Why coach Jeff Traylor has made 2026 a year of change for UTSA<\/a><\/p>\nBailey is only the second player in Traylor\u2019s seven-year tenure to earn the 2, 1 or 0 jersey in his first season with the program, joining linebacker Shad Banks, who wore No. 0 last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Though UTSA\u2019s defense has been overhauled this season, Bailey beat out a handful of returning Roadrunners for the honor. Four-year defensive line contributor Tai Leonard wore No. 1 last year, senior and second-year Roadrunner Brandon Tucker is expected to step into Banks\u2019 leadership position at inside linebacker, and Jameian Buxton is entering his fourth year as a fixture at nose tackle. \u00a0<\/p>\n
But Bailey earned more votes than all of them, joining No. 1 Cam Cooper and No. 2 Owen Pewee as the defensive honorees. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Traylor said Bailey has been \u201cthe epitome of the triangle,\u201d impressing even more than Traylor expected following his initial recruiting visit. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just has an unbelievable presence about himself,\u201d Traylor said. \u201cTo come in here and get that vote that quickly is very impressive. … He\u2019s been the same human every day we\u2019ve coached him. He\u2019s almost too good to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n
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UTSA football practice on Thursday, August, 13, 2026, in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News![\"UTSA]()
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UTSA Roadrunner cornerback Asaad Chapman (17) reaches for the ball during UTSA football practice on Thursday, August, 13, 2026, in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News![\"UTSA]()
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UTSA Roadrunners wide receiver AJ Wilson (84) catches a pass during UTSA football practice on Thursday, August, 13, 2026, in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News![\"UTSA]()
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UTSA Roadrunners wide receivers AJ Wilson (84), left, and TJ West (19) talk during UTSA football practice on Thursday, August, 13, 2026, in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
When NFL scouts evaluate Bailey during visits to Roadrunners practice, Traylor said they are most impressed by his consistency. He\u2019s played in all 36 games the past three seasons, totaling 105 tackles, 14 tackles for loss and six sacks in his four-year career. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Bailey has also shown versatility across the defensive line, playing closer to the edge last season after lining up inside more often in 2024, and he said UTSA\u2019s defense has been \u201cpretty much the same thing\u201d he was used to at Eastern Kentucky. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Wanting to test himself at the FBS level in his final college season, Bailey was connected to UTSA through Eastern Kentucky defensive line coach Dayton LeBlanc, who is a cousin of Roadrunners assistant Colyn Givens. Debating between UTSA and Virginia late in the recruitment process, Bailey said the Roadrunners felt more like home, leading to \u201ca pretty easy decision.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
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MORE UTSA: ‘I’m still Will’: How UTSA’s star running back keeps true to himself<\/a><\/p>\nHe joined a defense that returned just two of the 15 players who manned the most snaps last season, per Pro Football Focus, but the Roadrunners bolstered the unit with a group of experienced transfers including junior safety Nate Robinson, senior defensive lineman Jusiah Sampleton and sophomore linebacker Elijah Baldwin. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a veteran team, so everybody\u2019s been here before, and it\u2019s just about how fast we can get things going together as a team and playing well together,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like playing in high school, where everybody gets along with everybody, and everybody works well together. So, it\u2019s been fun to see, and I can\u2019t wait until we get to Week 1 and see how we play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UTSA Roadrunners transfer defensive lineman Jeremiah Bailey (44) looks on before the Roadrunners\u2019 spring football game in San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-420415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}