Agree, you can’t judge a team based off the first game. A lot of people had them at 7-8 wins, losing one game to north texas doesn’t mean they can’t still have a solid season. There’s been plenty of teams that have looked awful game 1 and ended up being pretty solid. Then again, I am trying to remain positive.
How bad will it get this year?
- Thread starter Roy_Bigwood_05
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They didn’t have Dismel as their coach.
This website is pretty good when it comes to straight numbers. They are saying 7-5 will be a miracle and 5-7 most likely.
www.teamrankings.com
Texas El Paso Miners
Texas El Paso Miners team page with results, picks, power rankings, odds and stats.
www.teamrankings.com
NMSU will be a great test. I haven’t seen this much excitement out of LC since Mumme was hired (part of me will miss Martin. He made the rivalry respectable again and that started with him and he demanded it from his players).
UNM will tough. Rocky Long as opposing defensive coach will test Hardison who is notorious throwing it in double or triple coverage.
Dimel will go full Dimel vanilla against OU.
UNM will tough. Rocky Long as opposing defensive coach will test Hardison who is notorious throwing it in double or triple coverage.
Dimel will go full Dimel vanilla against OU.
Hopefully they are able to win in spite of coaching. Only positive is now they have zero pressure or expectations from pretty much everyone, so they can just go out and play! Still no excuse for that second half performance. It was embarrassing.
The kid that transferred out moved the 2nd sting offense up and down the field. He didn't have much success on throws beyond 25 yards. But the short an intermediate stuff he was very efficient at. He also had much better legs, but that's not as important in the practices since they are not allowed to tackle. Hardison threw so many picks in practice last year, I heard Dimel yell at DBs to not challenge contested catches. He said they didn't want injuries, but I think it had more to do with the number of pics Hardison was throwing.
To be fair, he hasn't thrown as many this year. But I've noticed the DBs don't really attack the ball either. They seem to sit back and try to swat the ball out of the receivers hands. Kinda like the first touchdown we gave up on Saturday. The DB was in perfect position to break on the ball, but instead waited for the receiver to catch and then tried to swat it out. We'll play how we practice though.
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my belief before the season started is the same, we are a 6-6 team this year. Maybe 7-5 if certain things fall our way. This would be a successful season.
When has UTEP ever won in spite of coaching? You would need great athletes to win consistently with poor coaching and you should know UTEP attracts C level talent at best. C level talent combined with poor coaching results in 31-13 losses in your home opener to UNT.
Let’s face it , last year’s success occurred largely because of a VERY weak schedule. A harder strength of schedule combined with Dimel’s ineptitude and you can forget about a winning season and bowl game.
Their schedule is still pretty weak this year. Not very confident they can do it, but lets` wait till after the NMSU and UNM games before we write them off. The North Texas game could have gone completely in UTEP`s favor had they not choked away the 3 or 4 opportunities they had in the first half. Maybe they play better in front of an empty stadium.
This is accurate. I can easily point to 17 points for sure which changes this game completely and possibly 24 points. The frustrating thing is, are we going to say this all season. From Dimel's teams past we are. So do they have the talent to recover from this game, Yes, will they we'll see. However I still predict 6 or more wins and I won't come off that until we lose to the 2 Green Chile St teams!
I would say we have some really good athletes, though not as many as other schools. They're just not really good football players yet. Definitely need better coaching.
The score could have easily been 30-14, 34-14 at the half with the way they were moving the ball, making some big plays, and north texas stupid turnover to end the half. However, even while that was all happening I remember yelling to the person next to me about why the hell they aren’t trying to establish the run. So yes, we shouldn’t write any team off based on one game. Especially one that on paper was pretty evenly matched going into the game. Hell, even the final stats were pretty even for the most part except for the most important one. Let’s give these guys a chance to prove how resilient they are after embarrassing themselves, their school, and El Paso.
I wasn't able to watch the beginning due to the lightning delay and the only bit I did see was during NMSU's lightning delay but I can say I expect between 5-7 wins. This game is not the be all end all. NMSU is at home, UNM sucks, and we have winnable games beyond the buyout. The big thing is for week 2. NMSU plays tomorrow whereas the game against OU is on Saturday. That extra time to plan/heal "might" give NMSU the edge. Given the 5 turnovers by NMSU against a rebuilding Nevada I don't think that will be the case. As an Aggie fan first I hope so, but once that game is over I'm UTEP all the way until Basketball season. I do hope we see some good play in the OU game. That's the time for the backups to shine as not to risk the starters next Saturday.
I agree with what you have stated but I just learned tonight that UTEP was prepping for 3 month for the UNT game. 3 months! The game is over, stick a fork in it, the horse is dead, I get it but my heavens, what the hell?! It is common sports fan knowledge that coaches prep for the big marquee games (OOC mid major game vs a P5 program for example) for weeks but all that prep for UNT? Was the team “over prepared”? Too focused on assignments instead of just leaving it on the field? Nervous about screwing up after all that prep?
So now UTEP goes in “lambs to the slaughter” this weekend and then comes back to a main rival that is a “make or break” game (Dimel’s tenure & Kill’s reputation)? Dimel better have some magic pixie dust that Snyder gave him from his assistant days.
That is true, however the other intangible to consider is that they are 18-22 year old kids! You never know how they are going to respond to adversity or when the lights go on. The prep showed as they were able to move the ball pretty easy on north texas in the first half, they just couldn’t finish or make any adjustments. Same as last season unfortunately.
As compared to other universities?
Unless there are major injuries for the OU game I say there is an 80% chance of a win over NMSU. Coach Kill has a too young of a team that is flubbing on the basics. Dropped open passes missed tackles and poor penalties. That is the big difference between UTEP and NMSU this year. I'd say 42-17 as an Aggie fan.
I do see a Big Leap from game 1 to game two for UTEP, but it unfortunately won't show on the scoreboard. It's just a different level of football. Utep I suspect will beat NMSU by a couple of TDs, win a close one to UNM, lose, but play Boise St. tough and then then win 4-5 more games down the stretch and go to mediocre bowl and try to win for the first time in 50+ years. I don't think Utep's world beaters and won't challenge for CUSA, but their talent should get them bowling this year.
UTEP should blow out NMSU, and should lose to UNM... 1-4 isn't looking pretty, for an "experienced" Dimel team. I just hope they don't make complete fool's of themselves against OU today. Folks need to remember, the defense really helped this team last year. Against UNT, it looked like a typical non tackling UTEP defense, melting like butter with giant holes... I hope that changes against, OU. I think OU is overhyped this year... Miners will keep it close.
I don't think they'll lose to UNM and they'll be 2-3 and play Boise St decent, but lose by two-three tds and then easily win 4 of the next 7 maybe 5. We're not as bad as everyone is already saying after one game. As fans were disappointed, but this team is better than past Utep teams and will respond. Unfortunately that response won't look like much today against OU.
UTEP should NOT lose to UNM
We need to cook up some kind of running game. Need more speed. Burgess?
Yep, or like we've been saying for the past 2 years just get Awatt to the edge. He is a far better runner on the outside. I'm sure Dimel can see that?
Maybe when competing against OUs defense of 4 and 5 star talent it’s not as easy as you say it is to do that. Possibly?
Maybe you should stop hanging on to every word I write and actually watch the games. Then tell me where Awatt makes his biggest gains and how he scored the touchdown against OU? You yourself said that our O-line sucks because you couldn't admit that Hardison held the ball too long.
And yes it's fair to say that it's not that easy against Oklahoma or any other decent team for that matter. That's why as a coach you need to recognize yours strengths, use your strengths and adjust to what works. Possibly?
I never said anything of the sort. I think our o-line would understandably struggle against the more talented defensive players that OU offers. Your statement implied that the coaches were intentionally not running certain plays. I’m simply wondering if what you’re saying should be done might not be doable against such superior talent. It might be as simple as your hatred of Dimel seems to believe.
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