UT Permian Basin has experienced many first under head coach Kris McCullough.

The Falcons began playing football in 2016 but hadn’t finished a full season with a winning record until McCullough arrived ahead of the 2023 season. The 30-year-old head coach led UTPB to its first 10-win season in Year 1 as the Falcons won the Lone Star Conference and reached the Division II playoffs for the first time in school history. 

McCullough’s Falcons followed that up with a second straight winning season in 2024, which included a trip to the Heritage Bowl. In 2025, his third season in charge, UTPB experienced another first when the Falcons knocked off Colorado State Pueblo, 37-24, last week in the first round of the DII playoffs to earn the program’s first playoff win. The program was 25-46 in the seven seasons before McCullough’s arrival. He is now 27-9 with two trips to the playoffs, one conference championship, and now a win in the playoffs. 

“When you take over a program, you want to create a legacy, you want to build it into something special that can sustain success and I feel like that’s what we’ve done here,” McCullough told Dave Campbell’s Texas Football this week. “The future is very bright here and hopefully this magical run we’re making does even more to make our brand known nationally.” 

Not everyone saw a winner at UTPB when McCullough took the job but he’s used to the unbeaten path. He became a head coach for the first time at 26 when he took over East Central and led the Tigers to a 9-3 record and a Heritage Bowl win. He’s 36-12 in four seasons as a head coach and all four of those teams have reached the postseason – two bowl trips and two playoff berths. 

His offenses score a ton of points and he’s considered one of the best offensive minds in the non-FBS world and most believe it is a matter of time before he gets a shot at an FBS job. Look around the local and national landscape and it is obvious that the stigma is disappearing. 

Curt Cignetti has Indiana headed back to the College Football Playoff. Bob Chesney has James Madison in CFP contention. In Texas, Eric Morris, G.J. Kinne, Willie Fritz, and Scotty Walden are all sitting FBS head coaches with starts in non-FBS action. Winners win, and McCullough is showing his chops in that department. Some would say his age is a detriment, but he sees it as an advantage. 

“The older you are, the more you feel like your way is the right way,” McCollough said. “In this day and age, you have to adapt. You have to be okay admitting that your way isn’t always the perfect way. Being a young coach, I know I don’t always have all the answers and I’m willing to listen and take extra steps to get better and develop as a head coach.” 

McCullough saw similarities between the Bemidji State team that knocked UTPB out of the playoffs two years ago and the CSU Pueblo squad that the Falcons bested last weekend. He said both defensive lines get after offenses and cause sacks. To mitigate that issue, McCollough tailored his offense for quarterback Kanon Gibson to get the ball out of his hands to a wide receiving corps that McCollough says is best position group on the team. The result was 343 yards passing and over 480 yards of total offense in the win. 

The win over CSU Pueblo illustrated a mentality switch at UTPB. McCullough admitted that his Falcons were just happy to be there in 2023 when they lost to Bemidji State, 10-3, in the first round of the playoffs. He also admitted to calling the worst offensive game of his young career. UTPB wasn’t just happy to reach the dance in 2025. The program has evolved to dream bigger than that. 

The reaction to the win underscores that growth and earned mentality at UTPB. 

“Yes, we celebrated the success of winning our first playoff game, but our eyes are set on the next task,” McCullough said. “The next task at hand is this second-round game. We just want to continue to win and if we play Falcon football, we have a chance to win every single week.” 

Next up is a trip to the Rockies to face Western Colorado University in the second round of the DII playoffs. Western Colorado knocked off LSCU champ Central Washington in the first round, an upset just like the win UTPB pulled. The main challenge in front of the Falcons might not be on the field, however. They must overcome any mental block that arises from playing in elevation and in the cold. 

“The biggest (key) is the mental challenge of going to the highest elevation stadium in the country and being able to play in the cold,” McCullough said. “You take a bunch of young men from the state of Texas to Colorado in late November in possible snow conditions, that mental wall can come up real fast.” 

Once the game kicks off at 2 p.m. Central time, McCullough believes the game comes down to turnovers. 

“Ultimately, when we don’t turn the football over and we force turnovers as a defense, we tend to win those games quite frequently. Ball security and going and getting turnovers is a key for us.”