UTSA opens its 16th football season on Saturday, Sept. 5, when it faces UTRGV at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m., and the game will be carried on + and Sports Radio AM 760 The Ticket.
The matchup gives Jeff Traylor a familiar kind of first day. He enters his seventh season leading UTSA, which is 9-6 in home openers and 10-5 in season openers overall, and 4-2 in home openers under him. The Roadrunners have also handled Texas opponents well over the years, going 39-26 against teams from the state, including 3-3 in the Traylor era.
That backdrop is why the opener stands out. UTSA started from scratch and has built a program that has reached at least six wins in 10 of its 15 seasons, climbed through the FCS Independent and conference realignment years, and collected milestones along the way, from its first postseason trip in 2016 to bowl wins, a first conference title and a first top-25 victory. Saturday starts the next chapter, and the calendar matters because it is the first game of the 2026 season for a team trying to keep that standard intact.
Across the field, UTRGV arrives with a different kind of momentum and a much shorter football history. It is only in its second season, already 1-0 after a 44-0 shutout of UT Permian Basin last Saturday night, and it brings Travis Bush back into the story against the program where he served as UTSA's first-ever offensive coordinator. The first meeting between the schools gives the game a sharper edge than a typical opener, even if the records behind them are not the same.
UTSA and UTRGV will line up for the first time, but the question is not whether the game matters. It is whether the Roadrunners can use a home opening stage, a familiar Texas opponent and a strong recent track record to set the tone immediately, or whether UTRGV can turn its fast start into something larger on a Saturday built for first impressions.
