ESPN Reporter Helped College Team Give Head Coach Gatorade Bath

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ESPN Reporter Helped College Team Give Head Coach Gatorade Bath

It may not have been the College Football Playoff, but UTSA finished the 2025 season on a strong note and the players decided to celebrate by giving head coach Jeff Traylor a Gatorade bath. When Traylor objected, an ESPN reporter offered to "help" the players.

In the closing seconds of Friday's First Responder Bowl between UTSA and FIU, the Roadrunners led the game comfortably 57-20. Sensing that victory was close, Traylor looked around and saw one of the players approaching with a bucket of Gatorade to dump on him. Traylor started running away, clearly not interested in getting soaked.

But Traylor ran right into the path of ESPN sideline reporter Paul Carcaterra, who decided to have some fun by blocking Traylor's path and allowing the player to catch him and dump Gatorade all over him. The entire crowd got a good laugh out of the scene.

Fans had plenty of jokes about the scene, but also believe that it properly portrays how great college football bowl games still are:

"Imagine how far he would’ve run to avoid the coffee bath," one user joked.

"Notre Dame fans would hate this," wrote another.

"JeffTraylor runs a 4.4 40 when he is either chasing down officials or running from the Gatorade bath," a third remarked.

"The delayed reaction from the coach makes this. He knew it was coming but still wasn't ready."

"I love football"

"Key blocking there by the reporter FIU could have used him."

"Notre Dame would see this and be like nah we’d rather sit at home"

"Hell of a job considering he lost half his team to the portal."

KNOXVILLE, TN – SEPTEMBER 23: UTSA Roadrunners head coach Jeff Traylor cheers on his team during the college football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the UTSA Roadrunners on September 23, 2023, at Neyland Stadium, in Knoxville, TN. (Photo by Bryan Lynn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

Jeff Traylor

Traylor has quietly been a rock at head coach for the Roadrunners since taking the job in 2020. He's 53-26 overall with six straight winning seasons and has now led UTSA to three straight bowl wins – the only bowl wins in the program's relatively young history.

Prior to UTSA's move to the American Athletic Conference in 2023, he led UTSA on back-to-back Conference USA championship wins in 2021 and 2022.

It may only be a matter of time before bigger programs starting take a serious look at him and what he might be able to do with better resources.

This story was originally published by The Spun on Dec 27, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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