After making its first bowl trip in school history, UTSA coach Frank Wilson senses his team wants much more.

The Roadrunners were a surprise in 2016 after being picked to finish near Conference USA’s cellar before the season.

But a 23-20 loss to New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl left the team with a 6-7 record it is aiming to improve in Wilson’s second season.

“Getting to bowl games isn’t good enough,” Wilson said. “We want to win it.”

That determination is noticeable for Wilson with the approach of Monday’s first day of spring practice.

“We’re eager,” Wilson said. “You know why? It was unfinished business. I’m very proud of the job our team did a year ago, but we’re eager to build ourselves in a bowl game and put ourselves in position to win it. There’s work to be done to get to that point and we’re prepared to do it.”

UTSA will practice three times next week before taking the following week off for spring break. The Roadrunners then will return to practice for the next four weeks before their spring game Apr. 15 at Farris Stadium.

Senior defensive end Marcus Davenport detects a new attitude permeating the program from earlier in his career.

“The intensity is different,” Davenport said. “I can see changes in my teammates. The attitude and everything. I like it.”

Davenport agrees that the team still has an emptiness after last season’s bowl loss.

“The energy is different,” Davenport said. “After what we’ve accomplished last year, we only want to do better. It’s driving us to another level.”

Wilson made one change on his coaching staff after former defensive line coach Eric Henderson left for a job with the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers. Wilson wasted little time by adding old friend Bo Davis, who he has known for more than 20 years going back to his days a high school coach in New Orleans, when Davis was a strength coach at LSU.

Davis most recently was a member of Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama before he was fired for an NCAA recruiting violation last spring. During his time away from football, Davis worked with a trucking firm in Birmingham, Alabama, to help provide for his family along with his settlement from Alabama.

“For a man, there’s no job too big or too small,” Wilson said. “Bo was compensated by the University of Alabama and could have sat home and done nothing, but that’s not what a man does.

“A man gets up every day and gets his hands greasy and goes to work. He was eager to get back into football. He’s a wonderful addition to our football staff and I think we’ll reap the benefits out of him this fall with our defensive line.”

Among the players Wilson confirmed will miss spring practice are safety Nate Gaines (shoulder), running back Brett Winnegan (wrist), offensive lineman Austin Pratt (several assorted injuries) and fullback Halen Steward (knee). All of them are expected to be ready for the start of summer practice as the Roadrunners work to their Sept. 2 opener against Houston at the Alamodome.

tgriffin@express-news.net