UTEP gets innovative, energetic head coach in Scotty Walden hire

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – UTEP announced the hiring of Scotty Walden as its new head football coach on Monday afternoon.

Walden comes to El Paso, Texas after being the head coach at Austin Peay, an NCAA DI FCS program, since Oct. 2020. Walden went 26-14 in four seasons leading Austin Peay, with back-to-back winning seasons and a trip to the FCS Playoffs in 2023. At 34 years old, he’s one of the younger head coaches in college football.

Walden will bring an ‘innovative’ and ‘energetic’ coaching style to El Paso, which is something UTEP had targeted during its head coaching search since parting ways with head coach Dana Dimel.

“I think a different kind of energy I think that’s going to be brought to this program, not just on the field, but I think also the field as well,” Shehan Jeyarajah, a college football writer for CBS Sports said on Monday. “It’s going to be more fun to watch, it’s going to be more involved in the community. I think that this is a coach, in Scottie Walden who understands in a unique way what he’s getting himself into and at a place like UTEP, sometimes that can be half the battle.”

On paper, UTEP hit the nail on the head when it comes to getting an offensive-minded head coach. Austin Peay averaged over 426 yards and 34.4 points per game in 2023 and also had a 3,000-yard passer in quarterback Mike DiLiello, a 1,000-yard rusher in Jevon Jackson and a pair of wide receivers that went over 700 yards. In the 2023 season, Walden’s squad led the United Athletic Conference and was ranked ninth in nation at the FCS level in the scoring offense category.

“He has experience as a head coach at multiple levels at the Division III level, the FCS level, and an interim coaching stint at the FBS level,” Jeyarajah said. “He also is a really innovative offensive coach. He goes fast, he has a lot of factors that are kind of his own, he also has integrated some of the old maybe veer and shoot style stuff that Baylor used to do, they run a lot of tempo.”

Along with the hope of Walden turning around of the worst scoring offense at the NCAA FBS level in 2023, there is also a hope that the 34-year-old leader can inject a new energy into the UTEP football program. I literally mean it when I say energy.

“That guy, you can hear him right when you enter the field,” Franklin High School grad Beau Sparks said about Walden. “He brings a ton of juice and brings a ton of energy. I think he’s a great fit for UTEP for sure.”

On Nov. 11, Sparks, who was playing wide receiver at Utah Tech at the time, actually played against Walden’s Austin Peay squad and got a first-hand look at what would be UTEP’s next football head coach.

Whether you’re a player on the opposing sideline, or a player Walden was trying to recruit, it’s an energy hard to not notice. Back in March of this year, Eastwood High School senior star quarterback Evan Minjarez was actually offered by Walden to attend and play at Austin Peay.

Minjarez told KTSM he had conversations with Walden during his visits to Austin Peay. Minjarez got a first-hand look at what Walden is like off the field.

“I was lucky enough to get recruited by Scotty Walden,” Minjarez said on Monday. “What I took away from all the conversations we had in all the visits we’ve had is that he’s a great guy on and off the field.”

Important to note that Minjarez has not announced a college commitment as of Dec. 4.

“I love the fact that they [UTEP] went young and innovative,” Jeyarajah said. “I think that the energy he is going to bring on the recruiting trail but also in the community is going to be huge.”

Walden will be officially introduced at a press conference on Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the Larry K. Durham Center.

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