UTSA is one step closer to becoming the next best Texas football program.

UTSA has introduced Larry Coker as its first ever head football coach.

“I’m not challenged about the future of this university or this program,” Coker said. “I see what greatness can come from a university like this and I’m so thrilled to be a part of it.”

Coker was the former head coach of the Miami Hurricanes where he won one national championship game.

“I haven’t been anymore impressed than what I am today,” Coker said Friday after being introduced.

UTSA Athletic Director Lynn Hickey was brought to tears when speaking of the football program and the long process it has taken.

“This is a day we have waited for a long time,” Hickey said.”I hope you take this to heart, none of this would have happened without the students.”

The University of Texas System Board of Regents unanimously approved UTSA’s Athletics Initiative Business Plan on Dec. 18, which granted the university permission to add a football program. It was a plan approved by the student body in the Fall of 2007.

“We don’t play a game for a few years, but we are going do our very best to keep that enthusiasm up,” Coker said.

The earliest UTSA is expected to play its first football game will not be until 2011.

“We are going to win, lets not forget that,” Coker said.

Coker closed the introduction with a phrase that was said throughout the ceremony by Hickey, UTSA president Ricardo Romo and Coker himself, “This will be the next great Texas university.”