Joe on utepia | The place for commentary for UTEP athletics

Uh-oh on Miner football

While Mike Price is liking what he sees in pre-season  practices, as did Gary Nord, Charlie Bailey, David Lee ... it's what coaches do in August ...

Things are not so good.

Senior UTEP wide receiver Evan Davis, who had 19 catches last year, was arrested early Tuesday on suspicion of assault/family violence.

Non-starter quarterbacks are leaving the program one after the other, it seems.

Several guys supposed to be on the team didn't make grades.

Other recruits are still in junior college, however that works.

Success this season, as far as wins, is already iffy. The early two-deep roster shows 10 seniors starting on offense, but virtually no crystal ball prognosticators are picking UTEP to beat a lot of people, even in Conference USA.

UTEP has some coming-together to do. It's a good thing there are no indications senior QB Trevor Vittatoe still has arm problems. It's a good thing running back Donald Buckram is being held back in contact drills so he's fresh for the season. And Vittatoe has other receivers besides Davis.

But the defense?

UTEP starts the season with a slippery bandwagon, all right.

My new conference alignment

My lineup for the new West By Southwest Conference:

EAST

UTEP
New Mexico St.
New Mexico
SMU
Rice
•Houston
Tulsa
Louisiana T
•TCU
Air Force


WEST

**BYU
Wyoming
Colorado St.
Boise St.
Fresno St.
Nevada
UNLV
San Diego St.
Utah St.
San Jose St.

———

(alternates)
Hawaii - travel kills, but first choice if any of the above aren't  in fold
Idaho - sorry, guys, but second choice if there's an opening

———

• May hold out for Big 12
** Allowed in only if  doesn't go independent in football; pressure needs to be put on BYU. Don't let them in as a non-football member.

———

Other notes: Air Force moves away from its traditional geographical rivals, and may not like it. But it's easier to kick around a service academy than, say, a Wyoming or Colorado State.

La. Tech remains in fold because of Tulsa, SMU, Rice and maybe Houston and TCU. It's a travel/geography thing. Minor sports teams have travel expenses, too, you know.

If a lot of the above goes awry, then Tulane and North Texas can be dredged up, and maybe Texas State.

Departing QBs good?

UTEP having lost  three recruited quarterbacks as transfers to other schools, or position change, usually means one thing:

They are afraid of somebody else.

Maybe they foresaw true freshman Javia Hall winning the position next season when senior Trevor Vittatoe is gone?

Hall is 6-foot-1, 180 from Dallas Skyline High.

Memo to Mike Price

Poster RJ is right on. Coach Mike Price needs to put a good football team on the turf so UTEP stands ready when "going-bigger" opportunities arise.

Case in point: Boise State.

But, no, I don't think the MWC is doomed if BYU leaves to play independent football - if it even does. It's really hard for a BYU - or a TCU - to schedule 12 games when crowd-drawing opponents are concerned with their conference play. After Sept. 30, who wants to play a non-conference game, especially if its a game that's not of national interest, or a game that a team might well lose.

Back to UTEP: Get good. Stay there. Be ready!

Good riddance!

We didn't lose the Texas vs. The Nation all-sham college football game. San Antonio got stuck with it.

After using our usual gullibility the past four years, the game's promoters, et al, are outta here. We cut their funding because they never did show this game did El Paso any good.

Roller hockey. Various types of small-arena football ... did you know we once had pro volleyball and semi-pro football. And that pro basketball team a few years ago?

Other than baseball, and a very few years of minor league hockey, we've fallen for every Barnum promoter that came through town.

If this Texas vs. The Nation was a real game, it would not need local taxpayer funding - plus other funding that was never made really clear, such as how much it got from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And state funds?

All the hotel nights and restaurant meals it would produce - and the large influx of pro scouts. C'mon. NFL scouts don't need to watch these guys. Every college football player is already firmly embedded in NFL books. They know everything about a guy. And these were not even for-sure draft picks. This wasn't "Cheers." Nobody knew their names, or cared who won. Very few people actually paid for tickets.

This was another attempt by a promoter to come here, get a lot of taxpayer money, make a profit for himself, and have gullible people think he was doing something great for El Paso.

There are, indeed, good things that come through town. "Give Me Money" events are not included.

Hey San Antonio! Sucker!

Bench Buckram

UTEP running back Donald Buckram takes only a few runs from scrimmage during two-a-days at Camp Socorro.

It's an obvious smart move by the coaching staff. On Buckram's shoulders rests the team's fortunes this season. He can't carry the load successfully if a leg is busted.

I say cut Buckram from "a few" to just "one or two" carries against the tacklers in pre-season.

Of all positions, running back requires the least practice. Fullbacks are usually in all of the blocking schemes. Quarterbacks and receivers must fine-tune their timing. Linemen have many different places to head, based on a usually thick playbook.

Running backs need two things. 1. Health for speed and strength. 2. The natural instinct that made them a running back in the first place.

Keep Buckram healthy so he has speed and strength to go along with his tremendous ability to elude tacklers.

Put Buckram on the bench in pre-season. Or, better yet, get him a nice, comfortable lawn chair and a straw for his Gatorade.

Good sign in Utepia

I'm sensing a "wait-and-see" attitude among UTEP's most ardent football fans. And I think it's good that not too many people are coming out with predictions of 8 wins and a bowl game.

Such predictions were ridiculous! And when UTEP didn't even come close over so many of this seasons (decades), then those prognosticators got upset and stopped going to the games because the Miners had let them down.

There really is no reason to predict 8 wins, or even 7, for this year. Too many questions. And remember the offensive and defensive lines make so much difference. Has UTEP really recruited good linemen that are better than the linemen on other teams?

No they have not.

UTEP will need some good breaks to win more than five games. And they need a good year from QB Vittatoe and they need RB Buckram to show last year wasn't just a once-in-a-career season. I personally don't think it was.

As far as Vittatoe? Many questions. Arm? Why would a senior starting QB get suspended for team violations? That's a bad sign. QBs are supposed to be team leaders. Is all OK off the field with him? We never know these things until after a career is over. Only then does stuff come out on what REALLY was going on.

All in all, though, fans are letting this year's team be (maybe that's because the guys are still tucked away in Camp Socorro?) They're letting the coaches coach and the players practice without the fanfare that comes with having a loaded bandwagon.

Maybe it's good strategy?

Is Camp Socorro so great?

Each year as the UTEP football team buses leave for Camp Socorro, it's made out to be a merry ride to a week or so of "nothing but football" and "team bonding."

I've not heard many players come back and say how much they liked it.

Coaches, back to the first Camp Socorro coach, Charlie Bailey, have shown the numbers that it doesn't cost more to spend time on the campus of New Mexico Tech than it does to spend it in El Paso. The football program, either way, has to house and feed the players. No, dorms aren't free.

Perhaps it costs UTEP some extra money in renting facilities? But it is a nice serene place - a lot of trees, a green golf course and much more cooling rain than around here in early August El Paso.

It used to be the team would have grueling practices away from the attention of fans and the like. That's why players hated it. And if newspaper reporters got a tad out of line with reports back home they were liable to be taped to a tree and left there a while. It was boot camp. It probably still is, although Coach Mike Price seems to have added some after-practice fun time.

All that said, I bet if you take a poll of players next week, the vast majority will have wished they'd stayed in El Paso and worked out at the Sun Bowl or Glory Field - and then had the early evening hours to roam free. Or later, if they didn't get caught.

Yes, the cost is about the same, here or there.  The coaches get the undivided attention of about 100 guys - 24/7 if they really want to play drill sergeant. (Freshmen can't quit and go home from up there).

But the fact remains, I've never heard anybody say they can't wait to get back to Camp Socorro next year - except coaching staffs.

Do or ... Price just can't do five straight losers

A school such as UTEP, with a horror-storied football past, would never fire a coach who was once National Coach of the Year. That would be saying nobody, but nobody, can win football games in Utepia.

That would give the college football world enough fodder to make that declaration.

So Mike Price, who won that honor at Washington State (a Rose Bowl season in 1997), will not be fired if he has a fifth straight losing season this fall. He's been a winner. He's among the top 15 active winningest coaches in the nation. People like him because he's a really nice person. His only enemy here has been the crabby Mr. Athletic Department Budget. Mr. Budget is  starved skinny, he thinks, because Price isn't bringing in enough revenue.

So I'm sticking to my theory that Price will retire if he loses. And Athletic Director Bob Stull, who's done everything here except produce winning football coaches, will also retire if it's a losing season.

Both are pushing in their middle 60s and both have so many years of service in different states that they don't have to worry about retirement plans.

Last year, with three losers in a row, Price was optimistic — and in the back of everyone's mind was 2010 when he'd be full of experienced seniors. Well, 2009 was another loser and 2010 is here. And, to many prognosticators, it's iffy. If the string doesn't end with this senior-laden team, there's not much to look forward to.

Rebuilding? I don't think Price will want to do that. It's not that he's old. It's that he's old enough to retire and live off a lot of money. In fact, it would not be surprising if Price retired with a winning season.

I don't see Stull needing to beef up his retirement coffers, either. He, too, can live better in retirement than if he remains a working stiff at a bad football school and keeps hearing,  "Why can't you get us a winning coach?"

Price bottom line prediction: There's a good chance this may be his last season as a major college head coach, win or lose. If he loses, I'm saying he's out for sure.

Stull bottom line prediction: He'll also retire if the season is a loser. If it's a winner, he'll stick around to pick a new coach, then stay on one more year and retire after 2011. After 2011, people will still like the new coach, no matter the record in a rebuilding year. So Stull can then go out with smiles.