Joe on utepia

UTEP's problem I see

This is the problem with the Mike Price type of offense UTEP runs: There isn't somebody to run the ball on third down. It's all finesse; no opponent bodies getting shoved around.

They need the "big back" in there on third down. Finding such a person, who also has speed, is ... well, he's at bigger schools. But surely the Miners can recruit a power runner or three to have on the roster.

Anyway, if I'm an opponent, and UTEP has a third and three or four, I know the Miners will be passing, and I will adjust my defense. That cuts down on UTEP chances for success.

It's a constraint that hurts the Miners.

UTEP and seniors

There seems to be some concern that UTEP football may have only a dozen or so scholarship openings it can use to recruit new players for 2009. And you need more than THAT to keep a program balanced.

Usually you want to get 25 new guys (freshmen preferred) each recruiting year. Otherwise, you run into seasons LIKE THIS ONE when you have a shortage of veterans and you're heading to a losing season.

Give or take, the roster says there are just more than a dozen seniors these days.

Here are the NCAA rules, culled off a Google search on the Internet: In (Division I-A) Football, teams may provide scholarships to not more than 85 student-athletes, with up to 25 scholarships awarded to incoming student-athletes (e.g., freshmen, transfers, first-time aid recipients).

That means NEVER more than 85, but no more than 25 new guys each year.

That's why when part of an NCAA sanction is loss of scholarships (a la New Mexico), it takes a long time to eventually get back to the full compliment of 85.

Even if UTEP's roster shows it will return about 70 or so guys now on scholarship, that doesn't mean they'll all come back.

Some quit (usually guys who can't play). Some get booted (good riddens). Some flunk out.

Note: If someone is injured severely, they usually keep him on scholarship. It's the right thing to do.

Look for UTEP to find a way to recruit at, or near, the full compliment of 25 new guys so, in the perfect world, it will have a full class of fifth-year seniors five years down the road. It's rare to keep all 25 for five years (which includes a redshirt season). But if you retain 17 or 18 that's pretty good.

Recall Basketball Coach Tony Barbee, after his first year, found a way to get his recruits on the team. He ran off some of the supposed returnees. He found ways.

Hopefully Football Coach Mike Price won't use too many (very few) of his scholarships to get JC transfers (gambles as productive players), or guys who quit other schools (bigger gambles).

It's a bust!

UTEP showed a tremendous weakness, not just because it lost 77-35 at Tulsa Saturday. The new 3-3-5 defense, whatever THAT is, looks to be a bust. It's no better than last year's no-tackle defense that finished  among the worst five in America, and wherever else  football is played.

Many thought giving up in the 40s was bad all these weeks, or the 30s. Now what? It's just getting worse.

And when two offensive linemen got hobbled, the Miners' offense scored only seven of its 35 points. Two linemen go down and UTEP cannot move the ball against a team that hasn't been much good on defense, either.

It was already Game 7 of the season, and you're supposed to be getting better, not belly-flopping. When a team gives up 77 points, and it's not to a big-name school, your season is busted. It was a 0-3 start, then three wins to made it 3-3. Now this.

What lousy tackling all night - again. That's been a problem all season. And early in the game the tackling didn't even come into play because Tulsa was throwing bomb passes like in a neighborhood street game. "Throw a head fake, Slim, and then go deep. I'll hit you by the blue car parked by the fire hydrant."

It started with TD passes of 97, 51, 24 ... holy smokes. Tulsa had a whole game's worth of passing yardage on just first-quarter TD passes.

UTEP actually had a 28-28 tie after the first quarter (UTEP quarterback Trevor Vittatoe is good, by the way, THE asset of the team). Then two of its linemen went out. So Tulsa blitzed Vittatoe and UTEP was done for the night. There was no UTEP answer to that pressure on Vittatoe.

Meanwhile Tulsa would score three TDs in the second quarter, three more in the third and ... the scrubs got one in the fourth.

If UTEP can say its guys didn't give up ... well, is that good or bad?

If the Miners didn't give up, and they gave up 77 points ... whose going to paint a positive on THIS night?

New UTEP

UTEP continues to be different from UTEP teams in memory. OK, history. No? OK, between now and cavemen.

For Miner fans, this is a positive. UTEP is finding ways to, shall one say, not screw up so much - and win. Now that's "different." This is October. UTEP was 0-3 to start the season and now the Miners are 3-3. They've never gone from 0-3 to 3-3, at least not since YOU WERE BORN!

Saturday, in a home game vs. Tulane, the "different winning Miners" were controlled by the Green Wave in the first half. But the defense  allowed zero second-half points for the first time ...

I'm saying not going back in regular history they didn't do that, not second-half points. I'm saying that's finding the last time it happened was in an archeological dig.

And UTEP won 24-21 in a second-half defensive battle. Defensive battle in the second half?

It started from the depths of an 0-3 season start, what a loser! Then UTEP won a home game against Conference USA defending champ Central Florida. Fluke? Then UTEP went to Southern Mississippi and won. Do two flukes make a right? UTEP was an underdog in both games.

Then Tulane came to town, after having played Alabama tough in the season opener, but losing last week to woeful Army.

Tulane dominated the first half scoreboard. Same old UTEP. UTEP couldn't stop the running game, and Tulane wasn't even trying to whip a weak UTEP pass defense. UTEP was being UTEP once again.

Enter the different UTEP. The Miners had a second-half defense, not just in the cluth of a wild and high-scoring game, but they had a defense the whole second half.

The chronology: First the Miners halted an 0-3 start from being one of those 1-11 seasons - you've seen them SINCE YOU WERE BORN. Now they, for the first time this season, showed defensive moxie.

This is not a prediction the Miners will continue to roll; the opponents get tougher in the conference. This is just saying, the Miners are different ... IN YOUR LIFETIME.

Miners turn ... decades-long corner

UTEP has not done this before ... I want to say EVER! I'm going back 40 years.

Saturday's two-overtime win, 40-37 on the road at Southern Mississippi, was a turnaround, a note for halting a trend in history. It sure seems UTEP isn't the old UTEP anymore. Go  back to 0-3 starts since I-10 came through Downtown El Paso and then find two UTEP wins in a row over decent-talented opponents. And there's a voila! Holy smokes, I proclaim, it means UTEP, now 2-3, will likely defeat Tulane next weekend and the season that started 0-3 may not be a bust by early October. It might be 3-3 by early October.

Let's have an encore - 3-3! Raise your hand if you said 3-3 after the 0-3. I can't.

"Mike Price for mayor" might not be back yet, but "Mike Price outta here" is outta here. I'm saying, NO MINER TEAM has come from such depths before! No coach has coached this type of comeback.

OK, so a week ago Central Florida had to use a rookie, green, raw, freshman quarterback, and UTEP confused him. And Saturday Southern Miss wasn't a great passing team and had several key, dumb physical penalties in the clutch. Those guys were undisciplined. I'm saying, for once in a long time, UTEP wasn't the bunch of dummies when the plays mattered. UTEP was the mature-acting team.

Not seen here is an 0-3 team turn it around, as has UTEP, with last week's win over Central Florida and then on the road vs. Southern Mississippi Saturday. Maybe somebody can look it up, but 0-3 Miner teams don't go 2-3. And Tulane lost at home Saturday to Army. UTEP will beat Tulane in the Sun Bowl next weekend because Army is ... Army is not a good football team and UTEP looks be be an improving football team.

We're not talking bowl game for UTEP here. We're not even talking winning season (no winning season, I say) We're talking NOT A BUST!

It could have been a bust. UTEP could have succumbed, several times, in Hattiesburg, Miss., on Saturday. Other UTEP teams, over decades, succumbed. But guess what. The defense didn't play great Saturday. The offense didn't play great. But the team - the program - played tough enough to win a road game. Erase the "not great" with "didn't screw up."

One can't say that until now.