UTSA has one of the most-underrated home environments in college football. First-year South Florida coach Brian Hartline, though, is one of multiple coaches to have called for conspiracy on the Roadrunners' raucous crowd.
UTSA has a 35-5 home record compared to a 22-2 road mark under seventh-year coach Jeff Traylor, thanks to its home crowd at the famed Alamodome in San Antonio. Hartline, however, questioned how the stadium gets so loud in the lead up to UTSA-USF on Thursday, Oct. 8, in a battle between one-loss American teams.
"I've heard that it's really loud there. I'm trying to figure out what the population size is," Hartline said. "I don't know how
it gets so loud if there's not a lot of people there."
Hartline isn't the first coach to have doubted the Alamodome's noise levels despite UTSA's relatively low attendance numbers. UTSA reported 33,403 fans in attendance at its season-opening win over UT-Rio Grande Valley and only 17,109 against Colorado State on Sept. 26, although the stadium seats 64,000.
UTSA ranked seventh in the American last season with an average of 24,361 fans per game.
Previous Alamodome crowd noise skepticism
Former Houston coach Dana Holgorsen claimed UTSA pumps artificial noise into its indoor stadium before the Cougars faced the Roadrunners to open the 2022 season. Former Tulane coach Jon Sumrall, who's now at Florida, shared a similar sentiment before facing UTSA last season.
"There's rumors they pump crowd noise into their speakers and artificially make that thing as loud as they can, which is against NCAA rules," Holgorsen said.
Sumrall also said: "I think they may pipe some in through the speakers. I don't think it's legal. I don't think anybody's investigating it. We've just got to be ready to deal with it. That's helped them create a home-field advantage."
UTSA issued a statement to the San Antonio Express-News that denied those rumors.
"We have never needed to pump in artificial crowd noise because our fans are so passionate that they make the Alamodome the best home field advantage in the American Conference," a UTSA spokesperson told the news outlet. "We encourage our fans to come show South Florida just how loud they can be by coming out in force on Thursday and screaming their heads off every time South Florida is on offense."
The Brian Hartline Special at UTSA
UTSA is having some fun with Hartline's comments, too, with a ticket package labeled as "The Brian Hartline Special." The school posted the clip of Hartline questioning the Roadrunners' crowd on X next to a promotional flier offering fans $9 tickets through Wednesday, Oct. 7, because Hartline wore No. 9 during his playing career at Ohio State.
In your honor we’re offering our fans $9 tickets through Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.
— UTSA Football 🏈 (@UTSAFTBL) October 5, 2026
🎟️: https://t.co/9DeVKtTJMt
Thank you for your efforts in helping us #PackTheDome#210TriangleOfToughness | #LetsGo210 pic.twitter.com/1hlwJ51K1l
Regardless, Thursday night's game will be a tough matchup for USF, given UTSA's proven success at home. Whether a large crowd shows up or not, the Roadrunners' record at home doesn't lie.
"Our administration is working really hard to get more people in the stands," Traylor said. "We want more people in the stands. We do want it to be louder than it already is."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USF's Hartline questions UTSA, Alamodome crowd noise despite 'not a lot of people there'
