Jeff Traylor puts Jon Sumrall, Tulane on blast after upset win by UTSA

UTSA won in a blowout over Tulane on Thursday night in what was a key game in the American Conference. That came after the Roadrunners felt they had been disrespected the week prior and were done so again in the pregame comments coming in by the Green Wave.

Jeff Traylor didn’t mince words when he got to the podium about how he and his team felt following the 48-26 win. He expressed the disrespect that UTSA felt from comments made this week by Jon Sumrall and then Jake Retzlaff in the pregame, which was already on top of all they’d heard since they last played before their bye.

“A team that felt extremely disrespected. A coach that said we’ve basically been cheating the last six years, which disrespects everything we’ve done in this place for six years, in my opinion. A quarterback that, for them, disrespected us, like, unbelievable – mic’d up before the game,” Traylor said. “Some spoiled rotten media, some fair-weather fans. Shut them up for a week. But, the loyal ones, the true ones that have been there since day one and always stay in there? That’s who we play for. Them chirping birds, we don’t really give a crap about, but we shut them up for a week.

“You know, I did not appreciate what Coach Sumrall said, and I told him. And Jon is a good man and a good friend of mine. I just thought it was disrespectful. And, again, the way their quarterback spoke about us before the game? The way our kids have been treated for the last eleven days? A really frustrated group that we felt we’ve done as much right as any group we’ve ever had here since January, when we all came together, and we just haven’t seen the results we wanted. We’re getting better at the right time, and I’m happy for my kids. I would just say a lot of frustration, a lot of negativity, a lot of disrespect for a group of kids that have never lost a home game in conference in six years, for a coach that chooses to stay and doesn’t choose to hop and tried to fight and build something. And we got too many people that want to sling instead of step up and help.”

Sumrall, expressing his focus on this game, said to the media this week that he thought that UTSA piped in additional noise through the speakers during their home games at the Alamodome. That was during the week, before Retzlaff made his own comments that they took note of while being interviewed prior to kickoff on ESPN.

“I’m trying to go 1-0 on Thursday night. That’s it – in a place that nobody in conference has gone into that place and gone 1-0 in five years. That’s got my focus – fully,” Sumrall said. “We’ve practiced with crowd noise for a couple days. Today was a walkthrough day, so we didn’t. We’ll have it back out tomorrow. I think they pipe some noise in. I think they do a good job. I think they do – if you watch, like, European soccer or whatever, they’ve got those little sticks that people bang. They’ve got those things in the stadium, so they make some artificial noise – kind of like Mississippi State when you play against the cowbell. It’s a way to create more noise. I think they pipe some in through the speakers. I don’t really know. I don’t think it’s legal. I don’t think anybody is investigating it. We just got to be ready to deal with it. So, we should be prepared for it, hopefully, but they have – I think it’s helped them create a home-field advantage, for sure. It’s been loud there for people.”

UTSA heard all of it, including these words, since its last loss a week and a half ago, and turned it into the biggest win of its season over Tulane, which, undefeated in league play before last night, is vying for a spot in the American Championship. The Roadrunners led by as much as 26 coming into the third quarter, and finished posting 523 yards of total offense and four turnovers forced on defense. Owen McCown (31-33 (93.9%) for 370 yards and 4 TDs) accounted for much of that in the pass game, while Retzlaff, following what he said, was eventually benched after being 14-28 (50%) for 194 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions.

UTSA clearly had a point to prove last night, which was only added on to by its opponent the past few days. The Roadrunners did just that too, winning in front of a huge crowd and against one of the better teams in their conference coming into the Alamodome.

“Yeah, it was big. Those kids have taken a lot the last 11 days, so. They don’t ever change. They work their tails off every day to keep getting better,” Traylor said. “Really happy for them. At least it’ll shut some people up until the next time they do something people don’t like.”