Jeff Traylor has built a reputation on two things that rarely go hand in hand in the Group of Six: finding players nobody else fully trusts, then turning them into real college football assets. At UTSA, that has made him one of the sharpest evaluators and developers around.
The catch is the part he can’t control. Once those players start producing, bigger programs come calling.
That’s the reality of roster management for the Roadrunners, and Traylor says it’s not just a UTSA issue. In the AAC, he said 78 percent of the all-conference players enter the portal to chase opportunities at bigger schools.
UTSA felt that wave again in the 2025 transfer window, when 11 of the 23 outgoing transfers tracked by 247Sports ended up at Power Four programs. Among them were wide receiver Devin McCuin, who moved on to Ohio State, tight end Houston Thomas, who landed at Texas A&M, and edge Kenny Ozowalu, who headed to Oklahoma.
“None of us enjoy turning over our entire roster every year, but that is the way of the new game, right? So you’ve got to adapt or die,” Traylor told Horns247, echoing a phrase commonly used by Nick Saban and Steve Sarkisian.
That churn is especially familiar on defense, where Traylor said those players almost always leave. On offense, his background gives UTSA a better shot at keeping players out of the portal. This spring, at least, the Roadrunners avoided the kind of mass departures that have made previous offseasons so difficult to manage.
Still, Traylor’s reach keeps showing up far beyond San Antonio. Texas has benefited from his eye for talent and his ability to develop it, and Trey Moore is the clearest example.
UTSA made a late evaluation on Moore in the 2021 class, when the undersized edge from Smithson Valley had already put together a huge senior season in 2020: 70 tackles, 19 tackles for loss, eight sacks, 16 quarterback hurries, five pass breakups, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and three blocked kicks. He also earned District 27-6A Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Even with that production, major programs had concerns. Moore was viewed as a tweener - playable at linebacker, but without the height and length that made his edge projection easy to sell against bigger offensive linemen.
When Early Signing Day neared in 2020, his offers were mostly from the Ivy League and smaller regional programs such as Lafayette, Lamar and UIW. UTSA came in with an offer in December, then North Texas and Hawaii joined in January. Moore didn’t commit to the Roadrunners until late July, then enrolled days later.
The payoff came quickly. After a developmental redshirt season, Moore played in the final three games before earning a starting role in 2022. That year he posted 59 total tackles, 30 solo tackles, 18 tackles for loss - a school record - along with eight sacks, six pass breakups, five quarterback hurries, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery, good enough for Freshman All-American honors.
Even while Traylor was publicly raising tampering concerns about his players, Moore stayed in San Antonio despite growing SEC interest.
He got even better in 2023, when he was named AAC Defensive Player of the Year after finishing the regular season with 45 total tackles, 30 solo tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss and a school-record 14 sacks. He also added an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
Eventually, Moore entered the portal and drew official interest from Alabama, LSU and Texas - his dream school. He ended up at Texas, played well enough across two seasons on the Forty Acres, and became a fourth-round pick of the Miami Dolphins in the 2026 NFL Draft.
For Traylor, that kind of arc is the point.
“If you really are about the player and you really are about your coaches, then you should celebrate all that,” Traylor said.
This offseason, UTSA leaned into what Traylor called “practice recruiting,” building relationships with recruits who were expected to sign with bigger schools in the first place, just in case they surfaced in the portal later. Some of it has become so businesslike that Traylor jokes with Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire about a three-for-one deal - the Red Raiders get cornerback Davin Martin, and the Roadrunners get wide receiver TJ West, edge Dylan Spencer and defensive lineman Eddy Smith.
Traylor wants a future draft pick included. McGuire, he said, is not interested.
Even with all the turnover, UTSA’s incoming class still reflects how Traylor operates. Of the 40 players brought into the program, the staff already had a prior relationship with 37 of them.
This year, though, Traylor said the emphasis changed a bit.
“Something we have done a different mindset of this year is we went for production and character, and we didn’t chase talent as much as we have in the past,” Traylor said. “We won’t be as pretty as a team as you see me bring in there. You’ll look at us and go, they’re a little smaller, they’re not as fast because I do believe in G6, all of us are going to be similar.”
To hold the group together, he has also borrowed from the culture-building playbook he knows well. At UTSA, the program’s version is the “triangle of toughness” - “their walk-up song, their favorite Bible verse, and their plan when the crap hits the fan.” Players share their triangle, keep it in their lockers and take it with them on road trips.
“We’re really close. We’re a gritty group. Not as talented as we’ve been, but we’re gritty,” Traylor said.
For Traylor, the mission is personal.
On his own triangle, he said the reason is his players and his staff.
“Everybody in this building is counting on me and this program to get them somewhere,” Traylor said.
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