UTEP sports blog: Joe Muench has been a sports writer and a sports editor in El Paso for decades, but he’s best known as the columnist everyone loves to talk about. His UTEP athletics blog starts up the conversation again.
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You can listen to or download the latest UTEP football podcast, featuring KTSM's Beau Bagley and El Paso Times presentation editor Pablo Villa, by clicking here. Joe Muench had to miss this one, but don't worry Miner fans, he'll be back soon.
Also, you can hear post-game audio from UTEP's victory over Texas Southern by clicking here.
Saturday's UTEP win over Texas Southern was supposed to happen. This week will likely tell what will happen as far as having a good season goes.
SMU and UTEP are quasi equals. Although UTEP is on the road, there's not a big SMU fandom that makes it difficult to play at their place in Dallas. Like most major cities in the country, the college team is not the favorite team. Also, SMU is a ritzy school where graduates go on not to wear the proverbial blue collars to work, but blue suits and pants suits. Raider fans, or Miner fans, they are not.
Don't buy any arguments that one game is just one game, and after this there are still seven chances to win. A decent football team will beat SMU. A team in trouble won't. And UTEP is a question mark.
This blog pointed out preseason that the cold, hard numbers showed UTEP finishing 3-9 this season. Based on that, the Miners should have been 1-3 so far, but are 2-2 because they beat New Mexico, which is a so-so team like SMU.
I'm saying a win over SMU, not predicted preseason, and the mental pick-em-up it would provide, might be the catalyst the Miners need to make 2007 more successful than most people figured.
UTEP Coach Mike Price doesn't talk about injured players the week before a game. In the NFL, all injuries are public — it's a league rule.
What do you think about Price's policy? I have an opinion, but I'm asking, anyway.
At question this week are the two marquee players, the Florida State transfer receivers Lorne Sam and Fred Rouse. They are game-breakers, and if they don't play UTEP is not at its best.
Sam has a foot injury, Rouse a sore knee. The injuries are only serious enough (we guess) that we're not sure if they'll play against Texas Southern Saturday, or not. Sam did not practice all last week, and Price had closed practices so no one would find out about his injury. He was used sparingly against New Mexico State.
If I'm going to take the family to the game, I might want to know if I'm going to see the whole team, or not.
The NFL provides all injury information to the media:
DNP - Did not practice; Limited - Limited participation in practice; Full - Full participation in practice. It's for betting reasons. It cuts down on "inside information" that can be used in wagering on point spreads.
I think colleges should be required to keep the public informed, as does the NFL. We know millions of people gamble $millions every week on college football.
I say be above board. Then nobody has secret, inside information.
Example, when injuries aren't public, someone real close to the team can turn that into profit-making venture. Perhaps a roommate of a player?
Perhaps its not THAT serious an issue. But why not be above board, just like the NFL.
No wonder UTEP's two "name" players aren't touching the ball. They're hurt. So Coach Mike Price said Monday.
In three games, Loren Sam and Fred Rouse, receivers, are averaging seven touches between them a game. They should have three or four times that many chances. They both have game-breaking speed.
Price said he closed practices all last week to cover up the fact that Sam has a hurt foot. Sam didn't practice all week, Price said. Rouse has a banged knee, although he looked good in Saturday's loss to the Aggies.
Those two are UTEP's speed-and-skills players who have to be the stars. They have to get their hands on the ball. Sam has to carry it on the ground more than the 3.3 carries he's averaging now. Between them, they've caught only 12 passes in three games.
Gotta use one's stars.
UTEP had nothing in the second half against New Mexico State Saturday. Big questions arise. One has to ask, why was THAT? Does UTEP have a defense this year? Does UTEP have an offense? Why didn't UTEP buckle down and beat the littler guy? Where was that tough mentality that held on to beat New Mexico in the season opener?
It darn sure wasn't there Saturday. And that is a bad omen for 2007. The Miners barely beat a mediocre New Mexico in the season opener in El Paso, got smashed in the second half by Texas Tech in Lubbock and then got the same from smaller New Mexico State up the road in Las Cruces.
It was a rivalry game, sure. But if UTEP is to be a bigger football program, it has to get past the thinking that every Miner-Aggie game is an exciting clash of rivals where "any team can win." The Miners should just plain win these games. It was the 85th meeting between the two schools, and UTEP died in the second half - of a RIVALRY game. That's not the bigger school taking charge of the littler school, like it says on the UTEP blueprint for future success. What the? UTEP failed in losing 29-24 Saturday in Las Cruces. UTEP was never in control. It was more than a five-point loss.
UTEP is the bigger program in the bigger city with a lot more money. It was an important game. If you're planning on a good season, you don't die against your rival. This wasn't UTEP putting up a game effort, only to be worn down by a bigger guy like Texas Tech, as was the case last week. This is where you're supposed to kick the littler guy every time - because it's important to do so.
It is not supposed to be New Mexico State dominating.
Starting from late in the third quarter, UTEP stopped the Aggies not even once in six straight series. The only two times the Aggies didn't score was when their kicker missed short field goals.
Offensively, the Miners had no driving offense except on one occasion all game. They scored on a 100-yard interception return and because they had a long kick return. There was no physical kicking around of the Aggies. At no time did they beat upon the Aggies with muscle or deftness.
UTEP was kicked a big step backward Saturday.
How to defeat New Mexico State's national-class passing attack, taken from World history events:
In the old days, before a lot of bombs, the Russians allowed their enemies to invade their land. "C'mon in, boys." And the Russians would basically step aside, step aside, step aside.
All of a sudden, the enemies would freeze to death out there. You can't fight the Russians on the ground, as Germany learned in World War II. The ground is frozen so much of the year.
Enter Saturday's UTEP game at NMSU:
Let the Aggies have the short passing game. Give it to them. Point to open spots just across the line of scrimmage, if the Miners have to. "Pass right here, Aggies. We won't stop you."
The rationale is that it's difficult for any college team to run eight or more plays without messing up. Eight short gains don't net many touchdowns. One screw-up in there and you're likely forced to punt.
The reasons it's difficult to score:
Get a no-gain on a run.
Worse, have a run or sack for a loss.
Or, there's the chance of a penalty.
Orrrrr, turnovers.
Once you make a mistake, and the defense is allowing only short gains, it's tough to get enough first downs to get in position to score many touchdowns.
I didn't make this up.
When close-by football rivals play, the week before the game brings on spy stories. They are about spies from one school sneaking into the other school's practice to see if they can learn any secrets (injuries, trick plays, etc). Saturday UTEP plays 45-miles up the road at New Mexico State. It will be the 85th meeting between the two.
Here are three NMSU spy stories I recall from the past:
Late 1960s: NMSU spotted two Colorado State spies at practice. Coaches, trainers and student managers chased them on foot. Then it turned into a car chase around campus. The outmanned CSU spies were caught. They were frog-marched into the NMSU AD's office, and the angry NMSU guys called the CSU athletic director to report this terrible, cheating act. The CSU AD said: "If you're not smart enough to spy on us, too, then it's you're problem." And he hung up the phone.
Early 1970s: At a Thursday SMU Mustang practice in Dallas, there was a loud "crack!" and the sound of leaves rustling. The NMSU sports information director had fallen out of a tree next to the practice field, his clipboard and binoculars crashing into the ground, too.
Late 1970s-early 1980s: New Mexico State coach Gil Krueger was honestly convinced that an orange plane flying over his practice the week of an Aggie-Miner game was manned by UTEP spies. He just KNEW it!
It was Krueger who, while going through a walk-through practice in Wichita, Kan., the day before the game, spotted a head bobbing in the pressbox. First he'd see it, then it would be gone. It seemed like every time he looked, it would bob down. A spy! He sent some of his assistants up — about a 100 rows up. And they were running. They found the Wichita State University janitor mopping the pressbox floor.
Anyone else have some spy stories? I asked UTEP Coach Mike Price if he had any. He said he had a lot, and, yes, they are a lot of fun, he said.
No, UTEP didn't almost beat Texas Tech Saturday. The "almost" part was in the first half when UTEP took a 21-7 lead. Then the pinata got busted. It was the bigger school's party, after all.
Tech won 45-31, scoring five times in a row and holding UTEP to three points in the second half.
Tech was supposed to win by three-plus touchdowns, so the final score was not embarrasing for UTEP. The Miners are a Conference USA team against a Big 12 team. That's middle class vs. real big. When it came time to take control, UTEP dropped passes, got tagged with penalties and even at the end of the game fumbled on the Tech 2 yard line.
This was a case of what usually happens: The little guy gets his pinata busted, just like the odds-makers predicted. It usually only takes the halftime adjustments, and that happened Saturday. Tech coaches figured out how to get their bigger, faster guys to thumb down the lesser aggressor.
Heading into this week's game at those New Mexico State Aggies, Miner fans have this to ponder: UTEP beat New Mexico 10-6. Where was the offense? The defense was great that night. UTEP then lost to Texas Tech 45-31. The offense was there. Where was the defense?
Here's the best UTEP can get out of its game at Texas Tech Saturday. Both Tech and Sept. 15 road opponent New Mexico State have the same type of fast-pass attacks.
While UTEP is getting poleaxed against Tech of the Big 12 Conference, at least it will be boning up on how to play against NMSU, a member of the WAC.
This is the new offense that has taken over for the wishbone, which was taken over by the option. Football always has something new.
For example, many wishbone and option teams were those who could not recruit big, tough, players with speed. So they countered with deft speed, thus negating as much need for physical strength.
This pass offense does the same. You can't sack the quarterback because he's got the pass into the air before you can get near him. It's short pass after short pass with a few down-the-fields thrown in when the defense stops rushing out of frustration and clogs its players to stop the shortie.
I don't think UTEP will come close to Tech score-wise, although the Miners played this quarterback a close game last year, losing 38-35 in overtime in the Sun Bowl. Remember, that was early in the season when the Miners were still the "best Miner team in decades."
This year UTEP plays at smaller New Mexico State, not at home in the Sun Bowl. The Miners' chance against NMSU is boning up on defending the fast-pass against Tech.
Guest post from Online Editor Jay Koester: Check out the first UTEP Miner football podcast featuring Joe Muench by clicking here.
And, as always, you can find all your UTEP sports news at Miners Mania.
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