God, I love West Texas.
– Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water (2016)
Not everyone is fortunate enough to visit West Texas in their lifetime. Some come to these parts in search of oil or semi-authentic Mexican food. Others come for the high school football, of which many of the land’s most decorated programs are relics of a bygone era rather than modern-day powerhouses. Odessa Permian, for example, was once a frequent state title winner, but no more.
Populations swelled in the east, and the football investment followed. Programs based in small rural towns in the West have not recovered since, which is unfortunate.
Tourists in this part of the world often lament that they need multiple trips to cover all of the relevant landmarks, and who could blame them? There’s a lot to see. One can’t-miss event is a UTEP Miners football game. This is a proud program located in the auspicious town of El Paso, right on the border of New Mexico and Texas.
CFFers should be intimately familiar with this program. There have been a litany of standout skill players rolling through this campus dating back to the mid-2010s. NFL RB Aaron Jones began carrying the torch, so to speak, rushing for 1,000+ yards in 2014 and 2016. Then there was an incredible run of three straight 1,000+ yard receivers from 2021 to 2023 (Jacob Cowing, Tyrin Smith, and Kelly Akharaiyi), despite absolutely horrendous QB play.
And believe me, I know. As someone who rostered Tyrin Smith in 2022 and thus watched more Miner football than I care to admit, it was a miracle that any receiver finished the season with positive yardage, let alone 1,000 yards.
Unfortunately, in 2024, that streak came to an end. Presumed WR1 Jaden Smith fell to injury after four games. The remaining top three (Kam Thomas, Trey Goodman, and Kenny Odom) shared the remaining target share; each finishing with 40+ receptions.
In 2025, Kenny Odom led the charge admirably, but ultimately failed to reach 1,000 yards again. He had a solid season, though, because he caught a lot of passes.
Now, Odom moves on to USF, and the Miners are in search of a new #1 at receiver to return them to their 1,000+ yard pass-catching ways. Could FCS call up Carver “The Cheek Carver” Cheeks be the answer the folks in West Texas have been looking for?
We know that head coach Scotty Walden likes to bring FCS transfers up to his program. Odom himself was a call-up from Austin Peay, and many of UTEP’s other key pieces since Walden’s arrival have come from the FCS ranks.
As for the man himself, Cheeks completed the 2025 campaign with Northern Colorado, appearing in 12 games and catching 71 passes for 929 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Let’s kick things off by taking a look at the system he’s joining for 2026.
COACHING & SYSTEM
WR1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 12.21 (half-PPR)
Unfortunately, we currently only have one season of FBS data in the database sample for Scotty Walden’s PPG, and there’s no OC listed on the team webpage. Not pictured in the table below is UTEP’s 2025 campaign, where Kenny Odom saw 106 targets, catching 62 for 582 yards and six scores (~15 PPG in full PPR formats).
The list of WR1s at his previous stop in the FCS is an interesting group. Tre Shackelford, previously at Wazzou and Tulane, led the Austin Peay Governors in 2023 with 52 receptions, 799 yards, and six scores.
In 2021 and 2022, it was current Texas Tech receiver Drae McCrae who led Walden’s teams in receiving. He went over 1000 yards on 75 catches and nine TDs in ’22. You may remember that name as McCrae accrued some hype in the 2023 offseason as a potential candidate to be then-Texas Tech OC Zack Kittley’s slot receiver, but that never materialized.
Nonetheless, that Austin Peay program under Walden seemed to be something of an incubator for future FBS receivers at the very least. Sure, half of those were brought along with Walden when he made the move to UTEP, but who’s counting?
Pictured below is a table that is pretty bare because none of Walden’s history at the FCS level is tracked, nor is it updated with the 2025 data. It has numbers from the 2024 season only.
Notably, in addition to adding Carver at receiver, UTEP will also be welcoming in a decorated FCS transfer at QB: former Incarnate Word/UCF pivot EJ Colson, who passed for over 2000 yards and 16 scores last season. He is the presumed starter as of this writing, but someone else could win the job between now and the season.
My confidence in the UTEP QB position is low to non-existent once again. If this program could just get a solid season out of its passer, I feel that it could do great things. And with so many high school legends coming out of small West Texas towns, you’d think there’d be something of a lineage of UTEP gunslingers in college, but alas, such is not the case. Maybe Colson will be the answer after all these years.
Walden’s Miners typically average 55% run plays and approximately 66 plays per game, which is pretty average.
CARVER CHEEKS (6’2″, 197 lbs.)
2025 REC STATS (FCS): 71-929-6
Mr. Cheeks started his career at Northern Colorado in 2023 and, as far as I can tell, on defense. His freshman season stats, according to NoCo’s team website, include eight tackles but also a game vs. Wazzou where he recorded one reception for 27 yards.
In 2024, he appeared to settle in on offense, securing 23 passes for 371 yards and three scores, including a season-high 136 yards and one score vs. EWU. The 2025 campaign is when he really came alive, however.
He had an absolute heater vs. a potential future FBS team in Sacramento State, catching nine passes for 223 yards and three scores. An impressive performance, but that was actually only the third time he went over 100 yards receiving in 12 appearances. Cheeks also carried the rock three times for a grand total of three yards and one score.
Overall, Cheeks is sort of an interesting commodity. He’s clearly a boundary guy, but his yards per reception from his games last year were usually low. And he was also involved as a rusher. From that standpoint, although it’s an odd profile, it does align closely with what Kenny Odom provided to UTEP.
It’s hard to prognosticate a major CFF producer from the details we have currently available to us, but Odom was solid last year, and Cheeks could certainly fill in with a similar profile. ◾
