SAN ANTONIO, TX – A torch was passed in the Alamodome on Saturday afternoon when Texas State knocked off UTSA, 43-36. Not just from Jeff Traylor to pupil and former player G.J. Kinne. But from his Roadrunners to Kinne’s Bobcats. 

“I think we’re in the right place,” Kinne said after the win. “We’re headed in the right direction. I thought our guys came ready to play and we answered the call in a tough place to play.” 

UTSA was the Big Dog of the G5 ranks in the Lone Star State since Traylor arrived in 2020. He led the Roadrunners to conference championships in 2021 and 2022 and to one game away to a third in 2023 as first-year members of the American. They won 32 games in the three years from 2021-23 and were 29-3 at home over his five-year tenure heading into the Week 2 matchup with Texas State.  

While that was happening, the Bobcats were getting their den in order. Both UTSA and Texas State joined the FBS ranks in 2012. But the Bobcats had over a 100-year head start on their rivals, starting football back in 1904. Yet, the Roadrunners immediately passed Texas State in the pecking order of college football thanks to investment from the university and the arrival of Traylor. 

While UTSA was winning Conference USA championships in 2021 and 2022, the Bobcats were struggling through four-win seasons in the Sun Belt. Something needed to change. They solved an alignment issue by hiring Kelly Damphousse as university president and elevating Don Coryell to athletic director. They fixed the on-field product by hiring Kinne, who hit the ground running with a win over Baylor and a trip to a bowl game, the first in program history, in 2023. 

The first cracks in UTSA’s stronghold over Texas State and the rest of the G5 in the Lone Star State appeared in 2024. Texas State throttled the Roadrunners and Traylor’s program rallied late to avoid missing a bowl game for the first time in his tenure. Traylor built the Roadrunner dynasty on winning one-score games, going 12-4 in those contests from 2021-23. They were 1-3 in such games last season. 

The 2025 game represented the rubber match between the two head coaches who are as close as father and son. Kinne could barely celebrate at the podium. When asked about what this win meant to him personally, he mostly talked about how much he felt for the UTSA staff. 

Remove the Traylor-Kinne dynamic and these programs are still measured against each other. The rivalry in other sports goes back decades and the two campuses are only separated by 55 miles. They recruit against each other for 12 months out of the year and compete for bragging rights on one Saturday each fall. The stakes are high. 

The ante rose even more in the offseason when Texas State accepted an invitation to the Pac-12. The American and the new-look Pac-12 will undoubtedly become rival conferences competing for the unofficial title of best non-Power Four conference. Wins like the one by Texas State on Saturday will be used as proof of dominance, not just by the team that won, but by the conference they represent. 

None of that mattered on Saturday, though. The game was important enough without the extra color. This game was good enough and important enough in black and white. Kinne knows beating American teams is important for the Pac-12’s brand, but that was a secondary motivation.

“To me, this one is more about Texas State, UTSA, and getting that road win and beating them in their house,” Kinne said. “There’s only been a handful of teams that can do it.” 

The only other teams to beat Traylor in the Alamodome are Houston and Army. The Cougars rose from the AAC to the Big 12 after that 2022 win. Army won the American last year. Only great teams and rising programs win these types of games. For the first decade as an FBS team, Texas State wasn’t included in those discussions. Those days are dead. The Bobcats are up. They beat UTSA in their own house and won in a way that the Roadrunners used to during their championship run. That’s a good sign for Texas State and the thousands of fans that braded I-35 to watch the win. 

“It was just an unbelievable feeling to get this win and celebrate with them and give them something to be happy for,” Kinne said of the traveling fan base. “The first couple of years in big games we needed to find a way to win them for the fan base. And we’re starting to now last year, this year, so we’re getting things going in the right direction.”