Joe on utepia | The place for commentary for UTEP athletics

It's not Vittatoe

How can people think that it's UTEP quarterback Trevor Vittatoe who's off to a poor start? He's not completing passes because of all the other guys being off to poor starts.

The offensive line isn't living up to expectations. And the receivers drop passes, or aren't open. Recall that the pass catchers, including top man Jeff Moturi, were bumble-handed early in last season, too.

Saying Vittatoe is off to a slow start is just a ploy, even by Coach Mike Price, to divert fans' thinking. If everybody figures it's just one guy, and that he is ready to break out of his supposed slump, then people won't believe how bad it really is. The linemen are getting out-clobbered on the line and the receivers are being magnetized to the other teams' defensive backs to the point they're not running their pass routes well.

Don't blame Vittatoe, he's a proven good quarterback. If he had a safe passing pocket like this veteran line is supposed to afford, and his receivers were on the dimes they're supposed to be, when they're supposed to be, then passes would be completed.

Where are the linemen?

UTEP loses over the years because it's lines get pushed around against good teams - teams that can convince the big rhinos to enroll at their schools. UTEP usually has a decent quarterback and some receivers, and some fast defensive backs (who don't tackle well in the clutch, though).<p>

Why no linemen?<p>

They're hard to get. They don't come out of high schools. They are ID'd in high school and made big at colleges. UTEP lacks one of the things the bigs have, a training table for athletes. But that's only the smallest of excuses, I think.<p>

On the day Mike Price took the head coaching job here, he stood at the Durham Center podium and raised his right hand way over the top of his head. He said, paraphrased, he wasn't looking for 6-foot-6 linemen, he was looking for even taller and BIGGER linemen than that.<p>

Price has not been able to get very far over his head. AND, anybody ID'd as being the next quarterback-sacking defensive end, or 340-pound rooted-in-place tackle, has other choices.

1. UTEP recruits too much in Texas. Texas has: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech ... and TCU, Baylor, Houston. OK, SMU and Rice, but you've got to be a brainiac. If you're a guy who's to be above Mike Price's head, are you choosing El Paso or: Austin, College Station, Lubbock (OK, maybe), Fort Worth or Waco? You'd not pick El Paso. All you know is what you've read, and if it's an AP story out of Dallas, there's usually that gawd-awful phrase somewhere in the story, "El Paso, a dusty border town ...."<p>

2. Recruit the far northern states where there are a lot of the proverbial big farm boys who would love to get out of winter. Rent an RV. Start puttering the back roads in Montana - and keep going east until you run into a Great Lake. There are guys up there who can be fed and physically conditioned into becoming somebody over Price's head.<p>

NOTE: Offensive linemen, for example, have to be smarter than the average player. Smart, big and fast makes a good lineman. God-given talent makes a skill-position player.

Once you get to El Paso, for many, many of us, you love it here and you wind up settling here. It's best to come in August, as a freshman would. First it's a tad hot outside, but after a while you stop and say, "Hhey, there's no winter here. It's December and it's beautiful." Use that as a lure - we have great weather and a Division 1 school where you can earn a degree via a full-time scholarship.<p>

3. And anyone who is nice to anyone in this town is treated well by the locals. Sell that.<p>

Because, it's not easy to get the fixings for a great big guy to decide to move far away from home. No, we get the players - at all positions - who were passed over by the big schools. And, in the case of linemen, they are not way over Mike Price's head.<p>

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Watch Price after 64-7 loss

Mike Price, one of the NCAA's winningest active college football coaches, hasn't been here before, not at Weber State or at Washington State. How will he handle being UTEPed - the grave diggers marching up the school's Got The Boot Hill?  Will he be planted like so many before him?<p>

As mentioned in this blog recently, many UTEP coaches have blown their cool under similar conditions: a poor start (1-3), a disgruntled fan base (low attendance in first two home games), and losing by 57 points going into another home game. Not many Division I-A schools lose by that many points, even when they play a top team like Saturday's opponent, Texas. And a long list of Price's ancestors have been fired after all this, not because they didn't know football, but because the program runs on (ticket) money.<p>

Price, looking at his fourth losing season in a row, said on his post-game radio show (Fox 92.3 FM): It was a "thorough thrashing." We "had guys hurt; it didn't do anything for our confidence or spirit ... we were just horrible."

That said it all, and Price was still pretty calm and collected talking with Jon Teicher on the post-game show. Can he keep it up? Was he dying inside, but still able to air out his usual charm? I'm saying it's killin' the guy, but I don't know how long he'll be able to take it. It certainly took its toll on two of the last three coaches, Gary Nord and David Lee. Charley Bailey, the Mr. Old Gruff, never had a winner in between those two, and he retired and left Nord the 2000 team that went to the Bowl in Boise.<p>

But losing football coaches, here and everywhere else in the country, get no respect. Boosters grumble and even the coaching staff's kids' have to listen to hallway pot-shot-taking at school.<p>

The game Saturday:<p>

- UTEP had no linemen to go slam for slam with Texas. No push forward. That's always been the case when the Miners play a big school. That's why they haven't beaten one of the now-BCS schools since 1974, and that was only Arizona State. Recruiting linemen will be a question I'll bring up in a future blog. Why doesn't UTEP have a line - again?<p>

- UTEP junior quarterback Trevor Vittatoe, who will set all UTEP's passing records after next season, was dangled by Texas' defense. He had no line to let him take a breath back in the passing pocket.<p>

- On five of UTEP's first six offensive possessions, there were mental and physical mistakes. Nobody wins with a start like that.<p>

This week (before playing Houston Saturday night in Sun Bowl Stadium):

- Please, no member of the El Paso sports media, a quite-friendly media these days, should ask Price or a player if they think they can beat Houston. They'll have to say yes. And don't ask the really stupid question about team attitude. They'll have to say it's great.<p>

No, they will be a pretty big underdog vs Houston, although a big, big upset is not impossible.<p>

And attitudes? Many UTEP teams have cashed it in when the going has gone bad. That's why "The Price Watch" is what it's all about STARTRING NOW. How will he handle all this? Being UTEPed is pretty hard to overcome.<p>

 

UTEP scheduling

Inside UTEP's football-scheduling brain, and what has knocked Coach Mike Price for a loop:<p>

No way wpuld UTEP have set up a multi-year schedule against Texas with the idea of winning any of the games. The Miners will lose again Saturday. Playing Texas, and some dozen others since then, was for money. UTEP gets a huge guarantee when the Miners show up in Austin. And recall all the money UTEP made last year by playing host to the Longhorns in Sun Bowl Stadium.<p>

Playing Kansas, too, was deemed a money game- with a slight chance of winning one of the games. Note, UTEP has not defeated any school now deemed "BCS" since beating Arizona State 31-27 ... are you ready? Twenty-five years ago, 1974.<p>

Playing two such money games in the same year, a rarity for UTEP, makes it awfully tough to have a winning season and go to a bowl game. But Price thought he had an ace up his sleeve. A few years back he had scheduled little, downtrodden Buffalo to play both last year (to go with Texas) and this year (to go with Texas and Kansas). Football skeds, you know, are mostly set years in advance. Price  thought, and so did most observers, that those would be wins and UTEP would be either .500 or only one game below going into the rest of the season.<p>

Price tells the story himself. He was in a golf outing with then-new Buffalo coach Turner Gill. They made their acquaintances and Price got what he thought was a good deal in the home-and-home vs. Gill. Hah! He'd clean up on the rookie Gill. We don't know if Gill was licking his chops, or not. But he must have been thinking that if he couldn't beat UTEP, a school with little good football history, he wasn't going to make it at Buffalo. So the games were set.<p>

Buffalo won last year, and UTEP finised 5-7. Many UTEP teams, following a lead set by His Coachency Don Haskins in baskeball, would have skedded a sure-win game (oops, not a Cal Poly, though. They beat UTEP under Gary Nord), but maybe a Prairie View A&M that even New Mexico Stated could, and did, defeat. So, by losing to Buffalo, there went a 6-6 record and a bowl game.

This year, with Buffalo a home game, and Week 3 at weak New Mexico State, Price figured he'd win both games, and after losing to Texas and probably Kansas, he'd still be .500 going into the rest of the season against schools more UTEP's size. Oops.<p>

Losing to Buffalo twice has really hurt UTEP. The Miners got the big money vs. Texas and Kansas, but they didn't get the wins, and now Mike Price is no longer as popular as he once was in El Paso.<p>

Now comes the hard part

That one was easy to pick. It wasn't even surprising UTEP led New Mexico State 31-0 after three quarters.<p>

The next two are also easy - in the opposite sense.  UTEP, 1-2, will be UTEP, 1-4, after losing at national power Texas Saturday and losing at home to new national upstart Houston the following week.<p>

The hard part will be how UTEP acts, in its head, the rest of the season, especially Coach Mike Price. It now looks like the fourth losing season in a row, and worse than 4-6 or 5-7. <p>

The No. 1 thing to watch is hoe Price acts. His disposition. If he changes toward grumpier, it's all over. If he shows he feels pressure, it's over.<p>

Recall, predecessor Gary Nord didn't go down slowly. He went down fast in his final season.<p>
Recall Nord first needed a "four-year," plan, and everyone said OK. Fans realized Charley Bailey had left him a good team in 2000. And Nord went to a bowl. But then there were no players left. OK, four-year plan it is.<p?

Then, after a couple of losers it was his "five-year plan,"and just about everyone said, "welllllll, OK, if you really need fiiiive years. We began to wonder if recruiting was going all right, or not.<p>

Then he said he needed six years, and that's when the tough questions started and the pressure was put on this so-far popular coach by the fans and media. Soon we could see Nord's disposition erode. Soon he was saying there was no way anyone would run HIM out of town. There the day he said he was guaranteed to be back because his assistants had just been offered new contracts. We found out that wasn't the case. We figured Nord was just trying to shut everyone up.<p>

We still liked Gary Nord, as we like Mike Price now, but Nord had had enough. The pressure was getting to him, the constant negatives about another terrible season.<p>

I think a lot of ex Miner coaches felt heat and did things that came back to turn the tide against them. There was the famous promise, "We will not embarrass you," only to see the Miners fall flat back in the terrible 1980s.<p>

Watch Mike Price. I think at 1-4 there will be a lot of heat. He'll point out that losses were to nationally  ranked teams: Kansas, Texas and Houston. The retort to that is, "How come you're not ranked by now?"<p>

Houston is. Other schools the size of UTEP, such as Boise State, Fresno State and Hawaii have had nationally ranked seasons. Little Tulsa is a power compared to UTEP. Tulsa is a little school where most people in town identify with the Oklahoma Sooners, a long car trip away.<p> Houston is in a pro town, not a college town.<p>

If Price starts losing his cool when such hard-hitting questions are asked, then ....<p>

We're going to have to watch Mike Price and see.<p>

My personal belief continues to be: Nobody is going to fire Mike Price from UTEP. He'll either pull through from this, or he'll get angry and huff out of town, or he'll just bite his tongue and say he's had a nice ride and it's time to retire to, as they all say, spend more time with the family.<p>

Watching what Price does AFTER he's 1-4 is the key here.<p>

My favorite Aggie-Miner stuff

Way back in the 1970s, the Aggies came running onto the Sun Bowl turf in pink jerseys. The team managers did the wash in those days; maybe they still do. They threw the road white jerseys in with the road red pants.

In a game at the Sun Bowl, on the opening kickoff, the UTEP guy thought he was in the endzone and downed the ball — on the 1 yardline.

In the early 1980s, Aggie coach Gil Krueger swore he saw an orange twin-engine plane fly over his practice every day the week of the Miner game. Said it belonged to one of the Miners' many rich boosters. After one game, the Aggie cheerleaders claimed they got beat up by some Miner baseball players. That would have been in the early 80s, too. Recall the portable potty incident not too many years ago at Aggie Memorial Stadium. A large Miner tailgating crowd was expected in Aggieland. And a large Miner contingent came. If you recall, way out on I-10, the Aggies had signs directing Miner fans where to exit and what streets to take. None, or very few portable johns were set out in the Miners' hinterland location so chosen by the Aggies. NOTE: My blog on the Saturday night Miner-Aggie game will come in early evening Sunday, instead of the usual after the game.

Why Miners will win

My thinking. How about you?

UTEP's 34-7 loss at home to Kansas was better than New Mexico State's 3-point home win over Praire View A&M.

Big rivalary game Saturday? UTEP at NMSU? Not this year, because:

Can you name NMSU's head coach? Quarterback? Or name a few players? I'm saying virtually all Miner fans, and half the Aggies' fans, would say no. It can't be a rivalry game if you don't know who's on the other team.

UTEP by 14, as the betting pros have it? I think the Miners' offense will shake its blues against a weak NMSU team and cover that spread. The Miners have been quite awful in home losses to Buffalo and Kansas. But the Aggies couldn't even beat Idaho at home, and Praire View A&M is one step up from a junior college.

Awful UTEP beats double-awful NMSU Saturday.

Is salvage possible?

UTEP made no ground on being a good enough football team to have a winning season Saturday in its 34-7 home loss to No. 24 Kansas.

Kansas did whatever it wanted; UTEP didn't score until it was 34-0.

Yes, as is decades-long usual, UTEP made big mistakes to put itself behind early, and for good. For instance, on Kansas' first possession, the Jayhawks missed a 36-yard field goal, but UTEP had a penalty on the play. Kansas would kick another field goal, 3-0.

Kansas would then get 17 points in the second quarter. UTEP wouldn't even get into Kansas territory until late in the third quarter.

Some theorized that UTEP didn't have any spark. Eh. It seemed to me Kansas threw water on every spark UTEP might have had, including sacking quarterback Trevor Vittatoe more times than a grocery clerk working a check-out line at Albertson's. UTEP's running game continues to be awful.Kansas, of the Big 12, did that to UTEP of Conference USA.

UTEP wasn't supposed to win against Kansas. UTEP has not defeated a team in one of the big conferences for more than 40 years. But UTEP didn't really get blown apart on this night vs. a big-conference team. Some teams used to lead eventual 1-11 Miner outfits 21-0 in the first quarter and 35-0 at the half.

But (easy prediction) after UTEP wins at gawd-awful New Mexico State State Saturday in Las Cruces, there will be sure losses at No. 2 Texas and then to Houston the following week. Houston beat Big 12 Oklahoma State Saturday. That's a 1-4 start. Asking UTEP to have a winning season will be asking UTEP to win six of its last seven games.

UTEP didn't physically cave against Kansas. Nobody expected a win. But (easy prediction???): UTEP needs to win at rival NMSU Saturday or the worst will set in. That is, questions will be asked if UTEP has cashed it in mentally? That would mean ... just who will UTEP beat?

Somebody show me seven victories after three straight losing years and a predicted 1-4 start.

Couple of backbreakers

This happens virtually every time a UTEP mid-level school plays one of the bigs: At some point, usually early in the game, the Kansas or Texas breaks a punt return, a kickoff return or an interception return. And the score quickly gets out of hand.

If UTEP really did have a bad game in the loss to Buffalo, and this year's team is really not cruddy, then look for UTEP to be all hyped and gung-hoed against Kansas Saturday. Maybe UTEP will even score first. Maybe it's 7-7 after the first quarter.

Maybe UTEP marches, works hard, to get a TD or FG. And then Kansas comes right back on the ensuring kickoff. Kansas or Texas scores immediately and UTEP is deflated, and the game gets out of hand. Unless the "big" takes a big lead early, the latter usually happens.

Superior speed to go along with superior physical bodies does that. The dam eventually caves.

On an off-the-subject note: In July UTEP ordered an $800,000 budget trim in athletics, according to news reports. In August, right before the football season, UTEP found $500,000 for a new field turf. So, was it a budget cut or did some money just get moved around? Or what?

Players who pan out

It's too early (0-1) to predict catastrophe for UTEP this football season, even though all these "veteran seniors" with a super quarterback lost a home opener to a Buffalo team that traveled to a totally different climate with a brand-new quarterback and a second-string running back.

Let's look at the situation:

Mike Price was able to win, and go to the Rose Bowl, at Washington State, which is the little guy of the Pac-10.

He couldn't recuit the blue chips away from Pac-10ers USC, UCLA and others. But he got "almost-blue-chippers" who were smart football players.

At UTEP, you can't get blue-chippers, unless they are second-chance guys with baggage. Note running back Tyler Ebell (of UCLA) and receiver Fred Rouse (of Florida State). They got second chances here and blew it with with bad attitudes. UTEP also tried to give Texas castofff Andre Jones (burglary) a second chance. He didn't make it into uniform, but he'd have been the best big lineman Price ever got here.

So what UTEP gets are players who are maybe "almost-blue-chippers" but who are not smart, as a whole team, under pressure. Witness the stupid excessive celebration penalty on UTEP's game-winning TD that was called back in the final seconds.

This is a veteran team. If veterans can't come around, what will the story line be next year? We're rebuilding?

History shows that Price might be getting "UTEPed," as were predecessors who couldn't get talented/smart football players, either. You've got to play smart football to win in Division I-A. Smart football would have defeated Buffalo Saturday.