It’s a new day for the UTPB football team.
The program, which enters year eight of its existence, now begins its first season in the Kris McCullough era.
McCullough, who is only the second head coach in the program’s short history, comes in after five years total at NCAA Division II East Central University in Ada, Okla.
He was promoted to interim head coach last year, becoming the youngest head coach in the nation after taking over when former coach Al Johnson left to accept a position at the University of Wisconsin.
The interim tag was soon removed after he led the Tigers to a 5-2 start
East Central ended up finishing 9-3 last year which included a victory over Texas A&M-Kingsville in the Heritage Bowl, the school’s first bowl victory 62 years.
Now, he’s ready for a new challenge as he takes over a UTPB program that’s still searching for its first winning record.
“I’m very excited,” McCullough said. “This is the first time in my career where I’m going into a season, not knowing the conference and not knowing who we are or who everyone else is. I’ve been at East Central for five years. In seasons three four and five, I had a good idea of who we were and who everyone else was. Here, we don’t quite have an identity yet. We’re still trying to figure out everything and who we’re playing with and who the other teams are and everything.”
McCullough takes over from Justin Carrigan who became the school’s Deputy Athletic Director after guiding the Falcons through the first seven years.
McCullough began his run at East Central in 2018 as the team’s special teams coordinator and quarterbacks coach before getting promoted to offensive coordinator in 2020 and assistant head coach in 2021.
After a difficult start to last season in which the Tigers lost to Harding and Arkansas Tech, East Central would go on to win nine of its next 10 games.
McCullough feels like last year has done a lot to prepare him for the next step in his head coaching career.
“I don’t think there’s more pressure on a head coach than an interim head coach trying to earn the job and that’s exactly what happened last year,” McCullough said. “We started 0-2 and things weren’t looking promising but we found a way to win six in a row and finish 9-3 and have the best season in 30 years. I think that really prepared me for this journey moving forward.”
The Falcons are coming off a 5-6 overall (4-5 in the Lone Star Conference) record.
UTPB finished seventh in the Lone Star Conference standings.
“The program is only eight years old,” McCullough said. “I’m only the second head coach. If the people reading this think back to year one and year two and the excitement level of having a football team in the Permian basin, I think we can go back to that excitement level. It’s a new era. It’s a new change. It’s an opportunity for us to be a prominent staple at the division II level in a region where football is so prominent.”
However, with a new coach, there will always be changes across the board from the staff to the players and this year will be no exception at UTPB.
McCullough has brought an entire new coaching staff to the Falcons.
In charge of the offense is new offensive coordinator Ryan Lusby who joins after serving as the OC at Arkansas Monticello.
New defensive coordinator Dionte Dean comes in after previously serving as the defensive backs coach at Ouachita Baptist University.
Jake Maxwell will be in charge of the offensive line and will also be the running game coordinator.
Blake Crandall takes over as the wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator while Alex Wierbicki is the defensive line coach.
Justin Victorian will coach the safeties.
“It’s an entirely new staff,” McCullough said. “The last staff did a good job with what they had. It was time for a change and I was excited to bring in my own staff. I haven’t been able to do that. Bringing in guys who you’ve coached against and bringing in guys that you trust. They run really good systems.”
Many of McCullough’s players at ECU followed him to the Permian Basin.
“We brought in quite a bit of transfers but the talent level with the guys that are here and the talent level of the guys we brought, I’ve never had a team this talented. I think the wins and losses are going to come from the brotherhood and family-like culture that we have. But talent helps a lot. … you only win as much as the players allow you to win. We’ll get a lot of wins when we get some buy-in to the culture.”
Among the players to transfer includes quarterback Kenny Hrncir.
“I think, strength-wise, our quarterback is the same quarterback is the same one who’s run my offense the last 36 games,” McCullough said. “He’s got a lot of wins under his belt. Three straight rivalry game wins and a division I win. He also has postseason. He has a lot of experience. He’s like another coach on the field.”
McCullough was also quick to point out the strengths from his offensive and defensive lines.
“Our offensive lines and defensive lines are some of the best that I’ve had over the last nine years as a coach,” McCullough said. “The offensive line looks very mature with a lot of starts under their belt. On the defensive line, we’re returning a couple of all –conference guys. We’re returning the freshman player of the year on the defensive side of the ball. The d-line is deep, fast and strong. We have all the tools that we need to be able to stop the run and get to the quarterback.”
As far as a weakness for this team, McCullough thinks it’s building the culture and building a family since most of them have only been around for six months.
“I firmly believe that it takes about a year to fully grow a culture to where you want it to be,” McCullough said. “It’s not an overnight process. That’s what I would say the weakness of this team is.”
Over the years, UTPB has gradually gotten better on the football field.
In each of the team’s first three seasons, the Falcons won only two games.
Then, in 2019, the Falcons finished 4-7 before going 5-5 (3-4) in 2021.
McCullough is hoping to take UTPB to the next level.
“I think that the foundation is here,” McCullough said. “I think coach Carrigan did a great job of getting this thing off the ground. It’s not easy to start a program but he did that and got it to where it is now. We’re not a bottom feeder. We’re mid-pack and to take the next step, I truly believe is the buy-in from the community. … The community support is going to be huge. You’re going to see our players out a lot, doing community service. We need the community to back us and see that football can thrive and grow this university.”
UTPB will begin its season at home against Texas College at 6 p.m. Sept. 2 at Astound Broadband Stadium in Midland.
The Falcons will begin conference play against West Texas A&M on Sept. 23 in Midland.
UTPB will play five of its home games in Midland this year with only one at Ratliff Stadium.
The Falcons’ lone game in Odessa will be Sept. 30 against Texas A&M-Kingsville.
UTPB football schedule
Sept. 2 Texas College 6 p.m. Midland
Sept. 9 Western Colorado 1 p.m. Gunnison, Colo.
Sept. 16 Southwest Baptist 1 p.m. Bolivar, Mo.
Sept. 23 West Texas A&M 6 p.m. Midland
Sept. 30 Texas A&M-Kingsville 6 p.m. Odessa
Oct. 7 Midwestern State 7 p.m. Wichita Falls
Oct. 14 Eastern New Mexico 6 p.m. Midland
Oct. 21 Angelo State 6 p.m. San Angelo
Oct. 28 Western Oregon 6 p.m. Midland
Nov. 4 Western New Mexico 1 p.m. Silver City, N.M.
Nov. 11 Central Washington 2 p.m. Midland
