Traylor’s first recruit Jamal Ligon aims go go out a winner

Published 7:30 pm Wednesday, November 20, 2024

SAN ANTONIO — When Jeff Traylor stepped into the coaching job at UTSA in December 2019 with a recruiting class already in place and only a few days remaining before the early signing period, he set to work to add one new name to the list: Tyler Legacy linebacker Jamal Ligon.

Ligon understood the situation he was being recruited to, referring to the Roadrunners’ old locker room area as “the dungeon.” UTSA’s first eight seasons had amounted to just one bowl trip and two winning campaigns against full FBS schedules.

Still, Ligon agreed to become Traylor’s first true recruit. Now ranking as UTSA’s all-time leading tackler, Ligon stood in the team room at the Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence this week and reflected on how much the program has developed, celebrating a pair of Conference USA championships during his tenure.

But Ligon also believes a lot remains at stake for the legacy of his class. A group that had known nothing but winning the past four years, advancing to a bowl game every season, faced its greatest adversity in 2024, slumping to a 3-5 start.

While a matchup against Temple at 6 p.m. Friday (TV: ESPN2) in the Alamodome will allow UTSA to celebrate 26 seniors before their final home game, the Roadrunners also see an opportunity to punch their ticket to another bowl game with a sixth win, assuring that the final memory of the class will be a positive one.

“It’ll change how we see the whole season,” Ligon said. “Everything that happened earlier on, it’ll feel so much better if we can close out the right way.”

With dreams of an American Athletic Conference title and College Football Playoff berth evaporating through September and October, Traylor said the team shifted to a focus on keeping the bowl streak and run of winning years alive.

Even at UTSA’s lowest points, “there’s never been a moment where there wasn’t the belief” in the Roadrunners’ culture, Traylor said. That commitment is the reason the group honored Friday will “probably be a little more special” than many Traylor has seen come and go before, he said, with wins against Memphis and North Texas in UTSA’s past two games positioning the team to reach a bowl benchmark the Roadrunners can be proud of.

“It was looking pretty dire, and at least we have hope now,” Traylor said. “I told them, ‘There’s never going to be a game in their life they wanted to win more than this one.’”

The group the Roadrunners will honor Friday includes 11 active players who have started multiple games on defense in 2024, plus a pair of injured standouts who would be starters in safety Ken Robinson and defensive lineman Joe Evans.

Ligon is one of five projected to suit up Friday who spent their full college careers at UTSA — an increasingly rare group in the transfer portal era that also includes defensive lineman Asyrus Simon, linebacker Donyai Taylor, offensive lineman Demetris Allen and defensive lineman Christian Clayton.

“It’ll be a tough night for me, because the defensive guys are different,” Traylor said. “They’re just different. They’re pistols. They’re spicy. They’ve just got some stuff to them. And you have to deal with them quite a bit, but I enjoy that type of child.”

Robinson and Brandeis product Oscar Cardenas at tight end also fit the bill as six-year stalwarts for UTSA who will be celebrated Friday despite battling season-ending injuries. Receiver De’Corian Clark, a sixth-year Roadrunner who is missing the bulk of a second straight season after suffering a fresh ACL tear on his first reception last month, will not participate in senior day festivities, Traylor said, leaving open the possibility of a 2025 return.

The emotions of this week have been tough on the injured group, Traylor said, as the players grapple with feelings that they’re letting teammates down due to situations beyond their control.

“They don’t want to steal anybody’s joy, though. They’re not going to be that way,” Traylor said. “But you can just see it in their eyes. It’s heavy on my heart.”

Traylor has tried to caution the Roadrunners about balancing the emotions of the night, hoping they can keep all their visitors and ticket requests in order while trying to prevent “empty their tank crying” and taking pictures before kickoff.

The Roadrunners coach long warned how quickly their college careers would fly past, and receiver Chris Carpenter at last understood through a week he said has been “definitely bittersweet,” with his final home game and next month’s graduation sneaking up much faster than anticipated.

UTSA’s hurdles in 2024 arrived as soon as a 49-10 loss to Texas State during the second week of the season, and Carpenter said the ability to “just finish off the right way” can help reshape the identity of his senior class.

“The team that battled it out, that stayed together,” Carpenter said. “When times got hard after Texas State, we’re still sick about it. It’s just a team that rallied back, honestly.”

Clayton, too, said he hopes this year’s group will be remembered for outlasting adversity, and he reflected on the discipline Traylor brought that initially turned the Roadrunners into a winner.

With his immediate family planning to be on hand to celebrate Friday, Clayton said he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to hold back tears.

“I think that’ll be a Friday decision, right there,” Clayton said. “I don’t want to say it, but I think I can. I told the boys outside today that I wasn’t going to cry, but, we’ll see.”