UTEP Football: UTEP appears to go the safe route with hire

Not going to lie.

When the email made my phone vibrate and jingle, I had to google Dana Dimel. And it also took me awhile to dissect a Dana Dimel hiring at UTEP, and let’s hope my opinion changes with W’s Dimel brings in.

First article that popped up when I googled “Kansas State’s offense” an article called a Closer Look at Kansas State’s boring offense popped up.

Not ideal for what Jim Senter promised in his in opening press conference.

“I think we're going to find somebody that has demonstrated the ability to move the football and score points.” Senter said. “You only have to score one more point than your opponent nowadays, and everybody tends to miss that fact, but at the end of the day we've got to find somebody that can score points. This is a high-scoring league and you've got to score enough points to beat your opponent and you've got to play good enough defense to hold them. So we'll find somebody that can do that.”

That rubbed me the wrong way at first glance at the Dimel profile. Yes UTEP hired a P5 coordinator who has extensive experience, but the Kansas State Co-offensive coordinator. They run the ball, run the ball, and run the ball.

UTEP fans sat through five seasons of that ineptitude, so sorry if we’re not thrilled.

Look, UTEP was never in play for Kevin Sumlin or any other sexy names. But the truth is, UTEP missed the boat on hiring an innovative offensive hire like a Kendal Briles, Sterlin Gilbert, or even a Graham Harrell.

Steve Kaplowitz reported on 600 ESPN El Paso that a source told him UTEP passed on Gilbert for Dimel for what it’s worth. In my opinion, a young coordinator who is hungry and can recruit was the way to go, not a failed former FBS head coach from an average P5 program.

UTEP has the current personnel on the roster to fit what Dimel might run…..and UTEP missed the boat on creating excitement with a proven innovate offensive mind.

But there is one thing Dimel can bring right away….

Dimel seems like an above average recruiter, and he could do some of his best recruiting damage at UTEP in the JUCO ranks.

Some of his top commits according to 247Sports have a theme. Top JUCO players who were actually nationally rated, and high school areas of Texas UTEP never was able to recruit or even sniff under Sean Kugler.

It’s not a sexy hire, but I feel Dimel could change UTEP’s recruiting culture, but there was one thing UTEP missed on this hire: complete change.

This smells like a Stull hire. A retread who has a winless season on his resume under his belt, and brings more questions than immediate excitement for a fan base wanting real FBS moves and excitement.

This is a new era of college football, and UTEP continues to badly whiff on creating excitement with their coaching staff moves.

Now I could be wrong and just a pissed off fan who runs a blog and talking shit. Dimel could bring in a heavy JUCO mix of impact players and UTEP wins 7 or 8 games in the next three seasons. Dimel could change it up and go the air raid route and we have yards and points to blog about.

But as of right now, just an hour or so after the announcement UTEP continues to do what they do at the top of the administration chain in making safe hires that save money.

Dimel deserves a chance, and deserves support from UTEP fans, but I’m personally not on board with this hire.

I hope it works out.

UTEP can’t go any lower than where they are right now, and time will tell if Dimel is the guy to revive one of the nation’s long standing bottom feeders into a C-USA contender, all UTEP fans want is to compete.