By Sam Weiderhaft
The UTSA Roadrunners (7-6) dominated from start to finish and grabbed a 44-15 victory over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (6-7) in the 2024 Myrtle Beach Bowl at Brooks Stadium on Monday. The win is the second bowl game victory in a row for UTSA, who beat Marshall in the 2023 Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl last year. Coastal Carolina finished the season with a losing record for the first time since 2019.
“Really excited about how my team went through a lot of adversity,” Roadrunners’ head coach Jeff Traylor said. “They just continued to get better after the start we had in the season, we really finished strong.”
The Roadrunners used a balanced attack offensively with almost identical numbers as they passed for 256 yards and ran for 257, totaling 513 yards of offense. Quarterback Owen McCown, who was named the Myrtle Beach Bowl MVP after his performance, went 23-30 with 254 passing yards and a touchdown while being intercepted just once. He rushed for 37 more yards and a touchdown on the ground as well. His favorite target was David Amador II, who caught seven passes for 110 yards. Will Henderson III led the way on the ground, with five rushes for 81 yards and a rushing touchdown.
“It’s just a resemblance of the offense,” McCown said after being named MVP. “My job is to get to the playmakers, it starts up front with those guys.”
Defensively, UTSA held Coastal Carolina to just 98 rushing yards and racked up four sacks on the day, led by defensive lineman Barry Brown, who finished with two. The Roadrunners forced one turnover with Jakevian Rodgers snatching an interception on a fake punt in the third quarter.
Playing as the visiting team in their home stadium, Coastal Carolina picked up 271 yards of total offense with 173 of those through the air. In his first collegiate start, Quarterback Tad Hudson completed 17 of his 26 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns. Bryson Graves led the receiving unit with a pair of catches for 53 yards and a score. Running back Braydon Bennett rushed for 54 yards on 22 tries to pace the ground game.
Linebacker Shane Bruce forced the only UTSA turnover with an interception in the third quarter and finished with seven total tackles. Safety Juan Powell led the defense with nine total tackles.
Penalties were abundant in Monday’s matchup, as both teams tallied 10. Coastal Carolina lost 96 yards on their penalties, while UTSA dropped back 87 yards.
After a quiet opening quarter, the Roadrunners took control by reaching the end zone on three straight drives in the second. After starting on their own 38 yard line, UTSA drove 62 yards down the field in just seven plays which was capped off with a nine-yard touchdown run by Brandon High for the game’s first touchdown with 14:00 left in the second quarter.
On their next drive, McCown connected with Amador II for a 38-yard completion to the Coastal 43 yard line on the first play. A few plays later, McCown found some open space to run and broke free for a 35-yard touchdown run to extend the UTSA lead to 14-0.
Following the fifth consecutive punt by the Chanticleers, UTSA used little time to push their lead to three scores in the middle of the second quarter. Bryson Donnell rushed for 19 yards to the Coastal 38-yard-line on the first play, and Amador II followed with a 16-yard run that was extended by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Chanticleers to place the ball on the 11. McCown finished it off with a six-yard completion to Patrick Overmyer that stretched the Roadrunners’ advantage to 21-0.
UTSA continued to lengthen their lead after halftime with a pair of field goals in the third quarter. After pushing the ball to the Coastal 20-yard line to open up the frame, kicker Tate Sandell knocked a field goal in from 38 yards out. Sandell’s second field goal came later in the quarter from 27 yards as the Roadrunners continued their charge up 27-0.
The Chanticleers finally struck the scoreboard in the beginning of the fourth quarter as Hudson found Graves through the air for a 50-yard touchdown, the first of Hudson’s career.
On the returning kickoff, Chris Carpenter navigated through the Chanticleers kickoff team and ran 93 yards into the end zone for another Roadrunners’ touchdown, as their lead grew to 34-7.
Sandell made his third field goal of the game later in the fourth from 29 yards out.
Both teams traded touchdowns in the closing minutes, as Hudson connected with Senika McKie for a nine-yard Chanticleer touchdown with a two-point conversion. UTSA’s finishing touches were put on by Henderson III, who rushed for a 51-yard touchdown on the first play of the next UTSA drive and the score went final at 44-15.
