In some obvious ways, the UTEP football team has been going through transition after transition, a constant since Scotty Walden arrived in the spring of 2024.
This year, as was the case last year and the year before, there is turnover at the coordinator level, with UTEP having two new offensive co-coordinators (Lanear Sampson and Joe Pappalardo) and a new defensive coordinator (Kyle Beyer).
This is the third time the Miners have started over at both coordinator spots in three springs under Walden, so obviously, UTEP has endured four straight years of changes at those spots.
But there is a caveat. The faces are familiar as all have been with Walden before, two of the three with him for his entire UTEP tenure. Most of all, UTEP has a system that Walden has been running for seven years now, and that’s not changing.
“We haven’t changed terminology,” Walden said. “We made changes schematically with what we’re doing a little bit, adjusting to our personnel, making adjustments off prior years, things we can better at.
“But at the end of the day, it’s been a seamless transition with the kids with the terminology, which is a great thing. My goal is for that terminology to never change. We may emphasize different things, we may be more this than that from the previous year, but the terminology for the kids doesn’t change, so there’s carryover.”
Joe Pappalardo: ‘Collaborative effort’
Pappalardo represents carryover in another way, as he’s starting his third year on the staff while moving over from the special teams (“we-fense”) coordinator role. He was also special teams coordinator under Walden for three years at Austin Peay (2021-23), so he’s been in the system a while. He now works with the quarterbacks as his position group.
The play calling will always start with Walden, and Pappalardo said the way the offensive staff works together has been seamless.
“It’s a collaborative effort,” he said. “My role is to make sure the quarterbacks are prepared for practice and we have everything structurally we need as an offensive staff.
“Make sure we’re organized and create clarity and consistency in what we’re trying to develop in our offense this year. It’s a total collaborative effort; my job is to make sure we stay on course.”
He’s excited to try.
“I’m super blessed to have this opportunity,” Pappalardo said. “Being a coach for a long time, I’ve moved around a lot before. To get elevated into this role shows coach has a lot of faith and trust in me, that goes a long ways. This opportunity is nothing to take for granted, I’m super excited for the opportunity and trying to take it head on.”
Lanear Sampson: ‘We have history together’
Of the three new coordinators, Sampson is the only one who is new to UTEP’s staff this year, but he worked with Walden (and Pappalardo) at Austin Peay in 2022 and ’23 (in ’23 as a co-offensive coordinator when Pappalardo was special teams coordinator) before spending the last two years at San Diego State.
“This is not my first time in the system, being with him at Austin Peay,” Sampson said. “We have history together, that helps. We bounce ideas off each other, making sure we have the right plan each and every day for the kids. We all get together and game plan. No matter who the idea comes from, what is best for the kids we take out on the field and work on it.”
Sampson is the most accomplished football player on the staff, as he was a star receiver at Baylor through 2013, then played on NFL practice squads in Dallas, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh before playing for the Ottawa Redblacks of the CFL in 2015. He wants to teach UTEP’s receivers what he learned at the next level.
“The biggest thing for me is the persona the receivers have and it’s a diva mentality,” Sampson said. “My job is to get the diva out of us to compete and be physical and hard-nosed. I coach how I played: a little grimy on that end.”
As for the collaboration with Walden and Pappalardo, Sampson said his role is to serve as a facilitator for a system that has been in place for years.
Walden “had a system in place before I got here and my job is to enhance it in different ways,” Sampson said. “Some of the routes, maybe it’s a few little details here and there, concepts — anywhere I see fit that we can be more efficient, that’s what I try to help.”
Kyle Beyer: ‘From the way we play the game there will be zero change’
Beyer is the only one of the coordinator triumvirate that wasn’t at Austin Peay with Walden, but he’s been on the defensive staff for the previous two years, last year as the “spurs” (a third safety/linebacker hybrid) coach.
He takes over a defensive unit that had some success last year under Bobby Daly (now defensive coordinator at Montana State) and Beyer said he represents continuity.
“That’s what’s great about this program: Coach Walden has a vision of how he wants this program to play in all three phases, offense, defense, special teams,” Beyer said. “We have a mold of what we want it to look like schematically, and play style.
“We play fearless, fast, physical, our brand of football. From that perspective, it’s going to be very similar to what you’ve seen in the past from a UTEP defense. At the same time every year, we’re looking to gain an advantage schematically and find different ways to affect the football game.
“From the way we play the game there will be zero change.”
Cornerback Justin Content sees that.
“This isn’t very hard because coach (Beyer) has been in the system as long as I’ve been here,” Content said. “The defense rolls through and there’s been a lot of carryover from the last couple of years.”
What is different for Beyer is a bigger job title and he’s appreciative of what it took to earn that.
“When I came on staff a couple of years ago, that’s what you’re working for,” he said. “When you’re a position coach, you want to be a coordinator. It means a ton to me. I appreciate Coach Walden giving the opportunity, and it means the world to me.
“I’m taking over. Our two previous defensive coordinators were fantastic coaches and good men, so taking over those guys is huge for me. I’m left with a good group that was coached well.”
The hope is that the continuity translates into a big leap forward on the field.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached, bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP football’s new coordinators are familiar faces
Reporting by Bret Bloomquist, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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