A Few Bits From the Times

[kyyote]

I thought these were noteworthy.

"UTEP is currently starting nine players on defense who came directly from a junior college, with the opening day number likely to be plus or minus one of that number.

The two players who came to UTEP out of high school are safety Tyson Wilson and defensive end Praise Amaewhule. Wilson is fighting for a spot with first-year junior college transfer Kobe Hylton." 

It seems to me that this is the way to go.  In today's see ya later world,  you can cry about losing Cowing or understand that reloading is what we will have to do from now on.  Get really good at picking the cream of the juco crop as they are proven to an extent.

The Miners are healthy.

"The Miners do not tackle in practice."

Interesting.

But here is what you have been waiting for!

"More special teams work

UTEP struggled on special teams last year after a late coordinator change that coach Dana Dimel said did not allow sufficient time to work on fundamentals.

The Miners are working to fix that this year. Every two-hour practice begins with 15 minutes of special teams work, then has another 15 minutes near the end.

Set at kicker with Gavin Baechle and punter with Joshua Sloan, the personnel issues will be in the return game. Marcus Bellon was brought into to fix the punt return game and he has been sharing reps there with seventh-year senior Walter Dawn. Reynaldo Flores has also been fielding balls on returns as well.

Dawn and Bellon are also the top two kickoff returners."

[SisyphusMiner]

I hope for improvement in kick returns, but the actual playmaker on returns was a minuscule part of the s***show that was our special teams.  Maybe Dimel is being honest that Price didn?t have enough time to address fundamentals, but I?m going to need to see across the board improvement to buy into him as special teams coach.


IMO our weaknesses that cost us games were roughly in this order

1.  Extreme inconsistency by Hardison
2.  Special teams
3.  Poor play calling in the red zone
4.  Random catastrophic breakdowns by the D

The item I have the most confidence in being fixed is 4.  IDK if 1 or 2 are fixable with current personnel.  Item 3 is partly who Dimel is ? wildcat anyone? ? and maybe partly lack of trust in Hardison to hit those short passes

[SisyphusMiner]

I remembered another, and embarrassed I forgot.

Our 3rd down conversion percentage was 6th worst in the nation.  We can argue about whether that's on Dimel or on Hardison, but THAT costs us games.

[Chanson]

I blame the poor play calling in red zone & 3rd down issues on the OC. Guy is supposed to recognize weaknesses in opposing O & that needs to be improved. Our D got us out of a lot of jams last year. Last time I remember our defense being good was with Stull at the helm in 80s. That was over 30yrs ago. Kind of embarrassing with that time gap.
I hope our D continues from last year.

[kyyote]

UTEP football subjects for discussion are very different from any other football program in the country-except maybe NMSU. 

Old guy, "Why, I remember one time when I was a little boy when we had a defense!"
Old guy #2, "Yessir, and then there was that time when we had an offense for two years runnin'!  Back before the turn of the century."
or
"Let's talk kickers!  We had some of the best!  Hell, Chris Jacke is big on the facebook thing!"

Seriously though, the defense is an interesting thing going on there.  Last year's much improved defense was almost all juco transfers.  This raises the question, how is it that a bunch of people who never played together beat out the great players that recruiting and coaches who had a two year head start on learning the program and team building and alll of that and that leads to the questions of why?  Why is it that that happened?  Was the money spent recruiting a waste?  Are juco coaches coaching players up better than our house staff?  The questions just keep coming.  Did we just get really lucky or is this the way to go?  Does it work for offense?  If so, why aren't we starting 10 jucos on offense?

I am praying that we can follow up our one year in a row streak of not embarrassing football.  I know that an 85 ranking is exciting, but most are still predicting that it is likely that we could end up with 3 wins and the over/under is 5.5 wins. I always hope for wins and my heart almost always overrules my good sense but, what I really hope is that Dimel has a process that I can put my trust in, and that there is a building of something that moves us away from constantly flirting with reputation of the worst team in football.  The fact that after a few years, going out and getting all juco players seems to belie the idea of a "process" but maybe I just am not seeing it from the right elevation or something.  All of these questions are also under the scrutiny and pressure of conference realignment and the ongoing fight for survival for UTEP football.  Every game this season is an audition for the ongoing evaluations taking place for the next moves to come.

[SisyphusMiner]

I think the D is explained by the DC.  You could actually see adjustments being made.  Often our D was inside the opposing O's OODA loop.

I think the red zone and 3rd down issues are on the head coach.  I believe Dimel is calling the plays which I think is a real problem.  Not that he's stupid, but he needs to focus on the big picture.  What is the point of an OC that doesn't call the plays?

And I still don't understand why we have a proven QB coach running an absolute nightmare of a special teams when we have a serviceable QB that could be a good QB with some coaching up.

And I seem to recall our 2004 D being pretty stout with Demps and co.

[SisyphusMiner]

I just checked the stats on total team defense

2021  -- #53
2020  -- #76
2019  -- #119

Pretty impressive improvement. 

Historical teams (most years ranked around 100 or worse -- only respectable years shown):

2010  -- #66
2005  -- #61
2004  -- #58
2000  -- #75
1997  --  #44
1996  -- #39
1993  -- #44
1991 -- #67

Older than this wasn't available where i was looking.
Looking at 1988, we went 10-3.  The losses were to BYU 27-31, #10 Wyoming 6-51, and in the bowl to So Miss 18-38 (Brett Favre).  So we were probably really damn good but I just don't know the ranking.


So apparently we were pretty stout defensively in general during the Charlie Bailey era. 

[kyyote]

per ncaa stats

total defense                                                                      TO 22  35   UTEP   13   868   4540   5.23   38   40   349.2                 70   UTEP   13   848   5097   6.01   37   392.1 21 46   UTEP 8   499   3,050   6.11   33   33   381.2         101   UTEP    8   3-5   539   2,785   5.17   23   348.1 20 95   UEP 12   1-11   765   5,170   6.76   52   54   430.8   116 UTEP    12   1-11   768   3,950   5.14   27   329.2 19 68   UTEP 12   1-11   797   4,736   5.94   43   49   394.7   125 UTEP 12   1-11   751   3,692   4.92   27   307.7

http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings/change_sport_year_div

I look at these stats and see that in 19 our defense had gotten down to a very respectable 68th ranked.  Unfortunately, 125th out of 130 in total offense is just no good at all.  In 20, the lack of offense(ranked 116th) took its toll on the defense and it returned to its somewhat rightful spot in the 90's.  In 21 Hardison arrives and he shaves the 116th ranking in to down to 101, and his ability to mount an actual offense allowed the defense to get downright stingy and a tad vicious ranked 46thin the country.  But covid.  Then last year he got the offense going, shaving 31 points off of the rankings down to 70th in the land!  Read that sentence again.  A real offense.  And look what it did for the defense!  Ranked 35th in the country!  Say that again!  The offense creates the ability for the defense to be great and vice versa.  But easy peasy schedule.  So, we did what we did against the weakest shit in the country.  You play the teams on your schedule.  You start by beating the teams you should.  We did.  This season the teams we should beat has changed.  We need to feast on the cupcakes, win half of the tough games(or more), and show that we belong on the same field with the big boys.

Btw, I believe that Hardison has taken the offense from 116th to 70th in two years.  Twenty-three points per year average that he has climbed up the ranks.  I'd bet a 20 dollar bill that that there are very few quarterbacks in the country that could come close to that record of achievement.
Last thing, even with the  95 ranking and the two seasons of offense before Hardison, for the four past years the Miners' defense has averged ranking 61inthe country.  That is with the covids and all of that shit, but that is downright impressive!  I would say it was built fromthe ground up, but that would be a lie.  But if this keeps up and going to have to go back to making charts and graphs.  lol

[SisyphusMiner]

well apparently I really screwed the pooch here.  may need to disregard that entire post.  I used some other site.


Without going back and looking all over again, I bet #35 is the best we've been since maybe the 88 team and maybe ever

[kyyote]

While I am still on the site.
Hardison
22
32   Gavin Hardison
21
62   Gavin Hardison
20
102   Kai Locksley,
19
113   Kai Locksley
18
111   Zack Greenlee
17
106   Ryan Metz
16
?
15
97   Jameill Showers


Hardison average rank for two years =45

Others=105.6

Passing Efficiency
22     59   Gavin Hardison
21     92   Gavin Hardison
20     87   Kai Locksley
19     112   Kai Locksley
18     109   Zack Greenlee
17      38   Ryan Metz