Hate Filled Road Trip: #14 UTSA @ Texas State in I-35 Classic

By Frankie “The Horn” Calderón — 94.3 The Bird

There are road games.

There are rivalry games.

And then there are bus rides where every mile marker feels like somebody tightening the lid on a jar of gasoline.

That is what this one is.

The No. 14 UTSA Roadrunners are heading up I-35 to San Marcos for the next chapter of the I-35 Classic, and nobody in that building should pretend this is just another week on the schedule. Not after what happened last year. Not after what happened two years ago. Not after the way this rivalry has started trading haymakers like two neighbors who stopped waving at each other a long time ago.

Texas State does not just want to beat UTSA.

They want to hurt the Roadrunners.

They want to drag the defending national champions into the dirt, put a boot on the banner, and remind everyone in San Marcos that before Clay “Stonewall” Merritt turned UTSA into a monster, the Bobcats got their own pound of flesh.

Two seasons ago, Texas State beat UTSA 49-10 in San Marcos.

That was not a close call. That was not a fluke. That was Texas State standing over the Roadrunners and making sure they remembered the scoreboard all the way back to San Antonio.

Last season, UTSA answered.

Not with a win.

With a warning.

58-0 in the Alamodome.

A shutout. A humiliation. A full four-quarter eviction notice.

Now the series comes back to San Marcos, and the Bobcats have spent a full year carrying that score around like a rock in their stomach.

This is not just hate.

This is hate with receipts.

Texas State Is Coming Off a Fight in Austin

Texas State enters this week after a 52-31 loss in Austin against No. 11 Texas.

The scoreboard says loss, but the film says something a little more complicated. The Bobcats were not good enough to knock off the Longhorns. They were not physical enough to survive the full ride. They were not clean enough to turn a heavyweight swing into an upset.

But they did not crawl into a corner either.

They scored 31 points. They created explosive offense. They forced Texas to keep playing. For a team trying to convince itself that it belongs in bigger conversations, that matters.

The Longhorns will come back into the Roadrunners’ story soon enough. They are sitting on the schedule like a storm cloud in the distance.

But this week cannot be about Texas.

This week is about Texas State.

And as much as San Marcos wants to believe this game can reset the balance of power, the truth is still sitting right there in front of everyone.

Texas State is not standing on equal footing with UTSA.

Not right now.

Not after what the Roadrunners did to Baylor.

The Baylor Warning Shot

Baylor came into the Alamodome ranked No. 19 and talking like a program ready to restore order.

That phrase lasted about as long as a paper cup in a hurricane.

No. 14 UTSA beat Baylor 73-0.

Seventy-three to nothing.

That is not a result. That is a public service announcement.

The Bears walked into San Antonio believing they could make the Roadrunners answer for the crown on their head. They thought the national championship season was something that needed to be tested. They thought UTSA’s new year might come with cracks, nerves, and growing pains.

Instead, they got swallowed.

The Roadrunners did not look like a team trying to remember who they were.

They looked like a team offended that anyone asked.

That is the version of UTSA heading into San Marcos now. Not satisfied. Not sentimental. Not carrying itself like last year’s trophy gives them a free pass.

This group looks hungry in a different way.

The 2025 team chased belief.

The 2026 team is defending territory.

And that might be even more dangerous.

Bobcats to Know: Gavin Parks Can Make This Uncomfortable

Texas State’s best chance to make this game ugly starts with quarterback Gavin Parks.

Parks is not walking into this rivalry empty-handed. Against Texas, he threw the ball 46 times and completed 26 passes for 361 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. He finished with a 121.4 passer rating, and even though he was sacked three times, he kept pushing the ball downfield.

That is the first thing UTSA has to respect.

Parks is not afraid of volume. He is not afraid of chaos. And if the Roadrunners allow him to hang around long enough, he has enough arm talent and confidence to create the kind of broken-play moments that make rivalry games turn sideways.

But there is a difference between making plays and surviving pressure.

Texas got to him. Texas took the ball away twice. Texas made him wear the consequences of trying to keep up.

Now he has to face a UTSA defense that just treated Baylor’s offense like a closed road.

If Parks is clean, Texas State can make noise.

If Parks is hurried, hit, and forced to throw with the pocket collapsing around him, this one can get away from the Bobcats in a hurry.

L.J. Johnson Jr. Gives Texas State a Real Punch

The Bobcats are not one-dimensional.

Halfback L.J. Johnson Jr. gave Texas something to deal with on the ground, carrying the ball 13 times for 103 yards and a touchdown. That is 7.9 yards per carry.

That number will get UTSA’s attention.

Johnson runs like a player who does not need 25 carries to matter. He can hit one crease, erase a pursuit angle, and turn a normal first down into a sudden roar from the home crowd.

That matters in San Marcos.

Texas State does not need to dominate every snap early. They need belief. They need one run. One missed fit. One second-level mistake. One moment where the Bobcats look across the field and say, “They can bleed too.”

That is what Johnson offers them.

But that is also where Vic Shaw and the rest of this Roadrunner defense come into focus.

UTSA cannot let Johnson be the fuse.

Make Texas State throw because it has to. Not because it wants to.

That is how this defense takes the crowd out of the game.

Eric Reddick Is the Problem on the Outside

If Gavin Parks is the spark and L.J. Johnson Jr. is the punch, Eric Reddick is the matchup UTSA has to circle in red.

Reddick caught 10 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown against Texas. That is 16 yards per catch, and that is not possession receiver production. That is a man winning downfield, finding space, and turning targets into damage.

Texas State is going to look for him early.

They should.

In a game like this, the Bobcats need someone who can flip field position without needing a perfect drive. Reddick is that kind of player. If UTSA loses leverage, busts a coverage, or lets Parks extend a play long enough to find him late, Reddick can become the name everyone is yelling about by halftime.

That is the challenge for the Roadrunners.

The offense has the star power. The defensive front has the violence. The linebackers have the tone.

But this week, the back end has to be clean.

No cheap explosives. No missed communication. No rivalry adrenaline turning into selfish football.

Texas State’s path to an upset is not complicated.

Hit a couple explosives. Win the turnover battle. Keep San Marcos alive deep into the second half.

UTSA’s job is to cut that path off before it starts.

Texas State’s Defense Has to Prove It Can Touch the Quarterback

Here is the other side of the problem for the Bobcats.

Against Texas, the Texas State defense failed to register a sack.

They did create one turnover on an interception by No. 10 Javis McGraw, and that cannot be ignored. McGraw gave them the kind of defensive splash play that keeps a team hanging around.

But if Texas State cannot pressure Owen McCown, this becomes a math problem they cannot solve.

McCown has been through too much football, too much pressure, and too many big games to be allowed to stand comfortably and choose where the ball goes. If the Bobcats rush four and get nothing, they are asking their secondary to survive too long against one of the most confident offenses in the country.

That is a bad way to live.

Devin McCuin does not need a lot of time to punish a defense.

Neither does this Roadrunner passing game.

And with the run game still carrying that Stonewall Merritt edge, Texas State cannot simply sit back, drop everyone, and hope McCown gets impatient. UTSA can beat you with patience. UTSA can beat you with tempo. UTSA can beat you with a shot play. UTSA can beat you by leaning on you until your front seven starts looking at the sideline for answers.

The Bobcats have to affect the quarterback.

Not eventually.

Immediately.

Because if McCown gets comfortable, this rivalry game stops being emotional and starts being surgical.

The Roadrunners Who Have to Answer

UTSA is still built around names everyone in this universe already knows.

Owen McCown is the quarterback. Devin McCuin is the receiver. Vic Shaw is one of the defensive anchors. Javen Pewee is part of the backbone of a defense that does not just want stops, but statements.

Those are the established Roadrunners.

The ones who have already lived through the championship run. The ones who know what it feels like to walk into hostile buildings with a target on their chest. The ones who understand that every opponent is going to bring a little extra hate now.

But Season 2 is not just about the returning stars.

It is about the new teeth growing in.

Defensive tackle Chidera Otuatu and edge rusher Akili Washington have already started to feel like the next wave of Roadrunner violence. Baylor got the first taste. Texas State gets the next one.

That matters because this kind of rivalry is won in the places cameras do not always follow.

Inside hand placement. Second effort. Gap discipline. Pocket squeeze. Edge contain. A quarterback feeling footsteps that are not even there yet.

That is where UTSA can break Texas State.

The Bobcats are going to come out emotional. They are going to come out loud. They are going to come out with the full force of a fan base that has waited a year to get UTSA back in San Marcos.

The Roadrunners have to answer with structure.

Emotion fades.

Physicality travels.

The Recent Rivalry Trend Is Brutal

This series has not been trading field goals.

It has been trading beatdowns.

Two seasons ago, before Stonewall Merritt had fully turned the machine on, Texas State beat UTSA 49-10 in San Marcos. That was the kind of loss that sticks to a program. It embarrasses players. It follows coaches. It gives a rival something to chant for a full year.

Then last season happened.

UTSA 58, Texas State 0.

The Roadrunners did not just answer the loss. They erased the conversation. They turned the rivalry into a crime scene and made Texas State carry the bag.

Now UTSA leads the overall series 6-1 in this universe, but this week is not about the record book.

It is about the temperature.

Texas State knows it has been shoved down the ladder. UTSA knows it has become the measuring stick. Both teams know the last two meetings have been personal.

So what happens when a program with revenge in its mouth gets the national champions in its own building?

We are about to find out.

The Trap Is Looking Ahead

The biggest danger for UTSA might not be Texas State’s roster.

It might be the shadow beyond it.

Texas is coming.

Everybody knows it. The Longhorns are sitting out there, waiting to become the next giant in the Roadrunners’ path. That game will bring national attention. That game will bring the old power structure back into frame. That game will ask whether UTSA can keep punching upward into the biggest rooms in the sport.

But that game is not here yet.

This one is.

And rivalries punish wandering eyes.

Texas State would love nothing more than to catch UTSA peeking ahead. They would love a slow start. They would love a special teams mistake. They would love one careless McCown throw, one busted protection, one early Johnson run, one Reddick shot over the top.

They do not need the whole game handed to them.

They need a crack.

The Roadrunners cannot give them one.

Championship programs do not only get judged by how they handle the biggest lights. They get judged by how they handle the angry places in between.

San Marcos is one of those places.

What This Game Really Means

For Texas State, this is a chance to make the rivalry breathe again.

A win changes everything. A competitive game changes something. Even a first half that makes UTSA sweat would give the Bobcats proof that last year’s 58-0 was not the permanent gap between the programs.

But for UTSA, this is about maintaining the new reality.

The Roadrunners are not chasing Texas State anymore. They are not trying to prove they belong in the same sentence. They are not trying to climb into the Bobcats’ neighborhood and ask for respect.

They are arriving as the defending national champions.

They are arriving ranked No. 14.

They are arriving after a 73-0 demolition of Baylor.

They are arriving with a head coach who has turned disrespect into fuel, pressure into identity, and rivalry games into public reminders.

Clay Merritt does not need this team frothing at the mouth.

He needs them sharp.

Because the most terrifying version of UTSA is not the emotional one.

It is the controlled one.

The one that lets the crowd scream, lets the Bobcats swing, lets the first quarter settle, and then starts removing options one by one.

No run game.

No clean pocket.

No explosives.

No belief.

That is how hate turns quiet.

Final Word

This is the kind of game that makes the I-35 Classic feel like more than a label.

There is history now. There is embarrassment. There is revenge. There is a 49-10 scar in San Marcos and a 58-0 ghost in San Antonio. There is a Texas State team angry enough to make this dangerous and a UTSA team talented enough to make anger irrelevant.

That is the beauty of it.

The Bobcats get their shot at home.

The Roadrunners get another chance to prove the crown still fits on the road.

And somewhere between San Antonio and San Marcos, this stops being a football game and becomes something older, meaner, and much harder to fake.

A hate filled road trip.

A rivalry with bruises.

A Saturday on I-35 where somebody is going to carry the shame home.