UTEP Football has once again taken a significant step towards a brighter future in the Sun City.  

UTEP Football Head Coach, Scotty Walden, announced on June 7 that Gino Gigliotti had been hired as the Miner’s new Director of Player Personnel after spending the last three seasons at Syracuse University, a former Power Five school. Previously, Power Five was a collection of conferences financially strong in the college sports landscape, however, it will be disbanded when the fiscal year ends on July 1.  

“I am really excited to bring someone in with a wealth of experience in evaluation and recruiting like Gino,” Walden said. “He has worked his way up through the Division III ranks and up to Power Five. He understands what it takes to win at this level and bring in high-level talent year in and year out, but he also has that small college work ethic.” 

Before his work at Syracuse University, Gigliotti got started as a student assistant coach for the Division III Cortland Red Dragons. There, he was charged with working with the cornerbacks, those that defend offensive passes, amongst other things, as well as breaking down all defensive film during film sessions.  

From Cortland, Gigliotti was then brought on as a recruiting and video technology intern for Costal Carolina University, and in 2018, he served as a recruiting analyst. His responsibilities involved coordinating recruiting schedules for coaches, evaluating game film, assisting with official visits, and contributing to the maintenance of Chanticleer’s recruiting board. 

Gigliotti joined the Syracuse recruiting staff in 2019. He quickly rose through the ranks, being promoted to recruiting quality control the following year. In 2022, he was promoted to Director of Recruiting, where he led the program in attracting the best student-athletes to the university. 

For UTEP, the pairing of Coach Walden and Coach Gigliotti is a match made in heaven. With Syracuse, Gigliotti’s Orange teams were on the better half of national recruiting rankings year in and year out, and now, with a broad pipeline of connections, experience, and energy between the two coaches, the sky is seemingly the limit for a program that has arguably had the best offseason in program history to go along with arguably the best recruiting class in UTEP football history.  

Miner fan Jaime Mota had nothing but excitement to share about Coach Gigliotti’s hiring.  

“You can tell something big is brewing here, you know? It just feels like everything is moving in the right direction,” Mota said. “Whether it’s to make a name for themselves, like taking a not-so-good program and turning it into a winner, or whether they really want to build a legacy here, it just feels like there is good energy coming from this program for the first time in a long time.” 

Jorge Guajardo is the sports editor and can be reached at [email protected].