AUSTIN, Texas — A few days before UTEP made the trip to play No. 7 Texas, Eric Nelson stated the obvious: “Ray Charles can see that we’re underdogs.”
Nelson, the father of Miners QB Malachi Nelson, knew the circumstances would be difficult for what was essentially his son’s debut on a national stage after a winding path that’s taken him from five-star recruit and future of the USC program to Boise and El Paso over a three-year span.
At Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium there were more than 100,000 fans in attendance to watch Texas do what seemed inevitable as a 40.5-point favorite. There was even a sign in the stands that read: “This isn’t the Miners league.”
Instead, UTEP’s defense confounded Texas. At one point Arch Manning — Nelson’s peer as a five-star recruit in the 2023 class — threw 10 straight incompletions. Boos rained down from the stands as college football’s most hyped player looked lost.
Nelson knows a little bit about that. He said his career has been “all over the place” across his two seasons and change.
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The game against Texas was just Nelson’s third career start. He made some high-level throws. He also committed crippling mistakes, including a second-quarter interception that took UTEP out of scoring range in a 7-0 game. It’s why Nelson looked so dejected postgame following a 27-10 loss.
A skinny 6-foot-3, 193-pound Southern California native, Nelson entered a backroom at DKR with four or five media members in attendance, a 10th of the group that lobbed questions at Manning on the other side of the stadium. He wore a long-sleeve shirt with “Win the West” splashed across the front, his bushy hair protruding from his black skull cap.
Asked for his assessment of the game, Nelson first complimented his team before adding: “There was a lot of bad, mostly on my part.”
“I’m a perfectionist,” Nelson told CBS Sports. “I put all the pressure on me. I’ve got to take it on the chin. If I don’t turn the ball over two times, I put us in position to win the game. … That’s what hurts the most.”
His coach, 35-year-old Scotty Walden, took a more measured approach evaluating Nelson. The third-year passer mostly took what was there with short, early completions, but there were fearless throws up the seem and the middle of the field mixed in that erased a speed advantage Texas owned defensively.
Nelson was, for all intents and purposes, a quarterback in a new system and playing for the first extended stretch since high school. Bites of brilliance and moments of “What the heck is he doing!?” during a game in which he finished 24-for-36 with 209 yards and a pair of picks.
“People are going to talk about the two interceptions,” Walden said. “People are going to dwell on that. He’s going to dwell on that. But he played some really good football out there today.”
Quarterbacks in the 2023 class arrived as national recruits at a singular time in college athletics. They weren’t just highly sought after five-star players. They were potential spokespeople in the dawn of the name, image and likeness era.
When Nelson, the No. 1 recruit in ESPN’s rankings (he’d finish the cycle No. 13 overall by 247Sports), was ready to announce his commitment with CBS Sports HQ on July 18, Subway reached out to the family hoping to strike a sponsorship agreement; NIL had become legal on July 1, 2021.
That’s what led Nelson to marketing agent Justin J. Giangrande, who’s worked with pros like Alvin Kamara to Mike Conley. Nelson signed with Giangrande to look after his NIL interests, becoming what Giangrande believes to be the first high school athlete in the country to have marketing representation.
Subway didn’t feature in Nelson’s original commitment announcement to Oklahoma, but Nelson would go on to do major deals with a BBQ chain, an NFT company and Leaf trading cards.
“I think he’s on the Mount Rushmore of high school NIL,” Giangrande said.
A two-time Gatorade California Player of the Year, Nelson earned those accolades as an elite high school prospect. When Lincoln Riley suddenly left Oklahoma for USC, he showed up on the Nelson family doorstep the next day asking Nelson to flip from OU and be the face of the Trojans.
Flip he did in November of his junior season. Caleb Williams came with Riley, too, cementing the succession play in LA. It’d go from Williams and move to Nelson. Clean and tidy.
Then came the torn labrum that just wouldn’t go away. Nelson played with the issue as a junior and again as a senior. Eventually, he underwent surgery ahead of enrolling early at USC.
Recovery from that injury took time. Nelson spent his freshman year behind Williams and Miller Moss while learning under Riley and Kliff Kingsbury. When Williams inevitability declared for the NFL draft following the 2023 season, Nelson felt like it was his time. Riley wasn’t ready to commit to any quarterback in the post-Williams era.
Nelson didn’t want to wait. He hopped in the portal like 70% of blue-chip QBs do in this era.
“In Malachi’s mind he was ready to be the guy, but he hadn’t proved anything or shown anything,” Eric Nelson said. “Coach Riley wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Malachi felt like … he was ready to lead a program.”
Prior relationships dictate a lot of movement in the portal, particularly for quarterbacks, who have been recruited by the same small group of coaches for years and years. Nelson got his first offer in eighth grade and met Bush Hamdan at that time while he was the OC at Washington. Six years later, Hamdan moved to Boise State to be the program’s play-caller under new head coach Spencer Danielson. The Broncos had an opening at QB following the 2023 campaign, so Hamdan began recruiting Nelson immediately.
Six years is a lot of history. Nelson and his family trusted Hamdan. Nelson committed to the Broncos. About a week later, Hamdan told Nelson news of his own: He’d accepted the offensive coordinator job at Kentucky.
“You understand going from Boise to Kentucky,” Giangrande said. “But there’s some level of collateral damage from Malachi being there.”
The Broncos promoted Dirk Koetter to OC. The offense Hamdan sold Nelson on changed. Then Nelson lost the quarterback battle to program returner Maddux Madsen, who, along with Ashton Jeanty, went on to lead the Broncos to the playoffs.
Madsen had two years of eligibility remaining following the 2024 season. Nelson saw no path to start. Back to the portal he went.
“That’s (Madsen’s) team, so it’s time to go,” Eric Nelson said.
Quarterbacks who move twice in two years, even former five-star recruits, begin to develop a reputation. Impatient. Uncompetitive. Bust. The interest in him the second time in the portal proved far less robust. Some Power Four teams were intrigued, but sources around the country at QB-needy teams largely tagged Nelson as a no-go.
UTEP and Scotty Walden didn’t care.
The Miners needed a potential program-changer in Walden’s second year. Walden made Nelson a priority. He sold Nelson on fitting a system around his strengths as a passer and as a gunslinger out in West Texas. The Miners were one of only a few schools who focused on recruiting Nelson the person, building a relationship and stressing a program built around faith. They didn’t view Nelson like his unearned reputation: A flashy, high-profile QB from LA. Instead, they saw a quiet, talented player who just wanted an opportunity to compete.
A five-star recruit just two years removed from high school ending up in El Paso didn’t make sense on paper. But Nelson bought into the vision. The Miners were what he saw in himself.
“The reason Malachi is at UTEP is because of Scotty,” Eric Nelson said. “He’s got a chip on his shoulder. He’s a young coach who feels like he’s one of the best in the country, and he wants to prove that. That’s where Malachi is right now. He wants to prove he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country and hasn’t had an opportunity to prove that.”
Back when Nelson and Manning were dueling No. 1 high school recruits, ESPN tried to schedule a game between Nelson’s Los Alamitos High School and Manning’s Isadore Newman High School for a showcase.
That never happened. Saturday in Austin their paths finally crossed.
“It’s a Texas duel,” Giangrande said. “Two different paths for Malachi and Arch, but same road.”
Manning entered this season with generational, unrelenting hype. Nelson was largely a curiosity, away from the bright lights of national TV in Conference USA. By the end of Saturday, Manning suffered through boos while Nelson, outside of a brutal second-quarter interception, showed some of the talents that made him a five-star recruit just a few short years ago.
“Some of the reads he made were really good,” Walden said. “Heck, the big pass he had to Judah (Ezinwa), it wasn’t even the primary read. I’m starting to see him go to his secondary and third progressions. That tells me he’s getting comfortable,”
“I’m really excited about his trajectory.”
Their paths will dissect again for the rest of the year. Manning will continue to be under the microscope, his every throw and expression examined for a team that looks suddenly fallible. Nelson will largely fade into the background, destined to play most of the C-USA schedule as a box score curiosity instead of the main attraction.
It’s what Nelson wanted, frankly.
He didn’t need a reset. He needed a chance to play. He’s getting it in El Paso with a coach and a staff that believes it can get the most out of him.
The whole of the C-USA schedule is ahead of UTEP.
Two-and-half-seasons of college are ahead of Nelson.
Bust? Not yet. Far from it, even as the disappointment lingers from a missed opportunity in Austin.
“We don’t see this unique journey as a mistake,” Eric Nelson said. “God doesn’t make mistakes. You have three years of development to get to your goal. There’s no period at the end of the sentence.”
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