From a simple eye test, I thought that UTEP looked like the more talented team last night and that talent gap is not something that I saw during the NAU or Houston Baptist games. So there appears to possibly be some program improvement in that area. When you have a talent gap between two teams, then you would expect that the longer that the game goes on, that the more talented team would eventually begin to show itself(settle in, if you will) and that is exactly what happened last night. After intially falling down 14-3, I don’t think that there is much doubt that UTEP controlled the remainder of game. After the first 18 minutes, UTEP won the remainder of the game 21-0 which frankly is a level of dominance that UTEP football has rarely shown.
Dana Dimel has presented an interesting dilema, in that I do believe that he has increased the talent level on this team(which is usually more than half the battle when recruiting to El Paso), yet it appears that he is also not getting the most out of his offense through his own play calling. Last year, we mentioned that him swallowing his pride, retiring the play calling duties, and letting an actual offensive coordinator come in to run the show(while he focuses on just being the Head Coach and recruiting) might be the best way to to go. After 1/12th of this season, I still feel like this change would probably be the best option. I am not going to pretend that we are suddenly a super talented team, but I do feel like we now have enough assets to produce more effectiveness than what is being shown.
The biggest concern for me is that Dimel’s offense is still consistently putting itself in tough 3rd down situations. We appear to waste 1st and 2nd down too many times. The only difference between last night and last year is that Hardison and the WR’s bailed Dimel out with a number of great 3rd down throws and catches.
Like the Kugler days, there are still too many times when UTEP runs right into a stacked defensive front. My small hope is that if Hardison eventually gets audible authority(again last night was barely his frist ever start), then he should start having a field day audibling into passing plays when he gets these atacked fronts, instead of just smashing our RB’s into them for a 2 yard gain.
Dimel needs to get rid of the Brownholtz QB run. Dimel has shown a bad habit of wasting a couple of drives by running his QB, just so he can set up a QB read pass later in the game. It’s not worth wasting a drive or two, just so you can sneak your TE or FB out for a 15 yard gain later in the game.
Hardison, Hankins, and Cowing all have a chance to be really good players for our conference level.
Overall, I am not as down on the defense as a lot of the posts that I have read. They held SFA to only 97 total yards rushing and only 133 total passing yards. Those are elite numbers and frankly that is exactly what a solid defense should do to a lower level team. There is a consistent soft spot in pass defense, that is located about 8 yards down field on both hashes. That correction will need to be identified. I can certainly foresee a number of defensive issues from our defense this season, but last night was not a bad overall performance.
I thought that Moss was as good as advertised and I was really pleased with Knight as well. Kmight looks like a very interesting player. After Ortega got ejected, we only had 2 D-linemen in our rotation who had ever played in a D1 game before last night.
I posted last week to look out for Hankins in the wildcat on the goal line and we scored a TD last night with that exact same play. I also mentioned that there was some cautioness with Wadley and he surprisingly finished with only 3 carries last night, but my fear is that his missing the 2nd half might be more of a concern than just being cautious.
Dana Dimel has presented an interesting dilema, in that I do believe that he has increased the talent level on this team(which is usually more than half the battle when recruiting to El Paso), yet it appears that he is also not getting the most out of his offense through his own play calling. Last year, we mentioned that him swallowing his pride, retiring the play calling duties, and letting an actual offensive coordinator come in to run the show(while he focuses on just being the Head Coach and recruiting) might be the best way to to go. After 1/12th of this season, I still feel like this change would probably be the best option. I am not going to pretend that we are suddenly a super talented team, but I do feel like we now have enough assets to produce more effectiveness than what is being shown.
The biggest concern for me is that Dimel’s offense is still consistently putting itself in tough 3rd down situations. We appear to waste 1st and 2nd down too many times. The only difference between last night and last year is that Hardison and the WR’s bailed Dimel out with a number of great 3rd down throws and catches.
Like the Kugler days, there are still too many times when UTEP runs right into a stacked defensive front. My small hope is that if Hardison eventually gets audible authority(again last night was barely his frist ever start), then he should start having a field day audibling into passing plays when he gets these atacked fronts, instead of just smashing our RB’s into them for a 2 yard gain.
Dimel needs to get rid of the Brownholtz QB run. Dimel has shown a bad habit of wasting a couple of drives by running his QB, just so he can set up a QB read pass later in the game. It’s not worth wasting a drive or two, just so you can sneak your TE or FB out for a 15 yard gain later in the game.
Hardison, Hankins, and Cowing all have a chance to be really good players for our conference level.
Overall, I am not as down on the defense as a lot of the posts that I have read. They held SFA to only 97 total yards rushing and only 133 total passing yards. Those are elite numbers and frankly that is exactly what a solid defense should do to a lower level team. There is a consistent soft spot in pass defense, that is located about 8 yards down field on both hashes. That correction will need to be identified. I can certainly foresee a number of defensive issues from our defense this season, but last night was not a bad overall performance.
I thought that Moss was as good as advertised and I was really pleased with Knight as well. Kmight looks like a very interesting player. After Ortega got ejected, we only had 2 D-linemen in our rotation who had ever played in a D1 game before last night.
I posted last week to look out for Hankins in the wildcat on the goal line and we scored a TD last night with that exact same play. I also mentioned that there was some cautioness with Wadley and he surprisingly finished with only 3 carries last night, but my fear is that his missing the 2nd half might be more of a concern than just being cautious.