- The following tweet regarding UTEP’s third loss of the season against the Arizona Wildcats sums up about the most entertaining thing that happened in last night’s 63-16 thrashing.
Arizona at UTEP has reached the point on Friday night where the announcers are eating tacos on live tv pic.twitter.com/KCrULdccFR
— Matt Prehm (@Prehmmr247) September 16, 2017
At first, the thought that went through my head was humor which is needed in a long season like the one most Miner fans are experiencing. Then on the flip side my anger set in to see another dismal performance by this football team once again. It makes me see why the support could be in jeopardy of dwindling to its lowest ever in school history. Yes, there will still be the moral supporters that go no matter the outcome, however, this athletic program still needs to generate revenue.
And the unknown of the hiring direction/timetable of a new AD makes things interesting.
- Before you stop reading, let me give my two shout outs for both sides of the ball last night. Alvin Jones was Luke Kuechly hitting everything that moved on the field against the Wildcats.
He also showed a bit of Jaylon Smith covering sideline-to-sideline on some plays on his way to tallying 16 tackles for the night. It’s been easy to pick on this Miners defense even though Alvin’s performance tends to make us forget how physically over matched they’ve been through three games.
This unit needs to rally around their defensive leader and try to at least match his intensity on the field. If not, 63 points by other teams will come with more regularity.
- Many will call for a drug test when I say Mark Torrez showed me more than any of the signal callers on the UTEP roster in limited action. When you consider the situation, I think the time to bring Torrez and true freshman Josh Fields into the offense full time is now.
Offensive coordinator Brent Pease has shown Miner fans that he is still playing Atari style offense when everyone else is spreading the ball around like you do on Madden.
Mark Torrez was a stud player his senior season at Eastwood leading the city and region in passing yards, touchdowns, and completion percentage. Josh Fields brings an impressive resume, and showed he has FBS juice with the right play call to help him adapt to his new surroundings.
This offense needs a shot in the arm sooner rather than later. Why not start there?
- The attendance of 22,133 was a decent turnout for a Friday night considering there was high school football as well as Chihuahuas PCL Championship baseball game to compete with.
The Miners came out looking like a dark match candidate instead of looking like they were worthy of sharing the spotlight last night. Can you imagine if it had not been Military Night at the Sun Bowl? That 22k easily goes down by 5,000 or more before the team even gets out of the 1st quarter.