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Dana Dimel believes UTEP could have done this a year ago, if anyone could have come to El Paso.
The Miners are 5-1 this season. Yes, UTEP. The five wins already equal the number of wins the program had over the past four seasons
combined. It’s just the eighth time they’ve done this in 107 years of football and only the third time since 1989.
It doesn’t matter if the competition hasn’t exactly been the toughest (the four FBS opponents they beat are 5-20). Dimel inherited a team that went 0-12 in 2017, and the Miners went 2-22 in Dimel’s first two seasons (including 1-1 against FCS teams). Wins are wins, and they’re finally coming.
“It’s been cool how we’ve won games,” Dimel said. “We’ve come from behind, or lost a lead and gained them back. Those are hard things to do, hard hurdles to climb when you’re turning a program. It’s built the confidence. … At Kansas State, one of our biggest things was trying to build a culture where you expect to win. I think our guys have finally gotten to that point.”
But what about last year? Dimel saw it starting then. UTEP went 3-5, including two FCS wins and a 0-4 record in conference play. On paper, it didn’t look all that special. Then you realize five of those seven games were on the road, including all four Conference USA games. That was because of COVID-19. Whether because of an outbreak within the Miners or an opponent, six games were canceled or postponed. North Texas refused to play in El Paso due to an outbreak in the city.
“I thought we were real close to being a good team last year, but when no one would come play us at home, it broke all our momentum,” Dimel said. “We start 3-1 and never got a home game after that.”
Now, the Miners are winning again, and they’re doing it with the K-State model Dimel learned under Bill Snyder. Dimel played at K-State from 1984-86 before Snyder arrived, then coached there from 1987-96, again in 2005 and again from 2009-17. What does that mean? On offense, he says that means explosive plays amid an otherwise pedestrian attack. That’s not an insult. It’s what the numbers show.
The Miners are No. 73 in total yards per game (389.8) and No. 86 in scoring (25.8 points per game). But they’re No. 11 nationally with 20 plays of at least 30 yards and No. 7 in plays of 40-plus yards (12). As a result, they’re No. 52 in yards per play.
The run game has been all-or-nothing, too. The Miners have been almost as likely to rush for 10-plus yards (31 rushes) as they have been to rush for a loss (29 rushes excluding sacks). They keep plugging away on the ground and taking deep shots in the air. Eventually, it pays off.
“It’s our MO,” Dimel said. “We might not have 500 yards a game, but we’re always one of the best teams in yards per play. To me, that’s one of the top stats. We’re over six yards per play, so similar to our numbers at K-State. Then you rely on a great defense.”
The biggest beneficiary of that style is wide receiver
Jacob Cowing, who ranks third nationally at 23.4 yards per catch (26 catches for 609 yards and four touchdowns). Cowing is the perfect example of the under-the-radar Kansas State find. He was a two-star recruit out of Arizona. Dimel’s friend Tim Beck, then the Texas offensive coordinator, tipped off Dimel to Cowing after the Longhorns ran out of space for him early in their 2019 recruiting class. Dimel pulled up the tape and couldn’t believe what he saw.
“He’s like a Tyler Lockett,” Dimel said, invoking the Seattle Seahawks receiver. “He hasn’t gotten to that stage yet, but he’s that dynamic of a performer in our system like Tyler was at K-State. He makes all the plays and he’s fast as heck.”
Cowing measures 5-11, 170 pounds. Lockett was 5-11, 175 at Kansas State. Cowing had only two catches for 24 yards last week against Southern Miss, ending a three-game streak with at least 100 receiving yards, but he took an end-around 53 yards for a touchdown.
UTEP is 112th nationally in completion percentage but 15th in yards per attempt because the Miners are fifth in air yards per attempt at 12.5, according to Pro Football Focus. (the national average is 9.0) Cowing has been targeted at an average of 15.5 yards downfield. That’s seventh-most among all players with at least 40 targets.
“We love that we air the ball out,” Cowing said. “We can go out there and play our game.”
The depth and talent has increased dramatically over the past four years. In Dimel’s first few years, injuries decimated the roster, slowing growth. But since then, depth has been built.
“We’ve hit on virtually every one of our juco guys — it’s crazy, the amount of talent we picked out of there,” Dimel said. “Then we’ve done really good in high school with the offensive line and a good mix on the D-line. Against Southern Miss, we played 12 defensive linemen at least 13 snaps or more. It’s crazy we’ve been able to build that kind of depth. We’ve been blessed with our recruiting evaluations on the line. Our talent level has really increased.”
Dimel entered this season with new coordinators on both offense and defense. He calls the offensive plays, but he hired former Michigan State offensive coordinator Dave Warner for the same role at UTEP. The two previously worked together at Houston and Wyoming. Longtime SEC assistant Bradley Dale Peveto came in as defensive coordinator, and the defense has improved in essentially every major defensive stat.
The Miners’ scoring defense has risen from No. 76 to No. 40. They’ve improved from No. 49 to No. 12 in yards per rush and No. 90 to No. 18 in yards per play.
This is what Dimel always envisioned. He took over the worst program in the country in 2018, coming off that 0-12 season, and he said it would take time.
“I said four or five year was where you’d start to see a turn,” he said. “When I got the job, the AD and I talked and I said, ‘I’ve been through this before. You gotta guarantee some time to get this going. You don’t take a job like this unless you get time. You can’t flip it overnight.’ He agreed. He said he wouldn’t even start evaluating me until year four. Sometimes it takes five or six years.”
The opponents get tougher from here on out, starting with Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs are a seven-point favorite, but Dimel feels good about his team’s chances. One more win, whenever it comes, would make the Miners bowl-eligible. It would be a remarkable sendoff for a group of players who went through five wins in four years.
“It’d mean a lot,” Cowing said. “One of our biggest goals was to get the seniors to a bowl game. It’d be special to send them out with a big bang, creating that memory.”