The Sky Is Orange When the Sun Is Rising!

[kyyote]

UTEP Football has been in the darkness for awhile, but from my home on the west side of the Franklins, I can see rays of orange light beginning to peak over the mountains. UTEP has a new Head Coach, Dana Dimel and it appears that his offensive coordinator will be Mike Canales. I am going to take a purposefully positive look at the team and the prospects for next season.

Kugler used to say that we were just a few missed passes away from success, usually dropped. He always claimed to be balanced, and the stats usually bore that out. We almost always won the time of possession. So, from what I have read, he truly is the perfect fit. This is his kind of football. Like Kugler, he believes in grinding it out on the ground and winning the time of possession battle. It seems that we can expect to see an offense that is a running team, much of that coming from the quarterback position by design. But I would expect to see the defense stretched downfield, and with that I believe we can expect the wide receiver spot to be recruited looking for speed. The offense will be much more creative in how they run. Kugler was a brute force kind of guy. Like Dr. D said though, we have to do more with less. So, the running game will be from different angles than from what we had seen. By the way, I expect that we will perhaps see a JC quarterback come in to run the offense. The Big 12 circles he has been running in should give him a leg up on the competition, perhaps. I once visited with a very good UTEP tight end that had graduated and was working in the weight room. He told me that he had been in the weight room while someone like Arizona State had come in and had seen all of their numbers of measurable power, speed, weight, and all of that and was shocked to see that UTEP's player's numbers were better. I know that Kugler can coach offensive linemen, so I am going to believe that if the play calling had done anything to keep the defense from stacking the box against the run, the offensive line would have shone itself much better. So, on the whole I believe that the new regime will bring in enough creativity to get back to putting up 35 points a game and holding onto the ball for about that much in minutes or more.

The key will be the defense, as it always has been. We have never been able to stop anyone from putting up points! Mike Price was able to outscore them for awhile.   Kugler basically figured if the other team never touched the ball you could limit the damage the defense could do. He was wrong. The new coaches feel pretty much the same way, and in theory it is true. The trick is keeping the other team from being able to score at will whenever they touch the ball, and two, not stalling on long, time-consuming drives without scoring any points. I believe the new staff will make serious progress on the scoring part. We will have to see as for the defensive side. I will say that the play I saw from the defense at the end was spirited and fought like Hell in spite of the offense's lack of help. So perhaps the changes on the offensive side of the ball will give the defensive side the help they need. That and a few defensive linemen that can pressure the opposing quarterback. Actually, if the offense can hold up their end of the bargain, I think the defense could have a chance. This is probably what interests me most. Will Dimel be able to simply do some tuning up of what we already have and were trying to do.
The team will play their first game on September first against Northern Arizona, and NA will be much more of a test than you might think. They can rack up the yards offensively. So, we should be able to see what the Miners offense is doing in a game that doesn't just crush them and keep them from even seeing how it works. If that is the case, it should also telling us quite a bit more about the defense. If the offense is rumbling along, can the defense do theirs?

So, I have put my orange lenses back on and will be back to hoping and praying that we can win. I am already hoping that a few changes, not giant ones, will be all that is needed to right the ship. After all, wouldn't it be lovely if Coach Dimel could actually turn our great kids, hard-working and highly achieving students in the classroom, into winners on the field in their own home town. We could all be so very proud of that, and the people of El Paso care more about their kids maybe than anyone. There is a reason why this city is such a great place to raise children. So, here is a real welcome to Coach Dimel and a heartfelt best of luck and you have my support. Please make us proud on the field.

[Minermojo]

Good post, Ky. So good in fact that it just might convince me to put on my orange colored glasses too. But. I'm from Missouri...street. I'll keep my glasses at arms length in case I do need them. I've been fooled for too many years and that's left a sour taste in my mouth. I've run out of mouth wash because of that. Knowing me I'll still probably buy my season tickets in spite of my earlier posts. Especially since I've given up on the Nfl crybabies and I don't watch the Cabal (what is called the Power 5).

[kyyote]

Yep, I will have to get mine again with renewed hope.  No sense worrying about the football team when it can only get better and the basketball team has me worried about it, too.  I actually think that the basketball team may be alright.

[Austintacious]

Mojo, since you're from Missouri (street), could you go to that tortilla factory on Montana and pick me up 4 dozen tamales.   

[ATL-Miner]

To suggest that Dimel is only wanting to grind it out on the ground, a la Kugler, appears to be a false assumption. One only has to a little due diligence at his teams stats at Wyoming and Houston to see this isn't true. Both suggest he's willing to sling it around more than Bill Snyder was at Kansas St.

Wyoming - 34.9 Att in 1997, 30.6 Att in '98,, 31.9 Att in '99,
Houston - 43 Att in 2000, 41.3 Att in 01, 29.8 Att in 02.

UTEP Football has been in the darkness for awhile, but from my home on the west side of the Franklins, I can see rays of orange light beginning to peak over the mountains. UTEP has a new Head Coach, Dana Dimel and it appears that his offensive coordinator will be Mike Canales. I am going to take a purposefully positive look at the team and the prospects for next season.

Kugler used to say that we were just a few missed passes away from success, usually dropped. He always claimed to be balanced, and the stats usually bore that out. We almost always won the time of possession. So, from what I have read, he truly is the perfect fit. This is his kind of football. Like Kugler, he believes in grinding it out on the ground and winning the time of possession battle. It seems that we can expect to see an offense that is a running team, much of that coming from the quarterback position by design. But I would expect to see the defense stretched downfield, and with that I believe we can expect the wide receiver spot to be recruited looking for speed. The offense will be much more creative in how they run. Kugler was a brute force kind of guy. Like Dr. D said though, we have to do more with less. So, the running game will be from different angles than from what we had seen. By the way, I expect that we will perhaps see a JC quarterback come in to run the offense. The Big 12 circles he has been running in should give him a leg up on the competition, perhaps. I once visited with a very good UTEP tight end that had graduated and was working in the weight room. He told me that he had been in the weight room while someone like Arizona State had come in and had seen all of their numbers of measurable power, speed, weight, and all of that and was shocked to see that UTEP's player's numbers were better. I know that Kugler can coach offensive linemen, so I am going to believe that if the play calling had done anything to keep the defense from stacking the box against the run, the offensive line would have shone itself much better. So, on the whole I believe that the new regime will bring in enough creativity to get back to putting up 35 points a game and holding onto the ball for about that much in minutes or more.

The key will be the defense, as it always has been. We have never been able to stop anyone from putting up points! Mike Price was able to outscore them for awhile.   Kugler basically figured if the other team never touched the ball you could limit the damage the defense could do. He was wrong. The new coaches feel pretty much the same way, and in theory it is true. The trick is keeping the other team from being able to score at will whenever they touch the ball, and two, not stalling on long, time-consuming drives without scoring any points. I believe the new staff will make serious progress on the scoring part. We will have to see as for the defensive side. I will say that the play I saw from the defense at the end was spirited and fought like Hell in spite of the offense's lack of help. So perhaps the changes on the offensive side of the ball will give the defensive side the help they need. That and a few defensive linemen that can pressure the opposing quarterback. Actually, if the offense can hold up their end of the bargain, I think the defense could have a chance. This is probably what interests me most. Will Dimel be able to simply do some tuning up of what we already have and were trying to do.
The team will play their first game on September first against Northern Arizona, and NA will be much more of a test than you might think. They can rack up the yards offensively. So, we should be able to see what the Miners offense is doing in a game that doesn't just crush them and keep them from even seeing how it works. If that is the case, it should also telling us quite a bit more about the defense. If the offense is rumbling along, can the defense do theirs?

So, I have put my orange lenses back on and will be back to hoping and praying that we can win. I am already hoping that a few changes, not giant ones, will be all that is needed to right the ship. After all, wouldn't it be lovely if Coach Dimel could actually turn our great kids, hard-working and highly achieving students in the classroom, into winners on the field in their own home town. We could all be so very proud of that, and the people of El Paso care more about their kids maybe than anyone. There is a reason why this city is such a great place to raise children. So, here is a real welcome to Coach Dimel and a heartfelt best of luck and you have my support. Please make us proud on the field.

[kyyote]

To suggest that Dimel is only wanting to grind it out on the ground, a la Kugler, appears to be a false assumption. One only has to a little due diligence at his teams stats at Wyoming and Houston to see this isn't true. Both suggest he's willing to sling it around more than Bill Snyder was at Kansas St.

Wyoming - 34.9 Att in 1997, 30.6 Att in '98,, 31.9 Att in '99,
Houston - 43 Att in 2000, 41.3 Att in 01, 29.8 Att in 02.

UTEP Football has been in the darkness for awhile, but from my home on the west side of the Franklins, I can see rays of orange light beginning to peak over the mountains. UTEP has a new Head Coach, Dana Dimel and it appears that his offensive coordinator will be Mike Canales. I am going to take a purposefully positive look at the team and the prospects for next season.

Kugler used to say that we were just a few missed passes away from success, usually dropped. He always claimed to be balanced, and the stats usually bore that out. We almost always won the time of possession. So, from what I have read, he truly is the perfect fit. This is his kind of football. Like Kugler, he believes in grinding it out on the ground and winning the time of possession battle. It seems that we can expect to see an offense that is a running team, much of that coming from the quarterback position by design. But I would expect to see the defense stretched downfield, and with that I believe we can expect the wide receiver spot to be recruited looking for speed. The offense will be much more creative in how they run. Kugler was a brute force kind of guy. Like Dr. D said though, we have to do more with less. So, the running game will be from different angles than from what we had seen. By the way, I expect that we will perhaps see a JC quarterback come in to run the offense. The Big 12 circles he has been running in should give him a leg up on the competition, perhaps. I once visited with a very good UTEP tight end that had graduated and was working in the weight room. He told me that he had been in the weight room while someone like Arizona State had come in and had seen all of their numbers of measurable power, speed, weight, and all of that and was shocked to see that UTEP's player's numbers were better. I know that Kugler can coach offensive linemen, so I am going to believe that if the play calling had done anything to keep the defense from stacking the box against the run, the offensive line would have shone itself much better. So, on the whole I believe that the new regime will bring in enough creativity to get back to putting up 35 points a game and holding onto the ball for about that much in minutes or more.

The key will be the defense, as it always has been. We have never been able to stop anyone from putting up points! Mike Price was able to outscore them for awhile.   Kugler basically figured if the other team never touched the ball you could limit the damage the defense could do. He was wrong. The new coaches feel pretty much the same way, and in theory it is true. The trick is keeping the other team from being able to score at will whenever they touch the ball, and two, not stalling on long, time-consuming drives without scoring any points. I believe the new staff will make serious progress on the scoring part. We will have to see as for the defensive side. I will say that the play I saw from the defense at the end was spirited and fought like Hell in spite of the offense's lack of help. So perhaps the changes on the offensive side of the ball will give the defensive side the help they need. That and a few defensive linemen that can pressure the opposing quarterback. Actually, if the offense can hold up their end of the bargain, I think the defense could have a chance. This is probably what interests me most. Will Dimel be able to simply do some tuning up of what we already have and were trying to do.
The team will play their first game on September first against Northern Arizona, and NA will be much more of a test than you might think. They can rack up the yards offensively. So, we should be able to see what the Miners offense is doing in a game that doesn't just crush them and keep them from even seeing how it works. If that is the case, it should also telling us quite a bit more about the defense. If the offense is rumbling along, can the defense do theirs?

So, I have put my orange lenses back on and will be back to hoping and praying that we can win. I am already hoping that a few changes, not giant ones, will be all that is needed to right the ship. After all, wouldn't it be lovely if Coach Dimel could actually turn our great kids, hard-working and highly achieving students in the classroom, into winners on the field in their own home town. We could all be so very proud of that, and the people of El Paso care more about their kids maybe than anyone. There is a reason why this city is such a great place to raise children. So, here is a real welcome to Coach Dimel and a heartfelt best of luck and you have my support. Please make us proud on the field.

Sorry, I thought this was sufficient to tell the difference between the two.  Maybe I needed to say more.  But, I still believe that he will be heavily leaning towards ball control offense more than passing it all over the place.  I think he will probably do what Kugler used to say he wanted to do but never did.  We will see.  I am glad that there is something to talk about.  Speculation with a little hope thrown in. 

[SisyphusMiner]

I personally never felt that ball control was a bad thing, and thought it might work here.  I eventually became convinced that Kug didn't understand how to implement it.  Properly done, which means a mix of pass and run, long and short ball, it just might work.  It certainly helps a sub-par defense not to give up too many points.

[Minermojo]

Sisy, what you're saying is spot on except with our measly offense where we usually went 3 and outs a lot the defense can only have gas for so long. I don't care how young players are they can get tired too. That's why teams would run up the scores against us. Kugs just couldn't gather that and that was his demise.

[MinerInWisconsin]

Kyyote, glad to see you have your orange shades on again.

As for the Dimel offensive style, if it is similar to K State it will have the added element of spreading the field rather than bunching up and trying to run over the opponent. I think that alone should help. If Kugler had seen the light when he changed coordinators and switched to a run oriented spread offense instead of more of the same failing offense he had previously, he might still be coaching, just speculating. I'm hoping the offense does spread things out and also passes some so that defenses have a much tougher time with the Miners. When your offense gets 6 first downs in a game, you're not going to be competitive.

I'm kind of hoping that the D will be left alone since it seemed to improve as the season wore on even though the offense was almost no help at all.

I'm waiting to see what the entire coaching staff looks like and how the recruiting takes shape in Feb before joining with the seasons predictions.

[kyyote]

I am glad you put up with me and look forward to your perspective.  As much as I complained about Kugler's offense, he always said that we were just a few dropped passes away from being fine.  He also claimed to be balanced between the pass and the run and damned if the stats didn't back him up.   It was the way he did it though that was the problem.  Even with that, in the first few years, he was getting 35 points a game.  But early on, the defense was like wet toilet paper.  If he had been able to keep the other team from scoring in 30 seconds, the 35 points would have held up.  The defense was playing better right there at the end, under Price oddly enough.  I think that tells you a lot about the psychology aspect of the game. 

I really think that if there were just 5 passes of 20 yards a game, not at the end when we are desperate, but to back the defense the Hell up off of the line, it would allow the offense to run.  I think Kugler built an offensive line that can be pretty good against a defensive front 7 playing with respect for the pass, but not good enough to overpower a defensive front of 8or 9 with no threat of a pass.  I think the offense is really closer than it seems. 

But, somehow, someway, the defense needs to be able to consistently pressure the quarterback so that they can't stand back and drop bombs on us.  They got to where they were doing better against the run, but why run when you can just throw touchdowns.  I won't be looking for some big name defensive coordinator. 

If the offense can get back to 35 points a game, control the clock, and truly keep defenses off balance, I think the defense has caught up quite a bit, and might even be able to give up giving up 7 points every time the other team touched the ball by just dropping a bomb on us with the belief that the offense was going to be fighting a battle they could win.

I have predicted a 7 win season.  That is how close I think we may be.  That is one of my pretty ridiculous predictions, worthy of plenty of laughs maybe.  We'll see.  Hell, I'll predict that the season after next will be another 7 or 8 win season.  If that happens Dimel will get one last big fat contract to retire on from some cartel member.

[UTEPDefense]

For what it's worth, I think we currently have more talent on defense than offense at this moment and the defensive talent is not necessarily at a high level either(outside of our CB's), so that speaks even more about where our offense currently is.

My opinion has really changed after watching this past season.  I am a true fan, but even with my orange glasses on, I just don't see any way that this turns around quickly.  Here are some of our biggest problems to overcome:

1.). We need a real QB who can make plays.  I don't think the type of QB that we need is currently on our roster(with the small possibility of Fernandez).
2.). Our kids will now be learning their 3rd different system ON BOTH SIDES of the ball in 4 seasons!  In our first game next season, our kids will have played under 6 different Coordinators in only 4 seasons(3 offensive coordinators and 3 defensive coordinators).  That is just too tough on the players.
3.). I really question the returning O-Line talent outside of Gatewood and possibly Brooks.  Long had the season ending injury and I wonder what his status will be for participating in Spring Ball and learning the new offense?  A couple of the youngsters appear to be promising, but it will be tough to depend on them with so much inexperience.
4.). I just don't know what to expect from this new Coaching Staff?

[MinerInWisconsin]

When I join in the prediction thread, my UTEP FB hope springs eternal side will dominate and I won't be able to keep from predicting some sort of winning record.

As for QB's, Torrez was listed as a dual threat QB when he was recruited. Fernandez was listed as a pro style QB. Mobility is key and Torrez ran a good deal more in high school than Fernandez. But I'll bet that Dimel will bring in a transfer (JC or grad xfer) to get things kicked off on the right foot.

Dimel did say he liked UTEP's RBs and talent on defense and mentioned the young QBs as being possibilities. Noticed that there is at least one new offer out there to a 3 star athlete from Texas that is already committed to Colorado.


Hasaan Hypolite III‏@HypKing 15h15 hours ago


Blessed to receive an offer from UTEP #LA5pic.twitter.com/9fqyCZHqrW


 

[SisyphusMiner]

I also think we need a JC QB and WRs.  However, if the opposing D has to defend more than 10 yards of the field it might be that one of ours is serviceable.  Ditto the O Line.  I mean when you can put all 11 between the down markers and just crash the line on the snap, it's pretty tough to run an offense.

[MinerInWisconsin]

If you're so inclined and have a minute, you might enjoy this short article by K State head coach Bill Snyder. I hope a lot of his attitude has rubbed off on coach Dimel.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/bill-snyder-kansas-state-the-teacher/

[Minermojo]

If you're so inclined and have a minute, you might enjoy this short article by K State head coach Bill Snyder. I hope a lot of his attitude has rubbed off on coach Dimel.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/bill-snyder-kansas-state-the-teacher/

Great story, thanks. I think everyone of us is looking for improvement on Dimels first season. With the players we have now there's a good chance that we can win some games and not go 0-12 like this year. Like I had posted before we were hard pressed to win one game and sure enough my crystal ball was right. I blame Kugs for the losing. He was too stubborn to change and that was the problem. You can't expect to run into walls over and over and not get tired, beat up, and frustrated. There was absolutely no imagination concerning play calling.

Hopefully, with this new coaching staff they have ideas in how they will use what we have now and what they're out there recruiting. The only game that we ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO WIN is against the Ugglies. Everything else is icing on the cake...this first year. I'll expect better results the next year.