Tomorrow Is Another Day

[kyyote]

Alright.  I'm going to do a little preachin' so be forewarned.  We are all feeling like we spent the weekend at Gitmo being beat with rubber hoses to wake us up for more waterboarding.  Maybe worse.  It is more of a broken heart.  Everyone ignored(except Orange-oinck) the truth that odds-makers were straight up about.  UTEP wasn't going to win.  But even they had had some orange Kool-Aid.  The truth is neither team knew what they had until they started to play.  We fans knew what we wanted to know, based on a year ago and hope.

Here is some truth, too.  We have absolutely no idea of how good the UNT run defense is/was whatever.  Btw, look up the stats from last year and you will find that UNT's offense and defense both were highly ranked.   We lost to a good team, last night.  Don't be surprised at what they do this season.

Last year rush defense   last night we rushed for 108, I think.
66   North Texas   13   493   1981   4.02   18   152.4

Their 22 total offense;
41   North Texas   13   1033   5597   5.42   44   430.5    So, we held them 31 yards under their average.  We were right about at our average against them.

So, their offense did what they do.  We felt crushed by it but they are damned good at it.  To the Miners defense.  Hold your heads up.  UNT is going to do that just about every week they play.  It wasn't just us.

Now the offense.  We were 87th ranked rushing offense at 140 ypg last year.  Against a tough UNT defense we did about what we might expect.  The passing stats are worthless.  Hardison had touchdowns just flat dropped.  He would have been leading the nation if things had gone just a little differently.  Having said that, we were worried that without Cowing we would be completely disarmed and that wasn't the case at all.  For all who were concerned about accuracy, judgement, and int's Hardison had to have shown you improvement.

Special teams were night and day better. 

Now, I will say it.  The penalties and stupid stuff was almost nil.

It is a bitch that we have to go play OU next.  But, if you want to be a big dog, you have to run with the big dogs, too. 
We will have two games, the Aggies and the Lobos to show what we really are and to get our footing.  Before Boise. 

So, let's not let one game destroy any momentum we had going into the season.  There were many positives to take from the game.

[orange-oink]

In my mind,  any positives you listed are far outweighed by Dimel?s trash offense.  He is clueless.  I don?t care how many rushing or passing yards you rack or what your time of possession is, if you don?t score those stats are meaningless.  To score only 13 points against a comparable conference foe at home is unacceptable and it?s a testament to Dimel?s utter ineptness as the offensive coach.  Once Dimel failed to make an adjustment after the UNT defense began playing 8 men against UTEPs pass coverage, the game was over.  Based on last nights performance, I am downgrading this season?s win total to four.  I don?t think UNTs players are 31-13 better than UTEPs,  but their coaches are. 

[kyyote]

Interesting take.  Worthy of consideration, for sure.

[SisyphusMiner]

To score only 13 points against a comparable conference foe at home is unacceptable and it?s a testament to Dimel?s utter ineptness as the offensive coach.  Once Dimel failed to make an adjustment after the UNT defense began playing 8 men against UTEPs pass coverage, the game was over. 

We should have scored 30 in the first half.  Of the 17 points we left on the table, one was a botched FG, and one was a dropped TD pass to a wide open receiver.   Neither of these were Hardison's or Dimel's fault.

However, our inability to score from the 5 yard line is on Dimel.  And getting completely shut out in the 2nd half is on Dimel.  Our crappy run blocking is on him.
That Hankins runs right into the biggest pile of guys he can find and immediately falls down is half and half.  His ineptness and Dimel's inability to change anything.

I'm not sure I agree with Kyyote that special teams was night and day better.  We didn't see a single returned kick.  Every one was fair catch because the defenders beat the ball downfield.  I'm pretty sure you're supposed to try to slow them down.  Special teams missed a gimme field goal, but didn't turn it over or get penalties.  I would say marginal improvement, but mainly "incomplete".  Not enough data.

So what we have is the same inability to run against good teams, the same inability to stop the run of good teams, an improved QB with no one to throw to, and a coaching staff that gets outcoached regularly.  7 wins is Dimel's ceiling here ever IMO.  We may win 6 or we may win 3-4.  That's still better than Kug but not good.

[kyyote]

Fair points.  Night and day meaning it wasn't a nightmare anymore.  I didn't say it was good.  lol  You can't blame that horrible kick on the coaching, though.  idt. 

The game ball probably should have gone to whomever was babysitting a certain irresistible force.  When you look at the stats the tackles were being made by defensive backs.  The defensive line hardly was even shown at the top of the list of tackers and no sacks.  You know we can be better than that and I figure we will. 

As bad as we will have maybe looked after the first two games, I think we may look like monsters in the two games after that. 

[kyyote]

Just a few more numbers;
Of 18 teams,
Fewest Penalty Yards
#5 UTEP
Passing Offense
#5
Passing Y/A
#11 UTEP
Pass Y/C
#8 UTEP

Of 30 QB's

Comp%
#16 Hardison
#12 Aune
Comp/G
T5 Hardison
10 Aune
Pass Yards
#5 Hardison
#9 Aune

[orange-oink]

?As bad as we will have maybe looked after the first two games, I think we may look like monsters in the two games after that. ?

Really believe that after this past weekend kyy?  UTEP will defeat the aggies at home but I expect them to lose against UNM in ABQ and start the season 1-4 after they lose to Boise St.  Have you forgotten how much the Miners offense struggled against UNM at home last year?  Barely beat the lobos in a low scoring affair.  Rocky Longs defenses ALWAYS give the Miners fits.   No easy wins this year as long as Dimel is calling plays. 

[Minermojo]

"That Hankins runs right into the biggest pile of guys he can find and immediately falls down is half and half.  His ineptness and Dimel's inability to change anything."

It seems that Hankins hasn't learned a darn thing from last year. He has the knack of trying to bulldoze his route for yardage. Instead of looking for any way out he has the kuglar mentality of trying to run through a brick wall. I wish that I could talk to these guys it seems a little common sense will go a lonnnng way. Dimel doesn't have it...like Kuglar.

[kyyote]

?As bad as we will have maybe looked after the first two games, I think we may look like monsters in the two games after that. ?

Really believe that after this past weekend kyy?  UTEP will defeat the aggies at home but I expect them to lose against UNM in ABQ and start the season 1-4 after they lose to Boise St.  Have you forgotten how much the Miners offense struggled against UNM at home last year?  Barely beat the lobos in a low scoring affair.  Rocky Longs defenses ALWAYS give the Miners fits.   No easy wins this year as long as Dimel is calling plays.

I do think that the two defenses will butt heads like rams against runs, but I think the difference this year is that we have a very great year of learning and experience under Hardison's belt and I actually think he has more options this year.  Remember that last season Dimel was still trying to run through brick walls at first before Hardison's passing forced the change.  Hardison threw for 293 yards.  This season, Rocky Long will not be butting heads.  He'll be trying to tackle wide open receivers.  Think about the points UTEP dropped in the first half of the UNT game and think how deep that same points total would have done to a UNM team.  Last think.  Praise will have a much different game and UNM will suffer for it.  Imvhooc.

The Miners are running a run pass option with a quarterback that UTEP doesn't want to risk being hurt.  So, they are only half sold on it and defenses can smell it.  It is just as bad as when the Miners line up in the wildcat and everyone knows that it isn;t going to involve the pass option.  I understand not running Tom Brady in a rpo offense because he is too valuable and old.  We are treating Hardison as too valuable to loose and it is his run that is always open.  This has a tremendous negative affect on our ability to punch it in in the red zone.  Aimvhooc.

[Chanson]

Great notes. I'm still pist. They pushed this game so hard & was close for a bit, then they couldn't do a damn thing. I hope Senter puts a 2nd hole in Dimel's ass. That was not good. Well, we are now 0-2.

[orange-oink]

If the offense doesn?t improve by mid-season, Senter should force dimel to surrender complete control of the offense.  If he refuses then fire him and install Warner as the coach. 

[SisyphusMiner]

What it looked like to me was that Hardison was audibiling (whatever the word is) during the first half.  But the whole 2nd half he was looking to the sideline and getting the call from the sideline.  Like he lost his confidence once they were behind.

I might be wrong on this, just what it looked like to me.  But if correct, Dimel should surrender play calling to someone.  I've always thought him keeping play calling was incredibly insulting to the OC

[Minermojo]

As of today I'm reverting to calling him Mr. Dismal. He is a terrible coach and can't make adjustments to save his S. In the second half he resorted to pure passes. Hey Dismal, if you have a four men front and everyone is out there with the receivers at least run a little. By the way, the only reason Hankins was good was because he was facing El Paso high school defenses. He is really bad and has no common sense. You can't expect to run directly into a wall and think that you'll get any yardage. The offense was a joke with the play calling and the runners and offensive line.

I'll give a little credit to the QB, I think he has shown improvement. The lousy offense wasn't his fault, he tried everything even doing what the running backs couldn't.

I predict 4 wins this year. I thought we were going to be better but they've regressed. It's time to get rid of the head coach. Heck, for what he gets paid and what he produces anyone can do his job, no really. Impeach (how many coaches before him?).

[zyxwvutsru]

I nominate Mojo as interim coach. 

[Minermojo]

Schiff, for 750k I'll just do what Dismal does...nothing. Better yet, I'll let the OC do his job because unlike Dismal I have common sense that tells me that I would probably be as bad as him, (Dismal).