The final game of UTEP’s 2022 season could’ve ended Tyrice Knight’s career in El Paso. 

The postgame locker room was somber. The Miners’ 34-31 loss to UTSA put them at a 5–7 record and out of bowl contention. But Knight, an all-conference linebacker with 95 tackles, had the opportunity to start a new, perhaps more lucrative chapter. The college football world was his oyster with the transfer portal. NIL deals and Power Five football were all there for the taking.

Instead, Knight waited in the locker room for his defensive coordinator, Bradley Dale Peveto.

“If you’re back, I’m back,” Knight told him.

UTEP’s 2023 season is not a redemption story. The Miners finished 3–9, which resulted in head coach Dana Dimel’s firing. Dale Peveto is now at Texas State, making way for a new era at UTEP. But in that trying time, Knight proved it’s not about where you play but how you play. He led the FBS with 84 solo tackles, earned an NFL Combine invite and is now a projected Day Three Draft selection by both ESPN and The Athletic.

“I’m more of a loyal guy,” Knight said at the 2023 Conference USA Media Days. “Staying here with the people that took me in and took a chance on me, I couldn’t just walk out on them like that.”

Knight was a two-time all-county linebacker out of Lake Gibson High School in Florida, yet was lightly recruited. On a recent episode of the “Hack City” podcast, Knight says he had an offer to USF, but when it came time to commit, they’d run out of roster spots.

One of Knight’s high school coaches sent his film to Independence Community College in Kansas, and Knight chose the JUCO route. His first season in 2018 was the second year Netflix’s sleeper hit “Last Chance U” documentary chronicled Independence. The preseason conference champion pick, Independence instead bottomed out to a 2–8 record, after which Jason Brown, the team’s brash head coach, was forced to resign for a racially insensitive text message.

Knight says on the podcast Brown’s yelling never bothered him, and he credits Brown for an important life lesson. Knight missed a morning workout that season and got a call from Brown because of it. Knight apologized, saying his alarm didn’t go off and it wouldn’t happen again.

Don’t let the alarm clock be the reason you get out of bed in the morning, Brown told him.

The following season, Knight finished with 58 tackles and five interceptions as Independence won the conference championship.

Knight was overlooked again, with no Division I offers after two seasons in the JUCO ranks. That didn’t dissuade UTEP head coach Dana Dimel. As an offensive assistant at Kansas State in the early 90s and again from 2009-17, he was used to offering players who had none. Dimel saw three other DI coaches at Independence when he visited. He tried to sneak off and talk to Knight on the side so they wouldn’t find out about the hidden gem.

“He was one of those guys when you watched his film - it was a no-brainer to me,” Dimel said.

Knight improved every year he was on campus. In the shortened 2020 season, he had 54 tackles. In 2021, Knight recorded 102 and was an all-conference honorable mention selection. By year three, he could’ve gone anywhere in the country.

“I bet you in three years he didn’t miss three tackles,” Dale Peveto said.

But Knight’s practice habits were even more impressive. Call a naked bootleg; Knight’s on the quarterback’s plant leg. Maybe a screen pass? He’s mugging the running back. How about a counter run? Knight’s shedding the combo block. It got to the point where offensive players would return to the huddle with their heads down, and a teammate would tell him that’s T-Knight. You can’t block him.

“Day one, he was really good and had natural instincts,” Dimel said. “By year three, you couldn’t get a play off on him in practice.”

And there was no reprieve. Because Knight never missed a practice in his four years and coaches even gave him the option to. Dale Peveto says there were Sundays last season when Knight could barely walk. Some would’ve taken their foot off the gas to preserve their NFL Draft stock, not wanting to put an injury-hampered performance on tape. Not Tyrice Knight.

“A guy that had the stats he had and the success he had, it’d have been very easy for him, especially when we were out of bowl contention, to say, ‘Hey, I’m just going to glide through this, and if I miss a couple practices, it’s no big deal,’” Dale Peveto said. “But he never did.”

Knight didn’t chase new platforms for better visibility. He got recognized because he stood where his feet were, improving himself instead of his setting. Now, he’s going to the NFL.

“It doesn’t matter what school you’re at,” Knight said at the NFL Combine. “You can stay where you’re at. If you put the right stuff on tape, the scouts will find you and you’ll reach your dream.”