Charlie Bailey's final team was one of the best teams in UTEP history, yet nobody knows that. I am being 100% serious!
Here are some stats from Bailey's final season:
- UTEP had to play 3 road money games against P5 teams that year. They lost at Arizona by only 13 points, they lost at Oregon by only 19 points, and they lost by 33 at a Kansas State team that finished 11-1.
- UTEP only had 5 home games that season.
- UTEP played no 1AA schools that season, every game was against D1 competition.
- UTEP beat possibly the best NMSU team in their school history by a score of 54-31. NMSU finished that season with a 6-5 winning record and they beat a nationally ranked Arizona State team 35-7 the week before playing UTEP.
- UTEP had to play at TCU, at Fresno State, UNM, at Hawaii, Tulsa, San Jose State, at Rice, and SMU.
Bailey was given an impossible schedule and situation to win with. Remember this was also before we had the Durham Center or Miner Village Apartments to recruit to. Bailey had to recruit to a crappy weight room and old/ugly doorm rooms. Despite all of this and despite playing against an impossible schedule, UTEP finished that season 5-7 and would have made a Bowl Game had Paul Thomas not fumbled late at Fresno State, allowing them to tie the game and later beat us in Overtime when they stopped our 2 point attempt.
That 1999 team had 3 players get drafted in the NFL after that season, yet there was still enough talent left that they won the Conference Championship the next year in 2000.