This is the Depth Dossier: the UTSA Roadrunners, Week 8.

UTSA tied a school record for takeaways and leaned on its ground game to bury Tulane's home winning streak, winning 42 to 19 once the third quarter hit.

Tulane actually struck first, picking off a pass and returning it 22 yards for a touchdown on the game's opening snap. That was about the last good thing that happened to the Green Wave for a long stretch. UTSA answered by pounding the ball on the ground, getting two first-quarter touchdowns from running back A'Marion Peterson and a huge day from running back Will Henderson the third, who finished with 102 yards and a score. Tulane hung around into halftime, trailing just 21 to 13, but UTSA took over after the break, scoring 14 unanswered points in the third quarter while the defense shut down Tulane's run game. Six takeaways sealed it. UTSA is unbeaten in conference play and has now won three straight games in very different fashion each time.

Let's dig into how it actually happened, because the final score undersells how this one unfolded. UTSA's six takeaways tied a school record, four fumble recoveries and two interceptions. But the number that really tells the story is that third-quarter split, 14 to nothing. Tulane was within a possession at the half after moving the ball through the air and hitting a couple of late field goals. This wasn't a game UTSA controlled from start to finish. It seized it after the break, scoring on its first second-half drive, a 72-yard march capped by Henderson's nine-yard touchdown, then grinding out a 13-play drive that ate nearly six minutes off the clock.

The connective tissue for all of this is third down. UTSA converted 12 of 16 third-down tries, which is 75 percent. That's why UTSA controlled the clock and why Tulane's defense never got a breather after halftime. On the other side, Tulane managed just 67 rushing yards, which means the Green Wave's turnovers mostly came in desperate, pass-only situations once UTSA built a cushion.

A few other things worth flagging. Defensive lineman Owen Pewee had three sacks and three hurries, and his pressure up front is what forced Tulane into that one-dimensional passing mode that led to the turnovers. Despite forcing six takeaways, UTSA actually gave the ball away three times itself, so the turnover margin flattered the final score more than the stat sheet would suggest. And this snapped Tulane's ten-game home winning streak. It also moves UTSA to three and one on the road this season, a real turnaround after going a combined three and ten away from home over the previous two years.

Now, on to the depth chart, where the big story is no story at all. No injuries were reported, which is a quiet win on its own for a UTSA team that's had plenty to track there in recent weeks.

The backfield trio is still the headline. Henderson led the way with that 102-yard, one-touchdown day on just 15 carries, while Peterson punched in two short touchdowns on 12 carries, continuing his run as UTSA's go-to back near the goal line. Together, they helped UTSA tie a program record with six rushing touchdowns in a game, and neither back needed a huge workload to get there, which says a lot about the offensive line and the scheme.

On defense, Pewee's three-sack, three-hurry performance should start drawing more attention to his role in obvious passing situations going forward.

A couple of smaller roster notes: wide receiver Dj Allen Jr. is climbing into a modest rotational role, and linebacker Camron Cooper is now playing roughly a third of the defensive snaps. Both are worth tracking as UTSA keeps rotating pieces during this unbeaten run. The big question heading into next week is whether that third-down efficiency and those third-quarter surges hold up against tougher competition in conference play.

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.