Spoiler Alert - I'm Fixin' to Rip Your AD...

[LaserCoog]

... a new one. Two sports. That's all. Bob Stull has to manage two sports - basketball and football. Total fail on both.

Football? Despite a galactically soft schedule, Stull's unbelievably unqualified, on-the-job nepotism hire has beaten one - ONE - team in three seasons with a winning record. Got that? One. In three seasons. Your 2016 schedule may be the softest in D1 football. For perspective, Kugler could literally win 8 games next season and not beat a team with a winning record. UTEP could be the first team in history to go to a bowl without beating a winning team.

Basketball? Stull's dream hire in basketball has been nothing short of a disaster. It has. Floyd can't win in a conference that has deteriorated on an annual basis. That with the highest salary and the best facilities in the conference. For perspective, UAB may end up being a play-in in the NCAAs.

Attendance? Look it up. Another year of bad football against bad teams will drive UTEP below 20K per game, into FCS territory. It will. Basketball? For a school with an incredible history in basketball, attendance is abysmal. It is.

Bottom line, does Dr. Natalicio understand the relationship between Tier 1 status and Division 1 athletics? Her athletic director has been on cruise control for a decade. He has. Arrogant and completely unresponsive to what used to be and should be one of the top fan bases in C-USA.

Bob Stull. Two sports...

 

[Minerforlife]

Basically, all ads only have two sports. Football and basketball are the only revenue sports. At some schools, baseball, hockey or lacrosse are big, but for every ad football and to a lesser extent basketball are all that matters.

Football is ok. Kugler inherited a 3-9 team and a program coming off seven straight losing seasons. It was riddled with academic and discipline problems. It was never going to be a quick fix. Kugler has built a very strong foundation and hasnt gone for the quick fix. I think we are very close to building a perrenial winner.

Basketball is another story. Floyd inherited the best UTEP hoops team of the past 20 years. His three predecessors all took UTEP to the tournament while playing in much more difficult conferences. Floyd hasnt recruited well or developed talent. Hes recruited a bunch of kids with character issues who've at times embarrassed the university ( ie the gamnling incident). Hes embarrased the university more than once with his childish antics. He has consistently lost games to terrible teams. This year hes lost to UTSA, USM and Norfolk State. We've never lost to three teams that pathetic in the same season. Floyd's tenure has been a trainwreck. He should have been fired after the gambling scandel and fight with the USC coaches.

 

[FarWestTexas]

Slow. Clap.

 

[PositivelyPete]

Stull has been great. He was able to hire Mike Price and Tim Floyd at a time when zero other schools wanted to hire them. Both tried to leave after but decided that other schools had pressures of winning so they remained here since we lucky just to have them.

 

[jdubb66]

 

[miner661]

I'm not surprised in the least Tim Floyd is still the head coach. Much like Mike Price, he's an old retread, who was down on his luck, coming off a scandal, and needing a break to turn his luck around. Stull and Natalicio knew they'd remain loyal for a long period of time and at a relatively cheap price. Win-win for them!

 

[Lucaminer1]

I'm not surprised in the least Tim Floyd is still the head coach. Much like Mike Price, he's an old retread, who was down on his luck, coming off a scandal, and needing a break to turn his luck around. Stull and Natalicio knew they'd remain loyal for a long period of time and at a relatively cheap price. Win-win for them!

Problem is neither were all that loyal. They just couldn't get hired anywhere else. Both pursued other jobs.

 

[UTEPy79]

When your program is perceived as a stepping stone program - one in which you're constantly on the search for a new coach because you're either A. Successful and you're head coach is moving on to bigger greener meadows or B. Your program is in the suck. Those are the two basic positions. Right? So how to maintain a consistently successful program or build s successful program?

How about considering the successful coaching trees that exist in the landscape? UTEP has employed this method before. Haskins & the Iba tree. Barbee & the Calipari tree. Gillespie & the Kansas coach - prior to that Illini coach - the name escapes me...but anyway - he has a tree rooted in success.

This is where UTEP should be searching - when the coach leaves, tap into that pipeline and see who's available, who wants to coach and live in El Paso. Plenty of trees out there in that forest.

 

[miner661]

Gillispie came from the Bill Self-Larry Brown- Eddie Sutton-Hank Iba coaching tree.

 

[UTEPy79]

Thank you! My point is that's where the next coach should come from - a young & new assistant coach and a disciple of a specific winning program: be they from Coach K's cradle or from Gonzaga. No long term contracts (the max being a cycle of students that entered as freshmen and see their graduation), win or you're gone. While I appreciate the contributions made by Gillespie & Barbee - I'm not for a reintroduction of retreads into this program.