Following a great career as a football player for The University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB), Gunnar Abseck will be making the transition from player to Director of Football Operations (DOFO) as it was announced on Monday, February 17, that he accepted the position.

"It was just another opportunity for me to kind of get myself in the door and stay with this staff here," said Abseck. "I know, that it kind of came up late, obviously, but, I thought it would be good to learn something in the profession that I really didn't have a an idea about. I thought that it would helped me in my career and is something I'm going to have to do that at some point. So I wanted to learn how to do it and obviously under this staff and with Head Coach Kris McCullough."

Abseck knew he wanted to step into this type of role once he finished his playing career this past semester, but he had no idea a job opportunity would open up with the staff he was familiar working with.

"I thought I was probably going to have to move. I was looking for graduate assistant jobs and looking for somewhere to land. I had a couple of people contact me back, but nothing official," said Abseck. "Then, Coach McCullough called me up and asked me, 'Hey, if I were to offer you this job, would you take it?' And I was like, of course."

Some of Abseck's key functions as a DOFO will be: Coordinating team travel; assisting in all facets of roster management and with recruiting of student-athletes, including on campus visits; game day logistics during home game recruiting; and coordinating with Athletics Administration on road game tickets, donor travel and communication with opponent operations.

Those functions will be something that is Abseck is not used to doing. But he is excited to take on the challenge of learning something new.

"It's a lot different when you go and look at kind of the other side of football. All you know as a player is you go lift, eat, go to school and go work on football," said Abseck. "So now I get to kind of look at the other side of it and look at, you know, if we're going to go travel, how do I manage that side of it instead of just focusing on football. I get to look at, hey, we have like 55 guys, we have this many player personnel, so we're going to have to get 100 rooms. So, it's just a different side of it that I wanted to learn and see how it all works, with the money wise."

While Abseck is excited to step into this role, he understands there will be a learning curve early on that he will have to overcome.

"I would say just not having a full understanding of it," said Abseck on what he thinks his biggest challenges will be. "I'm getting my feet wet, so I'm not too sure on how it all works. I have an idea, but I think once I get into it and once we get in the Fall and I get to see how it works out, I'll have a better understanding of things."

Down the road Abseck expressed interest in staying in Division II football, but says he wouldn't shy away from making the jump to Division I if given the opportunity.

"I think everyone has that dream of going D1 and being up there at that level. But I also want to at in a school where I can establish something and kind of build," said Abseck. "I think if that does come to me, yes, I would love to go D1, but as of right now, I enjoy D2 football because it is still very competitive. It's different. And, you know, there's a lot of tradition in D2 football."

Abseck finished his career in 2024 being named Honorable Mention All-Lone Star Conference as a wide receiver. He averaged 10.0 yards per catch and was also 5-for-6 on two-point conversions (3-3 Rush; 2-3 Pass). During his senior day he caught four passes for 80 yards and a touchdown, putting him over the 1,000-yard mark in his career (1,053 career yards). His 14 punt returns and 103 punt return yards this season both rank second in program history and his 32-career punt returns and 236 career punt return yards are both a program record. Additionally, he was named to the 2024 Academic All-District® Team, selected by College Sports Communicators, and named to the Fall 2024 Lone Star Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll with a 4.0 GPA for the semester in graduate school.

Abseck is currently pursuing his Master's Degree in Kinesiology with a focus on teaching, coaching, administration.