UTEP football coach Scotty Walden's first task in El Paso was to assemble his first staff, and like everything else surrounding Miner football, it's almost entirely new and largely young.
The 17 assistants are 100% new to UTEP, though 11 of them were with Walden at Austin Peay, part of the massive exodus from Clarksville, Tenn. to El Paso.
As a result, what UTEP puts on the field will look much like the Peay team that went 9-3 last year in the FCS.
Here is a look at the offensive coaches.
More: UTEP gets CUSA football schedule; to play New Mexico State on Thanksgiving weekend
Jake Brown, offensive coordinator/wide receivers
Brown is one of the minority of coaches at UTEP who wasn't at Peay, as he spent the previous two years as co-offensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech. His background before that was in Texas. A 2009 graduate of North Texas, he worked at Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU and West Texas A&M before going to Louisiana Tech.
Ryan Stanchek, offensive line
Stanchek was the offensive line coach at Tulsa last season, which followed a season as the offensive line coach at Austin Peay in 2022. He first coached with Walden at Southern Miss in 2019 and 2020.
This will be his first coaching job in Texas. He was a two-time All-American offensive lineman at West Virginia, where he finished in 2008.
Jourdan McNeill, running backs
McNeill was at Austin Peay the last three years as its running backs coach, working with all-conference tailback Jevon Jackson . Jackson was one of UTEP's first recruits after Walden and McNeill arrived.
He was a four-year letter winner at East Texas Baptist and played for Walden his senior year in 2016, Walden's first head coaching job.
Jajuan Dulaney, tight ends, offensive recruiting coordinator
Dulaney was tight ends coach at Austin Peay last year, which followed two years at Houston, where he was offensive line coach by the end of the 2022 season.
He played for Maryland for four years, graduating in 2017, then worked at Texas Tech in 2018.
John Cotton, lead offensive analyst
Cotton coached at Texas A&M-Kingsville the previous three years, where he was special teams coordinator and linebackers coach. The Houston native graduated from Texas in 2015 and began his coaching career at Hardin Simmons in Abilene in 2016-17. He then spent a year at Marshall and a year at Memphis before arriving in Kingsville.
Nate Mullen, offensive quality control-wide receivers
Mullen was the running backs coach at co-special teams coordinator at University of Virginia's College at Wise last year, a Division II school. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Southern Miss when Walden was there in 2020.
The Western Carolina graduate was at Murray State in 2022.
Miguel Avina, graduate assistant quarterbacks
Avina had this same position at Austin Peay the previous two years. Before that he was a four-year starting quarterback at Whittier College, a Division III program, from 2016-2020.
Jalen Spady, graduate assistant offensive line
Spady, a Florida A&M graduate, played in the XFL last year for Orlando Guardians, starting three games. He was an intern in at Florida A&M's football program for two years before that. He is a legacy to UTEP, as his father James was an all-conference offensive lineman for the Miners and later had several coaching stints at UTEP.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Meet UTEP's new offensive coordinators, staff under head coach Scotty Walden
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