The Miners are 0-5 to start the season. Coach Kugler was given the resign boot. He and his coaches seemed to believe that the team was a few missed plays from winning some of those games. In order to even getting your head around that you have to understand that the whole philosophy of this team is control. Control the other team by control of the clock. Keep scores low. So a pass is not designed to keep defenses off balance. It isn't used to get large chunks of yardage. It is another version of a three yard run, just from a different position. The offense is based on three yards and taking time off of the clock. A missed pass is not the loss of the yards it would have gained, it is the end of a drive. And drives that stall are deadly in this philosophy. It is a loss of control. So, in the minds of the coaches, they see a missed pass not as a missed pass, but as a drive lost and control lost. Momentum lost.
If they are right, and things are going to remain in place as they are, the key will be in the ability to keep the drives going. A dropped pass either has to be caught, or the damage of a dropped pass has to be mitigated. Since the coach has no control over the hands that are supposed to catch the ball, that leaves mitigating the damage. Throwing a longer pass doesn't help. If it isn't caught it is just the same as not being caught on the short pass. The drive dies. The same ball caught doesn't really help that much in the control aspect of the game, so the extra yards are just part of the drive. Also, a long pass means the run blocking line has to pass block for longer to protect their quarterback. So, how will CMP mitigate the weight of the pass in this control the ball offense. If the pass is used on third down and fails, the drive is lost. If the same four yard pass fails on first down, second down only needs eight yards to be back on track. Same with second down. If the four yard pass is complete on first down, you can still get your three yards per carry on the next two downs and keep a drive alive. So, run on first and second down every time, and third down is almost always a do or die pass. A pass on first or second down completed works fine and if it isn't completed it doesn't mean the drive is dead. That is simple and the only thing changed is when the four yard pass is tried. The other thing CMP could do is give the quarter back options. If the pass is designed to go to one receiver to get that four yards to keep the drive going the chance of a defender being able to caused a "dropped" pass is greater than if the quarterback has another receiver to go to if the first option is covered. Keeping in mind that all we want is to keep the drive going, and yards are not what we are worried about, so the pass still doesn't need to go deep down field. That pass takes too long for a run blocking line. So, look for CMP to find ways using quick hitting short passes. Long throws to the sidelines behind the line of scrimmage take too long and have too many negatives possible. I think we will see more tight ends taking passes over the middle, maybe passes to a running back sneaking out of the backfield.
Having said all of that, Mike Price loves the energy and excitement of the "Big Play". It is the psychological weapon that puts defenses on their heels and invigorates his team both on offense and on defense. I would expect him to take at least two shots long each half, at least.
So, if the coaches were right and the team was just a few plays here and there from a much different start to the season, it won't take much to make a big difference. Think of it this way, do you actually think the football players were better at NMSU or was it something other than the quality of the athletes that was the difference? If the difference was slim in the games lost, I have to believe that the difference in years of experience between Mike Price and Sean Kugler will be enough to make up for that slim difference between winning and losing those games that were just a few plays from being wins.
That is how hope works in the land of The Pass To the North. The hopeful grab at anything that can allow us to believe. For me, Mike Price is the best bringer of hope I have seen in 40 years of UTEP football, so when he returns, he brings a truck load of hope with him. I am back to being insanely, ridiculously hopeful for a Win, again after years of being resigned to losing.
GO MINERS!
