I'm not sure how any of this works anymore. I thought the transfer portal and transfers without having to sit a year were because of covid. Is that now just the way it goes or is there a time when recruits will have to go back to sitting a year if they transfer? If this is the new way things work, do you even recruit high schoolers or just bring in transfers who have shown they can play? I personally believe that we could be at the beginning of the end of the structure we use. I am a fan of UTEP because of loyalty to my school. I am/was loyal to my school's players because they are/were loyal to my school, too. That is almost gone. Here is a news flash for Golding. The no name jerseys because you play for UTEP was fine in the past, because fans could get to know the names that went with the numbers. But when the names and numbers change from year to year, there is no continuity. And it isn't just me. 8,000 were in the house for an average game for years, with packed 12k fans were common. I see the number of fans at every game and we used to get that many for a women's game.
What is next? Well, if we are going to be a lower level farm team, you stop giving a rat's ass about winning or losing because it is really just a meaningless exercise to exhibit the players for the scouts. Then you can decide if you want to make any money doing it or just say fuck it. Ten cent hot dog nights or just let the transfers try to impress scouts and give up on fans entirely. Let the big guys have all of the fans.
Some of this the powers have no control over, but some of it they do and have had and done nothing to stop the fall. By now, we are in a free fall. I have trouble keeping track of how many times UTEP has been ditched because of a fucking blatant lack of fucks given to do anything about it. The people in charge of UTEP do not care one fucking iota about athletics. It is kind of like they have to have teams but they are just to check boxes. Again, I have bought the ability to watch the games and the Miners could easily just move back into Memorial Gym. There was a time, when we talked about making the Don bigger. If I remember right, it is designed to be able to expand. The question is can it be shrunk to fit the "crowds". The attendance for the last game is shown at 3500. There must have been about a thousand no shows included in that. Maybe more. #500 would be more than a fourth full and it was nowhere close to that.
So, we are a developmental team, now. If we have become just that, a one or two season stop, then it is reasonable to judge the team each year as our team for that year. No more looking at development of players, since if they do they are gone. Nope, if they aren't good enough to move up get rid of them because they didn't develop quickly enough. Loyalty? What does loyalty have to do with anything anymore.
Let's get down to it. We had a team full of players from before Golding last yar, and we have a new team of Golding picking from the entire country. Simple question. Are we a better team at this time than we were at this time last year? If we aren't, does that mean that we are worse off than we were with Terry? Golding was hired off of one game-the UT game in the NCAA tournament. Defense. Has he had his team playing shut down defense or good defense, or maybe even same defense as everyone else? How about offense? Has the offense shown anything special? Which team would win, this Golding team or the Terry team of two years ago. How about last year's team? Are we getting better, the same, or worse?
Why on Earth did we not bring Billie Clyde back? He is at Tarlton State in Killeen, Texas. I think we could have got him. Who do you think is a better coach, Gillespie or Golding?
ps sorry, but losing to aggies by 25 points is way too fucking much for me to take without saying something. Wilson? Wilson? Like a fucking ball with a face painted on it. She has grabbed the bull by the horns and evidently was thrown out of the arena. Leadership. She is letting Senter show his chops. Let's see. How has Senter done. Is UTEP better off or worse off since he took charge? Are we moving up, down, or staying the same which is moving down? We aren't moving up. Unless you count Dimel going from no wins to winning a few. You know. Ninety percent of the teams in the country would never accept the football we have endured for years. We got a deal. We are trusting the process. Although, the process seems to have changed to a see what you can get from the portal.
