'Forgottens' no more: Scotty Walden vows to outwork everyone to rebuild UTEP football

Scotty Walden's introduction as UTEP's 27th leader of its football program was unlike any other UTEP rollout of a football coach in recent memory, though there was precedent.

His first press conference brought back memories of Joe Golding's intro three years ago as head basketball coach: A young man (Walden is 34) standing at a podium brimming with energy and excitement and a vision.

Walden began by exhorting the boosters and staff to cheer more loudly, then he broke them down by having everyone yell, "Family."

After that, the Cleburne, Texas native shared his vision of what this program means now and what it can mean in the future.

'Going to remember us pretty quickly'

"Growing up in Texas they used to say, 'El Paso isn't even in Texas,'" Walden said "Last time I checked, this is the University of TEXAS at El Paso. We're going to make sure that's real clear.

"I am a chip-on-my shoulder, edge-type guy, I've been counted out many times. That's what I love about this place. We're the forgottens. But they are going to remember us pretty quickly. We're going to outwork, we're going to outplay, we're going to outcoach, we're going to out-recruit our competition.

"We're going to build this thing with integrity and we're going to build this thing with the most dynamic staff in the country. It's going to be the funnest product you've ever seen in UTEP history to watch. It's going to be an aggressive style of football. On offense we snap the ball every 12 seconds, we don't wait on anybody.

"We are going to electrify the Sun Bowl."

Recruiting Texas

To get there, Walden asked the current players to give the new staff a chance and stick with UTEP, then he said he's going to switch the previous junior-college heavy recruiting to being more Texas high school based.

"We're going to recruit the city of El Paso," Walden said. "You have to own your home base in recruiting. It starts here.

"Then we're going to branch out to Texas high schools. Yes we're going to use the transfer portal, yes we're going to use junior colleges, but you build your program with great high school football players, especially in the state of Texas.

"You go back to the T in UTEP. We're going to make sure the state of Texas doesn't forget about us out here in El Paso.

"You just have to get young men on the campus. They are going to see this place and love this place. And we're not going to take no for an answer."

Salary similar to Dimel's

The coaches recruiting them will include a large number of Walden's assistants from Austin Peay — that school has announced a national search for a head coach — and he indicated he will have conversations with current staff members.

Athletic director Jim Senter said Walden has been signed to a five-year deal "very comparable" with what previous coach Dana Dimel was making. Dimel's base salary increased to $850,000 in 2023.

'Old-soul mentality'

Obviously Walden is at a different place in his life than Dimel was when he came here in 2018, when one of Dimel's first moves was to recruit his graduate son to play fullback for him in his final year of eligibility.

Walden's young (and exceptionally well-behaved) son Luca spent the press conference on the lap of Walden's wife and Cleburne High School sweetheart Callie, being entertained by the Paydirt Pete mascot and his foam pick ax. The Waldens are expecting son No. 2, Maverick, in February.

While Walden is young, his first head coaching job came when he was 26 at East Texas Baptist and he was believed to be the youngest coach in Division I when he was hired at Austin Peay four years ago.

"I'm a young guy but I've got an old-soul mentality," Walden said. "I was a head football coach at 26. It was a blessing to be a head coach at such a young age. I was thrown into the fire as head coach at 26. Coaching well over 40 games in my head coaching career, it's taught me a lot."

'Attack style'

Along the way he's developed an offensive system that features a wide-open passing game — he said he doesn't like receivers to line up inside the hashmarks — but pointed out that wasn't the only way Austin Peay won games.

"We like points on the board so we like throwing it downtown," Walden said. "But I'm a firm believer to win championships you have to run the football and you have to play great defense.

"A lot of people view me as an offensive guy, but we're going to play complimentary football. We're going to put up a lot of points, but we're going to do it with complimentary football.

"We're going to play an attack style of defense."

Having said that, Walden gave UTEP fans some advice for his first Sun Bowl game, which will be Sept. 7 against Southern Utah, a week after his first game as Miners coach at Nebraska.

"When you go to the Sun Bowl, make sure you stop by the concession stand and get all your food, because when you sit down in that chair, you're going to see a brand of football (where) you're not going to want to get up and miss something," Walden said.

"It's going to be the most exhilarating, exciting, thrilling product that's going to be on the field. We're going to fight for that every single day."

Those are words will find a welcoming audience in a fan based starved for championship football.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 'Forgottens' no more: Walden vows to rebuild UTEP football