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C-USA Media Day: Takeaways, Highlights, Tweets

The C-USA Media went on yesterday in Dallas, here are my takeaways and highlights, plus some of the best Tweets that came from media day.

By Alex Nicolas
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

You call it media day, I call it a day full of coaches cliché/talk but anyway you look it at it gives us something to talk about sitting almost a week a away from camp, and a little over a month from kickoff.

A welcome to Western Kentucky that gave a direct signaling that the C-USA realignment is over with along with the national hot button topic of pay for play for college athletes were among the notable highlights.

The commish said school administrators from all of the conference's members are ready to pay an amount greater than the cost of athletes' current scholarships once the Power Five Autonomy passes.  

Things will probably heat up after the August 7th vote goes down, which would then allow the C-USA to have a similar vote in January, and possibly start cutting checks for the 2015-16 academic year.

As for the Miners, Kugler was his cool, calm, collected self looking more comfortable this time around, and as the  ultimate game planner he is, stuck to basically the same message.

Here are some key takeaways I thought we could we could fill up the comment thread with.

*Kugler talked about going east in recruiting for bigger lineman, and his almost overall geographical landscape of his recruiting plan.

*Reiterated the importance of building the program in the trenches, and said he wants to be more athletic on the edges of the offensive front, while beefing up the inside, same on the defensive side.

*During a interview with a LA Tech market radio affiliate Kugler hinted that Alvin Jones is in the running to start at linebacker.

*Kugler said the most impressive improvement as a whole is the defense, and says the players "enjoy" playing in 4-2-5 now with a year of verbiage execution, and experience in the system, "flying around" and being "more aggressive" were also talking points of his team's improvement on defense during the spring.

*Like last year when he was healthy on the field Wesley Miller will be an extension of defensive coordinator Scott Stoker after a lot of study time over the past year.

*Jameill Showers said he worked hard in the off-season on getting his body fat down, and being in top shape, notes he feels like THE leader now.

*Every coach has main words during most media day interviews, Kugler's were "stick to the program", "stay consistent", and be a "physical team".

* Personal observation of UTEP's outlook in late July: health within the key core of guys on both sides of the ball will to be very important if UTEP wants to have a chance to be competitive this season.

Best of the Twitterverse

I thought a blockbuster trade went down at the Top Golf event Tuesday with this Tweet from the good ole C-US of A that was took down, it was picture of Showers on the driving range.

 

 

Nice suit indeed but Kugs woulda probably have more fun in flip flops and shorts.

Here is a link to the Wesley Miller, Kugler, and Showers sit down, fast forward to 4:18:32 mark for the good guys...