The 2022 Duluth Trading Cure Bowl between the UTSA Roadrunners and the Troy Trojans will feature a dynamic offense versus a stout defense.
Led by quarterback Frank Harris, the Roadrunners enter the game ranked 9th overall in total offense in the FBS, and 12th in scoring, averaging 38.7 points per game.
Recommended Videos
Trojans Head Coach Jon Sumrall knows his defense is facing a tough test.
“Yeah, the first thing that sticks out is, I’m a defensive-minded head coach, and I usually look for where’s the weakness of the team. And I don’t see it and usually, I can find an area where I go, we can attack here or we can do this,” Sumrall said.
“And then the next thing I do is, where’s the strength? And their strengths are many. It does start with the quarterback. He is a phenomenal player, but they’re extremely explosive. They do a lot of things schematically that attack you and make you vulnerable to a lot of different things from a leverage standpoint. And so good scheme, good players dynamic, it’s as good of offense as we’ve played all year. I mean, we played some good teams. We played Ole Miss in game one. I think this is the best offense we played this entire season.”
On the flip side, the Trojans are ranked 19th overall in total defense, and 8th in the nation in scoring defense allowing just 17.54 points per game.
“I don’t think it adds any pressure to us,” Roadrunners quarterback Frank Harris said. “Got to go out there, play our brand of football. I mean, they’re a great, great defense. They’re very scrappy on all cylinders up front. In the back end, they’re very good. I would say that they’re in the top 10 for a reason. Be a great test for us offensively, but we’ve got to go out there, trust our training, trust the game plan, and go out and execute. Let everything else take care of yourself.”
UTSA has scored 30 or more points in 12 of 13 games this season. The lone exception was the Roadrunners’ 41-20 loss to the Texas Longhorns in Week 3.
Troy allowed more than 30 points just once this season, and they lost that game 32-28 at Appalachian State.
The Roadrunners and Trojans will clash in the Cure Bowl on Friday, 2:00 p.m. at Exploria Stadium in Orlando.