Bacone College, perhaps the most mysterious fixture on UTSA's inaugural schedule, took creativity to new heights with its recent purchase of a vacant Walmart building.

The one-time shopping hub of Muskogee, Okla., is being remodeled into a wing of the college that will include, among other facilities, a weight room and three indoor practice fields for the football team.

It's a project Roadrunners head coach Larry Coker looks at with more than a little envy.

"We don't have a Walmart," he said.

With the many millions the Roadrunners still need to raise for their planned Park West athletic center, they could certainly use one.

In the meantime, Coker's team, which continues to work out at Farris Stadium, doesn't even have its own practice field.

It does have an Alamodome, however, where the two teams will meet Saturday at 1 p.m. in UTSA's first homecoming football game. Not even a converted Walmart can match that.

Indeed, Coker wondered whether Bacone might play in front of as many fans on Saturday as it has in its entire 11-year history.

That could pose a problem for the Warriors, whose first-year coach, Trevor Rubly, said his team had been unnerved by the crowd in their opening loss at Northeastern State. And that was only 6,275 people, roughly a fourth of what UTSA is hoping to draw.

The risk is well worth the exposure for Bacone, of which Rubly said he knew nothing when he first learned of the job.

"When I was looking for a job, I said, 'Bacone, I wonder where that is?'" he said. "ESPN doesn't follow our games. I think we're getting on the map a little bit, but it's a work in progress. Games like this won't hurt."

Despite the obvious differences between Bacone and UTSA — location and ambition being just two — they share one significant similarity. Specifically, the resourcefulness required to run a football program with limited budgets, as evidenced by Bacone's Walmart makeover.

"We make do with what we have," Rubly said.

Which isn't much, even with the strong support Rubly said he gets from the school's administration.

The Warriors, who compete in the NAIA, have an annual supply budget of roughly $30,000 — or about what the University of Texas might spend a year on bottled water.

That money will have to be stretched even further after Rubly decided to splurge on new road uniforms.

"That ate up a big chunk," he said.

Rubly also has to develop and manage his team with less help. Coker has nine assistants and a full support staff; Rubly has only four.

Then there's the matter of scholarship money. Bacone does provide financial assistance, but only through an arcane percentage system that even Rubly struggles to explain.

"We treat it like a business," he said. "The guys who are playing, they're getting the major money. The guys coming up, they're trying to earn it."

It's a world away from the opulence he experienced at Missouri, where he spent two years as a graduate assistant. That's where Rubly, 33, caught the bug for the big time, a level he hopes to some day work his way back to.

Until then, he'll continue to make do with what he has at Bacone.

"I was there," he said. "I smelled it, I breathed it, I loved it. But I'm here, I love it, I enjoy the kids, it's a great opportunity."

dmccarney@express-news.net