Good morning, Miner Nation. Thank you for your indulgence, I was wondering how well the sports media in El Paso covers UTEP athletics & Conference USA, is it sufficient in the eyes of most who root for the Miners, or is it unsatisfactory to the point where they sometimes have to be reminded about UTEP sports, as we've often had to do in Birmingham with UAB? Would love to hear/read your observations in the near future.

I hope that you have a successful football campaign in 2012.

IMO, they provide the basic coverage.

Reporters down here seem to be afraid to step on toes. They are afraid of losing access to the program's news items if they do.

Recruitment and movement within the program is not covered in depth. We have to get that type of info from the websites.

In short, the coverage seems to be aimed towards the UTEP casual fan.

(07-22-2012 02:06 PM)RUNVSFD MINER Wrote:  In short, the coverage seems to be aimed towards the UTEP casual fan.

This sums it up from what I remember back in EP. Although the radio shows provided more detail than television or the Times IMO. But it's definitely more coverage than most other programs in the conference. UTEP is lucky to be far enough away to avoid being completely drowned out by UT.

I forgot about Steve Kaplowitz. He does a pretty good job. But he is limited to his radio show.

He will also talk to the average fan off the street one-on-one about what is going on with UTEP.

(07-22-2012 02:06 PM)RUNVSFD MINER Wrote:  IMO, they provide the basic coverage.

Reporters down here seem to be afraid to step on toes. They are afraid of losing access to the program's news items if they do.

Recruitment and movement within the program is not covered in depth. We have to get that type of info from the websites.

In short, the coverage seems to be aimed towards the UTEP casual fan.

Thank you for sharing your opinion.
I'm glad to know that UTEP garners enough respect with the media that they don't want to get on the school's bad side, only UA carries that kind of weight in this state.

I've heard the term, "casual fan" used many times, but IMO, it carries more weight in some areas than in others...In Birmingham, my guess is that the ratio of "casual fans" for sporting events here is 7 out of 10. How about in a state that appears to be richly abundant in sports as Texas?

(07-22-2012 03:04 PM)Pyrizzo Wrote:  

(07-22-2012 02:06 PM)RUNVSFD MINER Wrote:  In short, the coverage seems to be aimed towards the UTEP casual fan.

This sums it up from what I remember back in EP. Although the radio shows provided more detail than television or the Times IMO. But it's definitely more coverage than most other programs in the conference. UTEP is lucky to be far enough away to avoid being completely drowned out by UT.

Amazing. You know, you're the second fan of a Conference USA school (new member Old Dominion) that has said that being far away from the so-called "Alpha Dog" of the college football climate in their given state works to their advantage. It sure as heck works for Auburn in the state of Alabama, being as far away from Tuscaloosa as they are, and the same can be said for significantly smaller programs here in the state that are not under the "iron fist" rule of the UA board of trustees, but UAB is less than an hour west of that wretched town, and they've gone out of their way to cast a shadow over this city to keep its' football program "in the dark" with all the power and resources, political, financial, you name it, at their disposal. Up to now, they've been pretty successful. Can't tell how important the next 2 seasons are to the future and overall survival of the UAB football program. Sean Connery's line in the 3rd "Indiana Jones" movie sums our plight up pretty good: "Son, we are pilgrims in an unholy land."

(07-22-2012 08:24 PM)Matrix Wrote:  

(07-22-2012 03:04 PM)Pyrizzo Wrote:  

(07-22-2012 02:06 PM)RUNVSFD MINER Wrote:  In short, the coverage seems to be aimed towards the UTEP casual fan.

This sums it up from what I remember back in EP. Although the radio shows provided more detail than television or the Times IMO. But it's definitely more coverage than most other programs in the conference. UTEP is lucky to be far enough away to avoid being completely drowned out by UT.

Amazing. You know, you're the second fan of a Conference USA school (new member Old Dominion) that has said that being far away from the so-called "Alpha Dog" of the college football climate in their given state works to their advantage. It sure as heck works for Auburn in the state of Alabama, being as far away from Tuscaloosa as they are, and the same can be said for significantly smaller programs here in the state that are not under the "iron fist" rule of the UA board of trustees, but UAB is less than an hour west of that wretched town, and they've gone out of their way to cast a shadow over this city to keep its' football program "in the dark" with all the power and resources, political, financial, you name it, at their disposal. Up to now, they've been pretty successful. Can't tell how important the next 2 seasons are to the future and overall survival of the UAB football program. Sean Connery's line in the 3rd "Indiana Jones" movie sums our plight up pretty good: "Son, we are pilgrims in an unholy land."

This is one of those reasons why I wasn't too fond of the addition of UTSA. I just don't think the fan support will hold up. I hope so for the sake of the conference but the UT shadow is dominant in the San Antonio area, just my opinion though. ODU is in a perfect position. I used to live in Va Beach and even attended an ODU game while I was there. There is way too much potential for ODU, in fact so much that I don't see them in CUSA's future for too long. UAB has definitely gotten the short end of the stick from the BoT in a big way, it's very unfortunate but hopefully their grasp will ween in time.

@Pyrizzo: Thank you, many here at UAB wishes we could break that grip that the BoT has on our athletic program sooner rather than later, there is a grassroots movement underway whose very mission is to do just that - FreeUAB.

Former head football coach Neil Callaway almost took our football program "down thru there" in the 5 miserable years that he was in charge of the team, although his teams handled Southern Miss well, to the tune of a 3 game winning streak against them after not being able to beat them for a decade, that was his biggest and only noteworthy accomplishment on the field. One of my co-workers told me that Callaway's related by marraige to one of alabama's biggest boosters, and that's how he got the job instead of Jimbo Fisher, who they said was "too expensive" for UAB (at $600k a year, half of which local businessmen offered to pony up 1/2 of his salary, which the BoT refused to allow) yet were willing to pay him more to play second fiddle behind saban at alabama...The handwriting was clearly on the wall at this board's intentions, to sabotage UAB's hire of a real football coach and add a vital component to alabama's crimson empire. You all know where Jimbo is now since that fiasco, Florida State made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and I don't blame him, but you can bet, many at UAB were furious with how close we were to having our first "impact" football coach, only for them to throw a monkey wrench in things and force-feeding us their choice for us...IMO, his mission was to kill our football program at their behest, and he almost succeeded. At one point in his tenure, he'd even gotten a contract extension after going 15-33 in 4 seasons, based on according to our AD, "his entire body of work" WTH?! I thought to myself, especially after the basketball season we had with UAB won its' first outright regular season conference title, Mike Davis won Conference Coach of the Year, but in addtion to not being given a contract extension, he was fired the following season after a dismal 12-18 (or somewhere around those numbers) record. In all fairness to him, he was really up against it, the Todd O'Brien fiasco, the death of two very close family members in his life in the same year, it had to be kind of overwhelming. If you were to ask most UAB fans, I'd be surprised if they didn't say that both departures were necessary for the future of UAB athletics, and both new hires have sort of re-energized our fan base due in part to the fact that neither coach has a connection or ties of any kind to the university of alabama, as Davis and Callaway had. Time will tell in terms of wins and losses, but most are happy with the direction we're heading, if our football team can just get out of that relic Legion Field and into an on campus stadium, watch the life force around here go thru the inosphere. Just the thing that the UA board of trustees and most members of the birmingham sports media don't want to see...September 1 will the day that shows me if we're in the early stages of a sports renaissance or not...