Utep has above Avg facilities for a non power 5 scool. Miner fans have proved they'll show up for a winner. This city yearns for a winner and loves it's football, though we've been put through so much disappointment. Kugler is a hard nosed good man and a Hell of a position coach. He's not ready to be a D1 head coach. I admire his passion for his school, but he gets beat out by more experienced and better coaches on the field and recruiting trail. This year we have been snake bitten by the injury bug, but it's time Stull and Natalicio put some dollars into this programs future and pay a coach a million dollars or we will stay a doormat and stay in this terrible conference. People will say that a million is too much for Utep, we'll that's simply not true. Utep has a decent athletic budget and guess what if we have a consistent winner on the field it'll increase exponentially. Just saw some Nostalgic Packed Sun Bowl Pics and watching really college football today, made me want that here!
No Excuse Stull and Natalicio
- Thread starter nattybry
- Start date
We all want it, we just don't know if we will ever see that again anytime soon.
Someone mentioned on here that the UTEP student athletic fee was shut down by the students, want to know why? UTEP has way too many international students that don't give a rat's ass about UTEP sports. They rarely attend, have no passion, all they care about is Chivas vs America or some BS like that.
Someone mentioned on here that the UTEP student athletic fee was shut down by the students, want to know why? UTEP has way too many international students that don't give a rat's ass about UTEP sports. They rarely attend, have no passion, all they care about is Chivas vs America or some BS like that.
Actually, now that a lot of the students from Juarez moved to El Paso, I see a lot more of them attending games.
Not when I was student. Sure, some of them would tailgate, maybe go for a quarter, and then leave. And I know first hand many of them led a movement to vote no for that student athletic fee proposal--I was there and was disappointed with their views.
I remember that vote, it sucks it didn't pass. I voted yes, but there was a ton that didn't want it.
It's kind of hard to tell students to take on even more debt for the sake of the athletic department. Especially when so many students are on student loans or working to pay for college straight up. I remember voting yes as well but it's a shame that tuition has risen so much over the last 10 years and they nickel and dime you with student health fees, library fees, technology fees, and God knows what else. It really falls upon the alumni and the community to donate our money if we want this team to be successful.
Mexicans account for less than 10% of UTEP's enrollment. Also, it is hard to say Mexicans do not support athletics.
UTEP has a very high percentage of students who are the 1st in their families to attend college. There is also a very high percentage of students who work at full or part time jobs. Money is very tight for a lot of students at UTEP so I'm not particularly critical of them refusing to increase their costs for the sake of the athletic department. I agree that the community at large needs to become more involved in donating to UTEP athletics and it doesn't have to be large donations. As someone pointed out on this board, a lot of small to medium donations could have a positive impact on the athletic budget - but UTEP must do a better job of reaching out to the community and making them feel a part of the program.
A good start would be getting rid of the Walmart of college athletic marketing, IMG, who doesn't give a damn about UTEP and go with a local group who does care and would put heart and soul into the task at hand. Seems like a no brainier to me. IMG has bigger markets that they put focus into and UTEP is just a drop in the ocean as far as they are concerned.
I've stated this before, but maybe UTEP could hire somebody from the Chihuahuas marketing team.
Perhaps that would be a good idea.
If UTEP ever wants to be relevant in the football world, they need to get rid of Stull and bring in an AD that has a fresh view on the athletic department. I have heard rumors that Stull is trying to raise several million dollars to renovate the stadium and create "private suites". That would be great but it is not going to help recruiting. It may bring in a few more dollars to the department but there will still be crappy metal benches and a deteriorating concrete stadium. And maybe we just accept that UTEP is like Kansas and is just a basketball school and will always have a crappy football team. I would not mind that mentality because the Don could really use a face-lift, especially since that team is so much closer to being great.
I've said before they should move that in-house. But if you're going to hire a firm to do it, then hire a firm with a track record. TBWA/Chiat Day, Saatchi & Saatchi, Wieden and Kennedy, to name a few. Yes, those are monster firms, but UTEP doesn't need to hire the full package, just get a top down assessment and some strategic planning and advice. The school can do it's own production. If Diana Natalicio is serious about raising the school's profile then it's time, in the words of Steve Jobs, to "Think Different."
Natalicio hates athletics and wouldn't go for it. The first step in improving athletics is having a president who is pro-athletics. Natalicio is too busy getting credit for making UTEP better than Harvard.
Natalicio used to be anti athletic. Sometime during the late nineties she had a come to jesus moment and realized how important athletics are to UTEP. She is on record saying she gets more positive emails and donations when football is winning than at any other time. In the UAB independent report it came out that cusa used natalicio to call Ray Watts and implore him to keep football. She realizes how important football is for the university. While it took awhile for her to come a round she is fully onboard with athletics.
Too often university presidents are focused solely on the academic side, thinking sports are irrelevant to higher education enrollment and student participation. Far from it. Even for the big brand schools, sports is intricate to involvement, fund raising, professor appeal, alumni participation. For example, Ohio State's endowment is $3.4 Billion. I'd bet a year's salary more than half of that comes from the simple fact of how well their athletic programs do, particularly football. Now I'm not equaling UTEP to OSU, but the point is athletics plays a huge role in how a university is perceived, not just locally and regionally, but nationally. Considering UTEP is a D1 athletic school, a positive perception nationally is important. University presidents that ignore this do so at their own peril (see UAB for latest example).
She had an interview with the USC athletic director
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