COLLEGE FOOTBALL: UTPB’s McCullough mines local talent in first recruiting class

It was less than a month ago that Kris McCullough was introduced as the new head football coach at UTPB.

He showed Wednesday just how busy he and his staff have been since.

The UTPB football program announced that 44 high school seniors, along with 20 transfers, signed with the Falcons for the 2023 season and beyond.

“First off, I want to praise the job my staff did,” McCullough said. “This completely changes the face of our program.

“This class is important; it will win us games in the future, we have to develop them. They are high-character guys and our depth is a lot better now.”

When introduced in January, McCullough emphasized his desire to recruit local athletes to the program and he made good on that promise.

A dozen of the 44 high school athletes are from Permian Basin schools — Permian, Odessa High, Midland Legacy, Seminole, Midland Christian, McCamey, Wink and Forsan.

They will be part of the foundation that McCullough and his staff are looking to build.

“They are really good kids, all-state kids,” he said. “I think, when you take over a new program, you have to build a solid foundation of local talent.

“The crazy thing is, a lot of these local kids had not been to our campus and seen our facility. Once you get them here, they fall in love with the facility.”

Mining the local schools goes a long way toward building the good will that McCullough is looking for as he embarks on his first season with the program.

The Falcons didn’t shy away from the lower classifications, instead going out and getting the best athletes they could.

McCamey’s Matthew Rosas, Wink’s Jordan Tally, Midland Christian’s Dawson Bullard and Forsan’s Nolan Park are not token recruits, but athletes that the Falcons will look to develop over the next five years.

McCullough feels that if they are standouts at that level, changing the atmosphere around them can only help as they develop.

“They are going to have a lot more resources available to them,” he said. “Weight training, nutrition development and they also get better teammates around them.”

Now, the trick is getting the newcomers to mesh with Falcons’ returning players, especially the transfers who will be competing for playing time starting with spring practices.

One of the transfers is quarterback Kenny Hrncir, who played for McCullough at East Central University last season.

Hrncir, son of former Wink head coach Andy Hrncir, has been immersed in the offense that the new staff will be implementing, which will allow the Falcons to develop the trio of quarterbacks who signed letters of intent for the upcoming season.

“We were able to bring in 20 guys (transfers) within two weeks of getting this job,” McCullough said. “They have 350 games that they have started, 13 of those (players) have been all conference.

“One of the biggest things is to get them to gel with the current players and our current players have completely bought in.”

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