To win at UTEP

Oldsters will remember this. And their children who are now adults should heed. Those who ate hot dogs with Don Haskins are the persons who bring their families to games thick and thin. In masse again, they can save UTEP football as they propelled basketball for so many seasons.

That hot dog-eating, anyway, is the lore. Haskins made a lot of life-long friends and fans by hanging with El Paso Guy. He did it going on 40 years - restaurants, anywhere he went.

The UTEP football program has not had El Paso Guy at games unless it was the beginning of a new season, or on the rare occassions - in  this last half century - that the team was a winner into October. There have always been 15,000 to 20,000 loyalists, even at 1-10, but that doesn't fund an athletic program. And "corporate El Paso" is just ... well, there is not much real corporate El Paso. It's the people who want to rub shoulders with their coach who  are the ones who can make their Miner teams winners. By being there in the stands - their ticket and concessions money. Be Chicago Cubs fans having fun.

Mike Price, who retired Monday after nine seasons, is, in himself, a real Haskins. But he was not the proverbial Haskins. Friendly, yes! But he mainly hung with Athletic Director Bob Stull's "little bit of corporate," i.e. the fat wallets in the little pond that is El Paso.

For UTEP football to succeed, it needs the roar that can be raised by hundreds of husbands, wives and children who adopt UTEP football, as they did Haskins' basketball. The Miners have to be their  team, no matter what. 

Call it this an opposite to "win and they will come." It has to be " Keep coming" to UTEP football games, because the only way the Miners will eventually have winning seasons is for the new coach to "eat hot dogs" with the children whose parent's ate hot dogs with Don Haskins.

Comments

[Miner Backer]

Thank You Coach Price for your stay in El Paso and elevating the bar that is UTEP Football. You are most definitely a class act and made our football team competitive and gained national recognition. Coach Haskins was one of a kind and now that Coach Price is to remain in El Paso, perhaps we will see him more active within the community. Maybe he was hanging with the wallets for that reason, because they needed their financial support. Regardless, Coach Price is a class act.

[jUTEP]

People just don't get it. I'm not looking for wins against Oklahoma, Texas, or any of the so-called BCS power conferences. In fact I don't expect UTEP to beat these teams. What I expect are CONFERENCE wins, and CONFERENCE championships, and BOWL GAME wins! C-USA is a weak conference, and will become even weaker next season. Why is it that UTEP remains as the door mat to others in C-USA? Players don't response to the coaches of the past! You need younger coaches who relate better with their players. Aggressive types like a Harbaugh who is now coaching the 49ers. Price may have once been a good head coach, but his time had long passed him by. Good riddance that he's gone! And had he insisted on staying another year, I'd had hoped Stull would have had the cajones to say no. Bring on a new coach, even if it's for a short 2-3 year stint. We need new blood at UTEP! For the first time in years I'm actually looking forward to a UTEP football season! Adios Price!

[toby tibbins]

Thanks once again Joe Blow for writing a dumb post. Man are you dumb! Instead of writing an article of Coach MP, who you said you "liked" in previous posts, you write nonsense. Hey Joe Blow, write something praising Coach MP or who the next football coach should be. How about this, Coach MP retired, maybe YOU should follow and announce your retirement. Many people would appreciate that.

[Roman Hernandez]

To win t UTEP, we need to have players that aren't afraid to hit and get hit! Players with grit and that don't have quit in them! Players that can at least tackle! Smart players that don't make bone head play after bone head play! Players that don't leave opposing receivers wide open where there isn't one defender within 15 yards! How can any team win when they blow coverage after coverage as they did against Southern Miss Saturday?
UTEP needs brawn and smart, that combination has proven to be successful in many a program! Smart coaching is a given, so I hope that Bob stull chooses smartly and not just out of a sense of loyalty to someone that he knows personally!

[Jeff cook]

There is an ideal candidate for the UTEP head football coach vacancy and he is even presently coaching in the state of Texas. I hear people say, the new UTEP football coach must embrace the community, everybody wants new blood, etc. The ideal head football coach for UTEP is presently the offensive coordinator at North Texas. His name is Mike Canales. He will bring great energy, experience and be able to fully immerse himself in the El Paso community. No one will have more in common with the El Paso community than a Hispanic, with great pride in his heritage. There is no better candidate in the country for the future of UTEP football. Mike Canales is the man that UTEP needs to hire as its next head football coach. Hiring a Hispanic head football coach will bring great pride to the university and the El Paso community and will re-energize the UTEP football fan base. I only hope Mr. Stull has enough vision to be able to make an outstanding hire like Mike Canales. If he doesn't, then the president should re-evaluate Mr. Stull's ability to perform his job.

[Out There]

^^^ I'm sure he's a great guy and all but we need a coach who can recruit. If kent state, San Jose state, Utah state, and southeastern Carolina a&m state can all be ranked in the BCS top 25 but a school from one of, if not thee, most fertile recruiting states in the country can barely muster up 3 wins??? Now Mike Price was an excellent coach but he only was able to manage 3star recruits at BEST. We need someone who can sway these kids into being heros here in el paso instead of 2nd string mop-up duty players at other Texas schools.