Texas State closed 2025 on a heater, winning its final 3 regular-season games to get bowl eligible before blowing out Rice 41-10 in the Armed Forces Bowl. That's a 4-game win streak walking into this one. UTSA finished 7-6 too, but went just 4-4 in conference and now steps into a 2026 slate that includes Texas and Colorado State in nonconference play alone.
This is also Texas State's Pac-12 debut season, and that jump looms over everything the Bobcats do this fall. Backfield questions linger too: Lincoln Pare is done at running back, and the presumed heir apparent, Greg Burrell, is reportedly off the team, so San Marcos will need answers at running back before conference play even starts. None of that changes the floor Jackson and the passing game give them for this specific matchup.
UTSA's counterpunch is simply program continuity. Traylor is 53-26 at UTSA with a .671 winning percentage, the best mark in school history, and the Alamodome record under him borders on absurd. San Marcos has been the tougher venue for the Roadrunners historically, and this rivalry doesn't need extra juice to get chippy - the 2020 meeting alone was a 51-48 double-overtime classic.
Whichever way the scoreboard tilts on Saturday, September 12, expect this one to be decided by whichever team's quarterback situation is actually settled by kickoff. Texas State has that answer locked in; UTSA is still working on it.