Mar. 24—The UTPB football team began its first day of spring workouts Monday at Falcon Field.
The Falcons, who are coming off a 7-5 season and the program’s third postseason appearance, are eager to get the spring training underway.
“We’re just really excited to get going,” UTPB head coach Kris McCullough said. “We had to move back a week but thankfully we got our new o-line coach in and our guys are ready to get going. They had a heck of an offseason in the weight room. They got bigger and faster. Now it’s time to see what they can do. We’ve had that bad aftertaste in our mouths since the bowl game loss.”
McCullough enters his third season in charge of the Falcons.
UTPB finished last season with a 39-37 double-overtime loss to Central Missouri in the Heritage Bowl in Corsicana.
UTPB has 15 starters coming back, but some are out hurt.
McCullough said the important thing is for the younger players to develop into possible starters with some of the first team players injured.
“The biggest thing for spring break ball is that we have 15 starters back but a lot of those starters are hurt so seeing these guys develop is big,” McCullough said. “We talk about our tiers of the team. seeing those two step into the top tiers and develop into potential starters in the future so we’re just looking at how our guys develop.”
This year, the Falcons expect to see a three-man race for the starting quarterback job as Issac Mooring and Christian Kaopua return after seeing playing time last year in addition to former West Texas A&M and Wink standout Kanon Gibson coming back to the Permian Basin.
With this being McCullough’s third spring training with the Falcons, he says the biggest difference between now and his first season is the quarterback competition as the Falcons look to replace Dylan Graham at the top spot.
“It starts at quarterback,” McCullough said. “We had Dylan Graham last year who had been in the system for a year under Kenny (Hrncir) and you don’t have that anymore. It’s a true competition. It’ll be a true battle between the three quarterbacks we’ve got. The second biggest thing is all the injuries we’ve had. It’s gotten to the point to where we have a lot of new guys on the field, a lot of freshmen and sophomores and guys that have developed in this program taking reps and I’m excited to see where their journey has been so far.”
McCullough is eager to see what comes out of the battle for the starting quarterback job.
“You’re always excited about that position,” McCullough said. “Last year, our depth was Dylan Graham and then Kaopua and Issac. Issac was a freshman so we didn’t know what we’d get out of him. All three players (this year) have the potential to start. We just hope all three stick around and compete through fall camp.”
With spring ball finally starting up at UTPB this week, McCullough said he didn’t have to worry about getting the guys excited for it.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been out here so these guys are fired up,” McCullough said. “I don’t have to tell them anything to get going. Now that we’re out here, we’re excited.”
UTPB’s spring game will be at 1 p.m. April 12 at Ratliff Stadium.
The Falcons will begin the 2025 season Aug. 30 against Central Oklahoma at Astound Broadband Stadium in Midland.