UTSA Football
Head Coach Jeff Traylor
Dec. 5, 2021 – San Antonio
On accepting the bowl berth …
"I'm excited for our players, obviously. It's close to home and our crowd will travel. We're excited about that. With the momentum we have right now in the city, with our fan base and the students and the State of Texas, honestly, we're just excited. We have a lot of players on our roster from that area and it's just good to go back and be close to home."
On being the only game of the day on Dec. 21, to be broadcast on ESPN …
"Get more eyes on you. We're playing a really good football team. They beat Utah earlier in the year and they're really good. They've had some illnesses in the last game and I understand that some key players didn't get to play, missed some practice, I'm not really sure about the details. I just found out like you guys did. We're excited."
On continuing to accomplish milestones during a history-laden season …
"It's always fun to win. We don't like to talk about it very much but we've experienced that other thing this year and we don't want to do that again. That is what is most important, for our kids to leave on a good note. In the history of the program, we've never won a bowl game. These guys have done a lot of firsts this year. I challenged them when the year started, 'why not us? Some team is going to be the first one to win the West. Why not us? Some team is going to be the first team to win the whole conference. Why not us? Some team is going to be the first to win a bowl game in the history of this school. Why not us?'"
On why he told the crowd after the championship win that the win was for San Antonio …
"It was the very first thing that came to my mind in our press conference. You always get those questions in your (job) interview. What are you going to do on day one? What are you going to do your first week? What are you going to do your first month? I was very confident that we were going to win the press conference. That day one, we were going to win the press conference. I was very intentional with my words, to you all, to our city, to our recruits in the city. That is where we were going first. We were going to try to capture the 2-1-0. We made it a part of our culture. Our Triangle of Toughness. It is where we always start. The reason I was hired was to start in the city and work my way out. I believe that my vision and my plan was why Dr. (Lisa) Campos and Dr. (Taylor) Eighmy gave me that opportunity."
