Back to the Numbers

[kyyote]

The Miners have now added another game to the stats book.  Perhaps the first real test against respectable competition and conference level competition.  Time for some truth.  Indeed.  At some point, making subjective judgements regarding our opponents and the other team's opponents gets fuzzy.  For me, anyway.  At this point we are playing conference members and we know that they are who they are.  LA Tech just gave the ACC 23rd ranked UNC all they wanted and LA Tech was 2-2 at the time losing two games by three points.  LA Tech is still tougher than the $2 steak at Pancho Villa's in Palomas, Mexico.  So, we have 5 games under our belts as do our conference members and future competition.  Numbers to numbers.  I was taken a bit by surprise last week when looking at the numbers at the high rankings of the Miners, and also intrigued by the pretty danged high rankings of ODU, too.  It really did look like the clash of the Titans(little ones) and was going to be a pretty good tell about the numbers we had been working with and their validity.  I think it did.  I gave the stats after the game last night quickly and I am pretty sure we will move up in every positive category, and it was done against a pretty decent team.

Let's start with offense;

Total Offense

72   UTEP   5   330   1939   5.88   14   387.8
123   Southern Miss.   5   337   1444   4.28   8   288.8

Rushing Offense
73   UTEP   5   212   792   3.74   6   158.4
113   Southern Miss.   5   193   553   2.87   3   110.6

Passing Offense
71   UTEP   5   118   66   6   1147   9.72   17.38   8   229.4
114   Southern Miss.   5   144   79   9   891   6.19   11.28   5   178.2

Red Zone Off
14   BYU   5   19   5   9   4   18   .947
-   Texas Tech   5   19   9   3   6   18   .947
-   UTEP   5   19   5   5   8   18   .947
-   Western Ky.   4   19   3   10   5   18   .947

Scoring Off
84   Old Dominion   5   16   15   0   0   6   0   129.00   25.8
-   UTEP   5   14   13   1   0   10   0   129.00   25.8
86   Oklahoma St.   5   17   16   0   0   3   0   127.00   25.4
121   Kansas   5   11   8   0   0   4   0   86.00   17.2
-   Southern Miss.   5   10   9   0   0   5   1   86.00   17.2

Hardison

Passing yds
44   Gavin Hardison   UTEP   So.   QB   5   112   65   5   8   1138

Yards/Comp
2   Gavin Hardison   UTEP   So.   QB   5   65   112   1138   17.51

DEFENSE

Total D
31   UTEP   5   318   1550   4.87   12   14   310.0
49   Southern Miss.   5   302   1687   5.59   16   19   337.4

Rushing D
18   Southern Miss.   5   159   471   2.96   4   94.2
29   UTEP   5   165   544   3.30   7   108.8

Pass YRDS ALLowed
44   UTEP   5   78   153   1006   5   6.58   12.90   201.2
87   Southern Miss.   5   100   143   1216   12   8.50   12.16   243.2

Score D
63   Colorado   5   15   14   0   0   5   0   119.00   23.80
-   UAB   5   17   14   0   0   1   0   119.00   23.80
-   UTEP   5   14   14   0   0   7   0   119.00   23.80
89   Southern Miss.   5   19   19   0   0   2   0   139.00   27.80

So this gives you an idea of where the team is at this point.

Just in case you thought I had forgotten the most important stat of all;



Time of Possession
9   UTEP   5   167   33
52   Southern Miss.   5   152   30

[SisyphusMiner]

based on that, you'd think we would be a lot better.  However, if you look at the power rankings, we are at 119 and USM is at 112. 

ODU at 120, UNM at 125, NMSU at 128.
UNT at 110.  Rice at 124

La Tech 83.  UAB 71.  FAU 68

[kyyote]

The Miners opened as a 1 point favorite but the birds are now the favorites spotting us a point and a half.

[SisyphusMiner]

USM is very good at stopping the run.  #18 in the country according to Kyy's data.  What do we do?  We can't go first down rush up the middle for a yard, second down rush up the middle for a yard, third down long pass every time.

They look to be vulnerable to the pass, but it can't all be long bombs to Cowing and Garrett. 

Might want to take the under on this one...

[kyyote]

This could be a fistfight between two drunk guys standing in a slippery mud puddle.  Lots of blood, pushing and shoving, slipping and falling, wild swings and a few hits, and maybe downright dirty.  Southern Miss is no lady.  Southern Miss is a bully who prides itself on being a southern bully and to make things worse, they have a history of picking on us, the 98 pound weaklings from El Paso.  But we have been working out and took some karate lessons.  We have gotten into a couple of "fights" and are feeling pretty froggy, looking to jump on some team.  Well, this is a test of old bully meets new bully wanna be.  The Golden Eagles' pride is sore and has the team feeling like Sam Elliot's character in Road House-beat up and busted up but dangerous as f#?k.  The Miners, on the other hand feeling like Mike Tyson are grinning at some big sumbitch maybe named Larry or Buster.  There'll probably be some teeth lost and things said and done that are probably better left unspoken. 

I think the question we all want answered is, is this team really tough.  I found out that this team won't cry and beg for mercy.  This team will fight back.  Is this team actually that tough, though?  Like my Drill Sergeant said, "You have now had 14 hours of hand to hand combat training, which is just enough to get your ass kicked if you go downtown to some bar and try to use it."  This week we find out how deep the strength, toughness, pride, and will has gotten into these guys.  I want all of my fellow Miners to notice that Southern Miss is a 1 point favorite at their house.  We all know that playing at home is worth a few points.  That means the experts know that the Miners are the better team.  Confidence and faith.  I do believe the Miners are not the Miners Southern Miss is used to.

[SisyphusMiner]

you are right, this team has some fight in them.  They will take a lick and get right back up and throw a punch back.  That is something that I haven't seen in a UTEP team in a very very long time.

Does this relate to why Dimel allows the personal fouls.  Is he trying to create a team with a nasty in your face attitude so he doesn't mind if it gets a little out of hand?  This would actually make a little sense to me.  Once we have established an identity you can worry about cleaning that stuff up?