UTSA’s Soza welcomes chance to play with the ‘big dogs’

[Harry]

IRVING — UTSA quarterback Eric Soza barely had time to check into his hotel room Tuesday afternoon when he was summoned to do a live radio interview with broadcasters from Louisiana covering the Conference USA media days.

One of the first questions to him centered on how he felt about UTSA’s schedule, the toughest by far in the program’s existence.

Soza answered by saying he’s excited to compete in C-USA and that he welcomed the opportunity to play the ”big dogs” of college football this fall.

“One of the things that brought recruits to UTSA (initially) is that the administration told us we were going to play Division I football,” Soza said. “(Administrators told us) if we’re in a Division I conference or not, we’re going to play these guys.

“I think that put a chip on our shoulders. We want to see how good we are . . . We want to play the big dogs.”

Soza agreed that moving into Conference USA, in only the program’s third year, has been something of a whirlwind.

“For sure, it’s a great problem to have, (moving) this fast into the FBS, into Division I,” the 6-foot senior from Beeville said. “I don’t think anyone at UTSA knew we were going to be doing it at this speed. It’s a great problem to have. We’re excited to get to work and (play) in this great conference.”

UTSA played its inaugural season in 2011 as an FCS independent, posting a 4-6 record against a schedule dotted with opponents from the FCS, Division II and Division III.

Last year, fielding a team consisting of only 67 scholarship athletes, the Roadrunners moved up a level into the FBS Western Athletic Conference.

They executed dramatic internal improvement, finishing 8-4, including 4-4 against FBS programs with 85 scholarships. They finished fourth in the WAC at 3-3.

Read more: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/utsa/2013/07/utsas-soza-welcomes-chance-to-play-with-big-dogs-this-year/