UTEP football seeks first win, coach urges fans to 'keep trusting' despite 0-5 start

The winless UTEP football team is at a point in the season when morale could become the biggest issue as it heads to Western Kentucky.

Coach Scotty Walden says that isn't a problem because he sees progress each week despite his team's 0-5 record . He's quick to admit that may not be easy to quantify for people who aren't in the locker room, but he stresses process over results and believes that's on track. That's his message to the UTEP fans.

"Are we stagnant, which means we're decaying, or are we growing each week and getting better?" Walden said in his weekly press conference to kick off Western Kentucky week . "That's what I'm seeing. Even though the results aren't there yet, sometimes you got to walk by faith, not by sight.

"That's what I ask Miner faithful to do, just keep believing, keep trusting, because I can assure you we're going to fight tooth and nail every single day to give this university, give this town something to be proud of. And we're going to see the fruits of our labor eventually as we continue to build this thing.

"We're building it with integrity and building it the right way. When you do that, that takes time."

More specifically, Walden saw steps forward in the running game in the 41-21 loss to Sam Houston. The Miners rushed for 119 yards on 34 carries, the most they've averaged this season, and Walden thinks that's something to build on against Western Kentucky. The game marked a breakout for freshman Ezell Jolly, who earned more carries going forward.

"The most progress was in the run game, on the offensive line," Walden said. "There's a play early in the game, we ran inside zone, and I literally told our offensive line, 'That is the standard for running inside zone.' You can see our guys come off a low pad level, create a new line of scrimmage. You see a bunch of white jerseys (Sam Houston players) moving backwards, and it gave our running back daylight.

"It was awesome to see them come off the ball. I think we made a lot of progress on the offensive line running the football. I know we want 200 yards rushing, we want that no doubt. But to see us come off the ball and to see us play extremely physical up front, that was really a really good sign.

"Now, we've got to clean the technique up and clean up the penalties. Our offensive line accounted for way too many penalties and holding with our hand placement. But, man, I'll tell you, I was very proud of how physical those guys played."

Stressing the positive

Showing UTEP tape of what they've done well is one way Walden is building the program.

"No. 1 is, showing them the positives on tape," Walden said. "I showed them six clips when we all are on the same page and executed. As an example, the Marcus Vinson touchdown where he breaks those tackles and all 11 guys on offense were doing exactly what they're supposed to do.

"When we execute right, we are a hard team to beat. It's about keeping that belief in that process going, understanding that we have enough talent to beat people, but we have to get out of our own way; we have to stop the missed executions, we have to make that tackle, we have to strain a little more here and there.

"But showing them that on tape has been really important, because I can talk about it, but showing them the visual has been critically important."

Western Kentucky poses big challenge

Obviously, UTEP has also been watching a lot of Western Kentucky tape, and Walden sees a formidable opponent who is off to a 3-2 record and coming off a bye.

"They're a really good team," Walden said. "We actually played them in 2022 when I was at Austin Peay and got a taste of their culture and what they do. (Western Kentucky beat Peay 37-28.)

"These guys are going to be everywhere, blitzing, playing man (coverage). We're going to have to do a great job identifying where they're at. They play in a three down front and you don't know where they're coming from."

Western Kentucky is directed by quarterback Caden Veltkamp, a 6-foot-6 sophomore.

"The Veltkamp kid at quarterback, I attended a recruiting camp at WKU for Austin Peay when I was out there recruiting and he was there at the camp," Walden said. "He is all of 6-6 and he can swing that ball downtown. We're going to have to stay on top of the cut."

Scotty Walden stresses poise

Walden's word of the week for the Western Kentucky preparation is "poise." Walden felt the lack of that was the biggest problem in UTEP committing 12 penalties against Sam Houston.

"This week we're talking a lot about poise," Walden said. "We're going to harness on that word poise this week. A lot of those missed assignments, a lot of those things that happened to us (against Sam Houston), we didn't see that (in practice).

"So it's having poise when you're under the lights and especially when you're on the road in someone else's territory. We have to maintain that level of composure, that level of poise to execute at a high level.

"It's not so much about focusing on them, it's about us, I always go back to that. Whether we're going to play WKU or somebody else, it doesn't matter. Our approach has to be the same. We have to have that level of preparation and poise, especially when you're on the road in a hostile environment."

That is the tall task in front of UTEP as it looks for the elusive first win.

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

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP football seeks first win, coach urges fans to 'keep trusting' despite 0-5 start