Coaching.

That's it.

UTEP will bounce back as soon as they hire good coaches. Mike Price was successful at UTEP because he was a really good coach. So quit hiring no name guys, and hire one REALLY, GOOD, head football coach to lead that program back. You need no further evidence that this strategy works than to look at the current state of FAU (Kiffin) or UNT (Littrell). Coaches matter.

(09-23-2018 02:47 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  Coaching.

That's it.

UTEP will bounce back as soon as they hire good coaches. Mike Price was successful at UTEP because he was a really good coach. So quit hiring no name guys, and hire one REALLY, GOOD, head football coach to lead that program back. You need no further evidence that this strategy works than to look at the current state of FAU (Kiffin) or UNT (Littrell). Coaches matter.

I complete agree 100%

The issue is not paying enough money. Why go to UTEP when you can coach at another G5 school for more money? I really hope the new President is more enthusiastic to athletics than the one who’s about to retire.

(09-23-2018 02:37 PM)jarmzet Wrote:  Does UTEP need to consider dropping down to FCS in football? How bad does it have to get before that becomes something they think about doing? Is their remote location just something they can't overcome?

Or would leaving CUSA and going to the MWC help?

I hope, and doubt, it will come to that. Can't imagine it would be helpful. Last night's crowd was 19k and while that is nothing to brag about, it's not bad for a game between 2 winless teams.

I think the Bulldog fan is right that it takes a good coach that understands the situation and whether any other Miner fans agree or not, I think Dimel can get it done. The team outplayed NMSU last night except for 2 plays. A blocked punt went for an Aggie TD and a fumble returned for another Aggie TD. The Miner D only gave up 13 points. The Miners won all the stats except the turnovers and more importantly, the scoreboard. As much as a loss like that pains us, this team is improving and I believe it will eventually be good enough to win. More recruiting and continuing to change the team culture needs to be done.

(09-23-2018 02:53 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 02:47 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  Coaching.

That's it.

UTEP will bounce back as soon as they hire good coaches. Mike Price was successful at UTEP because he was a really good coach. So quit hiring no name guys, and hire one REALLY, GOOD, head football coach to lead that program back. You need no further evidence that this strategy works than to look at the current state of FAU (Kiffin) or UNT (Littrell). Coaches matter.

I complete agree 100%

The issue is not paying enough money. Why go to UTEP when you can coach at another G5 school for more money? I really hope the new President is more enthusiastic to athletics than the one who’s about to retire.

If UTEP will just cough up about a $1M base salary, plus incentives, I guarantee you the Miners will get some impressive applicants, and some that can recruit from anywhere, to anywhere.

I would recommend a coach that runs a wide open offense, that throws the ball a lot. That's what Washington St, Boise St and even Texas Tech do in their "remote" areas. That's the blueprint to draw good athletes to remote areas. Good athletes will go to the schools that promote wide open offenses, because its more fun.

I remember when Sonny Dykes arrived at LA Tech in 2010, he started getting recruits from California (e.g., our starting QB Colby Cameron), Oregon (our 2-time Ray Guy award winning punter, Ray Allen, who is still with the NE Patriots), etc... to Ruston. Geography meant nothing to Dykes and his OC Tony Franklin. They recruited EVERYWHERE.

And if they can recruit California kids to the piney woods of Ruston, LA, they can darn sure recruit kids to El Paso.

That's what UTEP needs.

(09-23-2018 02:43 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 01:55 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 01:09 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  If Boise State could do it, so can UTEP.

Like Stanman505 mentioned, it’s about the money. Plain and simple. Increase the recruiting budget ASAP.

Do you really think recruiting California HS players to Boise is easy? Boise is in the middle of nowhere and far from California more so than El Paso is to the rest of Texas and Southern California. Boise is not an easy place to get to either and it could be expensive as well and let’s not even talk about the winters. The closest big cities they have are Salt Lake (5 hours), Portland (6 hours) and Seattle (8 hours). Sound familiar? They compete against the 23 schools in the Pac-12 and the MWC + BYU/NMSU for recruits. They play in the Mountain time zone just like UTEP and their region don’t produce much HS talent. Boise’s TV market is smaller than El Paso’s. Their stadium is nice but it’s not a match for the Sun Bowl. Academically, UTEP is superior.

So why a school that was at a worst disadvantage won three Fiesta Bowls in ten years and became the media’s darling? It wasn’t just luck. It was investing in their football program. They opened the pocketbooks when they lost coaches. Of course an upcoming young coach will bypass UTEP for the paltry salary we offer. Those guys eventually want to coach at a P5 school. It’s not worth the headache to rebuild UTEP for $500k if they can go to another struggling G5 that pays more and even if they fail, at least they made some money.

The only reason why I bring Boise up is because I’ve been hearing for years how El Paso sucks, how far it is, nobody wants to go there, there’s no local HS talent, it’s a poor town, there’s no money, too many schools recruiting the same players, and I can go on and on. Boise State is dealing with the same issues.

At least get the facts straight. UTEP spends more on recruiting than the other G5 Texas public schools. The head coach makes a base salary of $700,000 before any incentives kick in. If I’m not mistake Littrell at UNT who is the highest-paid coach in the conference started at about 800k. No G5 university can afford to drop a million dollar per year contract on an unproven coach. If Dimel can win games, he will be properly compensated. Until then his salary is fine and the large recruiting budget is available at his disposal.

With that way of thinking which is what most of the fanbase thinks, we will be forever a mediocre program. Can’t afford anything? Then drop to FCS and stop the charade of being a FBS program since all people do in El Paso is just complain and find excuses about the state of UTEP athletics.

I wouldn’t brag about having the highest recruiting budget of all G5 Texas schools either. Rice, Houston, North Texas, SMU, UTSA and Texas State have hundreds of HS recruits to their disposal on a 100 mile radius. UTEP doesn’t have that luxury.

I didn’t say we couldn’t afford to pay more I said it’s not wise to spend a high amount of money on an unproven coach. This is not a job opportunity that had Les Miles and other former fallen P5 coaches calling Senter in the middle of the night.

Not only the people in El Paso complain it seems so do the fans in Dallas. I don’t make excuses I’ve accepted our place in college football a long time ago. It’s best to realize the reality that historically and recently UTEP has been and is one of the worst football programs in the history of FBS football. This can’t be fixed overnight or in one year no matter how much money we throw at it. Of course I want things to change. In my lifetime I’ve only witnessed four winning seasons and many many many losing ones. I often wonder what I did before being born to receive such a cruel punishment.

I’m not bragging about having a higher recruiting budget than other Texas G5 schools I’m pointing out the flaw in your reasoning about increasing the recruiting budget. We already operate on a high recruiting budget. The problem lies in convincing those high school kids to leave home and move 500+ miles to go play football for the worst program in the nation.

(09-23-2018 03:11 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 02:43 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 01:55 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 01:09 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  If Boise State could do it, so can UTEP.

Like Stanman505 mentioned, it’s about the money. Plain and simple. Increase the recruiting budget ASAP.

Do you really think recruiting California HS players to Boise is easy? Boise is in the middle of nowhere and far from California more so than El Paso is to the rest of Texas and Southern California. Boise is not an easy place to get to either and it could be expensive as well and let’s not even talk about the winters. The closest big cities they have are Salt Lake (5 hours), Portland (6 hours) and Seattle (8 hours). Sound familiar? They compete against the 23 schools in the Pac-12 and the MWC + BYU/NMSU for recruits. They play in the Mountain time zone just like UTEP and their region don’t produce much HS talent. Boise’s TV market is smaller than El Paso’s. Their stadium is nice but it’s not a match for the Sun Bowl. Academically, UTEP is superior.

So why a school that was at a worst disadvantage won three Fiesta Bowls in ten years and became the media’s darling? It wasn’t just luck. It was investing in their football program. They opened the pocketbooks when they lost coaches. Of course an upcoming young coach will bypass UTEP for the paltry salary we offer. Those guys eventually want to coach at a P5 school. It’s not worth the headache to rebuild UTEP for $500k if they can go to another struggling G5 that pays more and even if they fail, at least they made some money.

The only reason why I bring Boise up is because I’ve been hearing for years how El Paso sucks, how far it is, nobody wants to go there, there’s no local HS talent, it’s a poor town, there’s no money, too many schools recruiting the same players, and I can go on and on. Boise State is dealing with the same issues.

At least get the facts straight. UTEP spends more on recruiting than the other G5 Texas public schools. The head coach makes a base salary of $700,000 before any incentives kick in. If I’m not mistake Littrell at UNT who is the highest-paid coach in the conference started at about 800k. No G5 university can afford to drop a million dollar per year contract on an unproven coach. If Dimel can win games, he will be properly compensated. Until then his salary is fine and the large recruiting budget is available at his disposal.

With that way of thinking which is what most of the fanbase thinks, we will be forever a mediocre program. Can’t afford anything? Then drop to FCS and stop the charade of being a FBS program since all people do in El Paso is just complain and find excuses about the state of UTEP athletics.

I wouldn’t brag about having the highest recruiting budget of all G5 Texas schools either. Rice, Houston, North Texas, SMU, UTSA and Texas State have hundreds of HS recruits to their disposal on a 100 mile radius. UTEP doesn’t have that luxury.

I didn’t say we couldn’t afford to pay more I said it’s not wise to spend a high amount of money on an unproven coach. This is not a job opportunity that had Les Miles and other former fallen P5 coaches calling Senter in the middle of the night.

Not only the people in El Paso complain it seems so do the fans in Dallas. I don’t make excuses I’ve accepted our place in college football a long time ago. It’s best to realize the reality that historically and recently UTEP has been and is one of the worst football programs in the history of FBS football. This can’t be fixed overnight or in one year no matter how much money we throw at it. Of course I want things to change. In my lifetime I’ve only witnessed four winning seasons and many many many losing ones. I often wonder what I did before being born to receive such a cruel punishment.

I’m not bragging about having a higher recruiting budget than other Texas G5 schools I’m pointing out the flaw in your reasoning about increasing the recruiting budget. We already operate on a high recruiting budget. The problem lies in convincing those high school kids to leave home and move 500+ miles to go play football for the worst program in the nation.

I’m not ready to give up yet. We can be way better. We have the Sun Bowl. We have a hungry fanbase that will show up like they did in 2000, 2004, 2005 and 2006. We’re that rare G5 that is capable of averaging 40k/10k in both revenue sports. It’s just so frustrating to see a school with so much potential and with many advantages that most G5 schools wish they had....... throw it away. Like you, I accepted a long time ago our place. We’re never going to be P5. The best we could do is the MWC. But at the same time, I’m not ready to settle for less when I see Boise State that shares the same struggles as UTEP being where they are and we can’t move past mediocrity.

(09-23-2018 03:23 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 03:11 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 02:43 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 01:55 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 01:09 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  If Boise State could do it, so can UTEP.

Like Stanman505 mentioned, it’s about the money. Plain and simple. Increase the recruiting budget ASAP.

Do you really think recruiting California HS players to Boise is easy? Boise is in the middle of nowhere and far from California more so than El Paso is to the rest of Texas and Southern California. Boise is not an easy place to get to either and it could be expensive as well and let’s not even talk about the winters. The closest big cities they have are Salt Lake (5 hours), Portland (6 hours) and Seattle (8 hours). Sound familiar? They compete against the 23 schools in the Pac-12 and the MWC + BYU/NMSU for recruits. They play in the Mountain time zone just like UTEP and their region don’t produce much HS talent. Boise’s TV market is smaller than El Paso’s. Their stadium is nice but it’s not a match for the Sun Bowl. Academically, UTEP is superior.

So why a school that was at a worst disadvantage won three Fiesta Bowls in ten years and became the media’s darling? It wasn’t just luck. It was investing in their football program. They opened the pocketbooks when they lost coaches. Of course an upcoming young coach will bypass UTEP for the paltry salary we offer. Those guys eventually want to coach at a P5 school. It’s not worth the headache to rebuild UTEP for $500k if they can go to another struggling G5 that pays more and even if they fail, at least they made some money.

The only reason why I bring Boise up is because I’ve been hearing for years how El Paso sucks, how far it is, nobody wants to go there, there’s no local HS talent, it’s a poor town, there’s no money, too many schools recruiting the same players, and I can go on and on. Boise State is dealing with the same issues.

At least get the facts straight. UTEP spends more on recruiting than the other G5 Texas public schools. The head coach makes a base salary of $700,000 before any incentives kick in. If I’m not mistake Littrell at UNT who is the highest-paid coach in the conference started at about 800k. No G5 university can afford to drop a million dollar per year contract on an unproven coach. If Dimel can win games, he will be properly compensated. Until then his salary is fine and the large recruiting budget is available at his disposal.

With that way of thinking which is what most of the fanbase thinks, we will be forever a mediocre program. Can’t afford anything? Then drop to FCS and stop the charade of being a FBS program since all people do in El Paso is just complain and find excuses about the state of UTEP athletics.

I wouldn’t brag about having the highest recruiting budget of all G5 Texas schools either. Rice, Houston, North Texas, SMU, UTSA and Texas State have hundreds of HS recruits to their disposal on a 100 mile radius. UTEP doesn’t have that luxury.

I didn’t say we couldn’t afford to pay more I said it’s not wise to spend a high amount of money on an unproven coach. This is not a job opportunity that had Les Miles and other former fallen P5 coaches calling Senter in the middle of the night.

Not only the people in El Paso complain it seems so do the fans in Dallas. I don’t make excuses I’ve accepted our place in college football a long time ago. It’s best to realize the reality that historically and recently UTEP has been and is one of the worst football programs in the history of FBS football. This can’t be fixed overnight or in one year no matter how much money we throw at it. Of course I want things to change. In my lifetime I’ve only witnessed four winning seasons and many many many losing ones. I often wonder what I did before being born to receive such a cruel punishment.

I’m not bragging about having a higher recruiting budget than other Texas G5 schools I’m pointing out the flaw in your reasoning about increasing the recruiting budget. We already operate on a high recruiting budget. The problem lies in convincing those high school kids to leave home and move 500+ miles to go play football for the worst program in the nation.

I’m not ready to give up yet. We can be way better. We have the Sun Bowl. We have a hungry fanbase that will show up like they did in 2000, 2004, 2005 and 2006. We’re that rare G5 that is capable of averaging 40k/10k in both revenue sports. It’s just so frustrating to see a school with so much potential and with many advantages that most G5 schools wish they had....... throw it away. Like you, I accepted a long time ago our place. We’re never going to be P5. The best we could do is the MWC. But at the same time, I’m not ready to settle for less when I see Boise State that shares the same struggles as UTEP being where they are and we can’t move past mediocrity.

I’m with you I’ll never give up on UTEP as bad as it has been. At first I wasn’t happy with the Dimel hire. After we lost to NAU I felt like they proved me right on how bad of a hire it was. After reading thoughts on the hiring process I’ve learned to be patient with this hire. A lot of coaches didn’t want the job due to the roster. Jones and Hernandez made up for the terrible amount of talent. Had those two guys never shown up for UTEP we could be looking at 30 game losing streak right now.

While I would have loved for us to pay one million plus to land a Dykes kind of hire the sad truth is, they didn’t want the job. Dimel did, and he’s been part of a similar rebuild project at KSTATE. When him and Snyder rebuilt that program they were the worst team in the nation. Worst case scenario he doesn’t turn us into a winner but he will improve the overall talent and state of the program. So that if he fails the next time we need a coach someone with more credentials will not be afraid to take the job. If we are being 100% honest the way Kugler left the program it could turn into career suicide for whoever took over it.

UTEP can get it done, but it is going to take some luck to substantially move up. An isolated location has it benefits with a fanbase with few sports alternatives to UTEP.

However, recruiting has to be a problem. There are just not many football players in that area. They have to continue to recruit California hard and concentrate on all the jucos that state produces.

This hire a great coach concept would really work anywhere. The problem is how to identify those coaches before they establish themselves at a college HC level. Highly sought coaches are not going to El Paso. UTEP has had success with name coaches who lost favor, but they are also a gamble.

UTEP needs to find some answers for their benefit and CUSA.

Butch Jones?

(09-23-2018 02:53 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 02:47 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  Coaching.

That's it.

UTEP will bounce back as soon as they hire good coaches. Mike Price was successful at UTEP because he was a really good coach. So quit hiring no name guys, and hire one REALLY, GOOD, head football coach to lead that program back. You need no further evidence that this strategy works than to look at the current state of FAU (Kiffin) or UNT (Littrell). Coaches matter.

I complete agree 100%

The issue is not paying enough money. Why go to UTEP when you can coach at another G5 school for more money? I really hope the new President is more enthusiastic to athletics than the one who’s about to retire.

Bullcrap it's hardly ever about how much your first contract is for....

the key part of a first time FBS coach is not the dollar amount. It's the chance to prove yourself and move up to the big dollars. There's only 36 asst coaches in all of FBS making more than $700,000. Being in a club of only 130 head coaches has value to it more than that first contract.

The previous 3 Western coaches started out at $500k and $750k (BP)

Skip Holtz won 9 games 3 out of 4 seasons at Tech making $700k or less

Doc Holliday won 10+ games 3 years in a row and 8 or more in 4 out of 5 making around $700k

Scott Satterfield (Appy) makes under $700k and won 11,10, 9 games in the last 3 seasons

It's about getting the correct coach playing the correct system to a hard to recruit to place. I personally think UTEP needs to be more like those schools that play the triple option....easier to recruit undersize skill players

Do you really think it takes $900k or a million dollars to find a Mason Fine? His offers include UNT and Austin Peay and without Mason Fine UNT is most likely over paying it's head coach. Who btw I believe was recruited by their former coach. At the G5 level its about spotting under value talent and then developing oit and a system to show case the talent.

I have a feeling UTEP is like most G5 Texas schools that still believe they are playing football in the 80s....smash mouth football where you try to line up and run it down the other teams throat to win a 21-14 game. Those type of players it takes to do just that go to the top schools and not many HS football programs play that style.

(09-23-2018 01:09 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  If Boise State could do it, so can UTEP.

Like Stanman505 mentioned, it’s about the money. Plain and simple. Increase the recruiting budget ASAP.

Do you really think recruiting California HS players to Boise is easy? Boise is in the middle of nowhere and far from California more so than El Paso is to the rest of Texas and Southern California. Boise is not an easy place to get to either and it could be expensive as well and let’s not even talk about the winters. The closest big cities they have are Salt Lake (5 hours), Portland (6 hours) and Seattle (8 hours). Sound familiar? They compete against the 23 schools in the Pac-12 and the MWC + BYU/NMSU for recruits. They play in the Mountain time zone just like UTEP and their region don’t produce much HS talent. Boise’s TV market is smaller than El Paso’s. Their stadium is nice but it’s not a match for the Sun Bowl. Academically, UTEP is superior.

So why a school that was at a worst disadvantage won three Fiesta Bowls in ten years and became the media’s darling? It wasn’t just luck. It was investing in their football program. They opened the pocketbooks when they lost coaches. Of course an upcoming young coach will bypass UTEP for the paltry salary we offer. Those guys eventually want to coach at a P5 school. It’s not worth the headache to rebuild UTEP for $500k if they can go to another struggling G5 that pays more and even if they fail, at least they made some money.

The only reason why I bring Boise up is because I’ve been hearing for years how El Paso sucks, how far it is, nobody wants to go there, there’s no local HS talent, it’s a poor town, there’s no money, too many schools recruiting the same players, and I can go on and on. Boise State is dealing with the same issues.

Two words: blue turf.

UTEP... you must therefore install orange turf. Bright orange. Do it.

Thank me later.

Do we have any QB's that could replace grundy or his backup? Frank Harris is practicing and are those other 3*'s RS'ing?

I think TXST and UTSA moving up have hurt UTEP.

(09-24-2018 03:36 AM)Irish Rowdy Wrote:  I think TXST and UTSA moving up have hurt UTEP.

It definitely hasn’t helped, but it hasn’t affected us that much. The main reason being we weren’t competing for the same recruits. Kugler’s recruiting involved opening the El Paso Times looking at the all city high school football teams and sending them all scholarships. Since no one else wanted those players he had about a 90% success rate. The 10% that declined were the actual athletes we needed, but they had P5 offers.

Going forward I think it will make an impact as Dimel and his staff have already made offers to recruits being target by the CUSA and Sun Belt Texas schools.

The problem at UTEP began around 2007-2008. The team performance and recruiting declined. It was at the moment that any AD with some courage would have made the move to bring in a new younger coach. The program was in much better shape averaging 40k per season and under the .500 mark. A lot of coaches would have been interested. Instead Stull kept Price around because they were such good friends and we watched for seven straight years as the program deteriorated. When Price retired Stull got us into a bigger mess with the Kugler hire. An offensive line coach who had never been a coordinator. Personal problems in the late stage of his career took his focus away from football. Despite how awful the team looked Stull still couldn’t have the courage to let his buddy go. Thankfully Kugler walked away on his own.

(09-23-2018 09:44 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 02:53 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 02:47 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  Coaching.

That's it.

UTEP will bounce back as soon as they hire good coaches. Mike Price was successful at UTEP because he was a really good coach. So quit hiring no name guys, and hire one REALLY, GOOD, head football coach to lead that program back. You need no further evidence that this strategy works than to look at the current state of FAU (Kiffin) or UNT (Littrell). Coaches matter.

I complete agree 100%

The issue is not paying enough money. Why go to UTEP when you can coach at another G5 school for more money? I really hope the new President is more enthusiastic to athletics than the one who’s about to retire.

Bullcrap it's hardly ever about how much your first contract is for....

the key part of a first time FBS coach is not the dollar amount. It's the chance to prove yourself and move up to the big dollars. There's only 36 asst coaches in all of FBS making more than $700,000. Being in a club of only 130 head coaches has value to it more than that first contract.

The previous 3 Western coaches started out at $500k and $750k (BP)

Skip Holtz won 9 games 3 out of 4 seasons at Tech making $700k or less

Doc Holliday won 10+ games 3 years in a row and 8 or more in 4 out of 5 making around $700k

Scott Satterfield (Appy) makes under $700k and won 11,10, 9 games in the last 3 seasons

It's about getting the correct coach playing the correct system to a hard to recruit to place. I personally think UTEP needs to be more like those schools that play the triple option....easier to recruit undersize skill players

Do you really think it takes $900k or a million dollars to find a Mason Fine? His offers include UNT and Austin Peay and without Mason Fine UNT is most likely over paying it's head coach. Who btw I believe was recruited by their former coach. At the G5 level its about spotting under value talent and then developing oit and a system to show case the talent.

I have a feeling UTEP is like most G5 Texas schools that still believe they are playing football in the 80s....smash mouth football where you try to line up and run it down the other teams throat to win a 21-14 game. Those type of players it takes to do just that go to the top schools and not many HS football programs play that style.

You're completely ignoring the problem; that UTEP is situated at least 700 miles from the nearest P5 university, and is destined to be a geographic outlier in any conference it decides to join. This means it's going to take more peso's to get a great coach to come to El Paso, vs almost any other FBS school in the country. Hence the big up front money contract.

As G5's go, UTEP already has a big football budget, a great fan base, wonderful athletic facilities, and a friendly local media to help support the program. The ONLY thing missing, is a great football coach. And that's gonna cost 'em.

UTEP has a good coach. It's just going to take time to right the ship.

(09-24-2018 05:57 PM)Noodles Wrote:  UTEP has a good coach. It's just going to take time to right the ship.

You CAN'T be serious! From 2000 to 2002, Dimel was 8-26 as the head coach at the University of Houston, including 5-17 in conference play, and an 0-11 year in 2001. And since arriving at UTEP, he's 0-4.

Why would you possibly say such an irresponsible thing?

(09-24-2018 05:42 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 09:44 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 02:53 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(09-23-2018 02:47 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  Coaching.

That's it.

UTEP will bounce back as soon as they hire good coaches. Mike Price was successful at UTEP because he was a really good coach. So quit hiring no name guys, and hire one REALLY, GOOD, head football coach to lead that program back. You need no further evidence that this strategy works than to look at the current state of FAU (Kiffin) or UNT (Littrell). Coaches matter.

I complete agree 100%

The issue is not paying enough money. Why go to UTEP when you can coach at another G5 school for more money? I really hope the new President is more enthusiastic to athletics than the one who’s about to retire.

Bullcrap it's hardly ever about how much your first contract is for....

the key part of a first time FBS coach is not the dollar amount. It's the chance to prove yourself and move up to the big dollars. There's only 36 asst coaches in all of FBS making more than $700,000. Being in a club of only 130 head coaches has value to it more than that first contract.

The previous 3 Western coaches started out at $500k and $750k (BP)

Skip Holtz won 9 games 3 out of 4 seasons at Tech making $700k or less

Doc Holliday won 10+ games 3 years in a row and 8 or more in 4 out of 5 making around $700k

Scott Satterfield (Appy) makes under $700k and won 11,10, 9 games in the last 3 seasons

It's about getting the correct coach playing the correct system to a hard to recruit to place. I personally think UTEP needs to be more like those schools that play the triple option....easier to recruit undersize skill players

Do you really think it takes $900k or a million dollars to find a Mason Fine? His offers include UNT and Austin Peay and without Mason Fine UNT is most likely over paying it's head coach. Who btw I believe was recruited by their former coach. At the G5 level its about spotting under value talent and then developing oit and a system to show case the talent.

I have a feeling UTEP is like most G5 Texas schools that still believe they are playing football in the 80s....smash mouth football where you try to line up and run it down the other teams throat to win a 21-14 game. Those type of players it takes to do just that go to the top schools and not many HS football programs play that style.

You're completely ignoring the problem; that UTEP is situated at least 700 miles from the nearest P5 university, and is destined to be a geographic outlier in any conference it decides to join. This means it's going to take more peso's to get a great coach to come to El Paso, vs almost any other FBS school in the country. Hence the big up front money contract.

As G5's go, UTEP already has a big football budget, a great fan base, wonderful athletic facilities, and a friendly local media to help support the program. The ONLY thing missing, is a great football coach. And that's gonna cost 'em.

Explain to me how money will fix UTEP other problems? As far as a great coach that's not happening unless you hire one with baggage that no P5 will touch till they prove they corrected what ever baggage they had. In that case money isn't the most important part of their contract.

I grew up in El Paso and was a miner fan when i was minor. I remember being Wille Cager in the driveway. I went to many miner games while in high school and there were games that we lost as much as 86-6 (I think it was Utah). I remember Arizona State saying Utep did not belong in the WAC. Utep beat them that year. It is has always been tough to win in El Paso. A few good teams have popped up now and then but they can never seem to keep it going. I think location has a lot to do with. Utep sits on an island in the desert. It is not close to anything.

UTEP is my second favorite team in CUSA. I hate to see them at this point but there is always hope. I am a UNT alumni and a big fan. We at UNT are not that far removed from where UTEP is now.

Keep the faith and give the coach some time to turn it around. You have to have his type of players in his system. He has the left overs from the previous coach and it is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

There is only one game I am not cheering for UTEP so hang in there it has to get better.

Oh yeah I had Billy Stevens for a teacher at Magoffin Junior High after his pro football career ended at Green Bay.

While many will disagree with me, I do see some improvement with this team. Injuries are part of the game but I don't think there are many teams/coaches in UTEP's situation that could have overcome losing the best THREE offensive linemen in the program over the first three games, two of them just five days before the season opened. Having to play THREE freshmen on the offensive line would be hard for any CUSA team. There is one area that needs to be cleaned up and that is the mental mistakes. UTEP has committed way to many penalties and turned the ball over. If this improves the team will get some wins.