On to FIU.... a critical game to salvage the season

[MinerInWisconsin]

The Miners need to put this game behind them and focus on FIU. Both UTEP and FIU are struggling on offense. The winner will have a shot at becoming bowl eligible. We all want to see this program develop and going to minor bowl games every season would be a start. A win vs FIU would give the Miners a 3-3 record with winnable game left vs FAU, ODU and UNT. The Rice game in El Paso while a likely loss does not look as daunting as it did prior to the season. Hopefully Metz will not have anymore 4 int games and Higgins will figure out how to utilize this offense.

 

[LaserCoog]

@Wisconsin, I generally respect your opinion, but gotta tell 'ya, anybody who uses UTEP and FIU in the same sentence with bowl eligible, well...

 

[Minerforlife]

@Wisconsin, I generally respect your opinion, but gotta tell 'ya, anybody who uses UTEP and FIU in the same sentence with bowl eligible, well...

Other than western kentucky and la tech this conference is crap.

 

[LaserCoog]

Other than western kentucky and la tech this conference is crap.

Point?

 

[Minerforlife]

Point?

There will be five sub par bowl teams from this conference. Thats if we can even get enough teams to fill out our bowls.

 

[LaserCoog]

There will be five sub par bowl teams from this conference. Thats if we can even get enough teams to fill out our bowls.

Disagree. Marshall, Western Kentucky, Louisiana Tech, and Middle Tennessee (2 of their 3 losses to SEC teams, including Alabama) are QUALITY mid-major football teams this year. Of course, UTEP doesn't see 3 of the 4 this season. Don't sleep on Southern Miss, they're at 3-2 and much improved. Rice has been smoked by three pretty good teams, but the talent is there and they haven't lost to UTEP since the day after the earth cooled, so who knows?

Bottom line, top end of C-USA is just fine, bottom level, not so much...

 

[MinerInWisconsin]

Disagree. Marshall, Western Kentucky, Louisiana Tech, and Middle Tennessee (2 of their 3 losses to SEC teams, including Alabama) are QUALITY mid-major football teams this year. Of course, UTEP doesn't see 3 of the 4 this season. Don't sleep on Southern Miss, they're at 3-2 and much improved. Rice has been smoked by three pretty good teams, but the talent is there and they haven't lost to UTEP since the day after the earth cooled, so who knows?

Bottom line, top end of C-USA is just fine, bottom level, not so much...

Same can be said for all the G5 conferences and some of the P5 ones as well. C-USA has 7 bowls to fill this year. Some of the teams will be mediocre at best. I want UTEP to improve enough to be one of those this year. Then I want them to build on that for next season and challenge for the conference title. Winning does solve most issues for a football team. If Metz had played well the other night we would probably have won and most of us would be singing his praises right now instead of saying we don't have a division 1 QB on the roster. He has already shown that he can do it but now he has to mature and do it on a weekly basis.

 

[LaserCoog]

My post was in response to the comment that C-USA would have 5 "sub-par teams" in bowls this year. You'll get to see how sub-par Louisiana Tech is later this season. You miss Marshall, Western Kentucky, and MTSU, probably the three best teams in the conference this year (WKU already beat Tech). Yeah, agree, if Metz plays well UTEP probably does win and UTSA is 0-5 on Sunday morning.

Honest question for anybody, into his third year, are you satisfied that Kugler is effectively laying the foundation to enable this program to consistently compete for a C-USA title anytime soon? Honestly.

 

[MinerInWisconsin]

My post was in response to the comment that C-USA would have 5 "sub-par teams" in bowls this year. You'll get to see how sub-par Louisiana Tech is later this season. You miss Marshall, Western Kentucky, and MTSU, probably the three best teams in the conference this year (WKU already beat Tech). Yeah, agree, if Metz plays well UTEP probably does win and UTSA is 0-5 on Sunday morning.

Honest question for anybody, into his third year, are you satisfied that Kugler is effectively laying the foundation to enable this program to consistently compete for a C-USA title anytime soon? Honestly.

Honestly, I couldn't answer that right now. With a 2-3 record and a team suffering from too many injuries, the jury is out until the end of this season and maybe until the middle of next season. If UTEP can limp to a 4 to 6 win season this year and have an actual contender for the conference title next then yes, Kugler would be on target. If they are suffering losses like this again next year and look totally lost the rest of this season then it's over for Kugler.

 

[utep2step]

Just for titillation purposes only. This bowl metioned UTEP.

http://tucson.com/my-two-cents-new-...cle_ffc0df62-6a24-11e5-9624-ef2bc21b2728.html

 

[El Paso Chihuahuas]

Honest question for anybody, into his third year, are you satisfied that Kugler is effectively laying the foundation to enable this program to consistently compete for a C-USA title anytime soon? Honestly.

No.

 

[Minerforlife]

My post was in response to the comment that C-USA would have 5 "sub-par teams" in bowls this year. You'll get to see how sub-par Louisiana Tech is later this season. You miss Marshall, Western Kentucky, and MTSU, probably the three best teams in the conference this year (WKU already beat Tech). Yeah, agree, if Metz plays well UTEP probably does win and UTSA is 0-5 on Sunday morning.

Honest question for anybody, into his third year, are you satisfied that Kugler is effectively laying the foundation to enable this program to consistently compete for a C-USA title anytime soon? Honestly.

Thats a complicated question. I do think the program is much better from a talent standpoint. We have alot of talent in the pipeline. Stoker's defense will be much better with two young corners for three more years. Beverly especially is a future star with NFL potential. The young lineman are good and our skill posistions players are good. The one big question is qb, I dont know if our qb of the future is on the roster. Overall I think Kugler has done a pretty good job building a foundation.

On the academic side, Kugler has done a great job of cleaning up the apr mess. Our APR scores were embarrasing. Under Kugler they have improved every year. The guys are going to class and getting degrees. I give Kugler an A for cleaning up the academic side of the program.

Where Kugler has struggled is with on the field schemes and loyalty. Hes got to be more open to changing his style. He is too loyal to Higgins. This year the in game adjustments have been slow and at times non effective. I do give him credit for going to a bowl game in his second season. I know the schedule was weak but we could list the bad teams UTEP has lost to the last decade. Bottom line is he beat the teams he was supposed too and thats something UTEP teams havent done in a while.

We cant have losses like Saturday. We have already been passed by Houston and SMU. We cant afford to be passed by UTSA and Texas State. Football is the only sport that matters for the future of the athletic department. Our conference future and economic health of the department depend solelyon football. We can never give another coach seven seasons and we cant lose games against UTSA.

 

[Epsilon00]

When Kugler got here he said we are going to be a power running team, Higgins is just doing what Kugler wants. Kugler wants to control time of possession and thats why we run all the time and just throw short 5 yard out passes when we pass. Kugler's offensive system is a thing of the past and is going to hurt us in recruiting good offensive players in the long run. Everyone runs the spread offense now.