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).

Comments

[Masala]

Could we recruit some Tulsa castoffs?

[Who's your Mumme]

Juco's can come in help right away. The problem is that they are good for only two years.

Freshmen usually need a redshirt to get stronger and catch up to the speed of the game. The good thing is thay they can help you up to five (scout team) years.

It's a balancing act every Winter. Juco or not Juco? That's the question.

[CLEOFITZWITZ]

Horrible news about Brandis Dew. His career is over but fortunately, his life is saved. He will be sorely missed. Now with Huntley gone for the season, we are really thin in the trenches.

[Lowercase Ray]

Just what UTEP's defense didn't need, injuries. As they say if it wasn't for bad luck we'd have no luck at all. Joe's reference above, of a player being hurt severely usually retaining his scholarship was prophetic. Brandis Dew will stay on as a student/assistent coach while retaining his scholarship. Right thing to do!

[Maven]

The loss against Tulsa was just one game. The Miners are still in pretty good shape in conference play.

[Gourdo]

What the heck does "good riddens" mean??? It's "good riddance". You're a journalist? What a joke...

[CLEOFITZWITZ]

At least Monchis had the decency to announce his retirement from this blog. Where is everybody?

[just a thought]

CLEO I was in and out of town there for a minute and although this was a bye week I think Joe should have posted something having to do with actual football and not recruiting. He has Dec/Jan for that.

The football team likes to think they are still a young team and this holds true because most of their starters will be back again next season. These scholarships probably won't make an impact even if they are JUCO unless you're talking about a replacement for K Jose Martinez.

Anybody catch Houston last night? They don't look quite as good without WR Avery catches passes for them. The Rice game will be interesting. We need to stop their big three Dillard, Clement, and Casey. Even if only two of them have a big night, things could get ugly. Rice should not be able to stop us from scoring which is always good but sometimes a bye week makes for slow offensive starts (off-sides/false starts, WR/QB not in sync).

UTEP should play better on defense with former Miner great Brian Young in town to cheer them on. We'll see...

[CLEOFITZWITZ]

JAT, Joe gets lucky sometimes and brings up a topic that is somehow relevent to the immediate happenings. With our depth being poor to begin with, the losses of Dew and Huntley are huge. We don't have a stellar crew of linebackers either and are shoring up that position with young safeties that are all of 200 pounds.

I have no doubt we'll score and score often. But the defensive collapse we saw against Tulsa may not be over. Granted, Tulsa played about as well as they possibly could (see the UCF game?) and Rice does not have the horses that Tulsa does. Now I admit that I didn't think much of Clement and Dillard two years ago. I thought they were two pretty good players that stood out on a bad team in a mediocre conference. Turns out they are the real deal and could end up having career nights.

This Miner team showed a lot of guts in a 3 game win streak. They need to bring that to the game on Saturday night to give us a shot. With incoming freshmen rarely making an immediate impact, this is a chance for our young guys filling in for injured starters to get their feet wet. Winning would be nice too.

[Lowercase Ray]

Good to see some life in UTEPIA. Tell me guys, doesn’t it seem like we’re at that point in the season where it can turn one way or the other? In some previous posts, it was discussed whether the Rice game might become the critical game as to whether they become bowl eligible or not. I previously alluded to that the degree to which UTEP stays healthy is going to dictate how the rest of season plays out. It seems to me that once again injuries might have done the Miners season in. The fact that we don’t have the kind of depth that bigger schools are able to recruit, doesn’t allow much room before injuries puts us in a bad spot. Unfortunately for UTEP the biggest injury again happened in practice, with a career ending injury to Brandis Dew. So once again it seems to me that UTEP is in that familiar position of having to score a whole lot of points just to keep up with the other offensively minded teams in CUSA. The fact that MP's team are always offensively minded, leaves me with the hope that they'll be able to win some of the shootouts that UTEP is sure to get into. For UTEP to have a chance in such a scenario season, it would seem to necessitate that Vittatoe and his receivers get and stay on the same page; no more bad days of dropping the easy balls. Also the OL will need to give him enough time to find his receivers and make good plays. How do the rest of you see the season going?

I did get a chance to see Rice vs. Tulane and Rice dominated the game. Tulane was only able to get going once Rice had mostly the second team out in the fourth quarter. Some have said that Tulane's offense went downhill once their RB Anderson got hurt. I didn't see that Anderson was doing much before he got hurt either. It was just a complete game by Rice. UTEP has got to be hoping that Rice comes down to earth this week. I hate to say it, but that game didn't look like no fluke. I think Rice is that good and will be getting the win again this year. I'll keep on hoping that the Miners prove me wrong though.

[just a thought]

Excellent input by CLEO and LRay. I can always count on you two give an honest and concise evaluation of our situation at UTEPIA.

CLEO brings up a very scary Halloween point in that we are still shoring up positions on the defense when they should be gelling as a unit by now. I don't know if many have noticed but they've had a different starting lineup on that side of the ball every game this season. That is never good except for gaining game experience as CLEO again points out.

LRay you hit the nail on the head too because the Rice game IS the pivotal game of the year. UTEP gets a chance to beat a team that's had our number lately and end its November woes on the very first day of the month. Beat Rice and they probably remain focused, but lose this one and UTEP may look past LA-Laf. onto the rest of conference play and lose another winnable game. That situation makes the rest of the schedule all must-win games. Very unlikely.

[biggeorgeb]

Every year since my son played his senior year for Coach Price in 2004, the team has been a late season bust. I saw a few teams from 2001 to 2003 that got their butts kicked but they played hard and we had players that cared. Many it is time to get rid of the old coach. He is great with the public and people love to hear him talk about potential. I lost alot of respect for him and some his staff when my son's picture was not included as top players hanging up on the waals at the stadium. A four time all academic and a three time WAC performer, a senior team captain should have been included. People why old players could care less about going to games even if they still are in town.

Joe, You know who I am talking about and his accomplishments will be in the record books along time after we are long gone from this world.

The coach needs to go and get some new blood in there to try and win!