SAN ANTONIO – UTSA held its 17th team session of preseason training camp on a steamy Wednesday morning at the UTSA Football Practice Fields.
"A better day of practice today, back to our practicing ways of getting after it," UTSA head coach Frank Wilson said. "I was very pleased with our football team today and the way that we ran around and executed things that at times will be inclusive in the game plan but probably more importantly in defining the things we need to do well in preparation for next Saturday. So small, steps in that direction again, not full-out preparation but steps in that direction of identifying a couple of things. And that's good because there were a couple of curve balls that were thrown in the practice of what to expect from our opponent in a couple of weeks. Really liked us and our identity of ourselves in the continuous development of it."
The Roadrunners will open the season on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 5 p.m. vs. UIW at the Alamodome. Fans can purchase tickets for the UTSA-UIW game by calling or texting 210-458-UTSA or visiting goUTSA.com/tickets.
Linebacker corps relies on host of newcomers
With the departure of UTSA's top two tacklers from 2018 – Les Maruo and Josiah Tauaefa – the Roadrunners will be dependent on new faces in the linebacker rotation.
Among the newcomers who has emerged midway through training camp is junior Dominic Sheppard. A native of Miami, Fla., Sheppard transferred to the Roadrunners with two years of eligibility remaining after opening his career at Virginia.
"He's a big man that is powerful and is able to stop the run," Wilson said. "And he's showing flashes of some of the things I needed to see, an ability to cover in space. That's good when you have a 6-plus-footer, 237-pounder. He's been as heavy as 250, we needed to shed a little so he's gotten down to the 230s and is running around and doing a very good job in practice."
A 6-foot-2, 245-pounder, Sheppard redshirted as a freshman in 2015 for the Cavaliers, didn't see game action in 2016 before appearing in three games in 2017. He suffered a season-ending injury in preseason camp in 2018.
"He's been doing constant rehabilitation just to strengthen a quad from a knee injury from a year ago, but just wanted to make sure we had no muscle fatigue there," Wilson said. "He's built it up. Our sports medicine department has done an outstanding job. They've just worked diligently to get him to 100 percent. He's probably about 90 percent now, and is making his presence felt. He's a very intelligent guy. Very, very intelligent. So, he was always involved and counted in the camp numbers even though at times he didn't go in full practices, he was in every meeting, every walk-through, every individual. We're finally letting him go in the physical activities but he's not behind at all from a mental standpoint."
Layton Garnett, a 6-foot-3, 240-pound transfer from LSU, Trevor Harmanson, a 6-3, 215-pound sophomore transfer from Blinn, and Ashton Merrett, a six-foot, 225-pound sophomore from Memphis, are also newcomers expected to make an impact.
The leader of the linebackers group is senior Andrew Martel, who made the position switch from safety in the spring. Martel made 45 stops as a junior, with four tackles for loss and two sacks.
In addition to Martel, a handful of returning linebackers saw action in 2018, including De'Marco Guidry, Tyler Mahnke, Jarrett Preston and Donovan Perkins.
Roadrunners set for dress rehearsal
UTSA will practice on Thursday and Friday before a Saturday dress rehearsal, as the Roadrunners will move just a week away from the season lid-lifter.
"Saturday is a dress rehearsal," Wilson said. "We'll go from top to bottom and leave no stone unturned. We'll come out of the locker room, we'll warm up and we'll go to individual to pad-and-go, to 7-on-7, to team, field goal, punt, we'll do our swirl in the middle of the field. How we're going to break it down. How we're going to come out of the tunnel. Everything that you could expect, will be rehearsed so that next Saturday it goes off the way that we desire in a structured manner."
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