SAN ANTONIO — I’d guess that UTSA Athletics Director Lisa Campos doesn’t need my approval for anything. She’s got a very healthy bank account. She’s doing just fine. But you know what, I’m gonna brag on her anyway.
She’s on FIRE with recent head coaching hires, all of them in fact. She’s hiring, and convincing, already established pedigree coaches that they can win in San Antonio, and win at the highest conference levels.
That’s played out already with football, and it looks like all other sports are on their way. Let’s break it down!
Football / Jeff Traylor
Is there really anything of substance to debate here? No, there’s not. What we can do is rehash what we already know.
He’s put UTSA Football on the national map. They’re more than relevant. More than ever.
They’ve won TWO conference championships in his first FIVE seasons. He also helped to lighten the load winning the program’s first bowl game last season over Marshall in the Frisco Bowl. More bowl game wins are to come.
The larger question is how much longer Traylor might be in San Antonio with continued success that catches the eyes of others?
But that’s another conversation for another day.
Men’s Basketball / Austin Claunch
Not unlike the Traylor hire, who had that on the bingo card at the search start? That would be nobody other than Campos herself.
I’d call Claunch the perfect hire for UTSA Men’s Basketball right now.
They still don’t have the arena setting that scores with recruits, but UTSA has Claunch’s enthusiasm and vision, and that’s exactly the reason he was hired from his assistant job at Alabama.
Here’s what current Crimson Tide Head Coach Nate Oates said when he hired Claunch at ‘Bama away from Nicholls.
"Austin is one of the hardest working guys in the business. His work as a head coach at Nicholls was unbelievable with one of the lowest budgets in the country. He has won two out of the last three regular season championships in the Southland Conference and that is a credit to his hard work and his energy," Oates said. "Austin has a bright young mind and will help out our program in many ways. Not only is he a tireless recruiter and will help us with game planning but he is also a great person who will develop great relationships with our players and have a positive impact in our community."
That’s not bad praise! Plus, he’s already flipped the roster announcing the addition of twelve new players with six of those athletes having previous Power Five college hoops experience.
Women’s Basketball / Karen Aston
Loved the hire the moment it happened, but I also wondered why Coach Aston, knowing her past success at Texas, would want that job?
Well she’s clearly embraced the challenge as her program has gone from seven, to 13 to 18 wins in her first three years.
She recently told me she measures season success by 20-win seasons, and by the math, with better recruiting and keeping local products at home, that seems to be very much on the horizon. And maybe an NCAA Tournament bid for the program this season for the first time since the 2008-2009 season?
The program is trending up and on the rise! In my opinion, she was a victim of UT higherups deciding that not winning the national championship every single season was unacceptable. All she did was go to the NCAA Tournament in six of her eight seasons in Austin. But UT Athletics Administration likes to strike while the iron is hot, which they did in her final season finishing (19-11) and not making the field of 64.
Their loss.
100% UTSA’s gain and they’re glad to have her!
Baseball / Patrick Hallmark
When Campos hired him away from UIW, I knew him just the slightest bit, and it’s been great to get to know him even better the last handful of seasons.
Another great hire!
He’s won 146 regular season games the last three seasons against 63 losses. Anybody will take that.
The one thing they’ve not done is get to the NCAA Tournament, and that does need to happen soon. That happens with recruiting the right players, playing the right strength of schedule games and winning those games.
I’ve been on the record that the program was slighted by the NCAA Tournament selection committee in 2023. UTSA should have been in the field. He’s bringing talent to San Antonio in the very competitive college baseball regional area that includes Texas, A&M, Texas Tech and Texas State, all College World Series worthy programs.
The Bird Bath, as they call their home field, received much needed upgrades last year. With the new ESPN+ broadcast package that shines the light on UTSA Athletics like never before, expect Coach Hallmark to only keep moving the program forward as long as he himself stays.
It wouldn’t shock me, with some further success, that he’s taking phone calls from other programs looking for the same. Hope not. Love the guy.
Softball / Vann Stuedeman
Pay attention to this hire. I’m gonna do that.
The Roadrunner softball program has been largely irrelevant the past several years, ever since I’ve lived in San Antonio anyway. They finished 15-42 last season in Stuedeman’s first season, and please don’t hold that against her. She needs time.
She needs to get at least the three year window to try and turn things around, maybe even more when you consider what they’d done with the previous regime:
- 2023: 8-41
- 2022: 18-30
- 2021: 15-31
- 2020 (COVID season): 14-11
- 2019: 21-31
You get the picture.
Give the coach some leeway to work with. 15 wins last year doesn’t look good, but it doesn’t look that bad on paper given that she won seven more games in her first year than the previous regime did the year before.
The program hasn’t been relevant, but relevancy just might be on the way.
Volleyball / Carol Price-Torok
After going 8-18 in her first season leading the program, Price-Tork is slowly turning the program around as the team ended last season at .500 with a 15-15 record.
Between the 2021 and 2022 season’s, the team combined for a total of only 16 match wins so there is reason for optimism after winning 15 times just last year.
They have two seniors, two redshirt seniors and then only underclassmen beneath that.
The team added an exhibition tour abroad earlier this summer, so hopefully the bonding experience is something to roll into the regular season.
They open the season with tournament play in Norfolk, Virginia against William & Mary, Old Dominion and Marist before hosting seven straight at the Convocation Center which starts with Texas State on Sept. 4 and then hosting the UTSA Invitational and Roadrunner Classic back to back after that.
As mentioned earlier, the successes are program wide. We’ve seen steady success with the men’s tennis team, golfers from both of those programs with track and field as the cherry on top. All continue to show individual and team wins, but we can't forget about the women’s soccer program as they were 2022 Conference USA Champions!
Dare we say, across the board, UTSA Athletics is primed for success as well as they’ve ever been.
It feels like the golden age of UTSA Athletics, with great things still to come. Football will always steal the headlines, but don’t sleep on any program right now.
Director Of Athletics Lisa Campos has put together something special. #BirdsUp
