Stats and Ranks

[kyyote]

Passing yards
RK

NAME 1   Brayden Schager HAW 2   Hank Bachmeier LT 3   Caleb Williams USC 4   AJ Swann VAN 5   Sam Hartman ND 6   Diego Pavia NMSU 7   Gavin Hardison UTEP 8   CJ Harris OHIO 9   Chevan Cordeiro SJSU 10   Taisun Phommachanh MASS 11   Jalen Mayden SDSU 12   Kurtis Rourke OHIO 13   Zion Webb JVST 14   Miller Moss USC 15   Tai Lavatai NAVY 16   Grayson James FIU 17   Steve Angeli ND 18   Xavier Arline NAVY 18   Malachi Nelson USC

Rating 1   Sam Hartman 2   Caleb Williams 4   Brayden Schager 3   AJ Swann 9   Diego Pavia 6   Taisun Phommachanh 8   Hank Bachmeier 5   Jalen Mayden 7   Chevan Cordeiro 10   Gavin Hardison 12   CJ Harris 11   Zion Webb 13   Grayson James

Aren't we a ground control rushing team??

RK NAME 1   Shomari LawrenceFIU 2   Quali ConleySJSU 3   Taisun PhommachanhMASS 4   Monte WatkinsNMSU 4   Audric EstimeND 6   Kay'Ron Lynch-AdamsMASS 7   Jaylon ArmsteadSDSU 8   Malik JacksonJVST 9   Sieh BanguraOHIO 10   Ron WigginsJVST 11   Torrance Burgess Jr.UTEP 12   Zion WebbJVST 13   Austin JonesUSC 13   Deion HankinsUTEP 15   Chevan CordeiroSJSU 16   Charvis ThorntonLT 17   Kenan ChristonSDSU 18   MarShawn LloydUSC 18   Star ThomasNMSU 20   Jeremiyah LoveND 21   Landon SimsHAW 21   Alex TeczaNAVY 23   Quinten JoynerUSC 24   Daba FofanaNAVY 24   Keith Willis Jr.LT 26    Gi'Bran Payne ND 27    Eli Stowers NMSU 27    Patrick Smith VAN 27    Jacob Fields LT 27    Brandon Chatman NAVY 31    Kairee Robinson SJSU 31    Mike Franklin UTEP 33    O'Shaan Allison OHIO 33    Anthony Simpson MASS 35    Jadarian Price ND 36    Jalen Mayden SDSU 37    Tai Lavatai NAVY 38    Diego Pavia NMSU 39    CJ Harris OHIO 39    Jamoni Jones NMSU 41    Antonio Patterson FIU 42    Gavin Hardison UTEP 43    Grayson James FIU 43    Tylan Hines HAW 45    Logan Kyle VAN 45    Chase Gillespie VAN 45    Keldric Moody LT 48    Zachariah Branch USC 48    Eli Heidenreich NAVY 50

[SisyphusMiner]

How many teams have statistics for us to rank against?  There weren?t a whole lot of week 0 games were there?

Also Hardison?s QBR is a stellar 29.1

[orange-oink]

Hardison?s completion percentage while at UTEP:

2019 44%
2020 54%
2021 55%
2022 52%

AWFUL.  I don?t think it?s his fault entirely however .  I blame Dimel and his antiquated
offense and his inability to properly coach and instruct a QB on the intricacies
of the position.  Remember, in a recent media poll ranking head   coaches in CUSA,
Dimel was ranked last!  He lived up to his ranking last
week, didn?t he.

[kyyote]

7 games 14 teams

1   New Mexico St.   1   37   210   5.68   1   210.0
2   Jacksonville St.   1   44   208   4.73   2   208.0
3   San Jose St.   1   27   198   7.33   1   198.0
4   Massachusetts   1   37   197   5.32   4   197.0
5   Notre Dame   1   32   191   5.97   2   191.0
6   FIU   1   30   178   5.93   2   178.0
7   Southern California   1   34   160   4.71   3   160.0
8   UTEP   1   43   156   3.63   1   156.0
9   San Diego St.   1   31   145   4.68   0   145.0
10   Navy   1   48   126   2.62   0   126.0
11   Louisiana Tech   1   39   114   2.92   1   114.0
12   Ohio   1   32   102   3.19   0   102.0
13   Hawaii   1   25   40   1.60   1   40.0
14   Vanderbilt   1   26   39   1.50   1   39.0

We are supposed to be a rushing grind it out team.  We grind to a halt so well that we invented a new formation for 4th downs.  Stupid as a stump!  Notice we had the eight ranked day of rushing amongst the other rushing greats like nmsu and evidently a much stronger Jacksonville State team.  But we took the second most plays to get those yards.  I am sure that gave us an edge in the chase for the championship of time of possession.  We are ranked 2nd after one game in ToP.

I am a simple man,  A fan.  I know that we run the read option offense.  Kind of.  Or maybe just poorly.  Or maybe defenses know the easy way to force us to do it badly.  But, bare with me, please.  We our o-linemen outweighed their d-linemen by an average of 25 points a man.  We get the ball on our own 5 yd line and Hardison sets up at the 1 with his back next to him.  When the 1st second is gone after the snap, the ball is in Hardison's hands one the 1 yard line and the the defense is coming.  So the run starts 4 yards behind the 5 yard line AND we have give the defense the extra second to get in the backfield.  Why in Hell can't our men, our offensive linemen who have at least as good of weights as JVS, are just as strong, pay the coaches as much or better I would suppose, can't just do what normal teams do?  How is it that a team that has some how spent a dozen years on offensive line focus just stupidly, blindly, in the face of wide open offenses and moves to open the game up to create more stars, has to invent new formations because they have to try a pick up 4th and half yard first downs so much.  How is it that the announcers can't believe the calls, but Dimel defends them, and the head coach of the team that loses a gave they are favored to win against a worst ranked top ten team not even supposed to be on our level of play is still the coach, and is working on an extension.  How is a 177 win and 41 loss head coach making 3/4 of a million bucks a year?  29.3% winning percentage and $750,000 gets us this.  Raise your hand if you believe any head high school coach in El Paso could match that record for $100,000 a year.  I know that everyone thinks that I am crazy in love with Mike Price.  I was in love with winning and at least being competitive with teams that have joined the parade of teams advancing while we fall further behind.   And look at the spectacular UTEP way we have done it.  Kugler was impressive.  Only to be outdone by the more charming wise old veteran Dimel.  I am really getting too old to just keep being stupid.  It isn't cynicism when it is just facts.  If a horse loses 90% of the races it runs it isn't cynical to call betting on it stupid.  Calling it faith doesn't give it IQ points.

I love the writer who said Dimal just wants to push you over.  The offensive genius of Dana Dimel.  He is Lumpy from Leave it to Beaver.  He follows Curly from the Three Stooges.  17-41

It is so weird.  I think we had the better team, but did the stupid things we needed to do to lose.  I got the feeling that Rich Rodriguez would have kick JVS's ass if he had been coaching the Miners.

[SisyphusMiner]

I don't think your love for Price was crazy.  I think it was crazy to continue to support Aaron Price at OC when he would throw the ball 3 downs consecutively, all 15+ yards upfield.  Eric Price was a great OC.   

Dimel is an awful OC.  I would potentially be OK with keeping him as HC if he dropped OC responsibilities.

I want to point out Permian football from back in the day.  They did not have superior athletes.  What they had was perfect execution.  Every player knew his job and did it.

The final play of the game, it looks like the outside WR got lost on his route and blocked the path of the slot WR.   motion WR was wide open but Hardison was staring down the busted play and never looked.  Here's my deal.  If you're going to go for it on 4th, and you're not going to do the obvious play but instead a riskier one -- then make damn sure it's a ply you've practised so many times your players can't screw it up.

[Minermojo]

Hardison is his own worst enemy. He can't get it through his head that if a receiver is double teamed NOT to throw the ball to him but since the play calls for that player to get the ball he'll throw it to him come hell or high water. Plus, you know where he'll throw the ball because he stares down the receiver. Like I said in the last play of that first game instead of watching the whole field he was staring down the receiver. He had an OPEN field to his right but did he see it? Why not? Because he was adamant about throwing the ball to THAT receiver. I wish I could coach him. That's only if he was the ONLY QB we had otherwise he'd be warming the bench. I know I don't know much about plays but I do have common sense. Like the Marines you have to improvise and I'm an expert on that even if I was an Airman. It's called common sense and he aint' got it. Trouble with him is that no one tells him what he did wrong, he'll just get a slap on his hiney and told, "nice try".

Man, I would love to be in the secondary with Hardison as the opposing QB. I'd set records for interceptions.

If you notice the great QBs in history, Aaron Rogers, Hurt, Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, Mahomes, etc. They all scan the whole field looking for an open receiver and the defense NEVER has any idea where he'll throw to. Hardison, forget it.

[kyyote]

I don't know.  It isn't Hardison, the last play, or the last game.  I don't want to denigrate Dimel.  He is probably a nice man.  Kugler was a and is a Miner!  Theoretically, he should be a Miners hero.  I say it is the stupidity, and I know they can't be just stupid.  It isn't the invention of a new 4th down formation, it is the invention of a new formation for 4th down because we are so incapable of powering for 2 feet.  And that is because we are so stupid(?) normally that we have to do more stupid shit!?  Am I the only one who thinks our players could win more games with any of the coaches we play against.  Any time?  Any team?  And it isn't anything in particular.  Like the Miners would have been better under Holtz if he played the same way or changed the offense but with the same players.  I have been patient.  Trust the process.  If I had tried to tell my administrators to "trust the process" with his results, they would have politely told me to pack my shit up and get off of the campus. Raise your hands if you think Skip Holtz could win eight games this year, in this conference with these players.  How about Eric Price?  Robert Rodriguez?   

[SisyphusMiner]

hand raised.

I do think it's about execution. I don't have the finely trained eyes that some have, but I've seen it in high school ball.  Guys don't know what their blocking assignment is.  That's coaching.

For sure, a player that's signing with UTEP out of high school or JC isn't all that and a bag of chips.  But neither is someone signing with an FCS school or virtually any other CUSA school.  LIke you said, could Rodriguez have swapped squads and beat us?  Absolutely.

I still find it hard to imagine that there are zero QBs that can play RPO better than Hardison in 6 years that would be available to us.  Basically I think it's that Dimel can't run, can't figure out why we can't run, is always behind the sticks, so he NEEDS a guy with a cannon for an arm to throw the long ball to keep the D marginally honest.

[SisyphusMiner]

Circling back to Price -- Winning is of course preferable.  But losing with an exciting offense is better than losing with a boring as hell offense.   At least Price's games were fun to watch.  Dimel games aren't fun to watch even when you win.

Kyyote is right.  After lots of years of Kug followed by Dimel I think it's time to accept that putting together a power run offense at this level just isn't possible.  A top 50 FBS player should have size, skill, and speed.  At our current level we can get one and only one of these on the lines -- and the occasional exception.  At skill player positions, it may be possible to get 2 out of 3 -- with the main available one being speed.  There's plenty of speedy undersized guys.  And then you pick up the occasional exceptional player.

The offense needs to shift towards one that utilizes speed and space because that's all we can do with the caliber of athletes available.

[Minermojo]

Let's just face facts, Dimel is just a bad coach. He isn't D1 level and neither is his QB. We need at LEAST two changes. We're not gonna get them though.