UTSA's pitch is different: continuity. Jeff Traylor is 53 wins into six seasons in San Antonio, the winningest stretch in program history, and after a 7-6 season that ended with a First Responder Bowl blowout of FIU, he kept his floor intact. Quarterback Owen McCown is back, so is the nucleus of the offensive line, and the transfer portal class graded out as a solid B — headlined by running back Brandon High and edge rusher Elijah Baldwin. The pieces UTSA lost were real: its top receiver, both top tight ends, and its best players up front on defense and in the secondary. This isn't a finished product either.
Both teams are essentially betting on their strength areas holding up. Tulane is leaning on retained continuity at most position-coach spots even with a first-year head coach, plus a defensive line anchored by South Alabama transfer Ed Smith IV. UTSA is leaning on a returning quarterback and a coach who's found a winning formula five straight years running. By the time Week 8-ish rolls around in October, both staffs should have real answers on who they are — right now it's still projection.
The quarterback picture matters more for Tulane than the box score will show. Kadin Semonza and Houston transfer Zeon Chriss-Gremillion went into spring as the presumed favorites before it turned into a four-way scramble with a true freshman and a sophomore also in the mix. Whoever wins that job by the fall still has to operate behind a lot of new faces at the skill positions. UTSA doesn't have that variable — McCown already knows this operation, which is a real edge in a game where one team is still figuring out its identity.
Traylor put it bluntly after last season, saying UTSA "left three wins on the field" in 2025 — a reminder that this program thinks it's better than a 7-6, 4-4-in-conference finish suggested. That's the chip UTSA brings into October. Tulane, meanwhile, is trying to defend a title with a roster that outside projections don't expect back in the CFP conversation. Whichever team's turnover hurts less by midseason is going to be the favorite here, and right now that's genuinely unclear.
Neither program is hiding from stakes. Tulane has made four straight American Conference title games and isn't interested in a step back under new management. UTSA has finished with a winning record in six consecutive Traylor seasons and wants this to be the year it stops leaving wins on the table. That tension — proven program in transition versus stable program trying to break through — is what makes this one worth circling months in advance.