Joe on utepia | The place for commentary for UTEP athletics

Price ticked

For the first time in his six seasons at UTEP, Football Coach Mike Price - Mr. Class - was obviously seething after Saturday's home loss to UAB.

After losses, he's usually talking about what the team must do better next time, that he's got confidence in the guys, and that this team is better than many think.

On his post-game show Saturday, he twice criticized moves by assistant coaches. He hasn't done that before. He said he was upset to the point where he's going to have to sleep on it because he doesn't have anything more up his sleeve. Likely he said that so he wouldn't go in-their-face with his staff and wind up firing somebody right now. UTEP is now 3-5. I'm sticking with my pre-season statement that Mike Price is too good and too well-liked to be fired by the school president, who usually has a well-trained ear on the feelings of the money donors. Usually, before a coach is released at UTEP, there's a lot of carping from the money people. That hasn't happened. The big wigs still like Price, and Price has been a good ambassador for El Paso.

If he's gone it's because he'll find a reason to resign.

If he's still here, look for some assistant coaches to be out.

You posters can call for the coach's head all you want. But, based on experience, the signs have not been there to indicate UTEP has lost faith in Mike Price.

One-guy show

If UTEP's defense can's stop these guys — make that one guy — then all the carping against Osai Lewis' tackle-em schemes has credence.

The 3-4 Miners play 2-5 UAB, and UAB has a quarterback who averages 133.3 yards passing a game (low number), and a runner who averages 117.1 yards a game (great number). He's the same guy, Joe Webb.

The second-string quarterback averages 3.9 yards passing a game. The second-stringer runner gets 32 yards a game.

That's why UAB is 2-5. Keep Webb from getting 500 total yards, like some opponent quarterbacks and runners get vs. the Miners ... and UTEP's record is .500 and things are still looking up for beleaguered Coach Mike Price. A win and he won't have to climb into any crypt on what will be Halloween night Saturday.

Must win 'em all

If UTEP wins out — its final five football games — the Miners most likely will tie either Houston or Tulsa for the Conference USA-West title, and will be the team to play East winner, probably East Carolina or Marshall, in the title game.

If the Miners lose against 2-5 UAB here Saturday, any chance of a divisional title is probably out the window, even though there will still be four games to play. That's what the number say.

Who's putting stock in five more wins, what with four games coming up in November and Coach Mike Price being 31-56 in November at Washington State, Weber State and UTEP.

UTEP is tied at 2-1 in the C-USA West with Houston, Tulsa and SMU. UTEP has defeated Houston and Tulsa in gigantic upsets and still has to play at SMU Nov. 14 — on the road in November. UTEP still hasn't played 0-4 Tulane and 0-4 Rice, which is good news other than the two games are on the road — and in November. Houston and Tulsa still have to play each other.

Might as well say this: Quite likely if UTEP loses another game, any game, the winner of Houston and Tulsa will finish with the best record in the West and will likely play East Carolina or Marshall for the C-USA title.

Pick THIS one!

When weird meets Halloween, how does one go about predicting a football winner between UTEP and visiting UAB Saturday?

UTEP, 3-4, can lose to Buffalo and Memphis, but beat then-No. 12 Houston and a good Tulsa team. That's weird.

Now the Miners meet a 2-5 UAB team, which shares last place in its Conference USA division with Memphis.

At least the game has a daylight (1 p.m. kickoff) so as not to scare everybody.

Back alive

Somebody write a ballad. "Two Miner Football Teams."<p>

On a Wednesday night, on national ESPN TV, and what has never happened before in front of TV viewers, UTEP not only beat a highly favored Tulsa team, but came from behind to do it.<p>

Never before means ... well, it means you've got to be pretty old to recall when a fading 2-4 UTEP team used both an offense and a never-before defense to outscore a good team that had the momentum going  into the fourth quarter. Yes, Tulsa was going to rout UTEP. History crowed so.<p>

I guess there's no firing Head Coach Mike Price, or Defensive Coordinator Osai Lewis, anymore. This is the weirdest 3-4 UTEP team (and research this) ever! Miners 28, Tulsa 24. But who knows who the Price guys can lose to next. Only The Shadow knows.<p>

In the past three games, UTEP (yes still only 3-4) has defeated then-No. 12-ranked Houston and now a Tulsa team that last week lost by only seven points to now-No. 5 Boise State. In between, the Miners lost to (yes they're awufl) Memphis.<p>

Quarterback Trevor Vittatoe was a Brett Favre Wednesday. He threw for pinpoint completions. He threw dumb interceptions. He completed passes in the clutch late in the game. Favrish was he. The defense, deader than Halloween people by the third quarter ... well, Tulsa looked in the mirror with its big lead and then saw Dracula on the defensive line in the fourth quarter. I'm thinking UTEP even scared itself, so rare was this feat.<p>

Houston doesn't know how it lost to this UTEP team three games ago. Houston had defeated Oklahoma State and Texas Tech before the loss, and then beat Mississippi State after the loss. Tulsa, too, doesn't know how it blew a decent bowl-game invite in the Sun Bowl Wednesday on ESPN TV. Slink back to Oklahoma, Tulsa guys.<p?

And El Pasoans, it's safe to say, have no idea, just no idea , how Price is mojo-ing this year's Miners. Tune in again. Feast or famine? And can 3-4 turn into a winning season?

Only The Shadow knows.<p>

Price's mistake

I'm still backing Mike Price as UTEP's football coach; find somebody better and I may change my mind. But he's starting to crack amid bad times (2-4 record).

He came out after the loss to beatable Memphis and said he did a poor job of preparing the team. That's weak! I believe this is not the first time he's done that.

Fans don't want to hear that mumbo-jumbo. Plus it's not true. Coaches spend long hours preparing for games. Players have to do preparing, too. They can't say it's the coach's fault when they lose to a team that was 1-4. If Price was to be more accurate he would say he did a poor job of recruiting these players.

Defense, 34.8 points a game

Since Kansas and Texas are on the UTEP football schedule this year, and Houston, too, nobody really batted an eye when the Miners' defense gave up a lot of points.<p>

But with the 35 allowed at Memphis Saturday, it's time to ask the question: Is the 3-3-5 scheme right for the Miners? They're allowing 34.8 points a game and the record is 2-4.<p>

Last year was the first under 3-3-5 teaching. The Miners didn't have a winning season. This year was supposed to be different, if you listened to the optimists. It isn't.

Maybe Coach Mike Price made a big mistake in allowing Lewis to bring that scheme to El Paso from the University of New Mexico?<p>

The first game of the season was telling. Buffalo had a brand-new quarterback and its top running back is out for the season. Buffalo, in the the season opener, and on the road at UTEP, won 23-17. OK, so 23 points is thaaaat bad a showing.<p>

Nobody panicked when Kansas won 34-7. And then the Miners beat New Mexico State 38-12, and NMSU really had nothing. That was the lightning-delay game and NMSU was still trying to figure out its quarterback situation. UTEP won 38-12. Then Texas won 64-7, but that was No. 2 Texas.<p>

The last two weeks, though, may be showing the real Miner defense. Although beating Houston 58-41, that was still 41 points given up. And at then 1-4 Memphis Saturday it was a 35-20 loss.<p>

It doesn't look like the UTEP 3-3-5 is any better than other bad defenses the Miners have put up in other losing seasons.<p>

 

Goodbye Fantasy Land

Fantasy Land is not to be. UTEP returned to "UTEP" again by losing a road game at really weak Memphis 35-20 Saturday. It was supposed to be a win. Even the long-time naysayers said it would be so. All the oddsmakers at the nation's largest books, who don't bet on "heart," had UTEP by a lot. C'mon, Miners, already! You want to sell tickets? Have fans?

UTEP was off a fans-running-onto-the-field win over then-No. 12-ranked Houston. Then this fall-on-the-face? Do these Miners guys want to be successful, or not? Are they not talented enough? Are they not football-savvy enough?

Beating then-No. 12 Houston last week? Well, why can't that turn into a win over a 1-4 Memphis team that had defeated only Tennessee-Martin.? Well, it didn't. The Miners had defeated No. 12 among all the "bigs." You have your Florida, Texas ... and Houston was No. 12. But UTEP can't beat one of the weakest, Memphis? And Houston, after losing at UTEP, went on to beat Mississip State. That means Houston beat Oklahoma State, Texas Texas Tech and Mississipi State ... YOu get the picture about what the heck is going on at UTEP. The Miners turned around and lost to Memphis. Something is wrong.

Maybe it's because "The UTEP" came back from under the one-week Wizard-of-Oz cloak of... yes, fluke.. The UTEP that has had three losing seasons in a row returned to the TV and the radio, and Miner fans' hearts. Dropped passes; my goodness, at least seven. Same bad tackling on defense (more than a decade's worth now). And the 2-3 record turned to 2-4 - with a good Tulsa team coming up).

Memphis is not a good football team. Fans have to wonder just who UTEP can beat now. And worse than than, fans have the right to ask if UTEP really has it, or wants it?

A tornado alert, perhaps?

Is it too late in the weather season for a tornado alert in and around the Liberty Bowl Saturday night in Memphis?

If so, UTEP would win.

The 2-3 Miners beat:

- New Mexico State after a lightning delay and eating big turkey legs while waiting it out.

- Houston on a rare rainy night in El Paso

How about tornado alerts, and some good Memphis barbecue, Saturday?

UTEP's shape

It's not the stars this time. It's the schedule that's in proper alignment for UTEP to now have a successful football season.

Let's put it this way: If Memphis (1-4) beats UTEP (2-3) Saturday, then I bet the Memphis fans will charge the field in a wild celebration that their team is not downright awful

After Memphis, UTEP gets a week off to prepare for the last really strong team on its schedule. That's Tulsa, which comes to town Oct. 24.

Without going into every game, the schedule sees road games against the weaker teams and home games against teams where the home field will be the extra advantage.

As said right after the upset over then-No. 12 Houston, it's now a mind game for the Miners.

If they can beat a No. 12, which they did, then physically they can fare quite well against the seven teams remaining on the sked.