Commander Floyd

It appears UTEP Basketball Coach Tim Floyd has won the veteran Miners over much faster than many coaches could do so.

Turning free-for-all attitudes on offense into patient passing, and passive defense into the team's new identity, dee-fense, is not easy, especially when a new coach takes over a team of guys who have only one year of eligibility remaining.

Beating Michigan in Atlantic City Saturday, and doing it in a low-scoring game, was surprising. Michigan at that. Holy smokes!

But I'm not buying that Conference USA Player of the Year
Randy Culpepper did not start because of the "matchup" situation vs. Michigan. He didn't start because Floyd was showing who's the boss now.

NOTE: Somebody tell me that 35 bowls is not too many. UTEP, at 6-6, should not be going to a bowl.

The stately Hyundai Sun Bowl, with a week left in the regular season, isn't guaranteed of getting a bowl-eligible team from its contract with the Pac-10 Conference. Sunny may have to go find a leftover. But Washington should beat Washington State, finish 6-6, and come here as the Pac-10 No. 4. The Huskies would meet  somebody from the ACC. I'm hoping Miami, but it could be BC or North Carolina.

There are not enough winning teams to go around. And several of the bowls will have matchups the networks would never, ever, consider televising if it was a regular-season game.

Cheers for the Miner players, who met the standards set for bowl eligibility. Now who in El Paso will travel to watch the team play in its bowl game?

Comments

[JAT]

Congratulations to the Miners for turning the corner enough to play in a bowl game.

Yes, there are a ton of bowl games but only the upper half of college football teams get to participate.

UTEP has almost always been in the bottom half of this equation and playing in a bowl helps with National exposure (recruiting) and team expectations going into next year -- especially if they win the darn thing.

El Paso will travel if they get the New Mexico Bowl (8K). Dallas will have a decent showing (5K) and a New Orleans Bowl appearance will have mostly team family/friends (1K).

[James]

Hey Joe, nice article regarding the MINERS victory v. Michigan. Now regarding the MINERS bowl destination. For those loyal fans who are able to travel and don't! Shame on you!For those loyal fans who are not able, this is an Athletic Dept. marketing dream! Let's give the guy's all the support we can muster as a community! ( BillBoards,Business Marquee's)A Big ORANGE send off at the airport! I'm guessing where ever the guy's go, the locals may be split 50-50. Let's give the guy's the confidence, that although a lot of us can't be there, we love you, are proud of your achievements, and will be watching from where ever we are! And Joe I'd rather watch a match-up that's competitive any day, over one thats not, regardless of who it is! I think the networks understand that much. Let's start a strong fan base today! One that supports the program through "thick and thin"! No Fair Weather Fans Needed! Git Your ORANGE ON! Go MINERS!

[Hector]

Great news for the miner football team going to a bowl. But now comes a serious matter for discussion. This, for all those fans who keep praising the state of the miner football program and it's failure to show greater improvement. If you missed it, it appears that TCU is leaving MWC for the Big East. Again, with all this conference realigment news Utep cannot keep moving at the pace it is. I just ask all you fans who think Utep football is merely entertainment such as going to the movies (which is not) to imagine where we might end up in a couple of years with this attitude. Coach Price and staff need to get after it now and move Utep into the upper half of CUSA. Enough excuses already. Do something now or c u all (and Utep) in the WAC or Sunbelt conference!

[edd]

First you say miners should not go to the a bowl game at 6-6 and then you say cheers for meeting the standards. What is wrong with you??

[JAT]

The TCU thing is interesting. Although TCU and UTEP rarely battle for the same players, a couple of those Big East teams are licking their chops at recruiting in Texas.

Some of those teams may pluck potential UTEP Miners.

[Hector]

Hey Joe, lets let it rest on Utep going to a bowl. They're going already! How bout talking about conference realignment in the mountain west conference. Yeap! The conference that went behind our back (Utep) left us out in the cold and formed their almighty league. Well, like I've read in other blogs, what goes around comes around and it sure has come full circle for them. Back to the same old conference as before, actually, much watered down, since BYwhooo, Utah and now TCU are leaving. Yeah, lets get this talk going, going to be lots of fun!!!

[pjs]

with TCU leaving I think C-USA and MWC will quit dragging their feet and there will be a merger.Hawaii will get a big east invitation.Go UTEP!