This is great to hear. It sounds like Walden and the staff are pushing the program forward big time. I hope the fans buy into this and back the regime.
Coach Scotty 1st year Spring Practice
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I think so.
I expected a little more deep shots as I know they resemble the Tennessee offense. But it’s more conservative than I pictured. It’s more of an occasional shot and then ball control with Tempo.
It’s also a very secretive operation. I doubt we will get much out of the Spring Game in terms of strategy. You can’t take pictures or film anything at practice and I am pretty sure that’s why they practice in the Sun Bowl.
I know we’ve talked about our expectations from week 1 but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again I’m giving Walden and company a pass this year. It’s probably wishful thinking we’re going to get a crazy first year bounce like when Mike Price showed up. He’s probably not close to figuring out who’s going to be the starting QB but I’m sure they also want to make sure they get the run scheme down first because if that fails then everything else is screwed. But the foundation is being laid, especially with the NIL and locker room renovations. I’m glad to see we have a motivated coach who is pushing this program forward in the short while he’s been here and even if he leaves (fired or hired somewhere else) the program could be in better shape then when he showed up. The irritating thing is Walden has done more to improve the off the field status of UTEP football than Kugler and Dimel ever did in the last decade.
Dimel was just trying to retire and do the least.
Locklear is the leader in the Clubhouse at QB. I would say Mouser, McNamara, and Rodriguez would need to look at other schools for playing time.
I would agree with this. McConnell has an uphill battle, because I'm sure Locklear knows the offense inside and out and has continuity with the incoming receivers and tail backs. Also we heard he's more mobile which I think is at least helpful for this type of offense. I like McConnell though and think he'll be the back up and it'll be a close race in the fall.
I don’t expect much from Walden in year one, especially with two money games on the schedule. However, I do have some minimal expectations of him. One, you cannot lose to FCS Southern Utah. And two, beat NMSU.
Just curious, what does giving them a pass mean? I'm expecting more than most, I think. If you come in tooting the horn the way he has, the team better be competitive in every conference game. And, be competitive in at least one of the money games. 5 wins minimum. I don't think that's asking too much.
That might be aggressive but you come in with the bravado that the whole staff has, you better show something sooner, not later
No passes from me. I want what Kill did his first two years at NMSU. Bowl win year 1. CUSA title game year 2. Enough is enough.
I'm excited to see a new offense and QB
Would September hurry up and get here! I’m ready for some UTEP football! See you all on Saturday!
Ultimately I’d rather watch this team go 0-12 under Walden than watch anther Dimel team score 13 points and hear him say “We won the Time of Posession”. We can assume that a lot of these players won’t make it to year 2 of the rebuild so I will accept whatever happens. But I also know this team won’t go 0-12 and they should be favored in several games but we’re still early in the process. Some people on this board were crazy enough to say UTEP was going to win conference titles and bowl games under Kugler and Dimel so I dont think I’m being unreasonable expecting nothing. At least I will probably be surprised.
The first four games will be very tough. Heck, the whole season appears tough but not brutal. SUU will come in expecting to collect a check and a win. Dimel got slobber knocked by NAU for his inaugural game, NAU was flat out cocky actually. Hope this does not happen to Coach Scotty.
I think that’s absolutely reasonable. I think those are two attainable goals. I fully expect this team to win 3-4 games, but if not… it’s year one and he’s not going to get fired. Like I said I’ll take a bad Walden year over another bad Dimel year.
I still refuse to go down the prediction tunnel. I'm excited about our new coach and our new offense. I'm content in having 0 expectations except a better attitude and entertaining product on the field. If Walden wins in year one, I'll be Ecstatic!!! If he doesn't, I'll judge more on how Utep plays and improves as the year goes on.
I would lay money down that it won’t be the shit show we were watching the last 6 years.
Try 10, and that’s not including MP’s final years. Nord’s first year was full of optimism. He got spanked ugly by LT & TCU but went bowling (lost of course). Price’s first 2 years were energetic. Nothing against Coach Scotty but the city was buzzing. Price inherited Nord’s best recruiting class (while pulling a Coach Deion that many have forgotten about, as he got them transferred to FCS schools). UTEP should’ve beaten Colorado but UTEP’s usually solid secondary broke down. Toledo spanked UTEP back to the Mountain time zone in year 2. His final bowl game we don’t talk about. Price brought in unknown qb Vitatoe who ran the option in HS (which caused 3 star Colin Kaepernick to switch to Nevada & Coach Ault, also forgotten history but documented by this site) and FSU Lorne Sam, Marcus Thomas, Jackson and Donald Buckram. Very electric players but UTEP self destructed every late fall. Price got a win against #12 Houston but after that, fans started to fade but ticket sales stayed strong very surprisingly. Price could’ve saved face against BYU but blew that. But Price was the ultimate salesman and tickets were sold. Kugler promised to do away with “Price’s dumpster fire”. He made it worse. An empty Sun Bowl saw AJ’s last game against UNT. Dimel was more into photo shoots, media splash as fans were skeptical due to his head coaching resume. It showed. He blew big games and underperformed in lesser.
I didn’t even touch the 70’s & 80’s.
Love CS’s energy but decades of this has taken its toll. Senter hiring has shown a particularly questionable pattern for revenue sports and President Wilson is taking UTEP to higher ground building on DN’s 30 year project; however, D1 college sports is exposing her as clueless. But she is dedicated to running a clean, get your degree program, which I applaude (unlike NMSU who will sign with the devil if it takes that).
So excuse many who are waiting but glad the Dimel days are a memory.
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Thanks for the info, great post! I'm super excited about this upcoming season, will they transform that energy, the passion, the commitment to wins? I believe so, I also love their engagement with the community. It appears UTEP keeps hiring new staff, I hope they are finally opening up the checkbook this time. Win, and UTEP and the Sunbowl will be a hot ticket!
The schedule isn't that tough, esp the home schedule. 5 is my minimum expectation with maybe one or two road wins to get us a bowl.
Senter indicated that any new staff was not a result of additional funding. Sounded more like a reallocation of existing funds.
I don't usually bother with coaches salaries but this sounds like that maybe Walden give up a bit to get more assistants. Which makes sense if his intent is truly to kick ass at UTEP and earn that multi-million dollar salary at the next stop.
That would be awesome if true. Hopefully someone with knowledge can confirm. Everything I’ve found so far doesn’t indicate that. He’s making more than Dimel did his final year.
if that’s true that a hell of a move. He’s betting big on himself. And if he parlays this job into a bigger gig down the road then he’ deserves it. Plus if UTEP is smart they may get a nice little chunk of change in the way of a buyout.
That's Crazy.
When you come in they specifically tell you no photo's or videos. They take that very seriously.
Coach Walden pointed out a guy taking pictures in practice. Also, there was an event in the Durham Center one day, and people came out and took pictures, and they called upstairs and told them no one could be out on the balcony overlooking practice. They like Coaches and are super cool with Coaches being in meetings (except QB Meetings) and at Practice. But no pics or videos.
I wonder if this is a litmus test for Walden to be one of his "OKG's"? Believe or leave.
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