This is the Depth Dossier: the UTSA Roadrunners, Week 7.

UTSA needed another big play from its running back to beat Navy, and this time it came through the air instead of on the ground, as the Roadrunners won 38 to 34.

They had to climb out of a hole to get there. Navy jumped ahead 14 to nothing before quarterback Owen McCown and the offense answered with 21 straight points in the second quarter, getting touchdowns from wide receiver Mekhi Anderson, running back Brandon Young, and running back A'Marion Peterson. From there it turned into a shootout, with four lead changes in the fourth quarter alone. Peterson settled it with a 41-yard touchdown catch with 2:24 left, giving UTSA the lead for good. McCown finished with a season-high 359 yards passing and three touchdowns with no interceptions, and the defense got one final stop on downs to close it out. That's UTSA's third game-winning drive of the season, and it puts them at 6 and 1 overall, 3 and 0 in conference play.

Dig a little deeper, and the real story is how they got there. Navy's first two drives covered 14 points, including a 92-yard march, and UTSA's answer wasn't to lean on the run. The Roadrunners actually had their worst rushing night of the season outside the Texas game, just 110 yards on 32 carries. Instead, McCown went to the air, completing 28 of 38 passes, mostly short throws, once Navy started showing blitzes and line stunts UTSA hadn't prepared for on film.

Navy's own offense had the opposite problem. The Midshipmen piled up 183 yards on jet sweeps and perimeter runs, compared to just 76 yards on runs up the middle. UTSA's defense was getting beat on the edge early, and that forced Navy into more trick plays and play action as the game wore on.

The gutsiest call of the night came right after Young's touchdown tied the score at 14. UTSA dialed up a surprise onside kick, its first of the season, and recovered it, which set up Peterson's go-ahead touchdown a few plays later. That's the kind of call that looks either brilliant or reckless depending on the bounce, and it worked.

It's also worth noting the night carried real weight beyond the field. A U.S. Air Force service member died in a pregame rappelling demonstration, kickoff was delayed about ten minutes, and head coach Jeff Traylor said the crowd's energy noticeably disappeared afterward. Nobody's tying that directly to how the game played out, but it's part of the backdrop.

Now, to the depth chart. The injury to watch is wide receiver David Amador the second, who left in the fourth quarter after a 12-yard catch on the go-ahead drive. His status for next week hasn't been confirmed.

As for roles, Peterson keeps making the coaching staff's job easy. A week after a big rushing day against South Florida bumped him up to the number two spot on the depth chart, he delivered the headline play again, this time catching a 41-yard touchdown that shows he's just as dangerous through the air as he is on the ground. Running back Will Henderson the third is still very much in the mix too, leading the team with 78 rushing yards and a 31-yard touchdown that briefly put UTSA back in front in the fourth quarter. Between McCown, Peterson, and Henderson, UTSA now has three different players who've delivered a game-winning or go-ahead score in back-to-back weeks. It's less a change at this point than confirmation that this offense has more than one way to beat you late.

Nothing else on the depth chart moved enough to mention this week. Going forward, keep an eye on Amador's availability, and on whether this pass-heavy approach under pressure becomes UTSA's new blueprint or was just a one-week answer built specifically for Navy.

This was the depth dossier. For everything college football, be it depth charts, data or dossiers, head over to C F B Depth dot com. We will be back next week. This was an AI-generated podcast from content developed by real human beings passionate about college football.