AUSTIN, Texas – The non-conference season continues for the No. 2 seed Texas Longhorns as head coach Steve Sarkisian’s team looks to avoid disappointment against the UTSA Roadrunners on Saturday at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin following last week’s dominant win over the No. 10 seed Michigan Wolverines.

Head coach Jeff Traylor and his Roadrunners find themselves in the opposite situation – trying to recover from a 49-10 loss to the Bobcats in San Marcos, arguably the worst defeat of Traylor’s tenure in San Antonio.

Texas is favored by 35.5 points, according to FanDuel, in the second meeting between the two teams, which are just over 80 miles apart. The Horns won the first game of 2022 41-20.

Before the game

Before the Longhorns and Roadrunners came out for final warmups before kickoff, the focus turned to Texas’ injury situation as the school announced that junior running back Jaydon Blue (ankle), redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Aaron Bryant (knee) and sophomore safety Jelani McDonald will miss Saturday’s game.

Blue suffered a right ankle injury in the first quarter against Michigan but returned late in the first half. It’s less clear when Bryant and McDonald sustained their injuries.

Freshman safety Xavier Filsaime is also not selected for the Longhorns.

Here are Texas’ captains for tonight’s game, a group that includes redshirt junior edge Trey Moore, who spent his first three seasons at UTSA:

First quarter

UTSA received the opening kickoff and got off to a fast start when quarterback Owen McCown completed a pass to burly tight end Oscar Cardenas for an 11-yard gain, but then faltered just as quickly, throwing a wide receiver screen on third-and-9 for a 3-yard gain before deflecting an angled kick from Texas senior wide receiver Silas Bolden that went out of bounds at the 16-yard line.

On a play-action rollout to the left, Texas redshirt junior quarterback Quinn Ewers threw to junior wide receiver Matthew Golden for 11 yards and then threw a shorter pass to junior wide receiver Isaiah Bond, who gained the same yardage after outsmarting the first defender. Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian dialed a shot play on the next snap with Ewers targeting Golden on a post route instead of Bond on a double move, leaving the pass incomplete.

Ewers stayed in the air and connected with first-year wide receiver Ryan Wingo over the middle for 16 yards before throwing a quick pass to Bond, who gained another 16 yards. A push pass to second-year wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. didn’t even count as a first run for the Horns and only gained one yard. Ewers threw another quick pass and hit second-year wide receiver Ryan Niblett, who took advantage of a block by senior tight end Gunnar Helm to gain 15 yards.

Looking for a wheel route to sophomore running back Quintrevion Wisner, Ewers opted to throw to senior tight end Juan Davis, who was coming up the middle while the Roadrunners were penalized for holding sophomore wide receiver Johntay Cook on the other side of the field. Ewers finished the drive with a run-pass option that Bond returned for a seven-yard touchdown.