I think having to play without our two starting Safeties against both UTSA and UNT was a bigger problem than most people realize.  Both of those guys are experienced and really help in run support.  We could have really used them, particularly against UNT.  We were better against Rice just by getting Inyang back and hopefully Prince can make it back by the bowl game.

Our pass rush has also fallen off a bit lately and while our defensive front is still performing well over all, it is not as stellar as it was earlier in the season.  Hopefully, that group can close the season strong.

I will say that UTEP has definitely closed the gap between us and the top teams in the conference.  FAU has won 2 of the last 4 CUSA championships and they are currently tied for first place in the eastern division.  While we were probably lucky that it ended up only a 3 point game, I don't think there is really any doubt that the teams were no more than probably 7-10 points apart.  That is close enough, to where if you play that game at home or just have 2 or 3 plays go differently, then you can win.  That is a major improvement for UTEP over the past few years.

The way that our roster is built, we are basically a year ahead.  Essentially we are currently in the same position that UTSA was last year.  If...and it is a big "if", we can bring back everyone who is eligible to come back, then next year could be a very legitimate year for us.  Not saying we would have a UTSA type of year next year, but we could legitimately be amongst the top of the conference and belong there.

Sis, you make a very good point that Hankins appears to make some mistakes in regards to where to run.  It doesn't happen all the time, but there are often times when he just simply appears to miss the best gap.  Hopefully his vision will improve with more experience, but he is currently behind Awatt in this particular area.

Another player who has shown some similar issues was Eldridge.  While he is promising, he showed some struggles in regards to reading and timing his run behind the pulling lineman.  Hopefully, he will also improve with experience.

Dimel is trying to turn every game into a mud fight.  Even if UTEP wins, it is going to come out full of mud and looking like an ugly win.  I guess if UTEP is able to dictate the tempo of the games, by forcing most opponents to come into the mud to fight them, then that's a positive....maybe?  And I guess the argument might also be made that this sluggish style of football can also be more effective once we hit the colder months at the end of the season.

The only thing is that last night UTEP had bigger and faster defensive athletes(particularly in the front 7). The same can be said for 3 of our first 4 games, so maybe we shouldn't be trying to muck up and shorten every game just to win. If looking for a big positive, I don't think that we have played a great and complete half this entire year, yet we are 3-1, so we should theoretically still have some room to grow/improve.

Next year is Dimel's last chance.  He has put some potential pieces in place, but the biggest issue with Dimel is that there is just very little margin for error with his style and scheme.  Due to his style, if we get a holding penalty then the drive is essentially over, if we fall behind by 10 points then the game is essentially over.  We might battle to the end, but we are not getting over that 10 point hump.  It's like if we take 4 steps and 3 of the steps are forward, but just 1 step is back, then Dimel's team is going to have a hard time being successful.  But if other teams take 4 steps, and 2 of the steps are forward and 2 of the steps are back, then they still have at least a 50/50 chance to beat us.  I don't know how much talent improvement/experience is going to be able to overcome the little margin of error that Dimel's system requires in order for his team to be successful.

Thanks Sis.  I enjoy reading your posts as well.  Yes, I will post my stuff over here and you also have my permission to repost anything of mine over here at any time.  Thanks again.

I do think that Fields is partially the fan's scape goat for an overall running game that has struggled this year and has provided few holes.  Kinda like how a back-up QB is always the fans favorite when an offense is struggling.  Fields plays because he is dependable and doesn't fumble.  The staff has felt comfortable using him in our close games.

But with all of this being said, Fields has never shown a D1 level of RB speed in any of his years here.  He has looked "quick" in only one game during his entire UTEP career(the HBU game last year).  He is solid and dependable, and while that has value, he is also not a game changer.  I personally believe that we sacrifice a couple of yards on almost every carry.  And adding 1 or 2 more yards on 15 carries a a game can really add up.   When we do create the rare opening for him, it turns into a decent first down run instead of 20 or 30 yard run.  His longest carry of the entire season is only 15 yards and he has only gained 152 yards on 47 carries this season, which is very poor.  We just aren't getting enough production out of his carries this season.  On the other side Awatt is just simply a bigger, faster, and better athlete.  He might not be as good as Fields in all of the areas outside of running the ball, but I feel like we really should be developing him faster than the current rate.

Good call on the TE.  I don't believe that we have completed a pass to a TE yet this year.  That might be mostly due to Thompson being our main TE and his role has been solely used as a blocker.  We did have a TE running wide open for what would have been an easy 40 yard TD on one play against SFA, but Hardison just didn't see him and threw to a contested Cowing on the other side of the field.  That will happen, but hopefully Hardison and staff see that on film and learn from it.

As for the running struggles, you are correct as well.  Against SFA, we wasted a lot of 1st and 2nd downs and it probably doesn't take much investigation to see when we are going to run.  But I also just feel like Dimel is doing something that tips the defense as well, so they are confident enough to stack the box on certain plays.  For instance Tupou only seems to come in on running plays(maybe that changes now that McKee is hurt), sometimes Fields position standing next to the QB in shotgun has been a half step different on the plays that he is getting the ball.  As you also mentioned, maybe Dimel needs to stop calling plays at the line of scrimmage and giving teams such a long time to react and adjust their call. 

I think Dimel would be better off running more sets that could be either be pass or run, as opposed thinking that he is doing something creative by running a power running set on one down and then a wide passing set on the next down.  Those drastic formation changes aren't that creative when you are running predictable plays out of them.  Dimel also needs to just adopt the approach of spreading out the defense a little more, instead of packing it in and pounding into a stacked front(Kugler style).  There is a reason why almost every other college team is running that type of offense.

I won't totally blame Dimel for his play calling in the UT game, because our WR's were getting no separation and our O-line could get no push in run blocking.  There just isn't much that a playcaller can do in those situations.  Our best(and probably only) offensive success in that game came from play action.  But there wasn't much that could be done to make the results of that game drastically different.

Overall though, there are definitely some issues that need to be fixed in the current run game approach and it is Dimel's job to fix it.