Perusing the start to the UTEP Miners' football schedule, I was notici...HOLY CRAP!
Has anyone been paying attention here? Forget November swoons, should Mike Price and his new coaching crew get this UTEP team through the initial six games on this schedule in good shape, someone needs to create a First-Half-of-the-Season Coach of the Year award.
The Miners start with a steel-jawed trap game in pretty much the catty-corner of the United States from El Paso, Buffalo, NY, playing the Buffalo Bulls, Thursday, Aug. 28.
Sure, someone in Buffalo should buy more than a vowel when they choose team nicknames,
but this is an up-and-coming program in the Mid-American Conference (anyone remember Toledo? The 2005 GMAC Bowl?) with an up-and-coming coach in Turner Gill, the former Nebraska player and almost the Huskers' choice to lead his alma mater this season.
Then, there's that little team from Austin, TX, feeling hard-done-by starting its season ranked out of the top 10 by many publications.
Please. The Longhorns should never EVER feel dissed by preseason polls because they have a profile similar to Notre Dame's.
A couple of good wins and the national media all but apologizes by vaulting them into the Top Five, guaranteed. But head coach Mack Brown has to tell his team something.
The Horns are coming to UTEP fired up without the pressure cooker of Royal-Memorial to deal with Sept. 6.
Capitalizing on an atmosphere and sense of expectation that rivals any Sun Bowl in recent memory, the Miners athletic department is making a mint off this game already. Let's hope they won't be needing that money to pay any hospital bills at Thomason. Theirs, or Tony Montana's.
After a week off, it's the annual Battle of I-10 against another revamped defense, this one orchestrated by the composer of the 3-3-5 scheme, NMSU defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn.
When you see and hear Dunn, you might be tempted to shield the Brass Spittoon for fear he might use it. But don't be fooled. Having seen Dunn up close and personal when he was coaching at the University of New Mexico back in the 1980's, he is truly one of the sharpest minds I've encountered.
It hasn't always translated to wins -- his first stint as head coach was at UNM, and it didn't go well. That doesn't make him any less dangerous, especially with zero expectations for a defense most people ran up, around and over in 2007.
Rocky Long may be the 3-3-5's Jedi master and Osia Lewis is fashioning his own weapon at UTEP; but Dunn is truly Yoda, the unlikely but ultra-capable wielder of the formation's force. As the Lobos DC, Dunn's wacky where-the-heck-did-that-come-from? defense led the 1982 Lobos to a 10-1 record, a mark Long has yet to match.
The Lobos had nothing that would have led anyone to believe they would do so well -- one of the leading tacklers, linebacker Johnny Jackson, was only 5-foot-10! -- but Dunn's "D" racked up 53 sacks that season.
Coupled with Hal Mumme's equally off-kilter offense, the Aggies could pose a real threat if they've survived their own early schedule injury-free.
Besides, if you fear Dunn's use of the Brass Spittoon, don't get too close. He's already had lots of opportunities to use it.
Next, it's merely George "Master's Degree" O'Leary and defending Conference USA champion Central Florida in the Sun Bowl, Sept. 27. No Kevin Smith, but the Golden Knights are building good things in Orlando, FL. Don't be putting mouse ears on this bunch.
Off to Mississippi Oct. 4. UTEP players wearing helmet screens might need wiper fluid to remove the bugs, and should hope that this act doesn't remind them of last season's score against Southern Miss.
Wrap it up Oct. 11 in the Sun Bowl against Price's old friend and nemesis, Bob Toledo, now coaching an improved Tulane.
Oh, and then they have to play the second half of the season.
Losses all around? Certainly not. All the losses referred to in this space are so 2007. Price's offense should click into place, as usual, while Osia Lewis will have his defense having fun at other teams' expense.
Should the 3-3-5 be even marginally better than last season while UTEP scores its usual 30- and 40-something points-per-game, this season will be better than 4-8.
It says here the Miners will surprise and open eyes.
But the bottom line is that the eye-opening must start in Buffalo.