Ruben R. Ramirez

UTEP Weekly Football Press Conference Transcript: Nov. 22

11/22/2021 4:37:00 PM

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EL PASO, Texas – UTEP head coach Dana Dimel spoke with the media Monday in advance of the team's final regular-season game at UAB on Friday, Nov. 26. The Miners and Blazers are set to kick off at 12 p.m. MT/1 CT at Protective Stadium.

Head Coach Dana Dimel

On UTEP's Victory Over Rice on Nov. 20
"Talking about last week's game [vs. Rice], I was really pleased with the way we came out and moved the football. On the first drive, we had some critical third-down conversions – the last one for a touchdown. We executed the offense really well, ate up five minutes off the clock, which was big in that game. We won the time of possession battle in that game against Rice, which is never an easy thing to do. But it really takes them out of what they like to do and that's to control the ball. So, that first drive was a good a start to the game. Obviously, we came out and played well on the first drive defensively. But we let them tie it up eventually in the first half, and then we took a 14-7 lead with another good drive offensively.

"At halftime, we were down and had outplayed these guys the whole first half, and should've had a commanding lead and some things happened that we're down. Obviously, that's a tough thing for a football team to be able to handle, and to be put in that type of situation. But the guys came out [for the third quarter] and they did the first thing that needed to be done, and was stop them on the first drive, and then the second thing that needed to be done was have a consistent drive to start the quarter. I thing we did a really good job but we didn't end the drive well. We could've ended the drive so much better. We kind of out-tricked ourselves right there on second and less than a yard, and we hurried up – which wasn't a call or anything, it was not good management. Calvin [Brownholtz] just wanted to get up there and snap it real fast. But we had three downs to get half a yard. Nobody can stop us on that play, we kind of beat ourselves on that, snap the ball early and now we're in the second-and-6. We ended up not getting the ball in the end zone and had to settle for three [points].

"We were four points down (21-17), but again, we get another stop and the offense goes down and scores. Now the momentum is switched back to us, and for that little period of time we we're hitting on all cylinders and everything we were doing. We did a great job of playing a really good second half of football. The players made some incredible plays and really performed at a high level. I'm really proud of what our team was able to do, we shut them out in the second half and scored 24 points in the second half. It was a really good effort from our football team. I'm happy with the outcome and happy to get our football to the seven-win mark. It's something that hasn't been here very often."

On Playing at UAB on Nov. 26
"This week's game is coming up fast. It's on a Friday. There's nothing more fun – I told the guys we used to do it a lot, played arch rivals on Friday and nothing more fun than playing on a Friday after Thanksgiving – it's a great college football atmosphere.

"We have a wonderful opportunity to go down to Birmingham, and play, as everyone knows, a really good football team. It's one of the top defenses in the country, really good against the rush, statistically. UAB has been a powerhouse in our conference for the last so many years since I've been here. They have great athletes, have some good defenders on defense who have been with them for a while. They have really good speed across the defense. They play a really good brand of football at UAB.

"Offensively, you know they run the ball well. They have a big running back and a good offensive line. They have multiple tight ends that they get the ball to. And they have a quarterback who can throw the ball really well. We're looking forward to going out and enjoying the opportunity that is ahead of the football team and making a run to get us to the eight-win mark to end the regular season. That's our goal."

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