A spring of change was a productive one for UTEP football

UTEP's first spring under Scotty Walden was going to be about change, about a team learning a new way of doing things.

That was delivered in every way conceivable. Practices bumped up from two hours to three and the team sessions were behind closed doors. Part of the reason they ran three hours was because the team had to redo any drill that wasn't done perfectly.

On Wednesday, for example, they had to run out of the locker room and into a stretching line three times until their energy was deemed adequate.

The spring climaxed with a game that was notable for how close it was and all the alums that came out.

The games that count in the standings are more than four months away but Walden has delivered on a promise of change.

Here is how the five questions going into spring worked out.

What is Walden looking to get accomplished in his first spring at UTEP?

Walden had two different answers for that. On the field in terms of Xs and Os, the Miners looked to adapt to playing at a faster pace, which is a radical change from the ball-control style they played last year.

Judging from how clean the spring game was, that took.

"That main thing that got established this spring was the tempo," said Walden, who estimated about 60% of the playbook was installed over the spring. "That's hard and that takes time. It's not easy to play with tempo when you do it every day.

"That was great to see our guys handle the tempo and pace and understand the intricacies and play mechanics: Who does the ball go to? What does the o-line do? What do the receivers do so we can be as efficient as possible? We made great strides in that.

"We'll put in the other 40% over the summer and put the whole thing together in fall camp."

More generally, UTEP seemed to embrace the changes the new staff brought.

"We had to come into this spring to set the tone, most of all culturally," Walden said. "We wanted to come in and establish our culture right off the bat. The know what it means to be a Miner and the culture going forward.

"There are so many times we used examples that were happening in spring to talk about, if this would have happened in the fall, here's how it would go down. We're being proactive, not reactive. I'm proud of our culture, I'm excited about where we're going."

In this case, being proactive is what led to those three hour practices that Walden feels established a culture of working on details and being accountable for and correcting mistakes.

How much tackling will UTEP do?

They did that behind closed doors until the spring game, but in that spring game the Miners looked like a team that had been tackling a lot because they were good at it.

Notably there weren't many injuries this spring so increasing the amount of live tackling from zero to some of the time worked out well. There were very few missed tackles in the spring game.

Who will the quarterback be?

UTEP's not going to tip its hand on this, perhaps all the way to the first snap against Nebraska, but Austin Peay transfer Skyler Locklear and incumbent Cade McConnell separated themselves from the field.

Notably, last year's backup Kevin Hurley moved to receiver and caught a pass in the spring game.

Locklear spent the spring as the No. 1, but McConnell was fantastic in Saturday's game. Depending on how much the spring game mattered McConnell could be the No. 1 when fall arrives.

"You can tell the game experience he had last year paid dividends," Walden said of McConnell. "He looked comfortable. This is his first time going through our system, he's had 15 opportunities in it and to operate that fast, the processing that our quarterback has to make in 12 seconds or less is a lot. I was impressed with what he did."

What other positions are ones to watch?

The most turned over position is receiver and that was a bright spot in the spring game. UTEP is going to need new faces to perform big this season and Jaden Smith and Kenny Odum fit that bill Saturday.

The rebuilt offensive line also looked strong. Defensively, a mostly entirely new set of linebackers emerged and were notable for how well they tackled.

What will the spring game look like?

Here's a question that can be definitively answered: It looked good. The game was decided on a last-play bomb from McConnell to Odom that delivered a 39-35 victory to the Blue Storm, a score that also factored in halftime competitions from the alums.

The presence of all those alums, including current NFL players Aaron Jones and Will Hernandez, was big as amidst all the change, UTEP made an effort to embrace some of its past.

The coming year still looks to be a challenge in what should be rebuilding, but the quality of the spring game created some optimism.

Outside of quarterback the questions the team will face when it opens fall camp will be completely different, but UTEP will hit that camp with momentum after a productive spring.

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

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: A spring of change was a productive one for UTEP football