Joe on utepia | The place for commentary for UTEP athletics

Getting close for field goals?

With a running game that doesn't look much better than last year's 122.3 yards a game, and no real power back — and the strong-legged kicker gone ...

How's UTEP going to fare, scoring-wise, this year?

Last year, any time the Miners got even near the opponent's 20 yard line, it was virtually an automatic three points if the offense didn't score a TD.

Jose Martinez was: 8 for 8 on 30- to 39-yard field goals and 6 for 7 on 40- to 49-yard field goals. That's a lot of points, and part of the reason was the Miners didn't have a runner who could barge for short yardage (it's gets tougher and tougher to pass the closer you get to the goal line — not as much room for receivers to work). Martiez is gone. Brand-new kicker Logan Barrett, off ankle surgery, is no Mr. Martinez, at least not yet. He's yet to kick for the Miners.

Does UTEP's point production go down this year because one can't expect anyone other than Martinez to go 14 of 15 from mid- to long-range?

Gillispie's DWI

Billy Gillispie has always been a nice man, as far as I'm concerned. But I said it back then, and I still believe, Billy was plastered the night he was hauled in for DWI in Downtown El Paso He got off because he was the UTEP basketball coach, and he had a good lawyer.

His story was he got lost leaving a bar, which is located less than a 5-iron shot away from the Don. He was looking for a party and wound up being stopped while going the wrong way on Texas Avenue Downtown. It's especially sad now because Gillispie was stopped for DWI again, this time in wee Thursday morning in Kentucky, where he is the pariah as the ex-Kentucky coach. He was fired after the past season, mostly because he couldn't hob-knob with the bigs and also because he wasn't winning enough. No breaks for Billy there, especially since he's in a legal battle to get some Kentucky money he thinks owed him.

This is at least the third time Billy has been in DWI trouble. Recall the same thing happened while he was an assistant at Tulsa. He got off that one, too.

He's probably going to need some help turning his habits around. He still has a lot of friends in El Paso. Maybe he can get his El Paso lawyer to represent him in Kentucky and go 2-0 in beating the rap?

This time I don't think so.

UTEP by 6 1/2

I'm going with UTEP by 6 1/2 in the season opener in two weeks.

Don't expect Buffalo to be down just because its good quarterback has been graduated. Turner Gil, a quarterback at Nebraska, will have a good one ready to go. UTEP has Trevor Vittatoe so UTEP wins the q'back matchup. I'll go with the wily vet Coach Mike Price over the next big-name-school Coach Gil, too. Yes, Gil will be at a TV school soon.

I'm saying a TD plus 1/2 point because UTEP usually plays its best football early in the season and because it's a home game — and just a little bit because it might be real hot on the Sun Bowl floor and Buffalo is used to the cool mists of Niagara Falls — and Septemember is fall way up in Upstate New York. UTEP didn't like playing in fall weather, if I recall, in last year's game in Buffalo.

Oh, and UTEP will not be looking forward to Kansas, which hits the Sun Bowl the following week — or New Mexico State the week after that. UTEP, I think, will be all business in its mindset to bump off Buffalo of the so-so Mid-American Conferfence. Since there are two weeks before kickoff, have at it with your predictions.

Running back depth

It's no big deal that UTEP used to have a lot of running backs, but has turned up depthless. Until UTEP can put a solid runner on the field, it's just some coaching psychology to say: This guy is dinged a little, he's out for a few days, he's day to day, we hope to have that one back by the Buffalo game (Sept. 5).

Coach Mike Price is a passing-game coach and hasn't really done a good job of getting a strong, first-team running back. Maybe he thinks he doesn't need one.This runninng-back-by-committee stuff just means he doesn't have a top-notch runner.

If quarterback Trevor Vittatoe is to have a good season, there has to be a running game to take the pressure off getting pass-rushed, blind-sided and twisted-about-the-neck-and knees. I can't understand why UTEP doesn't go out and find a high-school blue-chip senior runner that has offers from some big schools — and offer him the starting job as a freshman at UTEP. Many of college football's great running backs started as freshmen. It's a position a freshman can step into.

Meanwhile, buy a program to find out who's on the field at the so-important running back position.

UTEP's Athletic Dept. Turf Toe

Just some tough turf talk today.

It's great, and needed, that UTEP is to have a new artificial turf on the Sun Bowl floor before the Sept. 5 season opener against Buffalo.

But note: When UTEP paid $800,000 for the present turf in time for the 2001 season, it was reported it should last 12 years.

Apparently, the climate in these parts wasn't taken into consideration, heat and sun. By 2007, UTEP was already talking about badly needed a new turf.

Is UTEP getting some money back from the previous turf company for selling a product that went back after only six years?

Also, and somebody has to say this: The new turf is going down now, some 24 days until the season opener. It's said the new turf can be installed and ready for play in two weeks. Let's hope it doesn't rain a lot, or there isn't some reason the crews can't get it down in time. Or, UTEP might be calling old pal New Mexico State — "Can we use your stadium for a game?"

PODCAST

You can hear more about the turf, as well as talk about Mike Price's future and Sun Bowl stadium food on the latest UTEP football podcast.

UTEP football on TV

Perhaps I missed this earlier. Anyway, those Aggies are reporting that the UTEP-at-New Mexico State football game Sept. 19 will be televised live on El Paso's Time Warner Cable Channel 24.

There will be six Aggie football games on Time Warner 24 this year, and five of them will be home games. It's part of their AggieVision that includes volleyball and other live NMSU events

Another note:

Stop arguing which team around here plays in the better conference, UTEP in Conference USA or NMSU in the WAC. Winners go to bowl games. As long as you're not in the Sun Belt Conference, just have a winning record and somebody will think you're an OK team.

Yes, the WAC has Boise State and Hawaii, but history shows they are flash-in-the-pans when it comes to sustaining powerful football programs. Fresno State, too. Boise State, though, is making a case for itself with recent teams. Remember, too, BYU was once a national football power in the WAC, and now doesn't get much notice in the Mountain West. Only teams in the big conferences can afford to have a mediocre record one season, and still get attention the next.

Remember, C-USA is a basketball conference. It's glory days were when Louisville, Cincinnati, DePaul ... that's when C-USA was noted nationally, in basketball season. Only Memphis remains from that ilk. UTEP probably has the next best history as a good basketball program. Houston? A little bit. It's time for both to do something NOW. In the case of UTEP, fans have to stop saying, "Yeah, but we beat Kansas and went to the Sweet 16" ... yeah, back in 1992.

And is it agreed it's time for UTEP football to do something ... NOW? It shouldn't be so difficult to have good records most seasons in C-USA. Three losers in a row ... well, it's time to win NOW.

Naming UTEP's 5 predicted wins

OK, just because one one you wiseacres asked, here's how I came up with my prediction that UTEP would finish with a 5-7 record this season:

Note that I beleive some teams in Conference USA are so lowly, I've got UTEP winning three of its last five games. And UTEP has a history of losing a lot late in the seasosn. And Coach Mike Price has a horrible late-season record at Weber State, Washington State and here (something like 29-53). The wins:

Buffalo at New Mexico State

at Tulane

at SMU

Marshall

The losses:

Kansas

at Texas

Houston

at Memphis

Tulsa

UAB

at Rice

Mike talks defense

Back from a vacation: Mike Price has been telling people that all his successful teams played good defense.

All any coach's successful teams played good defense, Mike. But we get the point. And it's an important one for UTEP because it's defense has been ... undefensive? Like almost last in the land the last couple of years or three.

Sometimes you can figure how a team will fare in the coming season. Florida will be good. We know Texas and Oklahoma will both be close to 11-1. We know New Mexico State will still be awful, except when those Aggies play UTEP...

But UTEP (I know I'm not saying much so far in this blog) is a total question mark on defense. Yah, there were injuries galore last year. And it's not usually great shakes that a veteran defensive line returns. That can be as bad as it can be a plus. Same old guys.

I don't see UTEP getting good on defense this year. Maybe better, but not good. Haven't been in the past. No signs are being shown that these same guys can hit harder, and be in the right place on the field, with any more proficiency than last year.

Early won-lost prediction: 5-7.

Oh, and did you take note that UTEP's first opponent, Buffalo (Here Sept. 5) is picked to win its division of the MAC? Eh, with a new quarterback and a road game, I still have UTEP over Buff in the opener ... en route to a 5-7.

Conference USA football podcast: Can UTEP win the championship?

Joe has been on vacation, but all you Joe fans craving some UTEP football talk, check out the podcast over at Turn up the Orange.