Mike Price – Kyyote's Den

The Sky Is Orange When the Sun Is Rising!

UTEP Football has been in the darkness for awhile, but from my home on the west side of the Franklins, I can see rays of orange light beginning to peak over the mountains. UTEP has a new Head Coach, Dana Dimel and it appears that his offensive coordinator will be Mike Canales. I am going to take a purposefully positive look at the team and the prospects for next season.

Kugler used to say that we were just a few missed passes away from success, usually dropped. He always claimed to be balanced, and the stats usually bore that out. We almost always won the time of possession. So, from what I have read, he truly is the perfect fit. This is his kind of football. Like Kugler, he believes in grinding it out on the ground and winning the time of possession battle. It seems that we can expect to see an offense that is a running team, much of that coming from the quarterback position by design. But I would expect to see the defense stretched downfield, and with that I believe we can expect the wide receiver spot to be recruited looking for speed. The offense will be much more creative in how they run. Kugler was a brute force kind of guy. Like Dr. D said though, we have to do more with less. So, the running game will be from different angles than from what we had seen. By the way, I expect that we will perhaps see a JC quarterback come in to run the offense. The Big 12 circles he has been running in should give him a leg up on the competition, perhaps. I once visited with a very good UTEP tight end that had graduated and was working in the weight room. He told me that he had been in the weight room while someone like Arizona State had come in and had seen all of their numbers of measurable power, speed, weight, and all of that and was shocked to see that UTEP’s player’s numbers were better. I know that Kugler can coach offensive linemen, so I am going to believe that if the play calling had done anything to keep the defense from stacking the box against the run, the offensive line would have shone itself much better. So, on the whole I believe that the new regime will bring in enough creativity to get back to putting up 35 points a game and holding onto the ball for about that much in minutes or more.

The key will be the defense, as it always has been. We have never been able to stop anyone from putting up points! Mike Price was able to outscore them for awhile. Kugler basically figured if the other team never touched the ball you could limit the damage the defense could do. He was wrong. The new coaches feel pretty much the same way, and in theory it is true. The trick is keeping the other team from being able to score at will whenever they touch the ball, and two, not stalling on long, time-consuming drives without scoring any points. I believe the new staff will make serious progress on the scoring part. We will have to see as for the defensive side. I will say that the play I saw from the defense at the end was spirited and fought like Hell in spite of the offense’s lack of help. So perhaps the changes on the offensive side of the ball will give the defensive side the help they need. That and a few defensive linemen that can pressure the opposing quarterback. Actually, if the offense can hold up their end of the bargain, I think the defense could have a chance. This is probably what interests me most. Will Dimel be able to simply do some tuning up of what we already have and were trying to do.

The team will play their first game on September first against Northern Arizona, and NA will be much more of a test than you might think. They can rack up the yards offensively. So, we should be able to see what the Miners offense is doing in a game that doesn’t just crush them and keep them from even seeing how it works. If that is the case, it should also telling us quite a bit more about the defense. If the offense is rumbling along, can the defense do theirs?

So, I have put my orange lenses back on and will be back to hoping and praying that we can win. I am already hoping that a few changes, not giant ones, will be all that is needed to right the ship. After all, wouldn’t it be lovely if Coach Dimel could actually turn our great kids, hard-working and highly achieving students in the classroom, into winners on the field in their own home town. We could all be so very proud of that, and the people of El Paso care more about their kids maybe than anyone. There is a reason why this city is such a great place to raise children. So, here is a real welcome to Coach Dimel and a heartfelt best of luck and you have my support. Please make us proud on the field.

Welcome Dana Dimel The New UTEP Miners Head Football Coach

Welcome to UTEP! Welcome to El Paso. I can’t wait to hear about yours and Senter’s first trip to Juarez to involve the “community”. Please take pictures. You will find that the Mexican food is irresistible and the women of El Paso perhaps even more so, some say . If you stick to the food you will only get fat. I am going to be honest. I was hoping for some kind of blast out of the park homerun and feel like we got a walk. Of course having gotten used to being no-hit a walk is on base, at least. I am sorry for the welcome. I’m just really tired of having horrible football at UTEP and honestly, it doesn’t seem like the administration is even trying. You, are the bullseye when it comes to having someone to aim our frustration at. I know it isn’t fair. It is just honest. But, I am trying to be positive. Oh, wait a minute! Why the Hell are you still screwing around preparing for a bowl game when recruiting needs to be done? Are you thinking that everything is just fine down here and you are just insane, or do you just not give a shit about getting started? You wouldn’t want to miss the time with you son for a chance to get started on the enormous task ahead. No hurry? A great start, and this fan wants you to know how much I appreciate your dedication and sacrifice. I’m thinking you are the first since Sean to earn the Kugin’ it description and somehow it seems fitting that you would be the first just hours after being hired! After reading the fan’s opinion of your play calling, I have a feeling you will be Kugin’ it often. But, we are going to win the time of possession!

I am going to pray for you to find a way for our highly intelligent, kids to win football games at the same high level they are performing in the classroom. Right now the A’s and B’s in the classroom equal F’s and more F’s on the football field. If you could win the first few games…aw Hell, what’s the use. Thanks for dropping by. Good luck. I hope you prove all of the naysayers wrong. That’s a lie. I have given up hope. We are the Miners!

Go Miners!

A Long Sigh….”I See”, Said the Blind Man and If IT Offends…

I love UTEP. It is my school. I enrolled in 1982 and graduated in 1986. I have been a fan since the day I started classes and I will love her until the day I die and so of course I will be a fan until then, too. As a UTEP football fan you learn to be prepared for bad in ways that other people can only have nightmares about. But, like the one-armed bandits at the casino off of the highway there are just enough payouts to keep you coming back, right after you leave the pawn shop. The basketball has been a little better, but not a lot. Like the tadpole shrimp that appear from seemingly out of nowhere at Album Park after the monsoon season creates the big ponds over the soccer and football fields below, UTEP fans are just waiting for an opportunity to support our teams more than in silent desperation. Public humiliations aren’t what they’re cracked up to be and perhaps over the decades they have taken their toll on this Miner. The orange coating on the lenses of my orange colored glasses has worn thin, I am afraid.

The Athletic Director just up and retired, after the Head Coach of the Football team, a former player of the AD’s, just up and quit in the middle of the season, one that would end up being a winless season, followed by the sudden retirement of the Favorite Son basketball Head Coach! Now, almost any fan in the world would be asking just what in the Hell is going on? But, for most UTEP fans that have been around awhile we just say, “We are the Miners”. Not with pride, not dripping with sarcasm, just a recognition of reality. It’s how we roll.

But, a thought began to creep into my brain that perhaps there was a connection that might explain such an odd occurrence of events. I am wondering and think it is entirely possible that the administration may have given the AD and coaches orders to raise the academic standards above what the NCAA requires. Hey, when you are a fan of a team that went 0-12 your time isn’t occupied talking about all of the great things and talking about how bad the team is, gets to be pretty much a drag after a while. The fan that has run a website dedicated to his team for years isn’t supposed to be writing negatively about things. If the administration has made demands that have impacted the ability to recruit players to play, win, and get and education in trade for requiring coaches to recruit students to play and get good grades and an education, that’s a good thing, right? You see, that’s the rub. Have we been watching really inexplicably bad football because the coaches had to recruit really good students? And is that bad. Should we even complain about that? So, while the Athletic department seems to be exploding, I have this to wrestle with. The administration seems to be not as committed to winning as the other teams we compete against in order to have better academic performance.

So, today, our brand spankin’ new Athletic Director and the University President have given us our new Head Football Coach. Now, maybe it is the many years of losing in particularly humiliating ways, and the whole fool me a fricken’ thousand times…! thing, but I was still on the old thinking about winning track. I am an old dog and damned slow at that. With cataracts. I was think that this wasn’t a splashy name. I wasn’t a name that inspired. It was a twice re-treaded old obscure guy. To say I was disappointed would be quite an understatement. Then, I tried to place the hire from the perspective of the conspiracy theory that makes winning games a nice thing but getting good grades is the goal. Did they have a hard time getting a coach to come here? Twice head coach with what some would say steps backward along the way and a record the last time that was dismal at best in the late stages of his career is the best candidate for the job? Well, shit fire and piss champagne! I have reached a point in my long career as a Miners fan that I don’t even half give a shit who it is anymore and what is worse is I don’t even know if I am supposed to expect or even hope for winning or what, smile proudly when we are losing 70-0 knowing that our guys get better grades.

Sometimes, I just figure the Hell with it, but the thing is, you can’t quit your school. It is your school. Give up? Give up what? Hope? Like hoping your horse that you put money on in the race will win but finding out that the jockey isn’t really into getting horses all sweaty. In the end, I am a Miner. This isn’t my first rodeo. Hell, you’d think I would be used to it after so many years of it. I don’t know, are we supposed to smile and act like we are very hopeful, or not be stupid and silly and all. Don’t expect to win, but be proud of the work we are doing here at UTEP. Family!

Final note, everyone knows that the offensive linemen are usually the smartest guys on the team. Kugler was an offensive lineman and an offensive line coach. Do you have to ask how our line that could never get a yard when the team needed it does in the classroom? Hint, this might be a hint to explain 0-11 from a power running team with now power to run. Now, here is the last fact I will leave you with and it is from the UTEP Football website; “Dimel was a two-year letterman as an offensive lineman at Kansas State.”

Smile, be nice. It isn’t his fault. Maybe he will help. Help raise the grades or the win totals? Both? Yeah, sure! There’s the ticket! We are the Stanford of the Borderland! Only without the prestige of Stanford or the wins. But, we are trying really hard. And trying to do it with less. We are the Miners.

Follow Up To Higher Standards Question

Well, I decided that my questioning the standards set academically behind closed doors possibly wasn’t completely insane. So, I went to the UTEP Basketball website, looked at the biographies of the players on the roster. Maybe I am crazy, but I think we happen to have a pretty damned smart basketball team.

The team lists 13 players. Of the 13 players, three of them already hold degrees. Matt Wilms and Keith Frazier are grad students and Jake Flaggert earned a degree in marketing and is working on a second degree in General Management.

Juniors Paul Thomas and Isaiah Rhyanis are shown as Honor Roll student as a prep and National Honor Society student, respectively. Fellow Junior Trey Touchet ,”…maintained a 4.0 prep grade point average” and is working on his degree in Kinesiology.

Sophomore Isiah Osborne transferred from Windsor University, and the biography tells us “…honor roll student”. Then there is the Freshman Deshaun Highler is an “…Honor Roll student and recipient of Scholar Athlete Award”.

How we doing, so far. Eight of the 13 are above average I would say. Perhaps way above average is not a stretch. Omega Harris did have to sit out one session, if I remember correctly. Freshman Trey Wade sat out last season to concentrate on grades. That leaves three other freshmen, Evan Gilyard, Tirus Smith, and Kobe Magee that no comment was made about academics.

Now, those are the facts as best I can see. You can look at them the same as I can look at them. Ask the questions! When Wilms, Flaggert, Touchet, Thomas, and Frazier are on the floor there are three college graduates and two honor roll students on the floor! I swear to God, if we were Harvard or Stanford or something that would be Hellaciously impressive. We are UTEP! Geezus corn sake! Why make it a secret? Man! Someone at UTEP media relations has sat and watched the Titanic sink without saying a word! This should be national news, not that Tim quit. Shit! If people knew that he was winning the games he has won with the fricken’ Einsteins he should get academic athletics coach of the year something or another! Instead he was berated and driven from the job he loved! I may be as wrong as wrong can be, and if I am, I will happily admit it but from where I sit there is a story here that should be told. Next stop, a look at the football roster. Anyone want to bet on what I will find?