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In The Dig: In West Texas, few things are better than spending a Friday night under the lights, watching your neighborhoods finest fight for the ultimate prize... a chance at the Texas State High School State Championship. For Miner fans, seeing the lights up indicates something more; a sign that UTEP's season is drawing close....
Gentlemen, We're 9 Days Away..........
The UTEP Miners
UTEP's SID has yet another practice video up. If you want to get a sense of the day to day events at practice, there is no better resource than these videos.
The Official Word
The C-USA official site has released its official Pre-season football notebook. What does that mean? Well, think of it as Cliffs Notes on all 12 C-USA squads with a nice, brief rundown on the state of the league.
Conference USA will have six nationally-televised games on opening weekend (sept. 2-5), with two each on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Overall, more than 50 C-USA football games are scheduled to be televised nationally or regionally in 2010
Tip Your Waitresses, I'll Be Here All Week
The EPT's Maggie Ybarra got creative with her headline on a story covering UTEP wide receiver Evan Davis' arrest. "UTEP Football Player Accused of Tackling Girlfriend." Besides the headline, Ybarra also offers Evan's side of the story.
Police said Davis told them he was arguing with Montez about going out with friends that night when Montez tried to hit him. Davis said he tried to restrain her by holding her wrists, police said. Davis also told police he threw Montez's phone because she tried to hit him with it, the affidavit said. Police said, "Davis was vague in his description of the incident.
Numero Uno
Fox Sports Southwest is counting down the Top 10 College Running Backs in Texas. Donald Buckram is #1. Nevermind the fact that FSSW doesn't realize that Charles Sims, #3 on their list, isn't eligible this season.
1) Donald Buckram, UTEP: It’s hard to argue with a guy who racked up nearly 1,600 yards as a junior.
Chatting It Up
The EPT is hosting another live chat on Monday- this one will feature Buckram. I'll be sure to send a reminder Monday afternoon on this.
UTEP tailback Donald Buckram will chat with readers live at 2 p.m. Monday on elpasotimes.com.
Movin' On
Former Miner quarterback Tim Curry has landed at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, TX. I think all Miner fan want to wish him the best in East Texas.
Tim fits in our offense as a quarterback who can stand back there and deliver the ball in our fun-and- gun-style offense. Tim wanted to come back home to east Texas and with that comes the opportunity to throw the ball about 600 times a year."
The Blog Poll
The Blog Poll, of which Miner Rush is a voter, is a nice way to get a sense of how the fans are voting across the country. Brian Cook, of MGoBlog, will write a weekly feature on the ballots. During the season, I'll post the weekly poll in its entirety each week with Brian's rundown. Here is a link to his reaction to the first poll of the year.
The Rice Owls
A Major Loss: Scott Solomon is possibly Rice's best defensive player. A DT, Solomon was a favorite for first team All C-USA this season. Unfortunately, Solomon has been injured- a broken bone in his right foot- and will miss the first 8 weeks of the season.
Desperate Times: It's no secret that Tulsa's 3-3-5 defense can't stop anybody. But now, coach Todd Graham is resorting to using three offensive players on defense too..... The Hurricane are going Iron Man.
"He’s (Jamad Williams) still going to play tailback, but we’re working to put him in on third-down situations," Graham said. Last week, Graham said H-Backs Charles Clay and Willie Carter could be pass rush specialists on third down
Friday Night Lights
A full schedule of tonights El Paso area games can be found here. I wish I had the time to cover high school football the way it deserves to be covered in El Paso, but I quite simply don't. I'll say this, if you're bored tonight in El Paso, a great way to spend the evening might be to head over to the SAC to support the Montwood Rams as they host the Midland Lee Rebels. What's better than seeing a local squad battle it out with a Permian Basin power? Stuck in the northeast? Well, Americas is at Andress. Want to see a historic stadium? Austin is at Ysleta- at The Reservation. For the best local high school football news, check out EPGridiron.com.
For now, each week I will try to showcase the highlights of a local player- as available- that I think is D-1 quality. This week, Americas High School running back Jack Fields. This kid can fly.
If you know of another local kid who should be mentioned, please post his name in the comments. I'll try to hunt down video on him (or email me at minerrush@gmail.com).