Ahead of Saturday night’s season opener at Utah State, UTEP head football coach Scotty Walden had some things to say about the Aggies.
No, Walden didn’t provide USU with any bulletin board material. Quite the opposite, in fact. The second-year head coach had nothing but positives to say about Utah State football and the Aggies’ new head coach, Bronco Mendenhall.
On Mendenhall, Walden couldn’t have been more effusive.
“Ton of respect for Bronco Mendenhall,” Walden said. “He’s been doing it for a long time and has done it at an extremely high level at a lot of places. We know this about his football teams, studying the places he’s been — New Mexico last year, now Utah State but even going back to BYU and Virginia. His teams always play hard. They are very disciplined. (I) have an enormous amount of respect for him and way he runs his program. What he is about.”
Walden conceded that it has been difficult to scout Utah State, given all the new personnel the Aggies have — 70 new players on the 2025 roster — but “we know they’re going to have really good players,” he said.
Walden then went somewhere Utah State fans — and Pac-12 fans in general — will be thrilled about. Namely, he elevated Utah State to a Power Four conference program and the rebuilt Pac-12 to a Power Four conference, a matter of ongoing dispute between fans of the remade Pac-12 and fans of the current P4.
“You’ve got to remember that his team, as a reminder for fans, a reminder for everybody, this is a team that is going to the Pac-12 next year,” Walden said. “This is a Power Four football team. I’m sure their budgets are in alignment with that and their NIL is in alignment with that. So we are going to have our hands full on Saturday.”
Walden didn’t stop there. He continued to praise the quality of Utah State’s team, its players and coaches, before ultimately noting that what matters for UTEP is UTEP. The Miners are projected to be improved this season, after winning just three games a year ago in Walden’s first season at the helm. Former five-star QB Malachi Nelson, formerly of USC and Boise State, will lead the Miners when they kick off against USU at 5:30 p.m MDT.
UTEP is slated to move on from Conference USA next summer and become a part of the Mountain West Conference next season as well, helping to fill the void left by the departures of Utah State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State to the Pac-12.
