Scotty Walden - Football Coach

Scotty Walden

Title:
Co-Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers
Email:
scotty.walden@usm.edu
Phone:
266-5393

Walden enters his fourth season at Southern Miss, including his second year as co-offensive coordinator, as well as wide receivers coach.
He came to Southern Miss after spending a season as the head football coach at Division III East Texas Baptist University.

Considered as one of the youngest and brightest offensive minds in collegiate football, Walden was honored by the American Football Coaches Association by being a Top 35 coach under 35 years of age in 2019.

In his four seasons, he has coached two standout receivers including Quez Watkins, a sixth-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2020 NFL Draft, and Allenzae Staggers.

Watkins enjoyed one of the better seasons in Golden Eagle history with 64 catches for 1,178 yards and six touchdown receptions en route to be named first-team All-Conference USA. Watkins, who entered the draft after his junior season, finishing second in his career at the school in receptions (159) and receiving yards (2,404).

Watkins also enjoyed first-team All-Conference USA honors in 2018 after leading the Golden Eagles with 72 catches for 889 yards and nine receiving touchdowns in 11 games, while also leading C-USA in receptions per game at 6.5. Walden coached Staggers in his initial season that included 44 catches and 471 yards and five touchdown catches.

He had the distinction of being the youngest head coach at a NCAA school during the 2016 season. The Tigers finished at 7-3. ETBU also led the country in scoring offense at 49.9 points per game, while finishing second in total offense (564.3 yards per game) and sixth in passing offense (365.3 yards per game).

Walden took over as head coach at ETBU after serving three years as the school’s offensive coordinator. As an assistant, the Tigers won the 2015 American Southwest Conference championship. It was the first ASC championship for ETBU since 2003. His offense produced four players that were named All-ASC first-team and a pair went on to earn D3football.com All-Region awards. In addition, he produced two All-Americans who were named to the USA Football Network All-American team.

Having a large presence in the offensive world, Walden has been able to speak to other coaches about his offense. In summer 2015, he was a special speaker at the Spread Offense Football Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. His first national speaking engagement came in 2012 when he was a special speaker at the Nike Coach of the Year clinic in Dallas, Texas.

In his first three years as the offensive coordinator Walden’s offense had re-written ETBU’s record book for individual, single game, and season records while being nationally known for passing and scoring. In his time as an assistant, a total of 26 combined individual and team records were broken. He produced four 1,000 yard receivers, two 1,000 yard rusher and one Gagliardi Trophy semi-finalist in Josh Warbington. His offense was consistently been one of the top offenses in NCAA Division III in and in 2014 finished ranked first in total passing offense (368.1 ypg), second in total offense (566.1 ypg) and 11th in scoring offense (42.3 ppg).

Walden came to ETBU after being the offensive coordinator at Sul Ross State in 2012. It was Walden’s first year as a coach and offensive coordinator and his offense led all of NCAA averaging 581.9 yards per game and 48.8 points per game. His offense produced two D3Football.com All-Americans and six All-ASC products. Sul Ross State broke 16 overall offensive school records with two of them being most offensive yards in a game (800) and points in a game (75).

Because of his success in his first year as an offensive coordinator, Walden had the chance to coach the quarterbacks at the National Bowl in December 2012 in which two of his players played in. He has also coached at the Air It Out Passing Camp from 2009 to 2011.

A NCAA Division III product, Walden was the starting quarterback at Dordt College (2008) and Sul Ross State University (2011). In his senior season (2011) he was the team captain and was given the Leadership award. He was awarded All-ASC academic awards twice and started his freshman season at Dordt College. During his time at Hardin-Simmons (2009-10), he played both as a quarterback and defensive back.

He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Sul Ross State in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in history. He made the dean’s list in 2011 and 2012 along with being inducted into the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society. He, and wife, Callie, were married in July 2014. They have a son, Luca.