With the Dana Dimel era firmly in the past, the UTEP Miners forge ahead with new coach Scotty Walden in 2024. The young coach brought a plethora of new personnel to man the team’s positions, leaving the UTEP coaching staff full of fresh faces this season.
As the Miners search for their first winning season in three years, who is on the UTEP coaching staff in 2024?
UTEP Miners’ Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Scotty Walden
At just 34 years old, Scotty Walden has quickly ascended up the coaching ranks after four strong seasons in command of the Austin Peay Governors. He finished with a winning record and improved each year, going 4-2 in a shortened 2020 season, 6-5 in 2021, 7-4 in 2022, and 9-3 in 2023.
The Governors tied with Eastern Kentucky and Central Arkansas for the 2022 ASUN Championship while winning the 2023 UAC Championship outright after the ASUN and the WAC merged. Walden parlayed the success of two conference championships at the FCS level with a job in his home state in the FBS, accepting the job at UTEP in December 2023.
Walden has coached at the FBS level before, serving as the WR coach at Southern Miss from 2017-2018 before taking on additional co-OC duties from 2019-2020. He even stepped in for four games as interim coach of the Golden Eagles in 2020 after Jay Hopson stepped down, going 1-3 to close the year.
UTEP is Walden’s second stop as an official head collegiate coach after a stint at the helm with the East Texas Baptist Tigers in 2016. At just 26 years old, he was promoted after three seasons as the Tiger’s OC. He led the DIII program to a 7-3 record before moving on to Southern Miss.
Offensive Coordinator/WR Coach: Jake Brown
Jake Brown enters the 2024 season with his first FBS offensive coordinator gig, but it’s not his first stint at college football’s highest level. He was most recently the co-OC/WR coach at LA Tech from 2022-2023, with the Bulldogs finishing 2023 in the middle of the pack in CUSA, scoring 25.6 points per game.
Before LA Tech, he served as offensive quality control at TCU (2018), Texas Tech (2021), and Baylor (2022). He was the OC at West Texas A&M in 2019 after starting his coaching career as the RB coach at SFA (2016-2017).
Defensive Coordinator/LB Coach: J.J. Clark
One of several coaches to follow Walden from Austin Peay, J.J. Clark will get his first shot coaching in the FBS. He spent the last two seasons coaching the Governors’ linebackers in 2022 before taking over as DC in 2023.
Prior to his stint at Austin Peay, he served as the DC at Indiana Wesleyan (2019-2021) and Wheaton College (2017-2018), moving up from CB coach (2015) and co-DC/LB coach (2016) at Wheaton.
Clark started his coaching career as the RB coach at Humboldt College in 2012 before becoming a GA at Akron for two years, from 2013 to 2014.
Co-Offensive Coordinator/OL Coach: Ryan Stanchek
Reuniting with Walden after manning co-OC and OL coaching duties for the Governors in 2022, Ryan Stanchek joins the UTEP coaching staff after a year developing the OL at Tulsa in 2023.
MORE: UTEP Miners 2024 Football Schedule
Stanchek has been an OL coach at three other stops, at Alcorn State from 2014-2018 (co-OC in 2018), Southern Miss in 2019-2020, and Florida A&M in 2021 where he also served as co-OC.
Co-Defensive Coordinator/SAF Coach: Kelvin Sigler
A former Alabama DB (1995-1998), Kelvin Sigler joins the Miners after six seasons at Jacksonville State as safeties coach (2018-2023).
Following a short stint in the pros and then a high school coaching career, Sigler started his collegiate coaching career as a defensive analyst at Alabama (2012) before taking over as corners coach at Northern Illinois (2013-2015) and South Alabama (2016-2017).
CB Coach/Pass Game Coordinator: Aaron Foster
Aaron Foster followed Walden to El Paso after one season as the CB coach and passing game coordinator at Austin Peay in 2023. He joined the Governors after three seasons at Lenoir-Rhyne (2020-2022) as co-DC and DB coach and three seasons as the DB coach at Colgate (2017-2019).
DL Coach/Run Game Coordinator: Chris Jones
Another Austin Peay defector, Chris Jones was Walden’s co-DC and DL coach from 2022-2023. Jones was the co-DC and DL coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville from 2020-2021 after 10 seasons coaching the DL at Hardin Simmons, his alma mater, from 2010-2019. He started his coaching career as a GA at Sam Houston State in 2008.
TE Coach/Offensive Recruiting Coordinator: Jajuan Dulaney
Wrapping up his own collegiate playing career at Maryland in 2016, Jujuan Dulaney got his first shot as a collegiate on-field coach last year as the TE coach at Austin Peay.
KEEP READING: 2024 CUSA Power Rankings
Dulaney spent time as an OL assistant at Texas Tech (2018), Houston (2019-2020, 2022), and an offensive analyst at Texas (2021) before joining Walden’s staff.
RB Coach: Jourdan McNeil
Jourdan McNeil has not only coached with Walden before UTEP, serving as Austin Peay’s RB coach from 2021-2023, but he’s been coached by him. McNeil was Walden’s leading rusher at East Texas Baptist, racking up 819 yards and 16 TDs in 2016. Before Austin Peay, McNeil started his coaching career as a GA and RB coach at Belhaven University from 2018-2020.
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