The Miners Scored and I Almost Cried When I Saw the Empty Sun Bowl

[kyyote]

The team looked great but the empty Sun Bowl was so pitiful.

[SisyphusMiner]

Ah, now we see the Locksley we are familiar with.

Edited to add:

Funny, I posted that early in the game and thought i would have to retract it, but now I don't

The coaching staff cost us this game.  Kai just sealed the deal with his last throw.

The officiating was horrible.

Once again, our secondary is awful, but the defense did not cost us this game.

I now count 3 games that were winnable well into the second half and our coaching staff blew it.  Not the players.  We could have 4 wins right now, with these players.  We could be thinking that we would expect to beat NMSU and Rice and be bowl eligible.  Instead we are looking at a 1 win season because our coaches are incompetent.

[Minermojo]

Ah, now we see the Locksley we are familiar with

...and that same Locksley throws an interception on the tying drive. Ho hum. Tuesday can not come too soon.

If the SB looks empty you can blame our overpaid coaching staff and overpaid AD. I'm not going to any FB games until our administration gets their S out of their big behinds and that includes our president.

If the UTEP doesn't want winning FB why are we spending so much on inept coaches just do away with it. It's not like we'll miss it. Maybe we'll live longer instead of killing us every week with lousy football. Good thing I have a good heart otherwise I'd be very angry and my BP would blow up the machine.

I'm tired of UTEP football. Now I know why a deceased friend used to put down our fb team I just wouldn't admit it to myself.

Grrrrr.

[Chanson]

The team looked great but the empty Sun Bowl was so pitiful.

Can't expect different with the product that we have been seeing for the last 8yrs. Fans can only take so much heart ache.

[kyyote]

I understand.  But, that is my school and it is so sad that we have once again achieved this level of horrible so bad that there were twice as many fans at Price's Spring Games that there were at this game.

As for the game.  Sadly, it was winnable.  Locksley's interception was dumb, but what I disliked even more was the 4th down play down on the three or four yard line when we needed inches.  We hike it 4 yards deep instead of sneaking it with three linemen pushing Locksley.  I know, I know, it was arguably a good call and had it worked it would have been great.  But when we need inches and we go back four yards before we even start to go forward, well we usually come up short. 

But, we were competitive with a FBS level team, so there's that.

[SisyphusMiner]

That play is why I say this loss is on the coaches.

Who is calling plays?  Senter needs to tell Dimel whoever it is is done calling plays as of now.  If it's Dimel, Canales calls plays from now on.  If it's Canales, then Dimel calls plays from now on.

This is the 2nd game I have seen us come out in the first half mixing plays up and having success, and come out in the second half and it's like kugler is calling the plays.

I'm also sticking with my assessment that Kai is fairly decent as long as he isn't under duress.  The instant he is, he will make the wrong decision.

Maybe if zero people attend the next home game a message will be sent.

[kyyote]

I just looked to see what UTEP would claim for attendance and was stunned to see this;  Attendance: 15683

There wasn't 1500 fans in the Sun Bowl.  So, 1) attendance figures from UTEP are Fake News and 2) if the school sold 15k tickets, 14k chose not to waste their time even though they had paid for the tickets, and 3) UTEP can not possibly sustain the financial situation forever.  Whatever the cost of putting the team on the field is not going to be covered by the few scores of people in the stands, who were treated to a renovated Sun Bowl.  Remember when we used to laugh at other school's "crowds" while we had 40 thousand fans watching games?  Btw, vendors can't be able to cover the costs of setting up.  If UTEP actually got money for 15 thousand every penny of a ticket price should be a charitable contribution and tax deductible.  The school can say what they want, but those who saw the actual "crowd" know that there is no way to keep it up.  Money is money, dollars are dollars, and what there was in live bodies at the game is not enough to keep it up for long.  Dimel and his staff are costing how much per game to pay?  Well, divide lets say 750k for Dimel and another 750k for his assistants, let's say 1.5 million a season divided by 6 home games.  Doing some cipherin' with double naughts and all, that is 250 thousand bucks a game in cost.  If the school pocketed that much from the few hundred fans yesterday, there should be an investigation for fraud started.  There is no way that UTEP can keep it up if we are as poor as we say we are.  The Kugler Coma will turn into the Dimel Demise.  UTEP can't possibly sustain the loss.  Simple fact.  You can't run a FBS program on 1500 fans.  Especially if you are dirt poor.  Wilson will have to decide something, and soon.

Final note.  The same players that built a 21 to 7 first half, you know, dominating the 49ers were the same players in the second half.  It wasn't the players that changed.  The coaches changed the game in the second half.

First half 4 possessions                                        Second half 5 possessions
22 runs for 114 yards=5 yards per carry               15 runs for 67 yards=4.4 yards per carry
10 passes for 146=14.6 yards per pass                  10 passes for 69 yards=6.9 yards per pass

per possession
28 yards rushing  38 yards passing                         11 yards rushing   14 yards passing

You figure it out.

[zyxwvutsru]

I went to the first game this year, and didnt see anything I liked.  I may not ever go back.  I will root for the team, but the AD will never get my money.