How the brand-new UTRGV football program impacts recruiting at UTSA, Incarnate Word

EDINBURG, Texas – Eddie Lee Marburger is happy to be home again.

A handful of years ago, the idea that the now-former University of Texas at San Antonio quarterback would return to the Rio Grande Valley as a college football player was totally impossible.

In spring 2021, Marburger graduated from Sharyland Pioneer High School in Mission and earned a scholarship to play football at UTSA. The University of Texas System’s Board of Regents didn’t approve the creation of a football program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) until Nov. 17, 2022.

Marburger’s varsity career as a Pioneer Diamondback sophomore began with an inauspicious start. The high school, which also had a relatively new football program in 2018, kicked off its season on the road against the Harlingen Cardinals, one of the most consistent winners in Valley football history.

Marburger (145 passing yards, one touchdown, two interceptions) and his young Diamondbacks lost 64-17 against a Cardinals team that had as many as 40 high school seniors on their roster.

“That Harlingen game was a rough one,” Marburger told KSAT. “That was tough, and then I ended up not playing quarterback until later in the year.”

Marburger wasn’t deterred. In 2019, he led Pioneer to 11 straight wins after losing a much closer 42-41 game to Harlingen to start that season. The Diamondbacks’ season ended in a 45-38 loss to Boerne Champion, but not before he threw for 476 yards, two touchdowns and ran for three more scores.

Marburger’s 2020 season may be one of the most absurd individual seasons in Valley football history. He threw for 3,365 yards and 36 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,177 yards and 26 additional touchdowns.

His signature performance was in the UIL Class 5A regional semifinal game when Marburger went for 444 yards through the air and four scores and then ran for 247 yards and six more TDs in a 77-64 win against Georgetown Eastview.

By the time his high school career wrapped up, Marburger had the most passing touchdowns in RGV high school football history.

“That team was phenomenal, though,” Marburger said. “We had really good receivers. Once my junior year came, we had Lavar Lindo, Luke Padilla, Tristan Castillo, Gavin de la Garza, Allen Davila. Dude, I had absolute studs around me. It was pretty easy for me, man. I just had to get those guys the ball, and they did all the work. So, when you guys say, ‘Oh, you had all these touchdowns.’ That wasn’t really me, man. It was honestly all those guys.”

The road back home

After four seasons in San Antonio and UTRGV embarking on its first-ever season in 2025, Marburger took a leap of faith and put his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal.

“I took lots of thoughts and prayers into this and ended up deciding to come back home, man,” Marburger, who is now a redshirt senior, said. “It’s been, honestly, a blessing. I’m grateful that God gave me this opportunity. I’m just ready to make the most of it.”

The transfer portal remains a sensitive topic of discussion in college athletics. Many experienced coaches have lamented it, such as Michigan State’s NCAA championship-winning men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo.

“The transfer portal is way worse than NIL (name, image and likeness),” Izzo, 70, told CBS Sports in an interview last week. “What the transfer portal does is give a lot of middlemen a chance to come in. What I think is bothering me and my sport the most is the way people are tampering with people throughout the year.”

According to first-year UTRGV head coach Travis Bush, nothing like that happened with Marburger’s time in the portal.

“He (Eddie) called us,” Bush told KSAT. “When things didn’t work out there at UTSA, he got in the portal. We were looking for an older guy. He called us, and it was a no-brainer from the get-go. … A couple of weeks later, he was on the roster.”

Unsurprisingly, Bush officially named Marburger as his starter under center ahead of the Vaqueros’ first-ever game against Sul Ross State. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at Robert & Janet Vackar Stadium in Edinburg.

UTRGV’s football stadium is located approximately 16 miles northeast of the high school stadium where Marburger played home football games in Mission.

“Eddie’s going to start the first game for us,” Bush said. “He’s come down. He’s earned it. He’s got that experience, and I’m excited about what he brings to the table.”

UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor, Marburger’s former coach, said he still likes to check in with Marburger to see how he’s doing.

“I want to see him do well. He deserves to do well,” Traylor said. “He stayed here and competed his tail off. I’ve said that many times: Eddie is an example of why the transfer portal is good. That’s why it was a good thing. Now, it’s got us all scared because our backup quarterback hasn’t played a rep, and Eddie’s played a lot of football. But, still, the kid deserves an opportunity to start. And I hope he gets to do that in front of his grandfather and his family.”

The continued growth of college football

College football is officially bigger than it ever has been.

According to the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, UTRGV is one of four brand-new football operations starting up this fall nationwide, along with Maine Maritime Academy, Roanoke College (Virginia) and the University of Rio Grande (no relation) in Ohio.

In all, 777 colleges and universities will take the field in 2025.

The addition of UTRGV now makes an astounding 23 NCAA Division I football programs in the Lone Star State, including the 10th Texas program in the Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS, portion of D-I.

The foundation also said nine more schools, including Schreiner University in Kerrville, are planning to field football teams, as well.

According to its athletics website, the Mountaineers are holding practices and developmental games this fall before launching as a full-fledged NCAA Division III football program in 2026.

A new sheriff in South Texas

UTRGV is in the unique position of being a UT System school, like UTSA, despite having direct, on-the-field competition against another San Antonio school — the University of the Incarnate Word — in the Southland Conference.

However, when it comes to recruiting in America’s most football-rich state, the Vaqueros will have to fend off the Roadrunners, Cardinals and the other 20 Division I teams in college football’s ultimate arms race.

For a new program, UTRGV appears to be well-suited and well-funded as any starting from scratch.

In February 2024, the university announced it had purchased its football home, which was the former home of the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros soccer team before it folded in December 2023. One month later, two of UTRGV’s more prominent boosters, Robert and Janet Vackar, ponied up a $20 million gift that officially gave the stadium its new name.

After its pricey new buy, the university had to modify the soccer stadium into a football stadium. Approximately 2,000 more seats were also added to the facility’s official capacity, which now stands at 12,000.

The maximum allotment of 2025 season tickets (6,000) was officially sold out in September 2024. All 3,000 student tickets for Saturday night’s game have also been claimed.

Earlier this week, UTRGV football players got their first look inside the new Vaqueros Performance Center, which is located on campus just north of the UTRGV Baseball Stadium.

“Like anyone else, we just have to get them (recruits) down here,” Bush said. “A lot of guys (when) we get them down here, they realize, if they haven’t been down here, that the Valley is a metroplex. You have everything that you have in San Antonio. … What we’re building is probably going to be the nicest in the conference, and their daily lives down here are going to be really good.”

UTRGV’s big moves have certainly gotten the attention of their San Antonio counterparts, including UIW.

“I think we have a great brand, and I think we have a great program. Obviously, Texas is overcrowded in terms of Division I schools as it is. So, it’s always a battle out there recruiting kids,” UIW head coach Clint Killough told KSAT. “UTRGV — every school in the Southland Conference — provides a great opportunity for a young man to get an education and play football. We’re going to continue to recruit our tails off. We’ve done a great job thus far, and we’re not going to worry about other people. We’re just going to worry about ourselves in that regard.”

The Cardinals started their 2025 season with a No. 4 ranking in the FCS preseason poll before dropping their season opener to Nicholls on Aug. 23.

“We have a head start on them. Just like UIW (who) started over a decade ago, we had some growing pains,” UIW athletic director Dr. Richard Duran told KSAT. “I think (UT)RGV, and the amount of resources that are pouring into that program, is going to be really exciting to have a new rival down there in the Valley to play football against. We look forward to it. We’re their homecoming game this year (on Oct. 25), so, you know, typically, we’re not someone’s homecoming game. But we’re excited to be that for UTRGV and the Vaqueros this year.”

Traylor, as he prepared to face Texas A&M on Saturday night in College Station, took more of a holistic approach to winning in Texas.

“It’s good for us all, though, when we’re good,” Traylor said. “It’s not what the UTSA fans want to hear, but it’s just good for all of us when everybody in Texas is good.”

KSAT made multiple requests to speak with Dr. Lisa Campos regarding UTRGV football. Campos, UTSA’s Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics, was unavailable for a sit-down interview.

Knowing the terrain

Having nice facilities is just that: nice. But it’s not enough to convince a football recruit to verbally commit and eventually sign a letter of intent.

In addition to NIL, college programs will also need coaches who are well-connected with the more than 1,500 high school football teams statewide.

UTRGV’s Bush and UTSA’s Traylor — as well as Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire — are former Texas high school head football coaches before they became Division I head coaches in the state.

“First, my name doesn’t need to be in the same sentence with those two guys,” Bush said with a smile. “They are phenomenal dudes, but they are guys I look up to. They’ve been extremely helpful through this process (at UTRGV) over the last two-and-a-half years. Those are two guys that I’ve sought out and spent time with.”

The Vaqueros have 16 student-athletes on their 2025 football roster from San Antonio and the surrounding areas. There are 12 additional players from the RGV.

Traylor pointed to the Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA) as an important force in football recruiting. This year’s annual convention was held in San Antonio.

“You’ve got to have inroads there,” Traylor said. “There have been guys that have been successful without it, but it sure helps to have it. If you ever lose the support of the THSCA, your tenure is going to be ending pretty quickly. … But the THSCA does way more than just have power politically. They teach you how to treat children. That’s what they do the best, indoctrinating us at a very young age of what the purpose of the game is: to teach life.”

Preparing for liftoff

When Bush, the former Seguin and New Braunfels coach, runs onto the sideline on Saturday, it will not only be a historic first for the university. It will also be the first live game he has coached in since 2022.

Is Bush afraid he may have forgotten how to coach after nearly three full years?

“We’ll find out,” Bush grinned. “It’ll be good to get those juices flowing again on a Saturday. I’m more excited just to watch these guys play. The guys that have been here from Day 1 — we’ve practiced for so long. They’re so excited. You should have seen them in the (Robert and Janet Vackar) stadium the other day.

“At this point in my career, it’s never really about me. It’s really about those young men. To see them have this opportunity, that’s what I’m looking forward to most.”

More related coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Former New Braunfels Canyon, Seguin football coach heads home to build foundation at UTRGV
• College football coaches share wisdom at Texas high school coaches’ convention