It Isn’t Too Early To Talk UTEP Miners Football

[kyyote]

The thing is, and Hell he may be right, if he could get a defense that could just slow other teams scoring down to over thirty seconds or so, they would be much less likely to a) score more points than us, and b) not put us in the position of trying to play catch up late in games with an offense not made for it.  Seriously, if the danged defense could cause other teams to need four minutes per td and we average 27 points a game using 45 minutes of the clock the math is there.  If they only have 15 minutes and it takes 4 minutes per score they only score 16 points to our 27.  I realize that I am screwing around with the numbers and that part of the reason we have 45 minutes of possession is because they have to keep giving us the ball back.  But, let's just say for argument's sake that UTEP drives take 7 minutes and other teams take four.  First quarter they get the ball and score 7.  With eleven minutes left we use seven and go score. Tied up. Using the remaining four minutes of the quarter, they go up by 7 at 14 to 7. We take the next seven and tie it back up at 14.  Four minutes later, with four minutes left we are back down 14 to 21.  With four minutes we kick a field goal and go into the half down 17 to 21.  Second half opens and we get the ball use up 7 minutes and Take The Lead 24 to 21.  Four minutes more gone and we are back down 24 to 28 with 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.  We have the ball the rest of the third quarter and for the first three minutes of the fourth before regaining the lead at 31 to 28.  Seven minutes into the 4th quarter the bastards regain the lead 35 to 31.  Guess who needs seven minutes to score and with 7 minutes left on the clock the Miners start their drive.  And score to win 38 to 35.

Well, that was fun, but seriously, I don't think he figures there is any need to stop doing what he is doing offensively.  What is really weird is that I am stating to believe he could be right if he could only find a defense.  Just ask yourself what would games be like if other teams had to bust their ass to score of the Miners.  They know their defense is going to get its ass wore out late and they are the ones that start to panic and take dumb chances.  They become one dimensional and OUR defense goes on attack.   So, here I sit saying if he only had a defense things would be fine.  It might not be so boring if it was a winning strategy.  Especially if the other teams is in some shit.

[UTEPDefense]

A couple of random thoughts regarding our clock management would be:

-  For a team that usually wins the time of possession battle, we sure appear to have a lot of 3-and-outs or short drives that end after gaining only one first down.  Those two things just don't seem to go together?  It makes you wonder if a lot of our Time Of Possession is maybe coming when it shouldn't?(I.E. Late in the game when we are behind and should be trying to score, and should not be running clock?). I would like to see a stat on how many 3-and-out or only one first down drives we had, to see if that is really an accurate contradiction.

-  We appear take a lot of pride in winning the Time Of Possesion battle, but last year we only ranked 60th in the nation in Time Of Possesion.  I would have thought that we did better last year.

-  We only attempted 7 Field Goals during all of last season.  Seven attempts in twelve games, that's it.  Is it because we are we scoring TD's, therefore not attempting FG's?  Well we ranked 82nd last season in scoring offense, so that is not likely the answer.  It appears to mean that we are just not producing enough drives into the opponents territory.  This kind of relates to the first point as well, which is how are we winning time of Possesion battles if we are not maintaining enough drives to score TD's or kick FG's?

- For a power running team, we sure seem to struggle a little too much when running the ball in short yardage situations.

I still like the ball control and power running philosophy, but we must execute better.  As for the defense, I honestly think that they can be better this year(especially in the secondary).  But maybe that is just the summer time optimism that happens every year.

[kyyote]

Last year the Miners ranked 51 out of 128 in third down conversions.  Red zone offense ranked 69th scoring 89% of the time.

Now remember that our red zone defense is ranked 117 giving up a score 91% of the time.

We score.  They score. On drives of three plays. That take Two minutes.  However, looking at the stats below, you would think everything is hunky doory.

Team Statistics UTEP OPP FIRST DOWNS 220 265  R u s h  in g 97 139  P a s s  in g 103 108  P e n a  l ty 20 18 RUSHING YARDAGE 2226 2524  Rushing Attempts 409 476  Average Per Rush 5.4 5.3  Average Per Game 185.5 210.3  TDs Rushing 20 23 PASSING YARDAGE 2204 2508  C o m p - A  t t-  In t 195-327-8 210-346-6  Average Per Pass 6.7 7.2  Average Per Catch 11.3 11.9  Average Per Game 183.7 209.0  TDs Passing 21 26 TOTAL OFFENSE 4430 5032  Average Per Play 6.0 6.1  Average Per Game 369.2 419.3 KICK RETURNS: #-Yards 44-809 19-385 PUNT RETURNS: #-Yards 23-217 26-168 INT RETURNS: #-Yards 6-47 8-165 FUMBLES-LOST 16-8 11-5 PENALTIES-Yards 67-550 56-496 PUNTS-AVG 63-40.3 50-43.7 TIME OF POSSESSION/Game 3 0  :1 1 2 9  :4 9 3RD-DOWN Conversions 64/153 65/157 4TH-DOWN Conversions 5/15 9/14

I think the reason this looks the way it does and I feel the way I do is because of the "lie" in the passing stats, where runs with a toss involved are called passes. In the books they are.  To defenses it is the same old shit.

I just looked and it isn't here in the table above is the points per game average.

But there is this and it speaks volumes.

Score by Quarters          1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT Total UTEP  62   83   83 64 24 316 Oppts 80 120 108 90 21 419

I got out the calculator. per quarter us/them 1st 5.2/6.7(down by a point and a half)  2nd  6.9/10(down another 3 points plus the point and a half from the first quarter so we are now down by 4 and a half at the half. The third quarter  6.9/9 (another 2 points) and finally the 4th quarter 5.3/7.5 and another two points in the hole.  We average 26.3 points and they get  34.9.  Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
 

[Eberry2001]

The way I see it is this I believe is Kuglers last season so he will try whatever he can to keep his job.  In my mind a bowl is a must to even consider him staying.  Due to him being on the hotseat I see him increasing the passing to prob 60/40, but the kids that have been recruited throughout his tenure weren't brought it for that type of offense so i don't see us getting to a bowl.  I hope I'm wrong, but to me the writing is on the wall for Kugler, he would have been canned last year but one year left on his deal and Utep doesn't have the money to buy him out and bring in someone new.