Scotty Walden
Scotty Walden went 40–45 as a head coach, 2016–2026, at East Texas Baptist, Austin Peay, Southern Miss and UTEP. Wikipedia’s season articles record one season differently (2026, 1–5); by them his record is 40–44. Share
Four seasons our game records don’t credit to him come from the coach’s Wikipedia article: 2016 at East Texas Baptist; 2021–23 at Austin Peay (on file under another coach). They’re marked in the table.
- Record
- 40–45 career
- Seasons
- 8
- Schools
- 4
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Nov 15, 1989
- Best season
- 2020 4–5
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | East Texas Baptist * | 7–3 | 4th | |||
| 2017–19: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2020 | Austin Peay 1st season, final 6 games | 4–2 | 3rd | |||
| 2020 | Southern Miss next four games | 1–3 | ||||
| 2021 | Austin Peay * | 6–5 | T–2nd | |||
| 2022 | Austin Peay * | 7–4 | T–1st | |||
| 2023 | Austin Peay * | 9–3 | 1st | NCAA Division I First Round L | 10 | |
| 2024 | UTEP | 3–9 | T–6th | |||
| 2025 | UTEP | 2–10 | T–11th | |||
| 2026 | UTEP | 1–6 (Wikipedia: 1–5) | ||||
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table. * A season our game records don’t credit to him; its record is the article’s.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 4 | 0–4 | 0% |
| Against top-10 teams | 3 | 0–3 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 5 | 1–4 | 20% |
| Conference games | 21 | 5–16 | 24% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 15 | 6–9 | 40% |
| At home | 20 | 6–14 | 30% |
| On the road | 20 | 4–16 | 20% |
| At neutral sites | 1 | 1–0 | 100% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 12 | 5–7 | 42% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 29 | 6–23 | 21% |
His own 41 games on file, 2020–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Libertyseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Louisiana Techseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Jacksonville Stateseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| New Mexico Stateseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Kennesaw Stateseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Sam Houstonseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| UT Martinseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Murray Stateseries | 1 | 1–0 |
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Sul Ross | Offensive coordinator | |
| 2013–15 | East Texas Baptist | Offensive coordinator | |
| 2016 | East Texas Baptist | Head coach | |
| 2017–18 | Southern Miss | Wide receivers coach | |
| 2019–20 | Southern Miss | Co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| 2020 | Southern Miss | Interim head coach | |
| 2020–23 | Austin Peay | Head coach | |
| 2024–present | UTEP | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Jay HopsonSouthern Miss
- Tim BillingsSouthern Miss
- Marquase LovingsAustin Peay
Assistants who became head coaches
- Scott HighsmithBelhaven, East Texas Baptist
- Cedric ThomasArkansas–Pine Bluff, Mississippi Delta, Alcorn State
- Reed StringerSouthern Miss
- Rick MinterCincinnati, Marshall
- Tim BillingsSouthern Miss, Southeast Missouri State
Worked under (3)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jay Hopson | Southern Miss | 2017–20 | 2017–18: wide receivers coach; 2019–20: co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| Tim Billings | Southern Miss | 2020 | Co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| Marquase Lovings | Austin Peay | 2020 | Offensive coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (5)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scott Highsmith | East Texas Baptist, 2016: passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach | Belhaven, East Texas Baptist | |
| Cedric Thomas | Southern Miss, 2020: defensive backs coach | Arkansas–Pine Bluff, Mississippi Delta, Alcorn State | |
| Reed Stringer | Southern Miss, 2020: special teams and tight ends coach | Southern Miss | |
| Rick Minter | Southern Miss, 2020: defensive analyst | Cincinnati, Marshall | |
| Tim Billings | Southern Miss, 2020: assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and safeties coach | Southern Miss, Southeast Missouri State |
Other assistants under him (15)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Akeem Davis | Austin Peay, 2020: co-defensive coordinator; Southern Miss, 2020: running backs coach; Austin Peay, 2021–22: co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach | |
| Austin Silvoy | Austin Peay, 2020: co-offensive coordinator | |
| Chris Kappas | Austin Peay, 2020: co-defensive coordinator | |
| Josh Cochran | Austin Peay, 2020: co-offensive coordinator | |
| Matt Kubik | Southern Miss, 2020: offensive coordinator | |
| Ryan Stanchek | Southern Miss, 2020: offensive line coach; Austin Peay, 2022: co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach; UTEP, 2024–26: co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach | |
| Tony Pecoraro | Southern Miss, 2020: defensive coordinator | |
| Lanear Sampson | Austin Peay, 2022: pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach; 2023: co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach; UTEP, 2026: co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| J.J. Clark | UTEP, 2024: defensive coordinator | |
| Jake Brown | UTEP, 2024: offensive coordinator | |
| Kelvin Sigler | UTEP, 2024–26: co-defensive coordinator | |
| Bobby Daly | UTEP, 2025: defensive coordinator | |
| Mark Cala | UTEP, 2025: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Joe Pappalardo | UTEP, 2026: co-offensive coordinator | |
| Kyle Beyer | UTEP, 2026: defensive coordinator |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
How he coached
Walden’s teams went for it on 29% of fourth downs and on 51% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 51% of plays and took 24.5 seconds a play, 2024–2026.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 12 g | 27 of 112 24% | 48% | 49% | 24.4 | −0.11 | |
| 2025 12 g | 38 of 115 33% | 51% | 56% | 22.6 | −0.10 | |
| 2026 7 g | 19 of 60 32% | 58% | 46% | 27.8 | −0.13 | |
| All 31 g | 84 of 287 29% | 51% | 51% | 24.5 | −0.11 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.