AUSTIN — The UTSA Roadrunners play Texas on Saturday night at Royal-Memorial Stadium and will take a $1.7 million paycheck home with them.
Not that UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor has to like it, given his 2-0 team is more than a 30-point underdog.
In fact, if it were up to the seventh-year head coach, he’d never play Steve Sarkisian’s Longhorns again.
That’s not possible because the Roadrunners are scheduled to face Texas two more times in 2028 and 2030.
They will come back to Austin on Sept. 16 in 2028 a week after Texas will travel to Notre Dame, assuming that game against the Irish isn’t canceled after concerns about a rugged intersectional game hurting teams’ College Football Playoff chances. UTSA will be paid $1.8 million for that game.
UTSA is also scheduled to play at DKR on Sept. 14 in 2030, which is currently the only game remaining on the Longhorns’ future schedule, and receive $1.9 million.
“I mean, it’s not smart,” Traylor said Wednesday about playing No. 1 Texas in an interview for the “On Second Thought” podcast. “We need to get out of that deal, Sark. Let’s go. Free us, Sark. Free us.”
When it was suggested that Traylor might attract a few recruits to his San Antonio program with such an enticing game on the schedule, he scoffed.
“Doesn’t work that way,” he said. “You’re still living in the naive dream world. Those guys are gone, Bubba. I used to be that guy. I’m not that guy anymore.”