UTEP and Texas Tech sign another home and home

[STCarlosEP]

It's always easier for a new coach to turn around a losing program. They can come in with all sorts of promises because they're is no one that can refute their promises. Happened with Kugler and all other new coaches.

Every school plays the Big boys. UTEP isn't the only G5 school playing 2 P5 teams this year or any year. Right now UTEP can offer a chance to win and a chance to play in a bowl game thanks to their modest success last year.

Only a loser would choose UMass over UTEP right now solely because they are playing Notre Dame this season. No kid chooses schools based on the P5 schools they will likely lose to.

I guarantee UTEP and Kugler are not trying to sell kids because they're playing Arkansas and Texas Tech next year. He's selling them on our facilities, what they accomplished last year and what they can accomplish.

 

[Tribalwarriorx]

It's always easier for a new coach to turn around a losing program. They can come in with all sorts of promises because they're is no one that can refute their promises. Happened with Kugler and all other new coaches.

Every school plays the Big boys. UTEP isn't the only G5 school playing 2 P5 teams this year or any year. Right now UTEP can offer a chance to win and a chance to play in a bowl game thanks to their modest success last year.

Only a loser would choose UMass over UTEP right now solely because they are playing Notre Dame this season. No kid chooses schools based on the P5 schools they will likely lose to.

I guarantee UTEP and Kugler are not trying to sell kids because they're playing Arkansas and Texas Tech next year. He's selling them on our facilities, what they accomplished last year and what they can accomplish.

I'm sure Kugler is but that wasn't what we were talking about. You keep focusing on losing. That's not how you sell your program to a recruit. And for the record, no "loser" picks UMass soley because they're playing Notre Dame. They pick UMass because of the opportunity to play and make a difference, aka, help build that program.

By the way, kids DO choose schools based on the P5 schools a program will play against, especially if they're not being recruited by one of those schools.

Last point, I'm very confident Kugler is not only selling them on the program, the facilities and the opportunity of playing D1 at UTEP, he's not ducking Arkansas and Texas Tech being on the schedule.

 

[Miners Fight]

not all players have several options. most pick the school that recruited them regardless of who the team will play or winning records and bowl games. they want to go somewhere close to home where they will get playing time and their families will get to see their games. if a player has the choice of going to UTEP and playing early or sitting on the bench at Oklahoma for a few years, which do you think he would take? sure, Oklahoma is a great team with annual national championship aspirations. a recruiting class of about 25 out of a few thousand players precludes most players from serious consideration. so to be realistic they have to go to their second, third, fourth or more of their choices. why do you suppose there are so many transfers? the answer is always the same. they were recruited with promises of playing time, then didn't get any. so what good did it do to choose a school based on competition only to learn that you'll be sitting in the student section at kickoff time?

 

[Tribalwarriorx]

Excellent points. There are a lot of particulars that recruits and their parents take into consideration before making that decision. This is also a good opportunity for smaller schools to make their strongest pitch of playing time and schedule. They have to push those notes of playing time and schedule hard and fast. The sales pitch works better when you have a few big schools sprinkled in a small school schedule. However, even then, athletes will choose the bigger schools because of family or player favorites, the lure of playing at a big school or even being on tv more often than not. In the end, just like Miners Fight said, some of these kids roll back into a smaller school after a year or two of disillusionment with being at a bigger one.