UTEP Miners Roster 2019 Miners Roster

Head Coach: Dana Dimel        2017 Salary: N/A        Offensive Coordinator: Mike Canales       Defensive Coordinator: Mike Cox         

Stadium: Sun Bowl Stadium       Surface: Turf        City: El Paso        State: Texas

There is not much to be said for the 2017 UTEP football season other than good riddance. The Miners went winless and had the nation’s worst offense by a large margin. This resulted in a coaching change after coach Mike Price was shown the door seven losses into the season. Enter Dana Dimel, who joins the program from Kansas State with a tall rebuilding task ahead of him.

The Miners failed to even average two touchdowns per game last season. The Miners played three quarterbacks last season and none of them completed half of their passes. Kai Locksley and Ryan Metz are battling it out to start at quarterback. Dimel will have to have time to install his system before any larger progress can be made. Still, there is much improvement necessary in the passing game which was completely nonexistent last season, averaging only 136 yards per game. The theme for this season will have to change from three-and-out to something more productive.

It is hard to tell whether the defense was bad last season or just had to spend too much time on the field thanks to the Miners’ offensive failures. This year, the Miners will be switching to a 4-2-5 system under Mike Cox, who joins UTEP from Kansas State. Cox is one more import from K-State as Dimel tries to remake UTEP. Even one win in 2018 would be progress for the Miners. The bright news in El Paso is that things cannot get any worse this season.