DRC Friday Q&A with Bret Bloomquist of the El Paso Times

Brett Vito · October 5, 2018

DRC: Bret has covered UTEP for several years

https://www.dentonrc.com/sports/friday-q-a-with-bret-bloomquist-of-the-el-paso/article_a87dcafb-0249-5abb-849c-5099438bd53c.html

MeanGreenTexan · October 5, 2018

How refreshing is it to see multiple teams' beat writers refer to North Texas as "The best team we've faced this year"?

Danish43 · October 5, 2018

This will be a Trap Game.

Green Lantern · October 5, 2018

1 hour ago, Danish43 said:

This will be a Trap Game.

How so? Our team literally gave away the game to La Tech. I expect we’ll see laser focus tomorrow. Kinda feel bad for UTEP actually cause they DONT get to sneak up on us now. Have a feeling we’re gonna take out our frustrations on them early and often.

Edited October 5, 2018 by Green Lantern

Udomann · October 5, 2018

Perfect chance to rest our offense, get them back on all cylinders for the rest of the season

I think our defense could literally play 60 minutes on field and we'd still walk away with a win on this one

UNTexas · October 5, 2018

1 hour ago, Green Lantern said:

How so? Our team literally gave away the game to La Tech. I expect we’ll see laser focus tomorrow. Kinda feel bad for UTEP actually cause they DONT get to sneak up on us now. Have a feeling we’re gonna take out our frustrations on them early and often.

I thorought the same last week but we saw a team that believed the hype.

MeanGreenTexan · October 5, 2018

18 minutes ago, UNTexas said:

I thorought the same last week but we saw a team that believed the hype.

Who's "we"?

I don't buy that at all.

UNTexas · October 5, 2018

2 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Who's "we"?

I don't buy that at all.

Did I say you? Every single ex-player and coach I sat with would be the we. Same with the people I tailgated with. As in plural. There was a lot of hubris on that field. First case in point, an attempted fair catch on the five yard line just before the half. Let it go and get it on the 20. Go in at the half leading. Naw, I got this. Or how about late hits just to let the other guy know you are the big man? Or being out prepared? 55 yards in penalties, mostly at really bad times, compared to their 10? How about letting your QB get sacked badly 5 five times? Do you think for a second our coaches weren't pissed off at the mental preparedness of these players who have been living on cloud 9 since beating an SEC team? Bottom line is La Tech was poised and made plays when it really counted because they were prepared. We weren't.

They thought after the fiirst quarter it was over because they jumped up and took their foot off the gas. When they watch the CUSA Championship on TV they'll know all that crap on ESPN or the radio was static.

In films Coach Bill Michael used to say stuff like this after games like this: Ya'll ran out there acting like the big dog and spent the rest of the game lookin like a mule lookin at a new gate. He'd say pretty much the same after watching that game...

Edited October 5, 2018 by UNTexas

MeanGreenTexan · October 5, 2018

1 hour ago, UNTexas said:

Did I say you? Every single ex-player and coach I sat with would be the we. Same with the people I tailgated with. As in plural. There was a lot of hubris on that field. First case in point, an attempted fair catch on the five yard line just before the half. Let it go and get it on the 20. Go in at the half leading. Naw, I got this. Or how about late hits just to let the other guy know you are the big man? Or being out prepared? 55 yards in penalties, mostly at really bad times, compared to their 10? How about letting your QB get sacked badly 5 five times? Do you think for a second our coaches weren't pissed off at the mental preparedness of these players who have been living on cloud 9 since beating an SEC team? Bottom line is La Tech was poised and made plays when it really counted because they were prepared. We weren't.

They thought after the fiirst quarter it was over because they jumped up and took their foot off the gas. When they watch the CUSA Championship on TV they'll know all that crap on ESPN or the radio was static.

In films Coach Bill Michael used to say stuff like this after games like this: Ya'll ran out there acting like the big dog and spent the rest of the game lookin like a mule lookin at a new gate. He'd say pretty much the same after watching that game...

Negative vote not from me.

Your “we” was sweeping & collective. It did not include me, and apparently at least 1 other, at the time I’m posting this.

What I saw was a team that hit the reset button (not “believing the hype”), as evidenced by the fast start. Several bad breaks happened at the worst times & we found ourselves losing by merely 2 points to everyone’s choice as West division #2.

Those same breaks happen to a team that “believes the hype”... that team folds like a cheap tent & gets whooped 50-21.

The proof will be in the pudding for the remainder of the season I suppose.

UNTexas · October 5, 2018

20 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Negative vote not from me.

Your “we” was sweeping & collective. It did not include me, and apparently at least 1 other, at the time I’m posting this.

What I saw was a team that hit the reset button (not “believing the hype”), as evidenced by the fast start. Several bad breaks happened at the worst times & we found ourselves losing by merely 2 points to everyone’s choice as West division #2.

Those same breaks happen to a team that “believes the hype”... that team folds like a cheap tent & gets whooped 50-21.

The proof will be in the pudding for the remainder of the season I suppose.

If anything it woke them up. Our guys just didn't want it as bad as La Tech. My opinion anyway. (Hell, they blocked a field as a giant middle finger to our packed stadium.) Sadly, it happened against the team that will likely win the west now. They'll need to drop probably 2 and we have to win out. I think we will win out and they might drop one. It will be a real sh$t sandwich for us considering our team lost that game all on their own. Pretty sad that 2017 will likely end up as a more fruitful year because we at least competed for the CUSA Championship. Just sucks.

UNTLifer · October 6, 2018

Late hits to act like the big guy? Really? The one "late" hit was called on EJ for hitting their QB. It wasn't late and was a bad call. The PI penalties were because our DB's didn't look back for the ball.

GreenTexan13 · October 6, 2018

2 hours ago, UNTexas said:

If anything it woke them up. Our guys just didn't want it as bad as La Tech. My opinion anyway. (Hell, they blocked a field as a giant middle finger to our packed stadium.) Sadly, it happened against the team that will likely win the west now. They'll need to drop probably 2 and we have to win out. I think we will win out and they might drop one. It will be a real sh$t sandwich for us considering our team lost that game all on their own. Pretty sad that 2017 will likely end up as a more fruitful year because we at least competed for the CUSA Championship. Just sucks

Or 2018 would be our most fruitful year, if we had somebody playing on the team with your mentality, then yes it's a "sh*t sandwich". But nah, reset and look ahead. I sure as heck know the guys wearing green out on the field believe. Louisiana tech is going to lose again and we need to take advantage of it. One loss on them is still a possibility for us.

UNTexas · October 6, 2018

27 minutes ago, GreenTexan13 said:

Or 2018 would be our most fruitful year, if we had somebody playing on the team with your mentality, then yes it's a "sh*t sandwich". But nah, reset and look ahead. I sure as heck know the guys wearing green out on the field believe. Louisiana tech is going to lose again and we need to take advantage of it. One loss on them is still a possibility for us.

So you think 11-1 and second place wouldn't be crappy? It would be a sh$t sandwich sitting at 11-1 and in second for dropping a game they should have one. If you think that's odd, wow.

Reset? There is no reset. 11-1, the conference season is over, then a bowl. Next year the coaches will have a new catch phrase like reset. Or reboot. Or burn the boats, and the list goes on. I'm glad the fans are using this years catch phrase though. Its not negative either, its just the yearly phrases recirculate and have always been around at every school.

If we fail to win the west then 2017 was a better season and it still wasn't as good as 2004 when we actually won a conference championship. Purely on the field speaking. There's no second place ring. I have Conference Championship ring from North Texas. We didn't get it by believing other teams would lose. We just beat them ourselves.

From a non field aspect, this season the support the team is getting is great. Much better than last year. Best I've ever seen.

Edited October 6, 2018 by UNTexas

97and03 · October 6, 2018

At the end of the day (see what I did there?) no one outside of us cares whether or not NT wins the division. So yes, a non-championship 11-1 team probably does more for the program long term than last year’s 9-5 non-championship