Let’s preview the Duluth Trading Cure Bowl between the Texas San Antonio Roadrunners and the Troy Trojans. It is a heavyweight matchup of mid-major conference teams that have dominated their competition this season. The two teams both have 10 game winning streaks which includes the regular season and their conference championships. The teams have star skill players–UTSA quarterback Frank Harris and Troy running back Kimani Vidal. The teams are ranked right behind one another in the AP poll with UTSA at #22 and Troy at #23. announced his return to UTSA for one more year this week after they won the Conference USA Title game. UTSA is headed to the American Athletic Conference next year, so a win in a bowl game plus having their star quarterback will mean a lot for the future. Troy is enjoying a resurgence in their football program after three seasons averaging 5 wins.
UTSA is a hot team
The Roadrunners are Texas State Champs, sort of. They beat North Texas twice this season, beat Texas Southern, Rice and Texas El Paso. But they lost to Houston and to Texas (Austin). Read Tony Thomas’ write up of the Houston game here. Regardless, Texas San Antonio’s offense has one of the best offenses in college football and a star quarterback. 7th year senior, Frank Harris, who was injured in his first few years which granted him clearance to remain so long. Harris Harris has 588 yards rushing and nine touchdowns. He throws to a three headed monster of Joshua Cephus, Zakari Franklin and De’Corian Clark that have accounted for 2,826 of Harris’ passing yards. Their secondary is formidable with two players, Clifford Chattman and Corey Mayfield having 3 INT’s or more.
Troy has a good offense, better defense
Troy’s offense doesn’t score so many points as UTSA (26.2 points per game) but they have come on in the last two weeks scoring over 45 points twice. Once against Arkansas State and in the Sun Belt title game against defending Champion Coastal Carolina. In the title game, their quarterback Gunnar Watson passed for 317 yards and three touchdowns to beat the Chanticleers, 45-27. Their best player is running back Kimani Vidal. He’s run for over 1,000 yards, has caught 133 yards in receptions and has scored nine touchdowns. He had a career high game of 242 rushing yards against Louisiana-Monroe. He was with Troy through the previous three seasons where the team averaged 5 wins per season. The new coach, Jon Sumrall as per an article in the Montgomery Advertiser, brought forth a culture change which led the team to the resurgence.
Game prediction: Too close
The obvious cliche for this game could be “The Unstoppable force against the immovable object.” UTSA has a high-powered offense. They are the ninth ranked offense in the FBS. Troy, on the other hand, is the #19 total defense in the FBS. They scored have three defensive touchdowns. Troy is also, the #16 best defense in terms of passing efficiency per the NCAA website here. Senior linebacker Carlton Martial leads the team in tackles and earlier this season set the NCAA All-time tackles record with 564.
Which team can prevail in turnovers? UTSA and Troy are both in plus territory for the season. Common opponents? Troy and UTSA both played Army and Western Kentucky. Troy held Army to 10 points while UTSA gave up 38. Both teams scored over 30 points against Western Kentucky. The line on the game? Troy is favored by -1 and the over/under is at 54.5. UTSA is winless in bowl games. Both the Frisco Bowl and First Responder Bowl were played in Texas. Troy won their last bowl game in 2018, which was played in Alabama. This game will probably be better than some New Year’s Day games guaranteed. UTSA wins its first bowl game, 27-24 over Troy.
