{"id":250083,"date":"2026-04-15T00:13:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/250083\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:13:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:13:26","slug":"ej-colson-emerging-as-an-alpha-for-utep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/250083\/","title":{"rendered":"EJ Colson emerging as an alpha for UTEP"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The quarterback play at UTEP in 2025 was simply not good enough to win at the FBS level. Malachi Nelson and Skyler Locklear, the two Miner starters last season, combined for 21 touchdowns and a costly 20 interceptions. Heading into 2026, elevating the quarterback play and eliminating turnovers has been head coach Scotty Walden’s top priorities. <\/p>\n

The Miners brought in three new quarterbacks for the upcoming season, headlined by Incarnate Word transfer EJ Colson. As UTEP moves into the back half of spring ball, Colson has continued to excel and standout. Colson says his relationships with his pass catchers are improving every day, but the biggest growth Colson has shown is his comfort level in UTEP’s offense.<\/p>\n

“I am understanding the offense more and more,” Colson said. “I always say I have to be able to teach it to know it. So, I need to understand what everyone is doing from the left tackle to the Z receiver.” <\/p>\n

“There was a check that EJ made on Monday that took a quarterback from my past two years to make,” Walden said. <\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: NM State wraps up 2026 spring ball<\/a><\/p>\n

Colson started his career at UCF and played last season at UIW. Through his first few months on campus, the biggest adjustment for the Georgia native has been the tempo the Miners aim to play at. <\/p>\n

“Coach Walden wants to go fast, fast, fast,” Colson said. “It is about understanding that we don’t want the defense to get set, but we also have to make the right decisions with the ball. We have to move fast, but everything around us needs to move slow.”<\/p>\n

Throughout camp, Walden has praised Colson and the quarterback room’s ball security and decision-making. However, what has stood out to the third-year head coach the most has been Colson’s immediate presence and leadership in the locker room. <\/p>\n

“I think our team is craving an alpha dog at quarterback to lead our locker room,” Walden said. “In a situation before, we had a transfer come in and he waited until he got the respect of the locker room before taking over as the alpha. EJ situation has been different. While no one has been named the starter, he has jumped right into the pool. I think that is what we need.” <\/p>\n

Colson and the Miners have five more spring practices remaining, including the Miners’ spring game on Saturday, April 18.<\/p>\n

Sign up <\/a>to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The quarterback play at UTEP in 2025 was simply not good enough to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-250083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}