College Football Coach Hire Grades: UTEP

UTEP Miners: Scotty Walden

Why the job was open: UTEP is a tough job, it’s in Texas but unless you have the right coach and staff in place, you don’t really get the benefits of being in Texas. Dana Dimel took the program over at a real low point in 2018 and after a few years of building he broke through with a bowl appearance in 2021. Ultimately the momentum couldn’t be sustained and things fell off for the Miners this past year. They couldn’t afford to let things trend in that direction so UTEP made a change with a goal of injecting new energy into the program.

Coach Profile: Scotty Walden is only 34 years old so he’s moved up fast and his career has been an interesting one. He was a head coach in 2016 at East Texas Baptist, so yes if you do the math he was a head coach at age 26! 26!! That’s so young! He was impressive too, leading them to a 7-3 record before moving on to Southern Miss as an assistant. In the wild and chaotic year of 2020 he became the interim head coach after Jay Hopson stepped down after just one game! How wild is that? To go through everything with Covid to play one game and go “welp this isn’t working.” Walden spent 4 games as an interim coach and then got hired at Austin Peay in Mid October (the calendar was really messed up that year.) Walden resigned from Southern Miss who went on to have 4 coaches that year. Walden took over at Austin Peay during a tumultuous time there (you’ll have to look it up, I could go on forever in this space) and found immediate success compiling a 26-14 record in 4 seasons with the Governors. That includes the 2nd FCS playoff appearance in Austin Peay history!

Why he will succeed : Walden is bringing a new energy to a program that desperately needs it. There’s a lot of good things this program has to offer including the fact that they play in the Sun Bowl a historical venue that has one of College Football’s most beautiful backdrops. It may be far far out west but this program is still in Texas. Walden and his staff hit the ground running recruiting early on, including firing a warning shot at their rivals to the North when they signed the top recruit out of New Mexico. This is huge because as you’ll see below normally it’s tough to get the right players into the program. Walden is a winner and it’s refreshing to see UTEP make a hire like this.

What obstacles are in the way of success: How long will it take for Walden to turn around the culture of the program? Things were briefly turned around only for them to struggle to win games again. Overall success has been very hard to find at UTEP, there’s been a lot of losing stretches in the programs modern history. Being so far away from the recruiting hotbeds of Texas makes it difficult to attract the right players. Facilities are also behind, UTEP does not have an indoor practice facility not a football specific operating building. Part of the job will be to get this program modernized but some of this can’t come without success first.

Grade: A – I can’t imagine another possible hire that would better position UTEP to find success. Of the imaginable candidates Walden was the best hire the Miners could make. He’s a winner, can bring in talent they didn’t have before and will bring a new look to a program that’s needed it. Well done Miners!