Why Is This Just Being Seen?

[kyyote]

 UTEP football will bring in two additional junior college quarterbacks to shore up the position after uncertainty surrounding incumbent Kai Locksley.
The Miners have added New Mexico Military Institute quarterback Gavin Hardison – who will have four years to play three seasons – and Cerritos (CA) quarterback Isaiah Bravo.
“They’ve been here competing during the summer, and both of those guys could challenge for playing time this year,” Dimel said.
Hardison finished No. 2 nationally with 5,347 passing yards at Hobbs High School in New Mexico. He completed 68.6 percent of his passes and threw 59 touchdowns to just nine interceptions as a senior. Hardison was one of just three players to throw for more than 5,000 yards in 2017.
In five games at NMMI, Hardison completed 56.7 percent of his passes for 408 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions. He also added 88 rushing yards and a touchdown on 4.9 yards per carry.
Bravo completed 52 percent of his passes for 2,125 yards, 20 touchdowns and 11 touchdowns during his sophomore season at Cerritos. Perhaps his best game came in the opener against East Los Angeles, when Bravo completed 63 percent of his passes for 322 yards and three touchdowns.
Locksley was arrested earlier in the summer on multiple charges, including marijuana and unlawful carrying of a weapon. He has been suspended from the team indefinitely, pending the legal process. Dimel said that he expects to get some clarity on the situation in the next few days.
With Locksley suspended, backup Brandon Jones is the presumed starter. He completed 49.4 percent of his passes for 673 yards, four touchdowns and five interceptions, along with two rushing scores.
After Locksley and Jones, there’s a fairly significant gap. El Paso Eastwood product Mark Torrez will likely compete with the JUCO transfers for backup snaps. Cy-Falls freshman TJ Goodwin and freshman Calvin Brownholtz add up to make it seven scholarship quarterbacks on the roster.
Back when Dimel started his Texas career as head coach at Houston, he ran into a situation where he was left with only one scholarship quarterback on the roster after an unexpected retirement. He’s adamant that he won’t let that happen again.
“Now, we’ll never be in a position where we don’t have enough quarterbacks during a rebuild,” Dimel said.
In addition to quarterbacks, Dimel said he was being active in the transfer market. He noted that UTEP is working to get four transfers on campus, including one from the Big Ten and one from the Pac-12.

My wife is from Hobbs so I was reading this to her and even she said about UTEP, "We haven't been able to pass for years." 

So, now I have to ask if last season's injuries kept up from being able to pass, really open up the field, and that this year will be different or if it is really just a repeat of the same play with different actors reading the lines.

[SisyphusMiner]

Is having 7 quarterbacks equivalent to admitting you have no quarterbacks?  I sure hope one of these guys can throw the ball to the intended receiver or it's gonna be another long year.  I for one am not really saddened by the absence of Locksley under center.  He just doesn't seem to have been able to adjust to d1.  Would be nice to redshirt the freshmen if we think one of these JC players can do it.

[kyyote]

Last year, I was checking into the quarterbacks a little and both Locksley and our now presumptive starter Brandon Jones and both were supposedly pretty good quarterbacks as far as passing went, according to the stats.  But, I didn't really see it, last year.  Both would have their moments and then just look like absolute Hell the next.  I have grabbed the line that it was the injuries.  I sure don't know if it is true.  I want to see evidence that the coach wants to pass the ball more than dink passes for three yard losses and saw nothing to indicate that last year.  But, by golly, if he starts racking up wins with dink passes I may just learn to love those three yard losses.  I amn't holding my breath.  I have to be careful discussing the team as it has a tendency to cause the orange on my glasses' lenses to fade.  I lived in Hobbs foe a few years.  Their basketball was legendary in the country under Ralph Tasker.  They also could play some football. They were usually in the running for the state title.  That has been a few years, I think, but they still compete.  If the guy lit it up PASSING I have a tendency to believe he can pass some. 

Now, I am going to ask you to play the what if game.  What if the injuries were the cause of the WAY the passing game was used last year?  Would the passing game have been different?  Were the receivers capable or does it make no difference who was throwing the ball?  You know, if there weren't the injuries?  Y'all need to help me out here.  I am trying to give myself a reason to be positive.  UTEPDefense, where you at?

[SisyphusMiner]

I don't know much about mechanics, but some guys were down on Locksley's mechanics.  I don't think injuries cause you to stare down receivers.  I think not knowing the routes does that.
I think having a solid line makes a mediocre QB look better but only goes so far.  I think a bad line makes a great QB look bad.
I think having good receivers makes a mediocre QB better but only goes so far.  I think bad receivers fail to get open causing QBs to get sacked, force a pass, or throw it away.  They also drop balls that hit them in the hands.
I think being too conservative and predictable can make a good QB look very bad.  I think being utterly unpredictable can make a mediocre QB look pretty good.
I think having a 10+ yard threat opens up the run game and short passes more.  I think going too heavy to run or pass or short or long causes problems.

I don't know which of these applies to any of our guys however.

[UTEPDefense]

I think that injuries had an honest impact on last season, for example we had to start a true freshman guard at Left Tackle, in his very first D1 game, against the best team in the conference.  It didn't really matter who the QB would have been that night, they were probably going to have a hard time succeeding.  I also think having a new JC QB needing a year to adjust to D1 was a real thing as well and I also don't know if people fully understand how big it was to lose both Long and Gatewood.  Take away the 2 best O-linemen from any football team in America and there is going to be a negative impact.

Nobody talks about this, but for me, I think that one of the biggest fundamental problems with our passing game is the fact that our O-line really struggles in passing down situations.  Whenever the other team pins their ears back and brings pressure, we have almost no hope in blocking them. This problem started under Kugler's run heavy offense and naturally continued through last year.  I don't know if this is the result of Kugler recruiting more of a run blocking type of O-linemen, or if has been due to technique, or a combination of the two, but this problem continued last year and I would be surprised if it is suddenly fixed this year.   This is the type of problem that might not be able to be fixed until all of the older O-linemen eventually get weeded out through graduation.

Overall, at this point I do like Dimel.  I think he has us in the right direction.  He is well organized, he has a long term plan for the program, and I do believe that he is slowly improving both our talent level and depth.  I also think that he is showing a good eye for evaluating talent, which is extremely important when trying to recruit at a school like UTEP, which is rarely going to have the upper hand in recruiting battles.  I also think he brought in a pretty good DC to UTEP.  The biggest negative is that I still think there are questions regarding his OC.  His OC has never had the type of consistent success that you would like to see.

As for being optimistic about this upcoming season, I have read that there are some people who are expecting 6 wins.  While I do think that we are going to be improved and I will certainly be rooting for 6 wins, I am not sure that I can sign off on that type of optimism.  For example, we are a month away from our first game and we don't even know who our starting QB will be.  How many times has UTEP entered a football season without a clear #1 starting QB and that season ended up going well? 

[kyyote]

You see!  That is why I asked!

[UTEPDefense]

I also forgot to mention that Dimel has only been here 1 season, yet he has already signed 6 QB’s.  He then also had a 7th QB(Delton) committed as an announced grad transfer, before he backed out.  Out of the 6 QB’s that Dimel has signed while at UTEP, 5 of them are still here(Hawkins left to Maryland).  I like that Dimel hasn’t been just sitting on his hands, he has at least been proactive in trying to improve the position.

[Chanson]

I like Dimel as well. He started the process the right way. The only thing that has not fallen in line is winning. I'll be pist if he keeps Locksley. The kid is at school to learn & holding him accountable by giving him his walking papers counts as an important learning experience.

[Minermojo]

IMO, I'm glad that Locksley won't be running the team. I've NEVER been impressed with his talent or lack of it. We can talk about all the other aspects of the passing game but I never thought Locksley had the mechanics of a good QB. I wish him luck in his legal problems but I'm glad that UTEP didn't keep him with those problems and even if he had been a great QB those charges are detrimental to the team and the school.

With all the QB wannabes just get the one that does a better job regardless of anything. One preferable that can throw to the receiver and not in the general direction.