Let's get one thing perfectly clear. Stull is in no waythe good 'ol boy, keep status quo AD. He is to UTEP athletics what Briles is to Houston and Baylor football. Prior to Stull's arrival at UTEP, UTEP did actually have a bona fide, Texas certified, good 'ol boy network that had absolutely no interest in enhancing, and making UTEP athletics better. They had Don Haskins and all they thought was to keep Don happy and if Don is happy, El Paso is happy....this couldn't have been further from the truth! This posse of pathetic directors even used to take up their own coolers of beer to the press box and get drunk for football games and at the same time enforced that no drinking will be allowed on Sun Bowl premises. The EP Times or Herald Post got wind and caught them red handed in their hypocrisy.
Don't mix Kugler's self inflicted coaching decisions and plain old injury bug bad luck confuse what Stull has developed at UTEP. The athletic capital improvements are staggering for a university with a limited budget. Bob Stull is, as the prog band RUSH sings, today's "Tom Sawyer": "A modern day warrior, mean, mean stride, Today's Tom Sawyer, mean, mean pride". He is cunning, and knows how to make a dollar holler. Does he just go with what the big boosters say, yes he does. All AD's do. No need to burn anything down. There are many, many UTEP athletes, other than football, that are succeeding on the playing field and in the classroom.
What I do agree with is a total assessment of football players development and why there was such a massive, massive drop off in player performance after the injuries started to happen. Why was there a massive, cavern wide drop in talent in rb position when Jones went down (clue lies in Hamm departure)? The O-line was supposed to be Kugler's signature master piece, what in heaven's name happened this year? What type of communication does Kugler have with the offensive coordinator during the game and during preparation during game week? The play calling was even bad when Jones was healthy. Why a major drop off in strength and endurance from last year to this year? UTEP even got man handled at certain position by IW for pete sake! Why did it take "THE SHIPS ON FIRE!!" approach until this staff decided to get serious about a passing game to supplement Kugler's run, run and run again offensive strategy? Are some staff recruits that are brought in and developed making positive gains to play such a demanding high level FBS schedule? Just because they're from 5A or 6A programs in Texas, doesn't mean they can play FBS level football.
Just too many questions....
