Nebraska football's season opener will also be a new beginning for UTEP (2024)

Rarely in the past century has fortune smiled on UTEP football.

The Miners are more than 200 games below .500 since 1933. There have been exceptions of success for the program, but recent history has generally stuck to the rule.

After six seasons under Dana Dimel that resulted in 20 wins, one bowl appearance and one season with more than five wins, UTEP rebooted again this offseason.

Dimel was fired and Scotty Walden, most recently the coach of Austin Peay since 2020, was hired. Its new era will kick off in Lincoln on Aug. 31, beginning Walden’s tenure against Nebraska, one of two Power Four opponents it plays in 2024 as it tries to gain a foothold in Conference USA.

Walden, 34, has deep Texas roots.

He played college football at two schools in the Lone Star State and coached at Division III Sul Ross State and East Texas Baptist. He grew up in Cleburne, half an hour south of Fort Worth. And 13 of the 14 freshmen who signed with the Miners in February are from Texas.

As is often the case after coaching changes in the transfer portal era, he build a roster nearly from scratch. UTEP also signed 23 incoming freshmen during the December signing period, and added 10 transfers in January.

Among the Miners who will take the field against Nebraska in August are a handful of former Austin Peay players who followed Walden, including Jevon Jackson. The running back rushed for 1,373 yards and was a third-team FCS All-American in 2023.

The personnel changes, on and off the field, aren’t done.

In the past two weeks, the Miners hired a director of player personnel and an offensive analyst. Meanwhile, they’re still active in the portal, adding former Colorado linebacker Kofi Taylor-Barrocks on Tuesday.

Taylor-Barrocks represents one archetype of transfer UTEP has added during the offseason. A former power conference player who never cracked the rotation for playing time.

Landon Hullaby also slots into that category, a former three-star defensive back who appeared in five games on special teams in two seasons with Texas Tech. So does linebacker Dylan Brown-Turner, who played in one game and redshirted in his only year at Florida State.

The other category is players who thrived at Group of Five or FCS schools before coming to El Paso, like former Tulsa linebacker Dorian Hopkins or Jacksonville State cornerback Yessman Green.

None of this team building is especially distinct to UTEP in a challenging era for smaller programs. When other teams around the country, and some in the same state, have deep pockets and hefty NIL collectives assisting in recruiting and player retention, it becomes a uniquely modern issue for other schools to adapt and keep pace.

But Walden has turned around programs before.

Austin Peay was coming off of an 11-win season before coach Mark Hudspeth abruptly resigned before Walden took over. The Governors, who had two other seasons above .500 the previous 20 years and a 1-45 stretch from 2013 to 2016, increased its win total every season before Walden left at the end of last year. Austin Peay finished 9-3.

Walden faces a similar challenge at UTEP: changing the trajectory of a program with little to celebrate historically. As Nebraska looks to take a step forward under Matt Rhule on Aug. 31, the new chapter of Miner football concurrently begins.