Falcon Football - UTPB

Building a football team from scratch is going to be a long and arduous journey for UTPB. In a little more than a year, the Falcons will kick off their inaugural season, and the squad took another step in its preparation for that day. UTPB hit the field officially for the first time before the crack of dawn Monday morning as the 76 players that make up the team donned helmets and practice jerseys. With no game scheduled for 375 days, working on the players’ conditioning and building team chemistry will be the early tasks for the Falcons. “I think the most important thing is getting them to focus on bettering themselves every day,” UTPB head coach Justin Carrigan said on Sunday before the practice. “For this year, we’re our own opponent. We’ve got to figure out every day how to get better than yesterday.” During the two-hour practice, the Falcons worked on the same things any football team would during its opening session — tackling form for the defense, foot work for the linemen, ball

The journey is set to begin for the UTPB football team. The Falcons will hold their first official practice Monday at 6 a.m. The team takes the field Sunday evening for conditioning test after it goes through team and positional training meetings Friday and today. The plan for the Falcons is to practice Monday through Friday morning with optional off days every Wednesday. The team doesn’t plan on getting into pads until September. Contact the Odessa American sports department by phone 432-333-7791, email oasports@oaoa.com or on Twitter @oa_sports.

FROM THE MIDLAND REPORTER TELEGRAM The University of Texas-Permian Basin football team filled the final two spots of its coaching staff on Friday. UTPB head coach Justin Carrigan announced the hiring of Robert Conley as offensive line coach and Carlos Barocio-Leon to coach special teams and running backs. Prior to joining UTPB, Conley served as a graduate assistant on both the offensive and defensive sides of the football at the University of Utah for three years. In 2011, Conley was the graduate assistant offensive line coach at Utah State. During his playing days, Conley was a four-year starting guard at Utah. Barocio-Leon was an assistant coach at SMU from 2008-14 and served as the Mustangs’ special teams coordinator the previous two years. He has also coached in Mexico and Austria. Barocio-Leon played collegiately at New Mexico State and on a professional level in Italy.