Photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images Sport / Getty Images
Former UTSA head football coach Larry Coker has landed on the 2025 ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame, the National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame announced on Monday.
A member of the UTSA Athletics Inaugural Hall of Fame Class inducted in October 2023, Coker is one of nine coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivision who appear on the latest ballot along with 77 FBS players and 101 players and 34 coaches from the divisional ranks.
Hired on March 6, 2009, to start the UTSA football program from scratch, Coker led the Roadrunners to new heights as one of the most successful startup programs of the modern era. Following a practice season in 2010, UTSA made national headlines starting with the inaugural game when an NCAA startup program-record 56,743 fans filed into the Alamodome on Sept. 3, 2011, to watch the Roadrunners defeat Northeastern State — Coker’s alma mater — by a score of 31-3. UTSA went on to average 35,521 fans for six home games during a 4-6 debut season with a team composed of largely freshmen and sophomores.
Under Coker’s leadership, the Roadrunners doubled their win total in year two, posting an 8-4 overall record and finishing fourth behind three bowl-eligible teams in the Western Athletic Conference with a 3-3 mark in 2012. UTSA, which was in its first year of reclassifying to FBS and not eligible to play in a bowl game, led the WAC in average home attendance (29,226) that fall.
Coker’s UTSA squad made a splash in its debut season as a member of Conference USA in 2013. The Roadrunners reeled off five straight wins to end the campaign and finish with a 7-5 overall record against a schedule that included seven bowl teams. UTSA was in contention for the Conference USA West Division crown entering the final week of the season and finished second with a 6-2 league ledger. The young program also continued to compile impressive attendance numbers by averaging 29,214 fans in six home games, which ranked second in on the league.
Coker guided the Roadrunners to several more key victories over his final two seasons at the helm, including a 27-7 upset of Houston in the 2014 season opener on national television in the first game played at the Cougars’ TDECU Stadium. The Okemah, Oklahoma, native coached UTSA’s first All-American and NFL draft pick in tight end David Morgan II, the program’s first NFL first-round selection and three-time all-conference performer in defensive end Marcus Davenport, Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist and three-time all-league in safety Triston Wade and future NFL players Ashaad Mabry, Jason Neill, Bennett Okotcha, Brian Price, Kevin Strong Jr., Dalton Sturm and Jarveon Williams during his time in San Antonio.
The head coach at Miami (Fla.) from 2001 to 2006, Coker posted a 60-15 record (.800) in six seasons, including wins in his first 24 games (first coach since Walter Camp in 1888-89 to do so) in Coral Gables. He led the Hurricanes to the 2001 National Championship in his first season, becoming just the second coach in NCAA history to do so and the first in 53 years.
Coker was a two-time National Coach of the Year (2001-02), American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Region Coach of the Year (2001, ‘05) and Big East Coach of the Year (2001-02) honoree. He led the Hurricanes to a pair of Bowl Championship Series (BCS) title game appearances, three BCS bowl games, a total of six bowl contests overall and three consecutive Big East Conference Championships from 2001-03 during his tenure.
Coker finished his head coaching career with a record of 86-47 (.647) and he mentored more than 25 All-Americans, nearly 100 first-team all-conference selections and more than 90 academic all-conference honorees. He was inducted into both the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and Miami Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.
"It's an enormous honor to just be on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot considering more than 5.7 million people have played college football and only 1,093 players have been inducted," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. "The Hall's requirement of being a First-Team All-American creates a much smaller pool of about 1,500 individuals who are even eligible. Being in today's elite group means an individual is truly among the greatest to have ever played the game, and we look forward to announcing the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame Class early next year."