?

What are you hoping to see?

We've got to be true to our culture.

I mean, you know, win the day with us, be the very best we can be today.

We're 46 days out.

And but let's let's answer your question.

Let's let's take a bigger picture view this at those three games let's say we do what people don't think we're going to do and then we go do better than we think well how are we going to handle that success?

Also, we go do what everybody thinks we're going to do and not win any of those games.

How are we going to handle that failure right that's going to be a true test of our culture.

So be a true test of what we're about.

How are our single digit guys going to handle that?

Let's be honest, we go out there and do the things that people don't that we're going to do.

We're going to get way more attention than we've ever gotten, but we don't do very well, and our fan base gets a little sour and the media gets sour.

How are we going to handle all that?

So I think it's going to be a great test for us to see if we can match up to what our brand is.

A 210 triangle of toughness.

Your players often talk about just the high energy level that you bring to the team.

That's something we've all seen, but it's incredibly demanding job.

It just never really stops.

You know, you've talked about that.

Are there just there have been phases in your your career when you've just thought, I don't know if I can maintain this energy level or I don't know if I can get to that point that I need to be a.

You know, my closest people around me know me well enough.

They know what I'm not quite right.

And, you know, you get some sleep or you get some water, you need to eat, you know, those kind of things.

But I do feel a tremendous conviction to do this thing right.

I love people and I don't want to disappoint them.

You know, I have a tremendous, you know, loyalty to President I am a doctor, compelled to give me an opportunity.

I know I probably wasn't the sexiest hire back in December 2090.

I'm sure most of the city was kind of like what the heck are we doing up here?

You're on stage walking around with all these colorful pillars and bald headed, goofy rascal and so on.

I feel that.

And the way the city's embraced us, how they treat me and my family, I feel that.

And I don't what is the point?

But at the same time, you know, I've got to be smart and I've got to pace myself a little bit.

And but the energy from the people, the way people brag about the road runners, know the best of my lives when I'm with my players.

And like this morning when I with those guys, it's pure joy because those guys are the reason you do what you do.

And I don't want those guys down.

You signed a ten year contract.

A lot of people in this community are hoping that that that you're going to be run for it for quite a while.

Do you have a vision for where you want UTSA football to be in ten years?

I do.

I got a little grief yesterday because they always ask me about why always wear the Road Runner.

In the beginning.

I just wants to be recognized.

I just wanted us to I got tired of being asked the Mile, the coach, the Ravens or, you know, and now everybody knows the road runners like they know the logo.

But I really want this to be like the city center.

I want to be their team.

And I understand their fans that root for the wall.

They root for the Bears.

And there's there's nothing wrong with that.

Right.

But it sure is encouraging in our own city.

When I see the Road Runner stuff up and I draw, I just drove by a gas station and I saw the Budweiser truck with the birds up on it.

And the runner on a road runner is on it and encourages us.

Right.

And in ten years, I want to be able to wherever we drive, wherever we go, we know we're not all the city.

The Spurs are also the city of the road runners.

And we just took a huge step by going.

They say, look, let's go into the ballgame.

Let's go do well in that league with all this realignment, why not us?

Why not Big 12?

Why not one seventh largest city in the country?

We've got a great place to play that great facility.

And what I love this quote, you know, your dreams should always be so large that your prayer life has to match it.

So when the dreams come true, you can't get the credit for it.

It's got to be something higher.

And that's my dream.

Real quickly, before we wrap things up, have you been getting a lot of calls, a lot of interest from other programs or other?

I mean, what is that situation been like for you over the past year or so?

You mean as far as job inquiries?

Yeah, I have an agent that handles all that stuff.

You don't deal with it?

I don't, yeah.

I don't.

And I hope by selling a ten year contract, that'll kind of put some of that to rest.

We love it here.

We love the city.

And my children love coming home here.

And we hope it's at home.

I mean that with all my soul.

And but it's also a culture filter violation because we got to win today.

We have the very best we could be today.

But I find great comfort in knowing that we plan on better the next ten years.

Coach Traylor, thanks again for being on Texas.

It was awesome.

Thank you very much.

That's all for this edition of Texas Talk.

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Until then, take care.