Well, Dang! It IS Time! Wake Up! Let's Go!

[kyyote]

This season could be historic!  It has the potential to be the best season maybe ever for the Miners.  Or it could be the biggest disappointment ever in the long history of UTEP Football disappointments.  Fans are sky high and show evidence of oxygen deprivation sickness from the altitude, thinking in terms of 10+win seasons.  The thing is, they may be a little high, but they aren't stupid or crazy.  It could happen. 

Senter tells us that there are only 5,000 tickets left-so it will be a sell-out of 45,000 Miners fans.  This will be the biggest thing in El Paso in years and the Fans aren't just ready for some football.  They aren't just ready for a chance for a rare win.   They aren't just ready for the start of a good year.  They are ready to begin a ten win+ season!  I don't know if you have ever been in the cement Sun Bowl when it starts shaking.  It is impressive!  I don't mean to say that UNT has never played in front of a crowd before. I am saying that this crowd, in this stadium, for the first game a week earlier than everyone else is different.  It will be the first game for both teams.  I get that.  But for the 45 thousand insanos, they've been waiting all their lives for this.  This is not a prediction, but if the Miners have some early success and the crowd gets like hyper insane and take the players with them, it might even get ugly.

Which brings me to the defense.  Much has been said about Hardison and the offense, but in many ways the defense will continue to be the real key.  As we have also talked about, a time consuming, run oriented offense by nature will not be looking to put lots of points on the board.  That means the defense must not allow the other team to score in quick scoring drives.  The one thing that seemed to be just beyond our reach was opposing quarterbacks.  The pressure was much better than it has been, and that made a tremendous difference, but the sacks were just a finger tip out of reach.  I am sure that Praise is going to catapult himself onto the national stage this season and UNT would be a great opening act.

Also, I have lamented our offensive line's ability to impose their will when needed.  Forty-five thousand insanos screaming their encouragements will bring out the bully in a lamb.   Watch these guys be able to push the Green guys.  Biggern shit, you mark my words.  If the Miners are able to run, the way they should be able to run, Hardison will simply be a role player in just keeping the opposing defense off balance. 

Those are my two keys to the win.  Defense getting just a bit better in being able to get those sacks and the offensive line being able to get those 2 yards, impose their will, when they need to.  Both of those are things that can and should be affected by the insanos!  This needs to be not just the year.  It needs to be The Year!  The crazy year when UTEP busted everything all up!  Sent more than just a message!  Made an announcement that this isn't you father's Buick or Miners football team!  It needs to be the year that UTEP marched through C-USA like Sherman went through the South. 

OK.  OK, I got a little wound up there.  But it is time to get a little wound up!  Let's go to war!  Let's tear up some ass to send people on their ways! 

[Minermojo]

If the Miners can stop that sieve in the middle when in defense maybe they'll have a good chance of winning but it seems that that's been a weakness of ours for a while. Also, I heard that the Greenies have a squad of good receivers. If the defense can keep their QB out of his pocket running for his life and the Miners not letting him gain any yardage at the same time we can keep that part of their offense tame.

[SisyphusMiner]

A few random thoughts:

I was there during the Stull era.  It was loud and did affect the games.

Even though sacks weren't as plentiful as we would have liked there were a lot of hurries.  Even though a couple of our losses were due to getting beat on big plays through the air, it seems like the best teams beat us on the ground.  That has to stop.

Seems like someone like UTEPDefense who always has great analysis said that part of the offensive running game problem was missed blocking assignments?  Does that ring a bell or am I imagining it?  Hopefully another year of experience fixes that.

I think this game is huge for both teams. I do worry a little bit about hyped games for a variety of reasons.  If we lose, will that make us hungrier or despondent?  If we win, will we get cocky?  Dimel seems like he's done a much better job than most previous coaches at getting the players to focus today's game and not the previous or next.

I don't know what Dimel's ceiling is here, but I do feel like what he's doing seems sustainable.  He seems like he's building a program and a culture and to me we look better across the board than we have in a long time vs a couple superstars.   I'm cautiously optimistic.

I could accept either a 9+ win season or a bowl win as a sign that we are continuing significant progress. Winning season is sign of stability.  Losing season and we should start asking tough questions.

[Chanson]

I have to admit that I am excited as well. Cautiously optimistic if you will. Too much garbage under every coach we have had.
Senter said something that captivated me on Kappy's show. He said they have been building a good program with results coming later than everyone expected.
He will have put his foot in his mouth if the year turns sour. He put his neck on the line with that & I'd have to say I can taste a little bit of the orange kool-aid. Just saying that that when a guy like that puts it out there like that, he knows a bit more about this team than we do.

[Minermojo]

For anyone that's not aware channel 14 KFox will air the game at 7 p.m. It's great news and I hope that those that can will attend and make it look good on tv.

[MinerInWisconsin]

Less than 3k tickets left and 3 days to sell them. Also, this past weekend, before the 1st day of class, all of the approx 5k student tickets were available. Now they are almost gone. A sellout is within reach.

The UTEP athletic dept did their part with the 915 marketing campaign. The mayor and El Paso business community did their part buying blocks of tickets for their employees and customers/clients. The fans are doing their part and buying up tickets. Now Dimel and staff have to do their part and field a talented, deep, motivated football team that executes well and produce an important win Saturday night.