Searching for a way to improve their road record, UTSA and Jeff Traylor are utilizing a "Triangle of Toughness" idea from his video coordinator

UTSA has been a much different team at home than they've been on the road the past two seasons. The Roadrunners went 4-2 inside the Alamodome last season and 2-4 away from it, including a 55-17 loss at North Texas and a 55-23 loss at South Florida. 

The year before told the same story. In 2024, UTSA won just one true road game in the regular season and got run out of Texas State and Texas by a combined 105-17.

"I bet you it sounds like we're describing ourselves as a bunch of front runners," Traylor said. "We're a bunch of guys that feel good when things are going good, but we don't handle adversity very well, which is not what we've been about historically here as a team. But it showed its head now for two straight years."

His answer did not come from a clinic or a coaching book. It came from his Football's Creative Coordinator, Allie Maguire.

"I've never had an original idea in my life," Traylor said. "Allie came up with it, honestly. Because we were sitting around trying to figure out what's the deal with our road record and why are we so good at home."

The idea was for each player to create a personal "Triangle of Toughness" with seven components in all, built during camp, well before the team ever gets to a team identity. With the portal turning rosters over as fast as it does now, Traylor wanted his guys to know who they are before he asked them to be anything together.

This is a project they started digging into back in January, and he says it's an exercise centered in helping his guys see who they really are at their core.

Three of the seven make up the corners, and they consist of: 

• their hero
• their history
• a highlight of their life

In the middle sits E+R=O, a formula popularized by Tim and Brian Kight that drives their mental performance framework. It stands for Event + Response = Outcome. We have no control over the Event, very limited control over the Outcome, but what we do have full control over in that equation is our Response. That center piece is where each player builds a pause mechanism, where they find something that helps them intentionally choose a response to help them get centered and under control when things go sideways or adversity hits. Also included inside the triangle is a chosen walk-up song, then a Bible verse or a quote, and finally their why.

"Why do you even do this?" Traylor said. "When you were four and you're in the front yard playing tackle, watching the Cowboys and the Commanders play on Thanksgiving, is that what you were thinking about? What was your why? So those seven things we've really tried to help those guys with."

Players present their triangles to the team one at a time. 

Traylor is well aware the whole thing sounds a little out there, and he does not care.

"I already told y'all it's silly," he said. "You're either in a storm, coming out of a storm, or going into one. Storm's coming. So we got to have a plan when that stuff hits."

Traylor has earned the room to try this. He won 175 games and three state titles at Gilmer HS (TX) before moving to the college side under Charlie Strong at Texas in 2015, then following Chad Morris to SMU and Arkansas as running backs coach. He took over at UTSA in 2020 and had the Roadrunners at 12-2 by 2021 and 11-3 in 2022. Back-to-back 7-6 seasons have him hunting for the thing that helps them turn their road struggles into triumphs.

As always, stay tuned to The Scoop.