UTEP Disappointing

[u/NecessaryPerformer79]

Super bummed about UTEP. Seems like their issues are organizational. President needs to clean house in the Athletic Department, starting with the Athletic Director and Football Coach!

First sign they didn’t have the right people in place was that God awful AI Paydirt Pete logo they rolled out! Everyone involved in that fiasco needs to be sacked immediately.

Re-did Memorial Gym for Volleyball and the new lights reflect directly off the new floor into the camera angle so half the floor is washed out on TV. It’s like there’s nobody running the department who oversees these kinds of decisions. Feels like the man in charge is just phoning everything in!!!

UTEP main logo (without the bevel) is so strong, yet they insist on using the tri-colored bevel on everything that looks so dated. Everything they need for success is right there and they seem to fumble every decision!

President needs to right this ship NOW! Or I see no future in this program and she is part of the problem. Heads better start rolling!!!

[u/Healthy_Ad_7564]

The Sun Bowl, Don Haskins Arena, city of EP, history of the university, weather - EP is a gold mine waiting to be tapped into.

(EDITED TYPO)

[u/NecessaryPerformer79 → u/Healthy_Ad_7564]

Exactly! They’ve got the base infrastructure. Campus is beautiful! Leadership is apathetic. El Pasoans show out for Chihuahuas & Locomotive. Sports culture is there, but the leadership at UTEP isn’t!

[u/drifts180 → u/NecessaryPerformer79]

The crowds for UTEP athletics are very dependent on their success. Seem to start off "ok" at the beginning of the season but will go up or down to the diehard fans only if they aren't winning.

[u/Round-Ad3684]

As an NIU fan expecting to catch strays here, I promise you we are not the program you’re seeing on the field. We made a horrendous hire in Thomas Hammock. And he left us under the cover of night last February and we are stuck with a placeholder interim until we can get a new coach. We will be back though. Might take a couple years. Until then, sorry for the embarrassment!

[u/Admiral52 → u/Round-Ad3684]

Half the mountain west is in shambles right now. We all need to sort ourselves out

[u/DryChemical5237 → u/Round-Ad3684]

Yeah NIU literally beat notre dame (natty runner up) 2 years ago, and was consistently one of the best G5 teams in the 2010’s. I feel you guys.

Tomorrows game gonna be UGLY

[u/Round-Ad3684 → u/DryChemical5237]

For sure. Our guys will be wheezing from the altitude by the end of the first series. I’d like to get out there for a game though. Always looks like a good game environment on tv.

[u/DryChemical5237 → u/Round-Ad3684]

At least your defense will get plenty of breathers 🤣

The environment is solid when we’re actually decent so hopefully 2028 is a much more meaningful matchup in laradise!

[u/SkiDeerValley]

Scotty needs to be fired. He had his chance

[u/toastxdrums]

Yeah.

[u/DryChemical5237]

This was a bottom feeder program in an FCS+ conference. It did not sound like they were investing heavily either. Not to mention their biggest rival of late is one of the worst FBS programs in NMSU.

Respectfully, I don’t see how this could have ever been a positive for the MW unless there was a memorandum of understanding or some plan for UTEP to get facilities and athletics up to conference standard. To agree with OPs point, this rewarded an apathetic group of university leadership with no recent track record of success. Sun Bowl and an NCAAB natty are cool but ancient history at this point.

Not only that, this gives other schools with underperforming programs like UW, UNR, SJSU to be like “see, we’re actually ok”. They were a panic add and there’s nothing surprising about their current on field performance.

[u/NecessaryPerformer79 → u/DryChemical5237]

It’s not even the on-field performance that has me most concerned (it’s terrible), it’s the decision making behind the scenes. There’s no oversight or accountability anywhere!

[u/beefyboibrandon → u/DryChemical5237]

UTEP has had moments, 04-06 football. Basketball had its time in the sun. They just haven't made the right hires and Conference USA killed fan interest.

[u/AlaskaNanooks1 → u/DryChemical5237]

Wyoming-Laramie has been very under performing

[u/Admiral52]

Idk what you expected. Look at their history this century. They’ve had like 2 good seasons. Most of the take if they can go .500 it would be a good year for them. They’ve had a year where they didn’t win a single game and two seasons (if memory serves) where they only had two wins

[u/NecessaryPerformer79 → u/Admiral52]

Post was more about organizational ineptitude than football record.

[u/Admiral52 → u/NecessaryPerformer79]

One might say one was an indication of another of its a multi decade long affair

[u/lol_smart]

Wait so in person the lighting in the arena doesn't look as horrible as does online? Online it looks like they can't afford to turn on the lights in the middle of the court.

[u/NecessaryPerformer79 → u/lol_smart]

Having a donor gift the Volleyball program millions for a renovation and the athletic department still manages to fumble the execution is beyond frustrating!

[u/lol_smart → u/NecessaryPerformer79]

Hopefully the lighting for the broadcasts can be figured out before the basketball season begins. It looks horrible online for volleyball and if they can’t fix it for basketball they’re going to get clowned badly.

Hawaii upgraded their lighting last season and for the first few weeks of volleyball it looked painfully bright on tv but fine in person. With some tweaks to the lighting angles and camera settings the tv broadcasts looked fine.

It’s been two months and the viewing experience for their streams is still an issue. That’s not good but it’s hard to feel sorry for them especially when they tried to tamper with one of our players.

[u/Agitated-Low-4375]

There's a reason that UTEP wasn't invited to join the mountain West in 1997 when UTEP submitted an application to join.

[u/NIUHuskies2020]

I'm not going to disparage any of our new conference members. Sure, NIU & UTEP seasons haven't gone as desired but these seasons were kind of expected. I like how UTEP has been able to fundraise and get large donation commitments after announcing their move to MW.

Even if other MW fans feel different about the two of us I really like being part of this conference. I think both will prove to be valuable additions.

[u/NecessaryPerformer79 → u/NIUHuskies2020]

I think you’re right, may be expecting too much too soon.

[u/Gunner_Bat]

How are they disappointing? They are the same team playing from CUSA playing in a better conference. If you expected anything other than a bottom 2 finish, that's on you.

[u/NecessaryPerformer79 → u/Gunner_Bat]

Try reading the post.

[u/Gunner_Bat → u/NecessaryPerformer79]

Try making a good post.

[u/NecessaryPerformer79 → u/Gunner_Bat]

😂 Dumbass.

[u/ohhmybosh]

They are not disappointing for most of us as we had no expectations of them being good.

[u/NecessaryPerformer79 → u/ohhmybosh]

Talking about organizational ineptitude more than record.