State of the Program: UTEP Miners

Head Coach: Scotty Walden is entering his first year as the head coach of the Miners. He came over after having success at Austin Peay and has already brought a new energy to the program. You can read more about Walden and my hire grade for him here: https://updogsportstalk.com/2024/02/14/college-football-coach-hire-grades-utep/

Program Outlook: UTEP has struggled a lot in recent history. They’ve only made 3 bowl appearances since 2006, haven’t won a bowl since 1967 and their best record was 7-6. UTEP also leads all college football programs with the most 10+ loss seasons all time, which things get bad here they get REALLY bad. I alluded to this in my Walden hire grade but UTEP is a program located in Texas without a lot of the benefits of being in Texas, but there’s still a way to succeed here. El Paso still has some talent and the Miners play in the historic Sun Bowl which has one of the coolest backdrops in the sport. The UTEP fanbase is a great one that’s been starved of hope, it’s ready to support the program, but they needed someone to reinvigorate the program. So far Scotty Walden has done that this offseason. Finally, the future looks bright!

How does the 2024 Roster look?: There’s some transition with the roster which is natural with a coaching change. UTEP’s offense will be completely different with a fast tempo attack that focuses on the run game. Cade McConnell returns after being pressed into action and making 6 starts last season, he showed a lot of promise during that stretch. He’s competing with Austin Peay transfer Skyler Locklear. He brings a mobility aspect that McConnell doesn’t, and I’d imagine they’ll have packages for him if he doesn’t win the job all together. RB Jevon Jackson is another player who followed Walden over, he was a FCS 2nd team All American last year and will be the engine behind this attack. There’s some promising receivers returning and they also picked up a lot of interesting weapons out of the portal as well. They’ll also deploy a “Miner back” position that will be a receiver/running back flex position. The offensive line saw a lot of transition with only one starter back, they have some transfers in the mix but they need this group to mesh quickly and depth is an unknown. For all the excitement and flash the offense carries, UTEP’s strength might actually be on defense. The best player on the team is defensive end Maurice Westmoreland who broke out last year and could find himself on NFL radar with a great season again. He leads a very strong defensive line that can really hassle opposing QBs from inside and out. The Miners also have a solid secondary, it’s one of the better pass defenses in the conference but they could really stand to force more turnovers. The key will be sorting out who will start at linebacker and improving against the run, that was where the Miners defense struggled last season.

Screenshot from fbschedules.com¹

2024 Schedule Thoughts: This schedule is very tough. The Miners play Nebraska, Colorado State and Tennessee who are all expected to be improved this year. They also round out their OOC schedule with the Southern Utah Thunderbirds who could be one of the best teams in their conference and shouldn’t be taken lightly. UTEP avoids Jacksonville State in conference play which will be beneficial at least. There’s still a path to bowl eligibility but it will require a big year 1.

Vegas Projection: UTEP’s win total is set at 4.5 with the odds geared toward the under. They’re part of a large group of CUSA teams with similar odds. One or more of them will break out for a bowl birth, but Vegas hasn’t figured out which.

2024 Best Case: UTEP hits the ground running immediately and the Miners put a massive scare into Nebraska to open the season but fall just short of the upset. They carry the momentum into a win over Southern Utah, lose a close one to Liberty but manage to take down Colorado State to move to 2-2. The Miners come out of the bye week ready for conference play and go 5-1 during that 6 game stretch to already clinch their best season since 2005. The Miners hang with Tennessee for a bit but take their lumps in the loss before closing out the season with a blowout victory over New Mexico State who struggles miserably. The Miners don’t get a bowl game in their home bowl, but they play in the New Mexico Bowl which is close enough and they win a thrilling game with a last moment TD to clinch their first bowl win since 1967 and 10 win season since 1988 and this is just the beginning.

2024 Worst Case: Maybe the team isn’t ready for this much change yet. They struggle off the jump and are blown out by Nebraska and it gets worse the following week with a loss to Southern Utah. The Miners lose the next 2 in blowout fashion for an 0-4 start and it doesn’t get much better in conference play. They lose to Sam Houston and lose 5 of 6 games during that stretch. They’re blown out by Tennessee and they lose the Battle of I-10 to New Mexico State who hardly misses a beat despite the coaching change. Also New Mexico ends up surprisingly reaching bowl eligibility leaving the Miners as the only program of the Southwest trio to not reach a bowl.