UTEP football hits field for first practice of fall camp

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — UTEP football kicked off its fall training camp for the 2025 season with a morning practice at the Sun Bowl on Thursday.

The Miners began their preparation for the upcoming season exactly 30 days away from its season opener against Utah State in Logan, Utah.

“It felt good to be out there. We had our first day yesterday, all meetings and you’re getting all riled up just in there talking about football, so it was nice to go out there and finally get to be back out there.” UTEP redshirt junior quarterback Skyler Locklear said after the first day of practice.

Here’s some takeaways from day one of UTEP’s fall training camp.

LOTS OF COMPETITION AT EVERY POSITION

This year’s squad has a lot of depth at every single position group. There are multiple guys in every single unit that could be starters and will battle for the top spot. Way different story from last year’s squad that UTEP head coach Scotty Walden had to work with.

“The depth has totally changed. I think from a recruiting standpoint, our strategy is working exactly how we want it to work. We are we are trending the way that I expect to be in year two from a depth standpoint,” Walden said. “When you look at this roster last year, we inherited it. It was so top heavy. Now we’re balanced and that’s what we want to see.”

QUARTERBACK COMPETITION

For the second consecutive year, Walden will have to see his quarterback unit battle it out for the starting spot. All five quarterbacks listed on UTEP’s roster are in the mix to be QB1.

Last year’s starter, Skyler Lockler, is back for another year at UTEP. The redshirt junior signal caller looks to defend his starting spot against former five-star recruit and prized transfer Malachi Nelson.

Locklear on approach to QB competition this fall: “I’m taking it rep by rep. That’s all I can do is I can go out there and then focus on the rep that I get and try and execute it to the best of my ability, make the people around me better, just make the right reads and right decisions. However it shakes out, all glory to God.”

Nelson on approach to QB competition this fall: “It’s something that I feel like that’s on the back burner of my mind. I feel like if I go out there and I do what I do every single day, I feel like that that’s something that’ll come to fruition. Again, not something I’m focused on, but at the same time, I love competition. That’s why I play this game. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fired up to compete every day.”

You can’t forget about Shay Smith and Cade McConnell as well. Both are back for another year and motivated to fight for the starting spot.

“I didn’t have the opportunity to play last year, and it hurt, and I was just starving just to get on the field this year and just really just hone in on the details and execute at a high level and just studying my playbook and stuff like that.” Smith said on Thursday.

“Every single year of my career, it’s never not been a quarterback competition. So, it’s just the same old, same old. You got to show up every single day with your best. You can’t take a rip off. You can’t take a play off. and I kind of wouldn’t have it any other way at this point.” McConnell said on Thursday.

WORKING ON GETTING IN FOOTBALL SHAPE

The team started the first day of practice on a roll but then gassed out later in the session.

That forced Walden to end practice with a conditioning session. It is day one and he wasn’t expecting the team to be in tip top football shape, but there is a level the team needs to be at as it has a very up-tempo play style on both sides of the ball.

“It was very evident today, the first 20 minutes of that practice. It was like I was like, there’s going to be a great one. But then when we hit the wall conditionally,” Walden said. “When I can tell we go through a two-hour, 2.5-hour practice with the with the tempo that we play with. We don’t need to condition, but we’re nowhere near that yet.”

UTEP football will get back to work on Friday morning, continuing its preparation for the 2025 season opener against Utah State on Saturday, Aug. 30.

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