UTEP sports Q&A with CUSA-fans UTEP correspondent Carlos Silva, Jr.

CUSA-fans.com has a new staff of team correspondents this fall to help bring you, the fan, more detailed Conference USA football coverage. Today, our UTEP Correspondent Carlos Silva Jr. answers your e-mails in his weekly UTEP sports Q&A.

Welcome everyone to the first edition of the "UTEP Sports Mailbag." As you all know, I will answer any questions you have on UTEP sports, and to ensure that I give each question the time it deserves, any e-mail received after 4:00 pm MST on Thursday will be used in the next edition.

Gustavo A.
El Paso, Texas

Q: “I have seen mixed reactions to the newly acquired Miner Head Coach Tony Barbee, and I would like to know your take on this new acquisition.


A: Well Gustavo, the first thing that comes to my mind with Barbee is his winning attitude and recruiting ability. He obviously sold UTEP athletic director Bob Stull, who called him the dark horse of this coaching search. Stull even said during Monday’s press conference announcing the hire that, “I didn't know as much about Tony as perhaps I did about the other applicants.” Barbee had to convince Stull to hire him over assistants Tim Jankovich (Kansas) and Rodney Terry (Texas), who were the two leaders of the coaching search. This tells you Barbee knows how to recruit because just as he sold Stull on his ideas and visions, he would use the same techniques to bring top recruits to UTEP.

Not only that, but Barbee is a proven winner. He not only helped a Memphis team reach five-consecutive postseason berths (2003, 2004 NCAA; 2001, 2002, 2005 NIT), but he built these teams with great talent, including the #1 recruiting class in 2001. Barbee is new to the coaching position, but I believe he will keep the UTEP ship from sinking. He plans on continuing UTEP’s winning tradition, but I respect him for not wanting to win just on the court. He wants to win in the classroom, community, and game of life.

One more thing, Barbee was asked of what style of play the Miners would dawn on the court. El Paso residents will be clamoring for tickets to watch the high-paced, and high energy basketball game, which disappeared with Doc Sadler.

Marc Campbell
Albuquerque, NM

Q: Aside from the obvious, Jordan Palmer's ability to decrease his mistakes, what are the key ingredients to a successful 2006 football campaign for the UTEP Miners? Do you believe that much of Jordan's problems last season may have been due to too lofty of expectations?



A: Excellent two-part question Marc. Most team’s key ingredients for a successful season include: keeping turnovers low, protecting the football, forcing turnovers on defense, and good clock management. The Miners did a few a these right, but I believe there is a better formula for the Miners. Defense!

You might be scratching your head right now thinking, “Didn’t the Miners defense improve?” Yes, they improved by allowing less points to be scored on them, 24 last season, but the offense only scored 34 points a game last year. What does this mean? It translates to a 10 point cushion for Jordan Palmer and the UTEP offense to work with. Price might be on to something when he discusses limiting Palmer’s mistakes because one miss read, and the opposition is back in the game down by three or seven points. Sound familiar Miner fans? Mixing in more running plays for Marcus Thomas and the running backs will definitely help Palmer’s cause. Price must balance the offense, which threw for over 3,000 yards and ran for 1400, to give the Palmer a bigger cushion to work with. This will allow Palmer be calm during game situations, since he will not have to worry about scoring so many touchdowns.

Now to address the second part of your question.

Quarterback is the one position on the field that is scrutinized the most, but don’t you think all of the players were given lofty expectations? After an 8-4 dream season with an included bowl game, Miner fans were screaming for an undefeated season last year and as much as I and the citizens would have loved to see it, the Miners won’t be going undefeated. The team as a whole felt it when they had two chances to capture the C-USA Championship, but couldn’t do it. Why you ask?

The main problem, which most people don’t realize, was the youth on the offensive line. Many critics point to Palmer’s nine interceptions, but do many people know he was sacked nine times during that streak? That is one sack for every interception he threw, talk about mistakes hurting you, he took it literally. Palmer wasn’t making bad decisions; he was trying to pass the ball before he got slammed to the ground. So to say lofty expectations were the cause of his problems, is saying he crumbled under the pressure, which is completely false. He withstood each sack, but eventually his body gave out from the pounding he took and that’s fact.



Gabriel Centeno
El Paso, TX

Q: The Miner soccer team did fantastic last year, have you heard any news on them?


A: Actually, I have Gabriel. The Lady Miners, who went (20-4-1) last year, have earned a 15th place ranking in Soccer Buzz Magazine’s pre-season poll. This is the second time in school history that the soccer program has been ranked in the pre-season poll.

The soccer team is in great shape for the season because nine letterwinners, which include junior goalkeeper Brittany Popoff and junior scoring machine Jami Tullius, return from last year's team.

You can catch them in action on August 19th, when the team plays in their annual Alumni game at 1:00 pm at the newly renovated University Field. Their first game at Air Force will take place August 25th at 5:00 pm.


Andy Rivera
El Paso, TX

Q: Knowing UTEP's strengths and weaknesses what opponents should the Miners look out for in C-USA? Putting aside you being a miner fan who is the "Top Dog" in C-USA?


A: Thanks for the questions Andy. There are four teams that come to mind, which the Miners should look out for this year. Houston, Memphis, UAB, and Tulsa will give the Miners their best competition in my opinion. Why you ask?

Plain and simple, the Miners lost games to UAB and Memphis, and will play Houston and Tulsa on the road this year. The Miners were (5-1) at home and used the 45,000 screaming fans at the Sun Bowl to their advantage, to squeak a win by Houston. They will not have that luxury this year; instead they will be going on the road, where they held a (3-2) record, heckled by 15,000 Cougar fans at Robertson Stadium. The Cougars ironically don’t play well at home, posting a (23-21-1) record the past five years, but the Miners should still be weary of senior QB Kevin Kolb.

Memphis loses star running back DeAngelo Williams to the NFl, but they return junior running back Joseph Doss, who torched the Miners as a kick returner. He was able to gain 110 yards on five returns. Expect to see that explosiveness this year when Memphis comes to El Paso because Memphis looks to run the ball, just as they did with DeAngelo.

UAB is another tough to team on the Miners schedule. The fact that the Miners have to travel to Birmingham, Alabama, does not bode well either. Legion Field seats around 80,000 fans and you can expect the season average of 20,000 to show support for this new rivalry.

Although Tulsa was defeated at the Sun Bowl last year, the Miner faithful remember UTEP had to comeback, and win on a last second field goal. UTEP cannot afford to overlook any team on their schedule, and that may put a lot of pressure on the team.
As far as the “Top Dog” of C-USA, I would have to say it is Tulsa. They won the C-USA Championship last season, and deserve to be among the elite in C-USA. Head coach Steve Kragthorpe is hoping for another (9-4) bowl season, which returns junior QB Paul Smith, and if he has another stellar year, both could be lifting there second championship this year.

Dear Mr. Carlos Silva Jr.

Q: What is the situation with the UTEP basketball recruits/players? Are any going to leave because of the coaching changes? Has coach Barbee succeeded in heading off any players/recruits from leaving? What is the situation with the present assistant coaches besides the new hire (Milt Wagner)? Are any leaving or staying and which ones? I realize the answers to these questions may not materialize for several more days or not until next week but if you know something, please let it be known.

Thank you,

Juan De Dios
El Paso, TX



A: Well Juan De Dios that is a nice assortment of questions, and I will give you my best shot. Since Barbee was just announced as head coach on Monday, this means that there is not much news on the player front. I know that Barbee is on the East Coast visiting with recruits and returning players, according to the El Paso Times. but I can give you situations that may arise.

Barring any drastic changes from Barbee, the UTEP basketball team will stay intact for this season and have one scholarship available next year after Kevin Henderson exhausts his eligibility.

The big question will be if Barbee can retain David Anwar as an assistant because of his East Coast connection, and most importantly his Philly Lutheran affiliation with Stephon Jackson and Maurice Thomas. Anwar also played a huge part in recruiting Philadelphia products JUCO point guard Marvin Kilgore and freshman point guard Malik Alvin. Although I don’t see these players leaving this close to school starting, but given the circumstances, you can’t rule out the possibility.

Rivals.com recruiting analyst John Talman told me that if Doc is encouraging his players to stay at UTEP, he highly doubts that much would get done with transfer paperwork to get them to this new school. It sounded to him like Sadler is concentrating on keeping the last recruiting class at Nebraska on board rather than trying to steal players from UTEP, which is why Sadler made the trip to Australia to retain center Aleks Maric.
As far as assistants, Tony Benford has left UTEP and joined Doc Sadler in Nebraska. Randall Dickey may also join the staff because Sadler mentioned that if Dickey or Benford were not named head coach at UTEP he would bring one of them, but I believe he will bring both. I will have more information for next week’s mailbag, and post it there.

I will now close up the Miner Sports Weekly Mailbag for this week. I would like to thank everyone who sent questions this week; you made the mailbag a complete success. I hope to hear from more readers next week, until then, here are some tidbits from the Miner Sports world.

-Weekly Miner Tidbits (8/14-8/18)

8/17/06 – UTEP Soccer announced that there Oct. 10th game against the Rice Owls will be televised on CSTV at 6 pm.

8/15/06 - UTEP Head track and field coach Bob Kitchens named Amy Henry his assistant. He will be assisting with the hurdle events.

8/14/06 – UTEP QB Jordan Palmer sat out today’s practicing, sighting an elbow injury from last Saturday’s scrimmage

8/14/06 – UTEP QB Lorne Sam took part in Monday’s practice after a nagging ankle injury kept him sidelined.


That is all the time I have this week. Have a great weekend everyone, and remember Miner fans, 12 days till San Diego State.