'He's moving people': Guard Otis Pitts makes most of second chance under Scotty Walden

Four months ago, Otis Pitts was ready to move on.

The junior guard on the UTEP football team saw the coaching staff leave, his teammates jumping into the transfer portal and at that point he was ready to be a joiner.

Pitts put his name in the transfer portal and began looking for a new home. That was before Scotty Walden was named the new head coach.

More: 'El Paso is a special place': Will Hernandez excited to come back for free camp, spring game

Walden has a policy of not letting players who enter the portal come back, but that doesn't apply to players who entered the portal before he was hired and Pitts wanted to explore that possibility.

What resulted was one of UTEP's first wins under Walden, which has certainly been the upshot of bringing Pitts, and also tight end Marcus Vinson, back into the Miner fold. As spring football hits its final week, the guard Pitts, a backup throughout his UTEP career, has been the Miners' best lineman.

As it turns out, in the four months since changing course and rejoining the Miners, Pitts has gone from joiner to leader. Making everything out of his second chance, last year’s backup guard has become this spring’s talisman for a retooling offensive line that is finding some continuity.

"I hit the transfer portal, I had a really good connection with the (previous) coaches, but talking to coach Walden changed my perspective," Pitts said. "I wanted to play for him. I like his attitude, he's a great guy. He's a great person to be around."

Pitts also has a reputation as a great person to be around, which his returning teammates already knew and which Walden was quick to learn. Before he committed to Pitts, Walden visited with a number of people about Pitts.

"Guys who got into the portal before I was hired, that's not their fault, that's not anyone's fault," Walden said. "They felt that was best. If I was in that position I'd probably go in the transfer portal too, there is so much uncertainty, 'What's about to happen?'

"Otis and Marcus Vinson were two guys who were in the portal when I took the job, we had some conversations, we did our homework. When we talked to people around campus, they had nothing but great things to say about those two young men. That led me to believe, they wanted to be back, they really impacted our program. I'm grateful they gave me a chance."

In the four months since Walden has taken over, Pitts has lost 25 pounds to get down to 330, which given the way he has practiced this spring, appears to be his ideal weight. His reshaped body is part of his work ethic.

"The thing I love about Otis: He loves football, he's intense about football," Walden said. "In meetings, every meeting we've had, he sits in the front row, he takes great notes, he's attentive, he has attention to detail. On the field he works his tail off.

"He looks great, he's moving people, he's moving really well. I love his mentality."

Pitts loves the mentality of the entire offensive line and the team.

"It's a big turnaround for us," Pitts said. "Spring is going amazingly for this program, my teammates are all doing great things. We're coming along great."

That's mostly with new players Walden brought with him, but there are exceptions and Pitts has been the best kind of exception.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 'He's moving people': Guard Otis Pitts makes most of second chance