There is a degree of zero-sum in an intersquad scrimmage where both teams can't win every play, and so it was with the biggest emphasis of UTEP's fall football camp: Turnovers.
The good news for UTEP in its second scrimmage of this fall, a closed-door affair that was not promoted to boosters like the first one last week, is that its defense fulfilled all its goals in that category in a productive day. That also means the offense had some issues there, though the specific reasons may mitigate that.
UTEP examines its depth in scrimmage
This time last year, the Miners were having position battles all over the field (most notably at quarterback), and the second scrimmage was when much of that got sorted out. This year's
second scrimmage, with quarterback EJ Colson and much of the starting cast in place, was more about giving younger and depth players a chance to fight for the final spots on the travel squad.
When asked what his depth chart looks like less than two weeks before the Sept. 4 opener at Oklahoma, coach Scotty Walden was bullish.
"Stronger than I've ever felt at this time at UTEP, by far," he said. "For the past two years there have been a ton of questions, that second scrimmage determined a lot of things. Our program is in a much more stable state than it has been. It's going to be, who are those last 12 to 15 guys who make the 74-man roster on the travel squad.
"Coaches have a good grasp of who is going to be the two-deep guys. … We have a better idea on that than ever."
Translation: The starters didn't play a whole lot, making a closed-door scrimmage even harder to evaluate.
"We had a lot of 2s and 3s go; it was good to see those guys get out and perform and have fun," quarterback EJ Colson said. "It was sitting back and enjoying their progression."
Defense takes, offense gives
By all accounts, what needs work offensively is ball security after a scrimmage Walden said was sloppy, albeit one where mistakes were made at full speed.
"Turnovers were definitely a problem," Colson said. "We understand we have to clean that up and see what we could have done better with ball placement."
Walden said the issues were turnovers by the offense and penalties on both teams called by a Mountain West officiating crew. As for the turnovers, he gave some credit to the defense.
"They were takebacks, because the defense did a heck of a job taking the ball back, especially in the red zone," Walden said. "There were penalties on both sides of the ball, that needs to be cleaner. We had young players playing hard, they made some mistakes but the mistakes were made at full speed. We can coach off that."
Linebacker Garrett Hawkins said he enjoyed seeing the defense turn a pre-camp priority into a tangible result.
"We put an emphasis on it all camp," Hawkins said. "I'm seeing guys being able to take that to heart and worry about the football. We say that all the time: The football is so important they named the game after it. We joke about it, but that's the truth.
"That's how we make our money on defense, takebacks, so that's what we're focused on."
Mountain West Conference officiating crew calls scrimmage
Not only did the Mountain West send an officiating crew, they went over the tape with coaches then made a presentation to the team on why penalties were called.
"That's been a good teaching mechanism for our guys," Walden said. "I'm so appreciative of the Mountain West for sending their guys out, and us and our administration believing enough and investing the resources to get them out here. That's a really big deal."
Scrimmage theme was situational work.
Another reason for some of the turnovers was the format. While the first scrimmage featured many drives starting on the 25-yard line, first-and-10, it was more situational. There was a segment on 2-point shootouts when some of those turnovers occurred, plays where Colson pointed out a sack or a throwaway is as bad as a turnover.
The idea of so much situational work was to create moments that can be coached. That included a 2-minute drill that was really a 13-second drill. The offense got the ball on the plus-13 with 13 seconds left, needing a score to "win the game."
"We put them in dire moments," Walden said. We did situational work in the first scrimmage but not as much. … You got to see how guys played with stress. There was good and there was bad. There are some really, really good teaching moments for the future."
Standouts
For the second time in two scrimmages, Walden touted some freshmen when asked who stood out. By indications, some of these names had interceptions in a freshman period.
He mentioned Adarius Hutchinson, defensive back Colt Matlock, safety Darnell Williams and cornerback Decorian Thompson. On Thompson, Walden said, "I forget he's a freshman. He's a perfect corner. He talks the right amount of crap, he plays with the right amount of stuff in his neck. I love him to death and he had a big-time red-zone interception."
He also mentioned redshirt freshman receiver Zoe Hill, who missed last season with an injury suffered in high school, then caught a touchdown pass in the scrimmage.
It added up to a day that showed UTEP what it needs to work on before Oklahoma.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Turnovers, penalties mark UTEP's 2nd scrimmage before Oklahoma
