What UTEP coach Scotty Walden said after the 56-0 loss at No. 10 Tennessee

What UTEP head coach Scotty Walden said after No. 10 Tennessee’s 56-0 win over the Miners on Senior Day Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium:

Opening Statement

“Kids played extremely hard. I’m really proud of them. I told them, ‘there’s no such thing as moral victories,’ and we understand that. We have to be real man, that’s one of the best football teams in the country right there. They are going to compete in the (College) Football Playoff. I’m very proud of our kids’ fight. There’s not one time that these kids backed down. There’s not one time they laid down. I just got done telling (Jon) Teicher on the radio, ‘that’s our stance with quote-unquote money games.’ The outside world sees these games and they think we are just doing it to just collect a check. We are the coaches, the players behind the scenes working and grinding. This program, the stance we want to make is to build a program that can go and compete with teams at this level one day. That’s what we are doing, and our seniors have laid the foundation out. This program is not going to be a program that lays down in quote-unquote money games. That’s not who we are. That’s not who we will be. We are going to compete to win every single game. You put us in a parking lot, you put us against the Dallas Cowboys or the Green Bay Packers; it doesn’t matter. The UTEP Miners are going to show up. Anyone, anywhere, anytime, that’s our mindset. That is our calling card. That is the culture and the brand that we are going to build in this program. I thought we took massive steps forward today, even though the results weren’t what we wanted. I’m extremely proud of this team. Extremely proud of the grit and fight we saw today.”

What went wrong to let the game get away from UTEP

“I think the second quarter, obviously, to give up 28 points in the second quarter. I have to do a better job there managing the game. I went for it on a fourth down there late in the half, we gave them a sack. I thought that I, probably from a game management standpoint, could have punted that ball, but at that point it was 21-0. Gave them a touchdown after that. At the end of the day, I thought we had the turnover, and that’s not a fumble. I mean it is what it is, I don’t care what anybody says. That’s not one. That’s neither here nor there. I thought that kind of swayed the momentum of the game. Gave them a short field. At the end of the day, I think it was miscues on offense, and then we started to give them some explosives. I mean here’s the deal, they are 330 or 340 pounds up front. They started to wear us down a little bit up front. You can kind of see that in the second quarter, and that’s where we have to continue to build our depth to where we are able to compete for longer with a football team of that caliber. Again, give Tennessee a lot of credit now. Coach Heupel has done an amazing job, and that’s a really good football team.” 

The difference between this game with UTEP and last year with his Austin Peay team at Tennessee

“Sort of speaking to that point, just to mention, I felt like we competed at the same intensity level. I thought we had the same mindset and approach, and I loved our kids’ mindset. I mean our kids, all week long, were focused on this game, and truly winning this game. Not just laying down. That’s why I’m so proud of our coaching staff, they didn’t give off that vibe. We prepared to win, and your players are always going to want to emulate their coach. I’m so proud of the coaching staff for emulating that championship mindset to go compete to go win a game. Regardless of what people think, I just think that it kind of goes back to what I just talked about, the difference was the depth. The Austin Peay team we had last year, that was a third year of building the depth of our roster, and I just think our depth and we do have a lot of injuries at this point in the year, just to call it what it is. So, when you play a team of this caliber that depth starts to show up, I feel like, as the game progressed. Again, I thought that our kids, overall, executed extremely well today.”

The status of UTEP QB Skyler Locklear

“We’ll assess it, but I can’t speak enough about the toughness of that young man. As soon as it happened, he came to our training staff and wanted to go back in the game. We came out at halftime and wanted to see how we would do. He wanted to go. He was cleared medically to go, and he wanted to go. That’s just the type of kid he is. I’m so proud of his grit. He took another hit on that drive when he went back in. We need to assess how he is as we go on to this next week. Kind of too early to tell. I’ll get with our medical team and assess it.”

The possible momentum swing if UTEP got any points in the first quarter

“A thousand percent. It’s the second time in my career that I’ve been shut out, and it’s not fun. I don’t care who it’s against. We got shut out by Alabama one year, and we got shut out by Tennessee. I have to call it better in the red zone. I have to get our kids in a better position in the red zone to make those plays. It makes all the difference in the world.”

The decision to change UTEP’s kickers and punters

“During the opportunity, we thought that Joe Bowman had done a really good job, and we felt like we wanted to give him a chance. Going into the game, we told (Adam) Jacklin and Buzz (Flabiano) that they needed to be ready because it was an opportunity for all of those guys to play. I really appreciate not only Joe, but I appreciate Buzz and Adam Jacklin being ready when their name was called. Buzz had a hold of that thing but just pushed it left. Joe Bowman out there gave his best effort. His first career start as a Miner. It’s something to build off of, and something we’ll assess going into next week. I’m very appreciative of those three young men for understanding that we wanted to look at a change. Joe had a great opportunity week, and we wanted to give him a chance and see where it went. I appreciate them understanding that, and they handled it with class.”

If that first quarter was what UTEP was trying to do

“Absolutely. The toughness and their grit, we kept talking about it on the sideline that we have them exactly where we want them. We knew that they would be frustrated, and they couldn’t come out and score 40 in the first quarter. Of course, they scored 28 in the second quarter but let me tell you that you could see the light in our kids’ eyes. We shot everything that we had at them, and our kids played extremely hard and executed those things. I’m just so proud of them as a head football coach for their efforts. I want to get on the tape and look at the lapses of execution. Those are the things I really want to coach. I think there was a drive where I went for it on fourth down before the half, where there was an explosive play, then we had an 8-yard gain and it was third-and-2 and we bobbled the snap. We had a couple of miscues with the snap, and it wasn’t necessarily on the center, but we need to be better at quarterback and running back exchanges. We got hit, and now it’s fourth-and-8. That’s when I went for it. It’s times like that where we have to eliminate miscues. Those are the things I’m going to spend time coaching and focusing on. Other than that, I thought our  kids played to the standard in the first quarter.” 

UTEP’s game next week against New Mexico State

“We get to play for some hardware in that Battle of I-10. Our guys understand the gravity of that. They understand how seriously we take that. We talk about it in the offseason. We have to get back to work and we have to keep getting better because we know that’s going to be a war and a battle. We have to get back and make sure we clean up the miscues from this game, have a great week of preparation and get ready for the Battle of I-10.”