Jeff Traylor, the head football coach at the University of Texas-San Antonio, has some interesting motivational tactics for his players, but the UTEP coach was not prepared for it to backfire the way that it did.
JJ Perez, who covers the Roadrunners for Inside Runner Sports, revealed that Traylor puts rat traps with cheese in players’ lockers to keep them focused and symbolize “don’t eat the cheese.”
Well, one player thought they’d play a little joke on the head coach and placed a loaded trap on Traylor’s podium. While he wanted his players to stay focused, Traylor was caught lacking and the trap went off and smashed his finger.
He revealed the unfortunate backfiring of his tactics to the media this week.
Here’s @CoachTraylor answering @theJJPerez about a player putting a loaded rat trap on his podium: “it looks like my pinky got smashed by a hammer. It woulda killed a lesser man.” https://t.co/rrT8GRBdfb pic.twitter.com/emQ5LSX1ml
— Dave Wilson (@dwil) October 23, 2023
“I put my hand there and it looks like my pinky got smashed by a hammer,” Traylor said. “It would have killed a lesser man, but I’m OK.”
When he’s not busy smashing his finger in rat traps, Traylor has found a lot of success with the Roadrunners. Traylor has a 34-13 record as head coach at UTSA and has led the program to back-to-back Conference USA titles.
UTSA is currently on a three-game winning streak since a blowout loss to No. 21 Tennessee.
Up next for UTSA is a home game at the Alamodome in Week 9 on Saturday, October 28, against the East Carolina Pirates. Kickoff between ECU and UTSA is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
