6-foot-6, 270-pound offensive tackle Preston Perkins is pretty convinced he'll be ready to make his collegiate decision come early signing day on Dec. 4.

Southern Illinois is in the mix, Akron got him on campus for an official visit last weekend and he's headed to Albuquerque for an OV with New Mexico this Friday. But this past weekend saw him make his way to the Sun City, as UTEP got him on campus and took their shot at one of Texas' top uncommitted sleepers in the trenches.

“It 100 percent surprised me," Perkins said of his experience at UTEP. "I did not expect El Paso to be like that at all. I used to play baseball, used to be a big baseball fan. I completely forgot about the Chihuahuas, the El Paso Chihuahuas. We saw the stadium and that whole downtown area; it was definitely not what I was expecting at all.”

And from a football standpoint, UTEP checked plenty of boxes for Perkins, a product of Austin High in the Lone Star State's capital city. Unsurprisingly, he's a big fan of head coach Scotty Walden.

“I definitely see why they can recruit and they get [good] classes," he said of the Miners. "It was very energetic. I liked [Walden]. He was very energetic, upbeat. Players were saying he’s like that all the time, and I don’t doubt it.”