November 2017 – Kyyote's Den

UTEP Launches Senter’s Ship and He Sends Signals As He Assumes the Helm

UTEP’s new Athletic Director eliminated some of the questions many may have had about the next head coach of football. There won’t be a big name trying to catch a little lightning in a bottle one last time. The school isn’t going to spend a bunch of money on a big name. They are looking for a good man on the way up. He needs to run a high scoring offense. And the search is well underway. I will say today so that I can be the first, that if the head coach at James Madison gets the job it will be all of the proof that any one even leaning toward conspiracies point out that the entire process is a sham. Funny how he may just fit to a “T” what we are looking for. So, all of you out there wanting to get an inkling about who could be on the short list, the process of elimination just made your work much easier.

Dr. Natalicio chimed in on doing more with less than anyone else, so the salary will be right about where it is. More importantly, Dr. Natalicio just told you all you need to ever know about her feelings toward UTEP Athletics. Small budget, and figure it out. Be creative. UTEP Athletics are a part of the educational mission of the school. Any success UTEP Football finds will be purely up to the athletic department. I have known Principals at schools just like her. Athletics, afterschool athletics were just there. It had to be done. Kind of a waste of money truth be told, was their attitude. That has been her attitude and it will never change. She has been an incredible president of an educational institution. But, any success the teams have is a bonus as far as she is concerned, and of little consequence if they fail.

By the way, while UTEP looks for coaches, coaches look at UTEP, too. So as you do your own looking, keep in mind that the coach hired knows that the leader of the school doesn’t really give a rat’s ass about his passion.

As for basketball, this is supposed to be a tryout. What that means is that there is a lot of shit hitting the fan, so on that basketball thing, I will get to that later. Is there a signing period and recruiting to be done from now until March? Of course. So, as of this minute, Jim’s busy. Keep doing your jobs. But, just between you and me, if Jim Senter is an up and coming guy, he is going to want to pick his own guy, and the basketball coaches know that too. It is what they do for a living. They know the way things work. Bottom line, basketball this season is whatever it happens to be. The AD has given up on it. We will work on that shit when we get a chance.

Will anything change? Sure, the names. If you are a fan of UTEP athletics the only name change that matters is Natalicio. Until that, athletics at UTEP are the red-headed step-child. Of course you eat at the same table as the rest of the family. But, Nat’s trying to get Tier ! status not Cartel Membership. How many of you out there really think Dr. Natalicio gives a shit about which conference we are in except if she could save money on transportation she would have more to spend NOT on athletics. Such a waste of money. I think she is a great president and I love UTEP for the education it gave me and the opportunities it provided. But, I have been around long enough to know that this is how it is at UTEP. Us sports fans really are pretty meaningless as for as UTEP is concerned. It hurts, but that is the truth. We got our degrees from a school that just doesn’t care about athletics. It could be worse. Not for a college football fan. Nope, we are the worst. By the way, I don’t have any hope that things would change even if she retired. We’ve got what we get. We don’t compete in sports at UTEP. We hope. We wring our hands. We bitch about things that other people don’t have to bitch about. We have expectations and celebrate what others can’t imagine(this season we are celebrating home grown good students at UTEP). We have gotten used to being UTEP.

Our Boy Tim

Boom! Tim Floyd, our Tim told the world that he had had enough. He had wanted to coach his last game at UTEP and he just had. His legacy at UTEP will be debated from now on until he fades into the fog of time.
I was at the press conference when he came home to the family and home he left behind so many years before. Mary Haskins sat in the front row and he knelt at her knee and held her hands as a long time gone son might. He said he would do his best to return UTEP to the powerful program it had once been. He was Haskin’s boy and he had already coached his way to the NBA. He said he would do his best to return UTEP to a basketball power on the national stage.

If anyone could do it, it was our boy, Tim. But, he couldn’t. In his announcement of his retirement, it was clear that he had strong feelings about it. It certainly wasn’t the way he wanted to go out. This was not some carpet-bagger coach leaving for the next town, just ahead of the trouble he was leaving behind. It was the adopted son of the father of basketball at UTEP. He had come to revive his dad’s failing business and it had instead failed even more and took much out of him in the process. And then, when family wants him gone, and are saying so after years of putting his heart and soul into a labor of love, it seemed to crush the man who had stood up to the world over the years to beat the odds.

So, this one saddens me to the bone. He wanted what I want and for the same reason. For a love of the school and to honor The Bear. The thing is, his mentor and more, Don Haskins would be proud of him and know that Tim tried as hard as he could. They both know that things have changed and they have seen it and know that it is part of the way things work. That understanding was reflected in Tim’s good-bye;

“I’ve coached for 42 years and I love this school,” Floyd said. “My father played here. Nobody wants to win here more than I do. I’ve coached at this university for 16 years and I think it’s time for somebody else to have the opportunity to have the joy that I’ve had, the agony that I’ve had, the acclaim that I’ve had, and the heartbreak that I’ve had in my career.”

No retirement party, and fond farewell. “I’m done”, said Tim. That folks is just plain wrong! Throwing a family member for coming up short of incredible expectations is just low rent and classless. I have absolutely no idea of what the Hell is going on behind the scenes, but this looks horrible and to tell you the truth, nobody is looking good here. Fans are all about results and it is a business and all, but Tim is family and some of the impatience shown perhaps was the kind of stuff usually reserved for mercenaries. Each fan will have to decide for themselves if they were fair. But, I will say it again, I am saddened at the way this all fell out.

Time to get ready for the damned Aggies! Go Miners! Win this one for our boy, Tim!

Will A New Athletic Director Change Anything At UTEP? Part 2

I left off with the student athletes and for this particular Athletic Director I believe that this has to be a priority and is a key to making the kind of changes needed to halt a downward spiral of the UTEP Athletics program since the break up of the old WAC and formation of the Mountain West Conference. Mike Price and Bob Stull showed that years of losing do not shackle a program to continued losing. The “losing tradition” could be broken in a matter of one or two seasons. They may have done it differently, but they showed it can be done. Maintaining it is another matter. First and foremost it begins with the right head coach, but it has to be more than the personality of a coach that builds consistent winning programs. Here is where I want to see improvement. Again, this is a key as I see it to fixing what is not working.

Finally, the public and the fans. In Part 1 I added it as an afterthought. It seems too fitting to have changed it, as both the fans and the public are pretty much treated as an afterthought by UTEP. And the good people of El Paso feel the same way about UTEP. Neither one treats the other with the respect it deserves, and what is much worse is that if the two joined forces the power harnessed would be enormous. The city of El Paso searches for a way to go from the five sleepy neighborhoods into a vibrant city and some kind of identity other than a gas and motel stop for travelers. Wild West, historical border town or modern-day city. The University of Texas at El Paso should have been THE jewel of El Paso. The “city” of El Paso should have been and should be to this day making UTEP a focal point for outsiders instead of the place where our kids go to take classes. I hate the term “commuter school”. How in the Hell did the school or the people of El Paso stand for that kind of lack of respect for their own kid’s school? How in the Hell has UTEP allowed itself to be reduced to that? Part of it lies in the whole idea of El Paso being “separate” from the rest of Texas and cultural identities. If there is ever to be a permanent change in UTEP Athletics this all has to change! You can’t get a ticket to a Chihuahuas minor league baseball game. When Mike Price was winning, the Sun Bowl was not just filled with fans. It was an enormous generator of money. The city of El Paso should have donated the salaries of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, passed a Hotel and Motel tax to pay the money to get a big time coach. I’m just kidding about that, but what I’m not kidding about is El Paso, the city and the citizens understanding that a highly successful UTEP Athletic Program is nothing but a giant money machine for the city. But, the city leaders, many of the graduates of UTEP treated UTEP like the place they took classes to get a degree instead of what it is, should be, and could be. It is very sad to see my school treated this way, and what makes it so much worse is that it is done by the very people who you would hope would do so much better. Including the general public.

The AD will need to find a way for the student athletes to have more of a real college campus life than a “commuter school” provides, and somehow, someway, he will have to get the people and city of El Paso to gather the strength and pride of unity needed because neither by themselves is strong enough to continue on the path we are on and more importantly, together, united the amount of untapped energy could easily turn UTEP into a powerhouse in the field of athletic competition. There are 3/4 of a million people in El Paso that are starved for something to do. Western Playland ain’t it! From August March, El Paso should be orange and blue. Student Athletes don’t need to be treated as some kind of heroes, but when they step off campus they should be able to feel the energy of support from the people of El Paso.

Well, that is what I think, anyway. Will any of it happen? Will anything be different? Will Senter see it this way? If he does can he do anything about it? UTEP and El Paso are so unique that he may not be prepared for them, or he may be just the person to see that uniqueness as they way forward and then have the ability to pull it off. What gives me hope is listening to him talk about needing the people of The Citadel to take ownership of the 3 hundred and some acres if they wanted others to. It is a start. If he could do that, he could build upon the work of Dr. Natalicio. She wanted all of her kids of El Paso to have a chance at a college degree. She has done a great job of that. Now, and for many years she has been working to elevate the stature of those degrees. But, if the AD could change the culture from “commuter school” on campus and off, into the focal point of the city pride, where amazing things are taking place because of the opportunities provided by UTEP for our children, it would make all of the difference in the world. It will be a monumental task, but for a young, ambitious man it is the kind of challenge that could be the springboard to the top positions in the country. Bo, we have heard that before, haven’t we? And it is true. Great coaches do great things and then get grabbed up. I am going to keep my fingers crossed that Senter is so good that four years from now he is lured away by some cartel school. But, just like a football coach versus a program, I want Senter to establish a program that continues on the path to greatness after he is gone.

Will A New Athletic Director Change Anything At UTEP? Part 1

UTEP, under that name or others has been competing in sports for over a hundred years. But, we have to keep in mind that a hundred years ago El Paso was the big city west of the Mississippi. There were street cars and lighted streets. The tallest building west of the Mississippi was in El Paso. The thing is, the cities east of the Mississippi weren’t in the middle of nowhere. The college would play other teams from other small schools located nearby and the YMCA teams and the high school teams of El Paso High. We even played teams such as Arizona and Texas Tech in the early days. Over the years, the wild west was tamed and cities grew in size in the west, and the entire population shifted dramatically on the left coast. History. I have no desire to get into history any more than to look at the AD’s to get an idea of their impact. Keep in mind that Bob Stull has had the position for a considerable portion of the entire history of the school at this point. I am going to start with the general idea that the tremendous changes that have taken place in the last fifty years will make it hard enough to get an idea of the impact of the AD. Maybe that is a point needed to be kept in mind going forward. Perhaps the most important thing an AD can do is prepare for the unknown and understand trends.

Since Bob Stull held the position for so many years, the general questions I would ask about a line of succession in AD’s at most schools perhaps, will end up being an evaluation of Stull’s tenure. It will also give us an idea of where we might go.

Let’s start with some main areas involved with the AD. Physical properties, hiring and firing coaches, and the student athletes themselves seems to be a good place to start. Oh, and the public. Stull brought about the Durham Center and the Sun Bowl makeover. That was huge, when it happened. The Foster Stevens basketball facility is very impressive, and Stull can take credit for that. The Hellen of Troy softball complex is a jewel, and his too. Many would also say that there is still so much left to be done. The Sun Bowl is old and some very basic things such as plumbing are showing their age. Kidd Field is no jewel, anymore. So, Stull has done a tremendous job of improving the facilities, but maybe how much had to be done and still remains may tell us a little about the school’s attitude toward that aspect of athletics. Keep in mind that the Sun Bowl wasn’t even UTEP’s not too awfully long ago. I said I was going to look at the last fifty years or so. Well, in the 60’s the last of the Flyin’ Miners football teams were finishing up, and the football team was about to fall off of the map. But, during that time, the Track and Field Team and the basketball team was establishing a regional dynasty that lasted for 25 years. That gave us the Haskins Center. It is still functioning, but it does have serious problems accommodating today’s technological needs. All in all, Stull did a lot in the area of facilities, but there is much to be done, and the condition of the facilities before Stull got here were either not UTEP’s problem(Sun Bowl), doing just fine(Haskins Center), or ignored. Now, it is important to mention that UTEP’s student population was less than half of what it is now. Senter will most certainly look to make improvements to the facilities. The two most noticeable would be to update the Haskins Center and the Sun Bowl. Since money comes from football more than basketball, AND football is so much more important in other ways, ie conference affiliation, community buy in, the representative of the school, athletically, I would have to rank this as number one, facility wise.

Hiring and firing coaches it seems to me should be the easiest part of his job. There are objectives set and measurable outcomes to be met. These things will need to be achieved to meet minimum expectations, and these will be shown as exceeding expectations, kind of thing.

As for the student athletes, most of that is beneath his level of management. I include this one too include Miner Village, which is connected to physical facilities. This one could be the unseen key to the future as it may play an important role in where the athletic programs are now. In recruiting athletes, training facilities are only one aspect the recruit is looking at when analyzing his experience and life for the college years. Off the field and on campus life, and off campus life are part of what they judge. While the AD can do almost nothing about the off campus life, he may be able to make an impact on the on campus life of the athlete. Here, since physical facilities are not a huge factor, perhaps there are other ways to improve the on campus life. Creative thinking needed, here.