In The Dig: Lost in the shuffle of what's shaping up to be the biggest weekend of the year in UTEP athletics is a home basketball game tonight between the UTEP Miners and the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks. Here are Tim Floyd's comments on the Warhawks (courtesy of UTEP Athletics).
Miners vs. Warhawks
Scouting Report: Tim Floyd have Bill Knight the scoop on UTEP's opponent tonight. Seems their coach loves the motion offense and man to man defense.
"We know the coach and we know his reputation," UTEP coach Tim Floyd said. "He was at Louisiana Tech, and everywhere he's been he's affected winning. He went from Louisiana Tech to LSU as an assistant and they won the Southeastern Conference. We know they will have some motion offense, some set plays. We know they will guard us man-to-man. That's not to say we won't see zone, but we know he is a terrific man-defense coach."
The Mingo Ate Your Baby! ULM is led by Hugh Mingo. Mingo is a 6'3 guard who has scored double digits in seven straight games. He was also named the Sun Belt Player of the Week this past week.
Mingo became the second ULM player to earn Sun Belt Player of the Week honors, the conference office announced Tuesday. He is also the first in three years to receive such accolades, with the last being Tony Hooper on Dec. 4, 2007.
Local Love: UTEP's all time assist leader Julyan Stone is getting some love from back home. Check it out.
Bowl- a- Rama
Not a Typical Frosh QB? Jake Heaps is getting lots of accolades for almost leading a game winning drive against Utah in BYU's season finale.
"He made a critical drive against a good team in a hostile setting, and handled it with a lot of poise and class," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "That’s probably the next step of just handling difficult circumstances, and he did it really well."
Bronco Talk: BYU's Bronco Mendenhall doesn't think UTEP resembles any of their opponents from this season. Something new....
All Smiles: Mike Price brought the jokes again. Check out this gem:
The colorful coach had this line the other day, as reported by the El Paso Times: "Their offensive line is 6-foot-6, 315 [pounds] across the board, average age 32, four kids."
Odds and Ends: Here's the official New Mexico Bowl preview from CBS Sports.
And, here is SBNation's NEW MEXICO BOWL page with links to coverage from across the network.
Odds and Ends
UTEP's track star Blessing Okagbare will attend the ceremony for the Bowerman trophy tonight. Blessing was the most outstanding track athlete in the nation last season by a mile so hopefully she'll get the prestigious award.
Delivery Held Overnight: Memphis quarterback Cannon Smith, son of FedEx founder Fred Smith, was arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct.