Hardison

[kyyote]

I understand that not all of you think as highly of him as do I.  That's cool.  The team has gone from a one dimensional running attack that used an occasional pass to stretch the field and to open up the defense against the run, to being able to pass for 366 yards in the last game.  Like I said before, the Mad Bomber and the Raiders throwing long is what I grew up with so watching Hardison heave it 60 yards is just fine with me.  Reminder, he is just a sophomore and doing this.  Here is a look at some of his stats.

Yards per completion
Rank
2   Gavin Hardison   UTEP   So.   QB   11   165   298   2761   16.73

Passing Efficiency
59   Gavin Hardison   UTEP

Passing TDs
51T-   Gavin Hardison

Passing Yardage
23   Gavin Hardison   UTEP

Interceptions Thrown
59   Gavin Hardison

Passing Yards per game
27   Gavin Hardison   UTEP

Completion %
98   Gavin Hardison   UTEP

Comp/Gm
79t   Gavin Hardison   UTEP

So, there you have a look at how Hardison stacks up against the national competition.  He has done it with practically one receiver.  Keep in mind that we were a running team for the first what 8 or nine games before opening up the play book.  I hope he stays here.

[Chanson]

KY,
I'm one of those that is not happy with, but we all can agree he is very talented & getting better. That interception count is No Bueno, but when the kid gets in a zone, he is dynamic. Personally, I think he needs to throw more during the 1st few drives. That will open up the run quicker & give him better confidence in reading the defense.
This game against UAB is a 50/50 game. Miners have a hard time against same level competition. If the Miners can find a way to inch past these guys, then my confidence level for the Bowl Game will be much higher.

[kyyote]

He is ranked 59th out of 130 schools, which is middle of the road.  But, many qb's may have thrown more passes than him to get their int's.  But, then you trade that for yards gained from his passes and you get the value to offset the interceptions.  I think the play calling reflects Dimel's desire to run first, establish the ground game and not even pass if he doesn't have to.  But, I really do believe that Dimel realized that he needed to score more points.  His control game didn't have any points cushion.  So, he has slid the weight from all rush, all time consuming, and defense to try and keep the other team from scoring, to and little more offense trying to score a few more points.  My concern against Rice was that he may have slid it too early in the game, and kind of forced the need to pass a bunch to catch up.  The point being that given that situation, UTEP and Hardison showed the ability to do so.  Big time. 

UAB is the perfect tune up for the bowl game for the Miners.  Even the underdog role is perfect as the Miners will most likely be big dogs.  UTSA gave us an idea of how the Miners would do against top twenty-five teams.  We were beat, but certainly not humiliated.  UAB is damned good for CUSA level competition.  A win against UAB would be the best win of the season so far of course, but even moreso it would build the Miners'  confidence going into a bowl game.  Of course, we are supposed to lose by a dozen points to UAB.  So, let's just say UTEP loses by 12.  What does that tell us?  That the Miners are better than probably 7 or 8 of the really bad teams in CUSA be not as good as the top four or five is the conference?  Or is there some middle ground?  I truly think that given another shot at UNT and FAU the results might be different and I don't feel like if teams that lost to UTEP would have better luck if they had another try.  Now, what if the Miners don't lose by a dozen.  Let's say they lose by 3.  Let's say just for grins that they win.  I look at it like this, who are we going to play in a bowl game?  Then I ask myself how would that team do against UAB?  If UAB played our opponent would UAB beat them by 12?  It is going to come down to who we actually play.  I will say this, if we beat UAB Friday, I don't care who we play.  I won't be afraid. 

[UTEPDefense]

The game is on Friday.  I am hopeful that with the quick turnaround after a last second loss, that UAB might start the game with a bit of a hangover. 

[kyyote]

Thanks for the correction. I had just finished finding out that a little earlier and vegasinsider had it listed as Saturday and on another page it had Friday. Pretty bad for a betting site.

To your point about the short turn around and UAB mindset I agree that it could play a factor. Let down or angry?  Then consider UTEPs mindset. I think this team has a spirit and desire to live up to the high standard established against poor quality teams though it may have been has done their best to make it reality.
What I found interesting is that the qb and passing game is very strong for UAB.  Now at the beginning of the season shootouts weren?t what we wanted to see. But now we may be able to hold our own. It will be interesting to see if the Miners can stuff the run and be able to get to the quarterback.

[UTEPDefense]

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.