Speaking of JR Smith!!
- Thread starter FiliUTEP
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For me the football game that comes to mind is the ECU game in 2007. UTEP is up by 7 with 3 seconds left. ECU has the ball at midfield throws a hail Mary and they have a running down the middle of the field wide open with nobody playing deep. It seemed liked the ball hung up forever and the kid caught it just short of the goal line and momentarily stopped expecting to be hit. He didn't realize he was all by himself. UTEP lost the game in OT. In all the years I've watched football it's the only game I've seen a hail mary completed to a wide open receiver. To the this day I have no idea what the hell the defense was thinking.
For me it was Dec 9, 2006 @ New Mexico State. We were ahead by 10 with 1 minute remaining and Malik Alvin (I believe) fouls on a made 3 pointer, making it a 4-point swing and we lose 69-71! U-G-L-Y
GO MINERS!
GO MINERS!
The hiring of Bob Stull. Being an ass to the fans, keeping Floyd and Price year after year, being an ass to the media, alienating fans, wanting to stay in C-USA with our Texas brothers (TCU, & SMU) who couldn't care less about UTEP. Not making coaches sign their contracts, no buyout clauses in contracts. Could have moved to MWC along with San Jose State but again wanting to align with Texas schools.
Basically put and kept UTEP into the world of the non-relevancy in college athletics.
Basically put and kept UTEP into the world of the non-relevancy in college athletics.
That holding call happened to our left guard at the 2:15 mark of the below video. While that call really hurt us(it voided the potential winning TD) I honestly don’t think that was a terrible call, it certainly could have gone either way. Our guard appears to pull him down as he is being run over.
How bout the nightmare that is d-1 schools from New York. Price was owned by Buffalo, Kugler was owned by Army. Price nearly lost to Stony Brook it took an int on the goalline in OT to save us from embarrassment. If Syracuse or Albany calls and wants to schedule a game dont return their call Senter. Miner fans have seen enough new York schools for a lifetime.
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I wasn’t at the game so I didn’t see it happen live. But it does look like the G pulled him down to avoid the sack. And that is very bad considering the situation. Especially since it cost The Miners the game.
Uhmm there was no point shaving going on, just gambling.
ECU at UTEP. This final seconds breakdown of coverage made me literally sick.
https://www.minerrush.com/2017/7/26...-east-carolina-halted-the-mike-price-momentum
Yup this is a top one for me.
Another football one is Patrick Higgins play calling when we were protecting a rare fourth quarter lead at WKU in Kugler's bowl season.
I think it was 27-21 with about 12 mins or so left, were pounding with Bell, Hamm, and Nate Jeff all day because Showers had been crapping the bed the entire game, and on a 3rd and short from inside the 20 he calls a pass play which was botched and gets housed 90 yards on a pick six costing UTEP a possible 4-1 conference record with three games left.
The dickhead should have ran it for a first down or settled for a FG, that running attack and O-line were good that year, should have kept pounding away it would have been a big win for Kugler IMO even though WKU wasn't that great yet but as we all know UTEP's collegiate football team doesn't win very games east of Houston.
Maybe not the "biggest" but in the 2016-17 season before the team came on for conference play Omega Harris was dribbling near half court as the offense set up. He dribbled behind his back and hit his own calf and the ball rolled out of bounds.
In 1990 RB Larry Sims tried to hurdle over a defender. The guy pretty much grabbed him out of midair and slammed him the the ground. Again, not the worst but looked terrible.
The entire 1999 and 2000 games vs. TCU were vomit inducing.
A big mistake by a great player was during our only game in the 2009 CUSA basketball tournament. UTEP was playing Houston in our opening Round game and Randy Culpepper missed a breakaway dunk when he could have just laid it in instead. That play really hurt us and UTEP went on to lose that game by 4.
You could also point out Jordan Palmers performance against SMU in 2004. It was the last game of the year and UTEP was playing against an SMU team that had only won 4 games all year. If UTEP won that game, then we would play in the CUSA Championship game. Instead, Jordan Palmer turned the ball over 6 times(4 interceptions and 2 lost fumbles) and UTEP lost the game.
You could also point out Jordan Palmers performance against SMU in 2004. It was the last game of the year and UTEP was playing against an SMU team that had only won 4 games all year. If UTEP won that game, then we would play in the CUSA Championship game. Instead, Jordan Palmer turned the ball over 6 times(4 interceptions and 2 lost fumbles) and UTEP lost the game.
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Playing Kevin Beal in the WAC tournament despite knowing he was ineligible. Forfeited the game after beating Hawaii.
What about when Floyd and Johnson cost us a win when they both got tossed and cops had to take Floyd off the court and he threw his jacket.
I can’t think of the biggest bone headed play ever by a Miner (team), however, the biggest this last year, imo, was when UTEP led Boise State by 3 with 19 seconds left in the game...and had possession. The Miners could not inbound the ball and had to call several timeouts so as to not get the 5 seconds call. When we did get the ball in play, Gilyard immediately stepped out of bounds. I never blamed Gilyard, but rather CTF for putting a very new and raw freshman in at that point of the game.
Can’t say a season hinges on a single game but I remember commenting at that time on how it was more than just a single loss and that the loss reeked of the same old lack of preparation and attention to detail and crappy coaching that we had become accustomed to the previous several years. It set a tone that effing sucked all year long.
Can’t say a season hinges on a single game but I remember commenting at that time on how it was more than just a single loss and that the loss reeked of the same old lack of preparation and attention to detail and crappy coaching that we had become accustomed to the previous several years. It set a tone that effing sucked all year long.
Really humiliating too. We were putting up with huge trash talk from Univ. of Hawai'i's band all game long so it was so satisfying to have "won"... then that night at the hotel we found out it was a forfeit.
There was one year, I believe it was in the 2002 WAC tournament against Boise State, when UTEP had a 3 point lead at the very end of the game. Our player(I believe it was Chris Neal) fouled their player while he was shooting a 3. Their player made the 3 and then he also made the free-throw, completing a 4 point on the final play of the game. We blew a 3 point lead on the last play of the game and our season ended on a 4 point play.
The 2006 season comes to mind for me. We thought we had finally turned the corner with Price at the helm. We were off to a great start going on the road to beat SDSU. And then losing in OT to a ranked Texas Tech. After a 4-2 start we found ourselves at .500 needing to beat RICE in our homecoming game. We quickly dug ourselves into a big halftime deficit. During the third quarter Palmer showed signs of life and brought us marching back to a 37-31 score. RICE got the ball with about 8 minutes. It was a big loud crowd. Every third down your ears were ringing from the noise level. For the lives of us we could not get a stop. RICE kept converting third after third down and ran out the clock. The air was let out of the stadium. It was the second to last 40k+ crowd for a conference game. The last one was the ECU game mentioned above.
How about Mike Price going for the 2 point conversion three different times in that Texas Tech game and failing all 3 times! If he just kicked the extra point on 1 of those 3 touchdowns instead of going for 2, then that game never would have gone to overtime and UTEP would have beaten Texas Tech. Remember that Tech even had to make a 2 point conversion late in that game just to force overtime. Kicking just one of those extra points almost certainly would have given us a big win.
I remember that game, as much as I would like to forget it. I was living in San Diego, streaming the audio to the game, chatting with a bunch of guys from Digs. We were so happy and confident going into that last minute - until turnovers, missed free throws, stupid fouls, and the Aggies getting hot from 3 made for a miserable final minute. Damn it LT, I've spent the almost two decades trying to forget that game!
In terms of stupid individual plays, I remember Chris Neal fouling a three point shooter in the final seconds of a WAC Tournament game that we were leading by 4. The kid completed the 4 point play, and we went on to lose the game. Ugh.
I remember that game, as much as I would like to forget it. I was living in San Diego, streaming the audio to the game, chatting with a bunch of guys from Digs. We were so happy and confident going into that last minute - until turnovers, missed free throws, stupid fouls, and the Aggies getting hot from 3 made for a miserable final minute. Damn it LT, I've spent the almost two decades trying to forget that game!
Oops, looking closer at LT's post, and he was talking about a game from 2006. I was thinking of a game against the Aggies back in 1999, Rab's first year. I didn't remember the 2006 game. So we've blown 10 point leads against the Aggies twice in the last minute? Damn that sucks!
Yeah, I've thought about that several times. Kicking the damn PATs instead of always going for 2 cost us a chance to beat Tech. Note to future Miner coaches: if you miss a PAT in the first half, wait until the 4th quarter to see if you need to go for 2. Don't keep trying 2 point conversations early in the game. PLEASE!
Those last couple of years he went bat-sh*t crazy, it seemed like he was going to go for it on fourth or try a 2 pt conversion every other game towards the end. I always felt like those took a lot of air out of the team’s sails especially when they did not convert.
UTEP vs UCLA 1992 Second Round of the Preseason NIT. UTEP was up by over 10 points with less than 3 minutes to go at UCLA. They missed free throw after free throw and poor Don Haskins was dying on the bench watching them collapse. In all fairness, we were down 18-2 at the beginning of the game.
Football was definitely the ECU game or the numerous 2 point Price non conversions.
Football was definitely the ECU game or the numerous 2 point Price non conversions.
I remember listening to Teicher on the post game show after that 1992 UCLA loss. He was obviously disapointed and he kept mentioning how “we should be eating turkey in New York City”. Had we held on and won that game, then we would have played in Madison Square Garden during Thanksgiving weekend in the pre-season NIT final four.
Blame that on Nord. Was it the 2000 conference game and after a walk thru practice or whatever, he gathers the team on top of their mascot logo and has them jump and down on it? Well, of course TCU knew of it and trounced UTEP. I'd be pissed too showing that kind of disrespect.
1988. Bob Stull, an unheard of football coach from UMass, literally raises UTEP from the dead. UTEP gets rewarded with a regional major affiliate broadcast for their game in Wyoming. Both teams are kicking ass that year. UTEP got waxed badly for their first prime time broadcast in over God knows how long. The UTEP fans that saw those Miners throughout 87 and 88 didn't show up for that game for some reason?
The entire David Lee era. Dark days. One game against Hawaii at the Sun Bowl their fullback was yelling at the UTEP defense to get fired up and play because they looked like zombies on the field. (it later came out the Lee accidentally gave them practice tape to Hawaii. Giving practice or game tape is custom in football but Lee gave actual game plans going into that game by accident). That's not rumor, I read that on print back then. But Lee was a good man and a disciplinarian. The man didn't take shat from any player. The down side was he sucked rocks as a coach.
I was 11 years old and attending a game in the SEC. Haskins hadn't lost a home game against an unranked opponent in quite awhile. UTEP was automatic at home. Yet, on this night, Texas Pan American ate our lunch. It may have been the opening game of the Sun Carnival Tournament that year. They weren't fazed one bit by the loud and boisterous Miner Maniacs in attendance.(sold out game too) It was deafening quiet as the clock went 00:00.
Are you sure it was UT Pan American? We have never lost to them in our history. What year are you thinking about? Maybe it was someone similar.
Being a Miner fan as long as I have I can't decided on just one. My heart has been broken so many times.
This game was played in the mid-80's. I could be mistaken on the lower level opponent...it was (at least) 33 years ago, but I vaguely recall it being TPA.
It definitely wasn’t part of the Don Haskins Sun Bowl tournament.
http://www.sunbowl.org/system/docum...l_All-Time Results & All-Tournament Teams.pdf
Going back to the 82-83 season, the only OOC losses I could find in the 80s, that “shouldn’t” have been losses were against Texas Southern, Southern and Arkansas-Little Rock twice. In 89 they spanked us by 23.
Not sure if that helps.
I forgot about that game.
I remember one game when Tarleton State came into the DHC. TS had El Paso HS players on that team back then and they gave UTEP a run for their money and UTEP looked like they were hungover and TS kept it close. Their starting center (who from Bowie I think) posterized Roy Howard with a thunderous dunk and was just playing awful. Haskins immediately called a TO and ripped them all a new one. Howard looked like a kid who just got the "chancla" for not taking out the trash. LOL! Eddie Rivera finally took over and that was that.
