5-1 Wow!!

[UTEPMiners8106]

We’ve won close games against poor competition. The one decent team we’ve played (Boise) blew us out.

I think we’re a much improved team, with some legitimate playmakers for once. We’re not “good”, but we’re also not terrible. It’s a giant leap for a team that’s looked absolutely miserable for years. I’ll take it….

The 2000 team won a conference title and got waxed by Oklahoma, A&M and TCU. 2004 got killed by ASU and in 2005 they lost big to Toledo. Boise may be 3-3 but they did beat no 10 BYU last week.

Is this team good enough to hang with the elite mid majors? No. But they have shown an ability to beat teams on their level.

 

[JCorona]

The 2000 team won a conference title and got waxed by Oklahoma, A&M and TCU. 2004 got killed by ASU and in 2005 they lost big to Toledo. Boise may be 3-3 but they did beat no 10 BYU last week.

Is this team good enough to hang with the elite mid majors? No. But they have shown an ability to beat teams on their level.

Their best wins in 2000 was over a pair of teams barely above. 500. 7-5 Fresno and 7-5 San Jose.

In the last 55 years we haven't finished with a winning record against teams that have winning records. These our 6 winning seasons in that span and our record against teams better than .500.

87 / 0-4
88 / 1-3
00 / 2-4 (humiliated vs 7-5 A&M)
04 / 2-3
05 / 2-2 - (6-5 UNM didn't make a bowl)
14 / 0-5

 

[UTEPMiners8106]

Their best wins in 2000 was over a pair of teams barely above. 500. 7-5 Fresno and 7-5 San Jose.

In the last 55 years we haven't finished with a winning record against teams that have winning records. These our 6 winning seasons in that span and our record against teams better than .500.

87 / 0-4
88 / 1-3
00 / 2-4 (humiliated vs 7-5 A&M)
04 / 2-3
05 / 2-2 - (6-5 UNM didn't make a bowl)
14 / 0-5

Interesting. So we just need to beat teams worse than us, forget about beating teams on our level. It sounds so easy in theory.

 

[JCorona]

Interesting. So we just need to beat teams worse than us, forget about beating teams on our level. It sounds so easy in theory.

I don't know where the fanbase gets the idea that we were some kind of football juggernaut. Or that people sold out the Sun Bowl cuz we were beating blue chip teams. They literally use to show up before anything was accomplished.

In 2000 we were blown out by a pair of big 12 teams, beat a pair of teams that would finish 3-9 and drew 50k for a winless team that would go on to finish 3-8.

From 89-99 we didn't have a single winning season and averaged 2.7 wins per year.

We've always been a consistent losing team. We've always had some of the lowest priced tickets in FBS. We've always had an awful marketing department.

The only thing that has changed is that now people aren't showing up.

 

[UTEPDefense]

Interesting topic and I agree with the conclusions above.

That being said, one thing that gets missed about the 2000 UTEP vs. Texas A&M game, is that UTEP was winning that game at half-time. In fact, Texas A&M did not even take the lead until 5:30 left in the 3rd quarter.

Regarding the TE, we did throw a TD to our TE in the BCU game this year, but he only has two completions on the year. Our TE is primarily used to block the C gap and is used mostly in pass-protection, which is an area where we have been very good this year.

 

[STexMiner]

Interesting topic and I agree with the conclusions above.

That being said, one thing that gets missed about the 2000 UTEP vs. Texas A&M game, is that UTEP was winning that game at half-time. In fact, Texas A&M did not even take the lead until 5:30 left in the 3rd quarter.

Regarding the TE, we did throw a TD to our TE in the BCU game this year, but he only has two completions on the year. Our TE is primarily used to block the C gap and is used mostly in pass-protection, which is an area where we have been very good this year.

That A&M game was frustrating. If I remember correctly, either at halftime or when we lost the lead, Nord pulled the starters and killed our chances of winning.

 

[NoNCAAWinsSince1992]

Here’s the difference between then and now. The 2000 team was coming off a relatively “good” season (UTEP standards) the year before. Won 7 in a row and won all their home games. That was their first winning season in 12 years.

Expectations were raised and Nord came up short for 3 more years.

Then UTEP hired a former National coach of the year and had been hired at Alabama. He wasn’t some old retread or no name assistant. So there was some excitement around the program. Throw in a little success and a move to a better conference (at the time) and fans were really interested in UTEP football. The teams were more competitive and the CUSA teams were perceived as a step up from the WAC.

Then, Price couldn’t keep it going and wore out his welcome. Stull then hired an OL coach with no college head experience and CUSA starts pulling Sun Belt teams that nobody cares about and they’re from the East. Aside from the 2014 season, we start losing to those teams. Which is a far cry from losing to Arizona, BYU, Utah, TCU, Houston, and Boise.

Kugler is of course kept too long and what does Senter do, he hires a retread that nobody else wanted. Go and find the thread of his hiring and it’s 99% negative.

Now, we’re back to the laughing stock of college football and CUSA has become the worst, most far flung, bloated conference ever and we’re still unable to win games in it.

Of course fans aren’t going to blindly attend anymore. Not everyone attending is a moron who doesn’t know what’s going on around them. There are only so many FiliUTEPs in this world.

In the 6 year span from 2000-2005, the Miners had 3 8 win seasons and they only played 11 regular season games then. In the last 16 years, they’ve had 0 8 win seasons and only 1 winning season, despite playing 12 games a year.

1 potentially “good” year, doesn’t make up for 15 years of shitty football.

 

[JCorona]

Finished 1999 2 games under. 500 while averaging 2.7 wins per year the prior decade.

2000 crowd of 50k after being blown out by two teams and beating 2 shitty teams.

Finished 2020 2 games under .500 while averaging 2.8 wins per year the prior decade.

2021 crowd of 10k after being blown out by one team and beating 3 shitty teams.

 

[UTEPDefense]

The first ever sell-out of the Sun Bowl(for a UTEP game) happened in 1999, so there was already some foundation in regards to the fan base, that could be built upon entering the 2000 season.

Conversely, we only had 2 home games against FCU teams in 2020 and then went almost an entire year without a home game. So there was almost no foundation to carry over from last year(on top of the year's of bad football).

 

[JCorona]

I don't understand how in 99 Bailey still hadn't done much as far as wins and losses. He had a 12-48 record as HC of UTEP before the start of the season. We were still reeling from the Lee era. People had no problem attending a home opener against UNM and packing over 40k.

Fast forward to 2021 and we're getting 15k for UNM.

 

[NoNCAAWinsSince1992]

The first ever sell-out of the Sun Bowl(for a UTEP game) happened in 1999, so there was already some foundation in regards to the fan base, that could be built upon entering the 2000 season.

Conversely, we only had 2 home games against FCU teams in 2020 and then went almost an entire year without a home game. So there was almost no foundation to carry over from last year(on top of the year's of bad football).

Context is key though. NMSU was 3-0 and had just beat a Top 25 team by 28 points the weekend before.

 

[JCorona]

Context is key though. NMSU was 3-0 and had just beat a Top 25 team by 28 points the weekend before.

Nice I didn't know that. I became a fan the next year. I remember hearing my school teacher talk about that game and it peaked my interest. The first game my dad took me to was in 2000 against NMSU. I had no idea how awful we were. I've been hooked ever since chasing that first high.

 

[NoNCAAWinsSince1992]

Nice I didn't know that. I became a fan the next year. I remember hearing my school teacher talk about that game and it peaked my interest. The first game my dad took me to was in 2000 against NMSU. I had no idea how awful we were. I've been hooked ever since chasing that first high.

I recall being at that game (1999), but I do not remember what the crowd split was. There were several confident Aggie fans though. Probably one of their most humbling losses ever.

 

[utep2step]