UTEP Weekly Football Press Conference Transcript: Nov. 20

11/20/2023 5:15:00 PM

LINKS: AUDIO | YOUTUBE

EL PASO, Texas – UTEP head coach Dana Dimel had his Monday press conference in advance of the Miners' season finale against undefeated no. 22 Liberty on Saturday and recapping UTEP's 34-30 loss at MTSU.

Opening statement by head coach Dana Dimel
"Talking about the game Saturday, and it's fresh in our minds, so that's new. Getting back to a press conference on Monday after a Saturday game we played. I was so really, really proud of the way the guys played and the effort that they put forth. And we were so close to accomplishing the three consecutive road to conference wins, which was something to be really special for this team to accomplish because it would have been only the fourth time in school history. And that was, really, so close for us and so achievable. You know, obviously Middle Tennessee is not an easy place to play. They have a really talented football team. And we just didn't make enough plays to win the game, obviously. But we sure made a lot of good plays in all three segments of the of the football team. I like them. The punt return was really big for Torrance [Burgess Jr.]. I mean, I can't say enough about what kind of player Torrance Burgess is. I mean, when he was running that return back, I'm saying to our staff on the headset, 'this guy is just incredible. Right?' He just does so much in the open field and so electric with the football in his hands. Defensively, you know, I thought our defense did some really, really good things. We gave up a couple [of plays]. You know, obviously, the first drive of the game that they got the ball at the 50-yard line and they took it in with some good creative plays. And in their second drive they had a nice scheme that they had put in to, you know, create a big play. And then besides that, our defense made major adjustments to change some of the things that we were doing and gave up the one double cut in the third quarter. But besides that, the other points just pretty much came off of turnovers or bad field positions after stalling on fourth down. And I did like the way the defense responded to keep us in the ball game and give us a chance to win when they got some short fields handed to them because we needed to be aggressive on fourth down. So all in all, you know, I thought Tyrice Knight played extremely, extremely well. Oscar Moore is starting to really come into his own in that starting weak safety role that that he has taken over since McKel [Broussard] and Trejon [Hugue], you know, have gone down with injuries. And I think he's done a really good job with that part of it. James Neal's really maturing in front of our eyes as he's become a first-year starter and doing some very, very good things. And then, you know, obviously our defensive end plays with just outstanding all year. So I'm proud of that. Offensively, there were so many good things that we did offensively. Of course, Cade, you know, obviously had a lot of production in the passing game, you know, a high statistical accomplishment with what he was able to throw out the yardage that he was able to throw for. Kelly had another big fourth quarter play that's two weeks in a row that he's had a huge fourth quarter play. Drew was telling me about the stat there that he was able to have two 80-yard touchdowns, which is the first time since 1999 that that's happened with Lee Mays, who obviously is a great, great football player. So that's a neat accomplishment for Kelly. And then since then, Cade had two 80-yard touchdown passes that he's had this season for the first time since 2009 when Trevor Vittatoe did it. So again, some cool things, some really good things happening. It was definitely a big impactful play when Torrance Burgess went down [with an injury] because how it affected us is that now with Marcus [Bellon] being out of kickoff return and punt return and then Torrance being the backup and then Torrance going down, it made us go deep into our depth there. And you know, we didn't field the kickoff very well and gave them field position right after a score which gave them the ability to take a 10-point lead. But that kept showing up because then Deion [Hankins] went out with injury and then we put, you know, Mike [Franklin] and E.J. [Ezell Jolly]. Ezell Jolly is super talented and is really, really going to be a great back and was doing some really good running there. But he had an unfortunate turnover and it was just for E.J. it wasn't, you know, because right before that play and we just got to keep stressing with the ball security because it didn't have a lot of a lot of playing time. But when he fumbled, he had that ball high and tight. It was just a freaky hit where the helmet of the runner, the helmet of the tackler hit right on the football. So it was just kind of crazy how that came out. But losing, you know, Torrance and Deion throughout the game was kind of a big impact because we just didn't have the great presence to help us finish some drives there late in the game, when the game was on the line. But Azizi Henry got his first start at right tackle and he played extremely well for us. And you know, Zuri Henry played injured and played really, really good. I thought our offensive line played well and did some good things. So there was a lot of positives. Obviously, when it was all said and done, you know, the four turnovers were costly for us in the ballgame because that really was the difference. Our defense created two turnovers, which was good, but the four turnovers really, you know, again left us where we're playing a lot of young guys and, you know, guys improving in front of our eyes that and then having a chance where we really should have won that football game statistically again but didn't and but again really, really proud of the effort that we were able to have. And then before I go in to talk about liberty, I just want to mention our seniors that will be playing their last games this weekend for us or be, you know, involved. Of course, we've talked a lot about Gavin Hardison, right. And then Zach Fryar, a tight end, who's been a really, really good player for us through the years. And then and, you know, the offense, the three offensive linemen that we're losing in Zuri Henry, Elijah Klein and Andrew Meyer. Those guys have just been really, really good players for someone that played for six years, right, because of that redshirt rule and the COVID rule coming in and those guys have just been tremendous players. So we're not losing a whole lot of players on offense or defense to senior exhausting eligibility on defense is Trejon Hugue, Tyrice Knight, Keenan Stewart, Jagves Garnett and Praise. When you start naming some of those guys there they've set records for the history of sacks and Tyrice with his tackles in the season you know just tremendous leading the country right now in solo tackles you know what a great accomplishment for him and all those guys. The thing that's most special about all those guys is that every one of them I just read off has graduated and has over a 3.2 GPA. And that part of it, you know, goes a long way and obviously had had a ton of accomplishments on the football field with what they were been able to do in their achievements. So really proud of those guys. Unfortunately, those guys have been with us for so long. It just hurts to lose them. But there's tons of motivation for us for them to go out into the Liberty game, having a chance to play a ranked football team. You look at their scouting report every week and you look at their games and it's all W's. I mean, everybody you look at it's a W, W, W, L, W, L or whatever it may be. It's all W's for these guys, right? And then you look at them statistically, and they're just tremendous on the offense and they're tremendous on defense. I mean, their defensive statistics that really show there's tons of good ones, but the ones that really is their turnovers, their interceptions, their overall turnovers, their turnover margin, their yards per play is very, very efficient with what they do. That's a stat that I use a lot to measure a defense. They're good. Their tackle for losses is very good on third down defensively. Offensively you go over and talk about them, it all starts with that quarterback. He's just a great, great football player. He's so athletic he can run. He makes plays with the speed, outrun people. He throws the ball extremely well. He's the guy. He's the guy that really stirs them. They have a very good offensive line. They've got a running back that's just physical, tremendous. He's really one of the guys. they just they get on board as much as they possibly can. They have a receiver that they use as a running back slash receiver in their triple option game and the triple option games really, really good and really stresses the defense. And obviously they've been able to score a lot of points and move the ball on everybody that they've played this year and went through the season undefeated which you don't very much run across a team in week 12 that's undefeated like this. And so that's an opportunity for us to try to do something special and get a road win to close out or get a home win to close out the season against an undefeated football team."

On the seniors playing their last game
"There's four of them [Praise Amaewhule, Elijah Klein, Andrew Meyer, Zuri Henry] who were here six years ago when we started. And they played four games six years ago. But they've been so special. They're guys that are super talented and guys that could have entered the transfer portal and chose to leave for lots of dollar inducements. These guys had people offer them money to leave and they chose to stay and that says a lot. That's why all the UTEP fans should really respect these guys for what they chose to do and it's neat and it's how it should be. It's going to be what makes them special. And when I talk to NFL teams about these guys because they're all NFL prospects, that's one of the most important things that they like, is that the guy, the guys stay there because they those are the kind of guys that you want to have the loyalty that's important to have winning programs. And so that's been a feather in their cap and something that I'm really, really proud of these guys have done. And, you know, all of them are going to get a chance to play, you know, at the next level. And I'm excited about watching their opportunities for, you know, just talk about how close it happened to him brothers out there."

On Brothers Zuri and Azizi Henry making the start on the offense line at MTSU
"That's a great story. Papa G - Gynovel Henry - wasn't able to get to the game, but he had his professor, his college professor daughter come to the game to be able to see it. He wanted to be there, wasn't able to because, you know, he's had his second heart transplant. Papa G has and wasn't able to make that game just because he can't travel a ton. But he's here this whole week to celebrate the senior day. He was at practice today and that was one of his big things is to be able to see those two start together and he got to see that. So it was pretty cool and they both played really well. Because Zuri is playing with injury that nobody else would play with. You can tell that motivation and that that's so cool. Azizi played really well in his first start so I'm really excited about those guys getting a chance to do that. It really showed us that Azizi is going to be a really good player for us and following his brother's footsteps. So it's really a special thing for us to have that chance to do that."

Print Friendly Version