Rumor: Price out at UTEP. (probably at end of season, imo)

Coach Bill Lewis · October 31, 2012

Not that this is a big shock but if it's true then Miner fans can finally have some new hope for improvement. Our team has not been horrible but no where near enough winning. I don't know how reliable this site is but they claim that this is something they are hearing. All we've heard prior to this was that nothing would be decided until the end of the season.

http://247sports.com/Board/59457/Coachin...13578549/1

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NM Green · October 31, 2012

New league fresh start for the Miners.

GMG

chrisfisher · October 31, 2012

New league fresh start for the Miners.

GMG

New league? Are they moving from CUSA?

Mean Green 93-98 · October 31, 2012

New league? Are they moving from CUSA?

Nope.

GrayEagle · October 31, 2012

New league? Are they moving from CUSA?

They'll feel like they're in a new league. There will be ten teams either going or coming from this year's conference mates.

NM Green · November 1, 2012

Conference USA will indeed be a new league. Time to reset and feed the rivalries: North Texas: Tulsa: La Tech: UTSA: Rice: Tulane: UTEP and then there is the East!

gmg

GrandGreen · November 1, 2012

Price did a lot at UTEP, he took one of the worse programs in the country and at least took them from constant bottom dweller status. Not sure they are not making a big mistake, UTEP has a lot of disadvantages and it is going to be difficult to get consistently better than what Price accomplished.

Marty · November 1, 2012

47-59 overall at UTEP. Best season was his first (8-4), took the Miners to the GMAC Bowl & lost to Toledo.

Harry · November 1, 2012

I predict whoever replaces him will focus much more attention on recruiting in Dallas and Houston. Price focused more in California and jucos.

oldguystudent · November 1, 2012

Recruiting California is probably not such a bad idea. Only 7 FBS teams in California with lots of high school talent. Distance-wise, it's the same to Dallas and Los Angeles. Both are easy Southwest flights.

Honestly, I don't know why one would go after the leftovers of high school players in Dallas that have between picked clean by the other 11 Texas programs, both Oklahoma schools, and LA Tech, given probably better available talent left over in SoCal.

The SoCal area is probably realistically recruited by USC, UCLA, San Diego St., Fresno, UNLV, ASU, Arizona, New Mexico, and NMSU. That's only 9 competing programs of which three (UNLV, NMSU, New Mexico) are less attractive than UTEP.

tl;dr Mike Price was no dummy

aztecskin · November 1, 2012

Recruiting California is probably not such a bad idea. Only 7 FBS teams in California with lots of high school talent. Distance-wise, it's the same to Dallas and Los Angeles. Both are easy Southwest flights.

Honestly, I don't know why one would go after the leftovers of high school players in Dallas that have between picked clean by the other 11 Texas programs, both Oklahoma schools, and LA Tech, given probably better available talent left over in SoCal.

The SoCal area is probably realistically recruited by USC, UCLA, San Diego St., Fresno, UNLV, ASU, Arizona, New Mexico, and NMSU. That's only 9 competing programs of which three (UNLV, NMSU, New Mexico) are less attractive than UTEP.

tl;dr Mike Price was no dummy

... Utah, BYU, Col, Col St, any Pac 12, school, MW school, WAC school.

VideoEagle · November 1, 2012

The distance is NOT the same. El Paso is about 2/3 the way to Los Angels from Dallas. In the 70s, the NT debate team would fly Southwest to El Paso and rent a car to drive the rest of the way to LA.

oldguystudent · November 1, 2012

The distance is NOT the same. El Paso is about 2/3 the way to Los Angels from Dallas. In the 70s, the NT debate team would fly Southwest to El Paso and rent a car to drive the rest of the way to LA.

Per Google maps. 802 miles from Los Angeles vs 638 miles from Dallas. Pardon me for not having it perfectly symmetrical.

Flight time per southwest.com from both LAX and DAL are exactly 1:45.

Not sure why this is a point of capital letters argument though.

Edited November 1, 2012 by oldguystudent

Harry · November 1, 2012

Recruiting California is probably not such a bad idea. Only 7 FBS teams in California with lots of high school talent. Distance-wise, it's the same to Dallas and Los Angeles. Both are easy Southwest flights.

Honestly, I don't know why one would go after the leftovers of high school players in Dallas that have between picked clean by the other 11 Texas programs, both Oklahoma schools, and LA Tech, given probably better available talent left over in SoCal.

The SoCal area is probably realistically recruited by USC, UCLA, San Diego St., Fresno, UNLV, ASU, Arizona, New Mexico, and NMSU. That's only 9 competing programs of which three (UNLV, NMSU, New Mexico) are less attractive than UTEP.

tl;dr Mike Price was no dummy

I agree that you should recruit Cali some, especially for skill position players (thew grow great QB's there). But I thought Price over recruited his roster out there and apparently the results of that strategy have led to his dismissal.

The Fake Lonnie Finch · November 1, 2012

The truth is, El Paso is in the middle of nowhere. There isn't a major city near it, and the high schools there do not come close to putting out FBS-level talent in the volume of the DFW, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio areas.

Having lived there for a year, and visiting a client from time to time that we have out there, it's not a particularly pretty city, and there isn't much to do. Yes, it has mountains, but they aren't all that, you know, "scenic."

The people there are nice enough, and I like the campus. But, it would be a hard sell to draw many upper echelon recruits there. I'd have stuck with Price until he retired.

UTEP is a tough job in many ways. Being where it is, it is neither fish nor fowl. Not many have had sustained success there...like UNT in that regard.

McKinneyMiner · November 1, 2012

Not that this is a big shock but if it's true then Miner fans can finally have some new hope for improvement. Our team has not been horrible but no where near enough winning. I don't know how reliable this site is but they claim that this is something they are hearing. All we've heard prior to this was that nothing would be decided until the end of the season.

Price is definitely gone at the end of the year... They'll make a big retirement announcement to give him a more dignified exit, but they are simply not going renew his contract or negotiate a new one...

His contract is up at the end of the season and one of the reasons he hasn't been let go before now is that the University couldn't afford a buyout...

Price did really good things at UTEP but he is burned out now... He hasn't been getting through to players for a few years now and his teams are unfocused and undisciplined...

Hopefully Bob Stull will make a concerted effort to bring in the right man to get the program going in the right direction...

UTEP is a tough place to win consistently in football, but they have incredible fans in El Paso IF the team is winning... They will consistently draw over 40,000 for a winner...

Once the team starts losing for a few years in a row apathy sets in they are lucky to draw 25,000...

There has been a ton of speculation to be sure...

Go here if you'd like to follow some of the chatter: http://utep.rivals.com

NorthTexan95 · November 1, 2012

The people there are nice enough, and I like the campus. But, it would be a hard sell to draw many upper echelon recruits there. I'd have stuck with Price until he retired.

UTEP is a tough job in many ways. Being where it is, it is neither fish nor fowl. Not many have had sustained success there...like UNT in that regard.

Sounds a lot like what folks were saying when we fired Dickey.