The illustrious dream of playing college football is something that many football players yearn for, a dream that may be possibly accomplished in more ways than one. One of those ways is by trying out as a walk-on. The UTEP football team, who previously held walk-on tryouts in February, will be hosting an additional tryout session Wednesday, Sept. 28, which coincides with the sixth week of the season. 

Being so far into the season, the timing of the tryouts may strike some as peculiar, but UTEP Football Director of Recruiting Jimmy Gonzales considers the timing to be a coincidence as the tryouts have been a topic of conversation between Gonzales and UTEP Head Coach Dana Dimel for quite some time. 

“We didn’t really think that much into it, we just didn’t happen to list it until Monday or Tuesday, we’ve been trying to do it for a while, but we had that on the calendar for quite some time,” Gonzales said.  

The tryouts would provide the possibility to make the roster for the current 2022 season. 

Gonzales says that these tryouts are intended to see who stands out to them not for the present but for the future. 

“We can only have tryouts when our team is actually practicing, so with that being said, you know it’s basically seeing if there’s anybody that may have an opportunity to join us in the spring and it’s a process so that’ll be the first step in,” Gonzales said. “You get to see them you know fulfill a dream and at least they can say they gave it a shot you know.” 

A prime example of a UTEP player finding success after starting as a walk-on is current UTEP running back/wide receiver Reynaldo Flores. An El Paso native and graduate of Ysleta High School, Flores worked his way up from trying out as a walk-on to becoming a scholarship player. 

“I believe (Flores) was a walk on and he’s steady. Rey, I mean he does a lot of things for us and so that’s obviously a success story here,” Gonzales said.  

Gonzales says that both UTEP and Dimel have a history of awarding deserving walk-on players like Flores with scholarships.  

“Hopefully there’ll be somebody out there that catches our eye and then have an opportunity to maybe fulfill somewhat of a dream by going through the process of joining us in spring and seeing what happens next,” Gonzales said. 

Joel Molina is a contributor and can be reached at [email protected]