UTEP vs Old Dominion: Just Win

Winning solves all the problems losing causes.  The past few years have been brutal for Miner Nation in football regards as we have lost a lot of games by a lot of points.

After last week’s 52 point loss to the Bulldogs, UTEP dropped to 1-8 in league play under Kugler and it’s uglier than the record indicates.

We haven’t been competitive either getting outscored 338-95 in the eight losses, so it’s not like we were a play or two away from winning some games.

UTEP is now that team everyone else pencils in as a W when the schedules are released. It’s sad that Old Dominion who is competing in just their second year of FBS football is only a 2.5 point dog to the Miners.

Six years ago Old Dominion didn't even have a football team, yet now they are equal to UTEP.

Don’t get me started on next week’s opponent that’s another upstart program who in less than three years of playing FBS football are already better than us.

Despite the entire negativity and losing there is a bright side, we still have seven or eight or maybe even nine games to redeem ourselves and overlook the misery of losing.

A win tomorrow and we’ll be at 3-3 halfway through the season which means all of a sudden we are back in the mix, and we can let our minds wander again as they string together some wins and warrant a bowl bid.

A defeat tomorrow and the dark cloud over UTEP football reappears.  The pitch forks will come out and the "Fire Kugler" "Fire Stull" "Fire Natalicio" shouts will intensify.

All that can be avoided by just winning the games we are supposed to.

The schedule assembles nicely over the next month as we are capable of winning the next three games and setting ourselves up for a run at the West title. As good as Louisiana Tech looked against us they are not unbeatable as demonstrated in their loss to FCS Northwestern State.

We looked horrible last week but it’s not the end of the world yet.

Three weeks ago in the NFL world Tampa Bay was smacked around in a 56-14 loss at Atlanta, but then rebounded nicely in their win at Pittsburgh.  Two weeks ago after New England lost 41-14 to Kansas City, many analysts were predicting the end of a dynasty.  Then a week later the Patriots rout the previously undefeated Bengals and bam everyone is happy again.

If good and bad professional teams can bounce back from blowout loses so should the Miners if we are heading in the right direction. We need to make a statement against the Monarchs, a win is needed but a stampede is desired.

As the Monarchs prepare for their version of the Super Bowl it is almost guaranteed there will be several empty seats on Homecoming night,  but for those true loyal fans we are in for a treat.

We will find out exactly who our team is, ultimately It’s not about getting knocked down because we all fall but it’s how you respond to it.

Does UTEP get up and fight back, or do they let the referee waive it off?