As ridiculous as this sounds, there are 80 bowl spots but only 76 eligible teams. Four 5-7 teams will go bowling as per this site: http://www.sbnation.com/college-foo...ctions-2015-ncaa-football-playoff-predictions. Rice is mentioned as one of four 5-7 teams that might go bowling.....
Bowl Game???!
- Thread starter SuperMiner69
- Start date
5-7 teams will be selected based upon their APRs. Rice has a high APR. UTEP will not be selected.
The 4 5-7 teams with the highest APRs are Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois and San Jose but no one is sure how the final teams will be selected.
We're not going bowling because our APR score isn't good enough. 5-7 teams are eligible by APR order. The way I think it works is the top 5 5-7 are bowl eligible and the 4 bowls choose out of those 5 teams.
Which is odd because I thought the Times reported a couple of months ago that we had a perfect APR score. Maybe that factors into next year. Or the more than likely the Times misreported it, and it should have been that we received our best APR score of the Kugler era.
Which is odd because I thought the Times reported a couple of months ago that we had a perfect APR score. Maybe that factors into next year. Or the more than likely the Times misreported it, and it should have been that we received our best APR score of the Kugler era.
My opinion too many bowls. Though it'd be nice to see Utep get rewarded for what they overcame, 5-7 bowl teams is just not attractive.
They did.
"The Miners just learned that for the first time ever they scored a perfect 1,000 on their academic progress report, an amazing turnaround for a program that was docked scholarships and was on probation at the beginning of the decade after an APR score of 911."
http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/sp...tay-positive-earn-perfect-score-apr/73868992/
UTEP shouldn't accept a bowl bid if offered, this team is too banged up. Time for the young men to heal up for next season.
GO MINERS!!!!
GO MINERS!!!!
I agree, even though we overcame so much, we're just too beat up. We're a boxer asked to go back into the ring with a broken nose, fractured hand and a bum knee...just not fair. Let's heal up and use it for motivation for next year.
I agree. We also have some players who have been waiting for the end of the season to have their surgeries. I would rather they get those surgeries now and begin the recovery process now, instead of them toughening it out for another month because of a bowl game and them losing that extra month of rehab/recovery. Kugler has also said that he is going to wait until after Spring Break to hold Spring Ball this year, just so he can give the guys extra time to recover.
By the way, some people have been criticizing Kugler for his physical practices. But I don't recall UTEP losing many players to major injury during practices this season? There hasn't been any type of Jeremy Jones injury, when UTEP lost it's best LB for the season due to him breaking his leg in practice. By the eay, that Jeremy Jones injury happened under what some claim were "softer" practices by Mike Price. Since practices are closed, very few people have personally even seen what Kugler practices actually look like anyway. Shouldn't one actually observe that first, before criticing what he is doing in practice? Regardless, Kugler said that he will look into this possibility, so it will be interesting to see what results might happen(either positive or negative), if he does make any changes? I think the arguement can be made that Kugler football works best in November when most teams are banged up, I just hope that we don't lose that edge.
Finally, Kugler winning a Road game in the final game of his 3rd season, with only a Freshman at QB, against a team who had one D1 win, is a whole lot better than the ending to Mike Price's 3rd season, when Price had a Senior at QB, played his final game at Home, but still lost by 19 against a team that had NO D1 wins!
Physical football has a tendancy to work a lot better in November than finesse football.
By the way, some people have been criticizing Kugler for his physical practices. But I don't recall UTEP losing many players to major injury during practices this season? There hasn't been any type of Jeremy Jones injury, when UTEP lost it's best LB for the season due to him breaking his leg in practice. By the eay, that Jeremy Jones injury happened under what some claim were "softer" practices by Mike Price. Since practices are closed, very few people have personally even seen what Kugler practices actually look like anyway. Shouldn't one actually observe that first, before criticing what he is doing in practice? Regardless, Kugler said that he will look into this possibility, so it will be interesting to see what results might happen(either positive or negative), if he does make any changes? I think the arguement can be made that Kugler football works best in November when most teams are banged up, I just hope that we don't lose that edge.
Finally, Kugler winning a Road game in the final game of his 3rd season, with only a Freshman at QB, against a team who had one D1 win, is a whole lot better than the ending to Mike Price's 3rd season, when Price had a Senior at QB, played his final game at Home, but still lost by 19 against a team that had NO D1 wins!
Physical football has a tendancy to work a lot better in November than finesse football.
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It's not so much that injuries happen during practice but that players might be more susceptible to injuries during games because of the constant wear and tear from tough physical practices. Kuglar admitted as much. I can tell you that Tom Herman at Houston is reevaluating the same thing due to a string of late season injuries that happened in games. Its a fine line that coaches have to figure out by trial and error.
Donald Buckram was also injured in practice. He dislocated his knee cap and patially tore his patellar tendon in practice. He was the best running back ive ever seen in a UTEP. He was going to play on Sundays. He lost millions of dollars on the practice field.
As for Kugler, I saw a few practices in Ruidoso and they were extremely physical. Even when they were in shells they were hitting. Recievers took big shots from linebackers when they were in shells. Kuglers camp was way more physical than any nfl camp after the latest cba. They beat the hell out of each other everyday, and Kugler has acknowledged camp was too physical. I give Kugler credit for admitting his mistakes and addressing them. Many coaches dont do that.
It's really a shame that UTEP was a field goal away from going to either going back to the NM Bowl or the Arizona bowl....both would have been heavily attended by UTEP fans....Kugler is on the right track.
Yes, I understand that. However, apparently we practiced this exact same way last year and we were one of the healthiest teams in the nation at the end of last year. Sometimes you just have a bad year with injuries and you can't control it, these tough years just happen sometimes. Didn't Ohio State have 3 different starting QB's last season, because they lost 2 to injury. I saw the play that ended Derron Gatewood's season and the play that ended Hayden Plinke's season. Those injuries were not due to practicing too hard, those were freak injuries and how we practiced had nothing to do with their freak injuries. Some years will just be tougher than other years and we just have to accept that rather than trying to find someone(Kugler) to blame.
Everybody has injuries to some extent, the difference between good programs and bad programs is depth. Mid-Majors usually have less depth. UTEP has basically never had good overall depth in football and any good seasons in UTEP history were also tied to good teams who were fortunate enough to stay healthy and not lose a lot of key players to injuries. Kugler has been working to fix this by building balanced depth at all positions(just look at how he basically has an entire defense redshirted this season). Of course making some adjustments is usually a positive thing after every season, but I am for his teams keeping their physical practicing profile because you will usually play how you practice.
Finally, I had lunch with Greg Foster at Carino's a few times, back when he lived in El Paso. Naturally, I used to always ask him a lot of questions about Haskins and practices under Haskins. Greg said that the practices were pure hell and he told me that bascially every UTEP player had the same thoughts about Haskins; the players absolutely hated Haskins when they played for him, yet they loved him and appreciated him to death after they graduated and no longer played for him. After hearing so many stories about Haskins and his tough practices(before they had modern day practice limits), it amazes me how some people can love Don Haskins and his tough style, yet they will criticize Kugler's practice style, which appears to have a lot of similarities to the toughness of Haskins.
Everybody has injuries to some extent, the difference between good programs and bad programs is depth. Mid-Majors usually have less depth. UTEP has basically never had good overall depth in football and any good seasons in UTEP history were also tied to good teams who were fortunate enough to stay healthy and not lose a lot of key players to injuries. Kugler has been working to fix this by building balanced depth at all positions(just look at how he basically has an entire defense redshirted this season). Of course making some adjustments is usually a positive thing after every season, but I am for his teams keeping their physical practicing profile because you will usually play how you practice.
Finally, I had lunch with Greg Foster at Carino's a few times, back when he lived in El Paso. Naturally, I used to always ask him a lot of questions about Haskins and practices under Haskins. Greg said that the practices were pure hell and he told me that bascially every UTEP player had the same thoughts about Haskins; the players absolutely hated Haskins when they played for him, yet they loved him and appreciated him to death after they graduated and no longer played for him. After hearing so many stories about Haskins and his tough practices(before they had modern day practice limits), it amazes me how some people can love Don Haskins and his tough style, yet they will criticize Kugler's practice style, which appears to have a lot of similarities to the toughness of Haskins.
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Big difference between football and basketball though. There ain't no 340 pounders running after you to flatten you in basketball.
Utep APR score is 954 just missed the cut for a bowl game. While it seems our season is over it's comforting to know that we were right there until the end. One fg away from a bowl game and now just a few APR points away. Still some hope if the teams in front of us decline bowl bids.
http://www.pilotonline.com/sports/c...cle_febc120c-04f8-5543-bc60-43ce5328933a.html
http://www.pilotonline.com/sports/c...cle_febc120c-04f8-5543-bc60-43ce5328933a.html
