Part of the changing nature of college football — some of this new this year — is that the roster in the spring looks a whole lot like the roster half a year later in the fall.
There is no longer a post-spring transfer portal and increasingly both junior college transfers and high school players graduate early and are already on campus for spring football. Two of the stars of UTEP’s spring game were true freshmen cornerback Decorian Thompson and receiver Benny Okwura.
What the Miners will take with them to the fall, however, will grow a little in several different ways.
Joining the ranks will be 20 more names, mostly freshmen who did not graduate early. UTEP is getting several key players back from injury who were limited in the fall. And finally, the Miners are still recruiting for the 2026 season and have expectations to add a few more transfers before the rosters are finalized at the start of the fall academic semester.
UTEP still looking to add players for fall
“We’re looking to add a few more,” coach Scotty Walden said. “It’s going to be a good group coming in, I’m excited to dig into the junior college ranks and portal ranks to see what’s out there.
“We’ve got a couple of really important ones coming this week (on recruiting visits) and see who we can acquire. You’re always trying to better your team and we have a couple of spots left open where we can go acquire a few more. We have to be great evaluators and we have to dig.”
UTEP still has freshman who report in summer
At last weekend’s spring game, a number of those freshmen who don’t enroll until summer flew into town to watch their soon-to-be-team. There are a total of 20 players who weren’t on the 91 player roster set to arrive in June.
Here is a list of scholarship players announced on the early signing day who aren’t with UTEP yet.
Miners getting players healthy
While UTEP’s roster has largely turned over since last year, there were several returning players still in various stages of recovery through the spring who were limited and for the most part held out of spring team sessions.
In fact, Walden made a point that all five offensive players who were voted offseason captains missed all or most of last year to injury: tight end Cash Cheeks, receiver Jaden Smith, receiver Kam Thomas, tackle Tyler Roberts and tight end Judah Ezinwa.
Ezinwa blew out his knee in Week 6 against Liberty, but he is now seven months past his surgery and will be a full go for fall camp.
“Super-exciting, it’s a blessing to be where I am now,” Ezinwa said. “When the injury happened last year against Liberty I was bummed out, it was hard to see the bigger picture, but honestly it was a big opportunity to take a step back and be grateful for everything.
“It’s about seven months now, I’m about to get cleared for non-contact. I’m excited to be back out there.
“A big thing I was super-excited about, I was begging and pleading, to do routes on air. When they said yes to that I was so excited.”
Smith, coming off a knee injuries in consecutive years, is even closer to a full return and was able to participate in some individual drills this spring.
“I don’t know how to explain it, it’s words, it’s feelings I can’t put into words,” Smith said. “Having to go through the past two ACL tears, it’s obviously something no one wants to go through. But it’s made me a better person, a better teammate, a better friend, a better brother.
“It’s brought out a side of me I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find this early in life. I’m grateful to get through it all.”
His team can’t wait to have him back full-time, which will be soon enough for the Oklahoma opener.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP Miners football still has some additions to make before fall
Reporting by Bret Bloomquist, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
