Less than two days after he was introduced as UTSA head coach, Jeff Traylor has made his first staff hires by naming Daniel Da Prato (special teams coordinator), Nick Graham (cornerbacks), Julian Griffin (running backs), Jess Loepp (safeties/recruiting coordinator) and Matt Mattox (run game coordinator/offensive line) as assistant coaches and retaining Rod Wright as the defensive line coach.
Da Prato will serve as the Roadrunners’ special teams coordinator and he comes to the Alamo City from Arkansas, where he spent the 2019 season overseeing special teams. Before his time in Fayetteville, Da Prato was the director of quality control for the offense at Colorado for three years. He also spent three seasons as the special teams coordinator/tight ends coach at Montana State, six seasons as the receivers coach at Sacramento State and three years on the staff at his alma mater, ULM.
Graham will coach UTSA’s cornerbacks and he joins Traylor’s staff after spending the 2019 season at McNeese and the previous three seasons as an assistant coach at Central Oklahoma. Previously, he spent three years at his alma mater, Tulsa, where he was a student assistant in 2013 before serving as defensive analyst during the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
Griffin joins the UTSA coaching staff as running backs coach after serving as the offensive quality control assistant for the last two seasons at Arkansas and in the same role at SMU in 2017. Before his time at SMU, Griffin was the wide receivers/special teams coordinator at Central Methodist (Mo.) in 2016. He was the offensive graduate assistant at ULM, his alma mater, in 2015-16, after a three-year swing as the running backs coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville.
Loepp will serve as UTSA’s safeties coach and recruiting coordinator. He comes to San Antonio from Arkansas, where he spent the 2019 season as the Razorbacks’ offensive analyst. Previously, he spent eight total years at Tulsa — six as a full-time assistant coach (2007, 2010-2014), three as a graduate assistant coach (2003-05) and one as director of high school relations (2009). He also has coached at Rice, SMU and on the high school level.
Mattox will be the Roadrunners’ run game coordinator and offensive line coach. He comes to UTSA from McNeese State, where he spent the 2019 season as the offensive coordinator. A 17-year coaching veteran, Mattox also has spent time at Bowling Green (2014), Eastern Illinois (2013), Texas (2016), Tulsa (2015), USF (2017-18) and on the junior college level.
Wright will return for his second year as UTSA’s defensive line coach. In 2018, the defense shattered the program’s single-season records for tackles for loss with 96 and also set season standards for sacks (2.2) and tackles for loss (8.0) per game. He previously coached the defensive line at East Carolina in 2018 and Sam Houston State from 2014 to 2017 after serving as a defensive special assistant at Texas in 2010-13.
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