UTEP Miners

SIGNING DAY CENTRAL | DANA DIMEL AUDIO - NSD PRESS CONFERENCE 

EL PASO, Texas – It was a busy Wednesday morning for the UTEP Football program as the coaching staff inked a total of 11 signees to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period on National Signing Day.
 
The UTEP staff welcomed in 11 future Miners in the first of two signing periods for the 2020 recruiting class. The first NLI made its way to El Paso around 6 a.m. MT with 10 more products signing on to become Miners before noon.
 
The 2020 signing class features 11 fresh faces as head coach Dana Dimel and his staff brought in a defensive-minded class with eight players added on defense and three offensive signees.
 
UTEP added seven players who hail from the junior college ranks, all of which are on the defensive side of the ball, and four high school products. All four signees out of high school hail from the state of Texas, while one JUCO product also hails from the Lone Star state. Other signees from Wednesday are products of Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee and Iowa.
 
"We put a lot of focus on the defensive side of the ball with this early signing period," Dimel said on Wednesday afternoon. "We should end up with eight midyear junior college transfers and all eight of them will be on the defensive side of the football. We started off with our concerns of trying to create a better pass rush on the edge. The whole athleticism of our team has improved immensely with this signing class. We will continue to do that as we fill in the rest in February. These guys fit the culture that I am accustomed to having when we have had success, and that's guys that do everything the way it is supposed to be done on and off the field."
 
The first two National Letters of Intent were announced at 6:42 a.m. MT on Wednesday morning when a pair of teammates from Kilgore College signed on to become Miners in defensive linemen Kelton Moss (Jonesboro, La.) and Jadrian Taylor (Lufkin, Texas).
 
From there, the new faces quickly began to roll in with seven more NLI's arriving before 8 a.m. MT, including OL Ian James (Aubrey HS/Aubrey, Texas), DT Keenan Stewart (Iowa Western CC/Cedar Rapids, Iowa), LB Tyrice Knight (Independence CC/Lakeland, Fla.), RB Willie Eldridge (Cy Ranch HS/Houston, Texas), DB Verenzo Holmes (NW Mississippi CC/Grovetown, Ga.), ATH Khalil Warfield (Antonian College Prep/San Antonio, Texas) and DL Deylon Williams (Independence CC/Smyrna, Tenn.).
 
The next future Miner signed on to play for UTEP at 9:34 a.m. MT when DB Dennis Barnes' (Fort Scott CC/Jefferson City, Mo.) NLI arrived, while the action concluded not too long after when DT Dresden McIver (Veterans Memorial HS/San Antonio, Texas) sent in his NLI at 11:09 a.m. MT to wrap up a busy morning for the football program.
 
Since the 2019 season wrapped up on Nov. 30, the UTEP staff has been hard at work recruiting the next batch of Miners to don the orange and blue, a process that ended with much success for Dimel and the future of the program.
 
"In our first full recruiting weekend after the season, we got everybody we wanted that was in and committed to us on that day," Dimel, who is entering his third season at the helm of the Miners, said of the recruiting process over the past few weeks. "It was the same thing in week two. We got 100 percent on the guys we targeted and had in for visits and offers. We got in 100 percent of the offers. That is really outstanding, so we are really proud of that. We feel like we have shored up a lot of our defensive concerns and should have a really good young offensive line. We also feel like we have really helped our special teams units moving forward, which is such an important part of winning football games."
 
While the Miners focused heavily on the defensive side of the ball during this signing period, Dimel noted that the staff will also target some key offensive positions leading up to the February signing period.
 
"With the new legislation being put in with having a signing period here in December, it is very positive for us, but we are also liking the one coming up in February as well," Dimel said. "We put the emphasis on defense with this signing class. We do have two other offensive linemen, a tight end, two wide receivers and a linebacker that are committed to the program, but those are guys who will be talked about in our February signing day gettogether as well as an additional 7-10 other plays who will be announced then. That is where our numbers lie."
 
During his Wednesday press conference, Dimel also noted the importance of the junior college players who signed with UTEP in regards to having an immediate impact for the Miners as early as this upcoming spring.
 
"This is an opportunity to get some good players that can be here in the spring so we can start to mold them and they can really help us turn the corner," Dimel said. "But also, it goes back to when we came in and where we were. When I got here, there were a lot of juniors and seniors, but not very many freshmen and sophomores on the roster. Sometimes that is where you have to go the junior college route because you have to fill those voids that were in the recruiting, so that is one of the main reasons we went with the junior college guys."
                                                             
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