UTEP basketball coach Joe Golding steps up when Pitt football players needed a friend
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EL PASO, Texas — Before their Good Samaritan showed up Christmas night, Pitt football players Jake Frantl, Sam Okunlola and Hudson Primus had no reason to follow the Texas-El Paso basketball team.
But they’re fans now, after UTEP coach Joe Golding came to their rescue.
Victimized by a flight delay in Dallas on their way to El Paso for Pitt’s game against UCLA in the Sun Bowl, the trio didn’t think they would arrive in time for practice Monday.
Likewise stuck in Dallas, Golding noticed the players’ plight while they stood in the rental car line.
Golding told KTSM-TV in El Paso he offered the players a ride — 9 hours and 635 miles by car — with his wife and two sons.
After informing Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi — and the players’ parents, of course — the seven-person traveling party climbed inside Golding’s rental car (a bit larger than he had anticipated), and off they went into the night.
Golding knows something about big-time college football. His sister, Kate, is married to TCU football coach Sonny Dykes.
“I see these guys. They have Pitt bags on,” Golding told the TV station. “They start talking about playing in the Sun Bowl and having to get to El Paso, and there weren’t any cars left.
“And I was like, ‘Hey, if we can find a big enough car, I’ll take you guys home.’ And they were like, ‘Who are you?’ ” Golding said.
Initially, the rental car company showed up with a minivan that was too small.
“Then they had like a big Ford Explorer,” Golding said. “I said, ‘Who’s using that one?’
“(The rental car employee) said, ‘Nobody right now. But you can’t afford that one. It’s too much money.’
“I said, ‘Just give it to us. We got to get home, man.’ ”
Golding said his wife, Amanda, and sons, Cason and Chase, sat in the back. Frantl, a walk-on quarterback, got in the front seat, and Okunlola, a defensive end, and Primus, a defensive back, took the middle seats.
“We went to the gas station and loaded up for dinner about 9:30, 10 at night,” Golding said. “Made one stop in Pecos (Texas) for some fresh coffee and a couple Red Bulls and made it all the way back, man.”
WATCH – It's something you'd see in a movie.
3 @Pitt_FB players hopped in a Ford Explorer with @UTEPMBB coach Joe Golding & his family on Christmas and drove 9 hours through the night from Dallas to El Paso in time for the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl.
MORE: https://t.co/TsOwaW5cUm pic.twitter.com/IKoMei1U2E
— Colin Deaver (@ColinDeaverTV) December 27, 2022
Golding said he just wanted to show the visitors from Pittsburgh some El Paso hospitality.
“Out here in West Texas, that’s what we do,” he said. “I would hope someone would do that to Cason and Chase if they were stranded somewhere on Christmas night.”
Narduzzi doesn’t know Golding, but the coaches have called each other and left voicemails the past few days. Golding is busy, too. UTEP (8-4) plays at UAB on Thursday and is home against Rice on Saturday.
“I got a nice, long voicemail (from Golding),” Narduzzi said after practice Tuesday. “It’s a great story, something special. There are too many bad stories out there. That’s one of the great stories of college football in 2022.”
The entourage reached El Paso at 5:58 a.m., and the players arrived on time to their 9 a.m. meetings and 10:30 a.m. workout.
“To offer to take three guys that he’s never met before on a nine-hour trip,” Frantl said, “that’s not everyone.”