This a blog post I put up a month ago when the site was just coming back up, but I wanted to post it here where it can be discussed.
It has been awhile since I did much writing on my blog, but recent problems with the website has forced me to add content and what the heck, someone has to talk about UTEP Miners football. There are many sub topics to Miners football worthy of discussion and the beaten down Miners don’t deserve to be kicked while they are down, especially by those who want so very much for the team and school to be successful. We have the Den message board for debates so I am not going to take sides. I just want to pose a serious question that is kind of out there.
The Miners’ upcoming schedule seems to have been made by someone with a grudge against UTEP. Add to that the fact that the Miners have just seen their perhaps best back in history get drafted by the NFL and leave some very large cleats to fill. A very reasonable preseason prediction of wins and losses looks at a three win season and 9 losses. Viewing the schedule through my darkest orange colored glasses 6 wins would be amazing. That’s how we roll, here in the city of the Pass to the North. That is what seasons seem to always look like. The names change but the results stay the same. The annual competition between the Miners and the Aggies is pretty much what it devolves into for the ultimate bragging right to say “We aren’t as bad as you!” We don’t dare say that to anyone else. Coach Kugler, a man of unquestionable character, has done basically like all of the rest have done. Like water seeking its own level, the program seems to do the same thing and that level is about 2.5 wins per season over time. Maybe 3.5 in recent years. This is probably his last year unless he is up towards the high end of the projection of wins.
Now, here is my crazy question. Kugler has cleaned house and has the players performing well in the classroom. No one can say that a college football Head Coach in Div 1 that has his student athletes making good grades and progressing towards their degrees is a bad thing. And if the team seems to not be able to rise above the level of wins and losses, at least having good students is some kind of improvement, right? If the attendance is down to 25 thousand fans willing to come out and watch the improved student athletes do what the team has done for what seems to be forever, the athletes are getting good grades, and add to that a university president that is really about educating the students in this area more than anything else, more than any other university president in the country maybe, where new buildings are popping up like mushrooms after a spring rain and enrollment is at an all-time high so money is good, is it possible that the University of Texas at El Paso could be moving toward dropping down to Div 1AA? Ask yourself what would happen if UTEP did that in all sports but Men’s Basketball? Think about the money part. Plus or minus on the balance sheet. Good golly, the team could keep two games a year against the Aggies. There it is. My blog is kind of where I can get away with posing questions like this to get the juices flowing out there. Crazy? Maybe.
