Exclusive one-on-one: “Malachi’s Next Play”

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- California native, Malachi Nelson, came out of high school as a unanimous five-star recruit listed as the number one ranked recruit in the nation for ESPN. He also won back-to-back Gatorade California Player of the Year awards, which is a National award that's only given to the most elite high school student athletes. But, with his early success and that injury came a lot of outside noise that built more pressure. Nelson is hoping UTEP, his third college home, will be his lucky charm.

"I never not touched the field, never not played in a season, and it messed my mind up," Nelson said. "I was in a weird place. Like at this point in my career I'm passed wanting this, it's become a need for me and for my mental health. I understand that this this chance has to work. If you ask me why I play football, it's because I love the pressure. I don't even often say times I play football, I played quarterback."

After high school, Nelson red-shirted at USC and then went off to play at Boise State where he only played in three games.

"I remember my first college game at USC I played like 3 plays," Nelson said. "Obviously we had amazing talent and it wasn't that I needed to play by any means but it was just that feeling of like, whoa, I didn't get to play and I put all this stuff on. I didn't get to touch the field and that was like a wake up call for me."

"He tears his labrum his junior year in high school, so he has a torn labrum, and he doesn't have surgery until he gets to USC," Malachi's dad Eric Nelson said. "So he had surgery at USC, waited 2 years, so it doesn't recover the way that it should and it's taking longer and he thinks he's ready. So, he has a fresh start at Boise State but then the coach leaves 4 days after we get there. So, it's like you can't control injuries, you can't control guys taking jobs."

Malachi had other options besides UTEP, as his third college home. However, there was something special about UTEP that made him choose this school over others.

"I wanted to be more safe this time around," Malachi said. "I wanted to make sure I was at a place where I felt wanted and loved. I mentioned it before, I was pretty much set on another school. I got off the plane from that official visit, and I was like, man, I'm lost. I don't know what to do. I called Coach Scotty Walden because I knew I could talk to him. I told him I don't need you to recruit me right now, I don't need you to to sell me on your school or anything like that. I just need to talk to somebody. I have nobody."

"I pulled up in a parking garage. He called me and next thing I know we're sitting there for about an hour," UTEP head football coach Scotty Walden said. "I said take this pickaxe off, take the logo off, and let's just talk about life real quick, man. Let's talk about where you're at. Let's talk about where you want be and let's talk about those things."

"Coach Walden is special, he has the juice," Eric said. "We were literally on an official visit. We were on the phone with him for maybe 2 minutes, and we booked a flight and that was it. I want to see UTEP shock the world. There's six other quarterbacks in that room. Malachi wants to go to UTEP and he wants to be the starting quarterback and help them achieve their goals."

"Malachi is an extremely talented young man and every single day it's about instilling confidence in him that he can do it and he can do the job," Walden said. "I think when he plays with confidence, man, he is on."

"I'm just beyond blessed for another opportunity," Malachi said. "I'm excited to get rolling and win football games and to just play football again and get that feeling back of when you were 7 years old running around on the grass. So, we need to fill this stadium for sure. I promise you, if you fill the stadium we're going to win some games for you guys."

UTEP football will host its Spring game Saturday, April 10th at Sun Bowl Stadium at 11a.m.