UTEP Football: Can Miners start to turn things around in 2020?

UTEP football won just a single game a season ago. Can Dana Dimel and Co. turn things around in 2020 in Conference USA play?

Things have hit rock bottom in El Paso. A year ago, Dana Dimel and the Miners won just a single game, a 36-34 nail-biter against FCS Houston Baptist. It was 11 straight losses after that, a stretch that included an 0-8 mark in the C-USA.

It wasn’t just 2019 that was tough. UTEP is 2-34 in the last three seasons. 2017 saw the Miners go winless, finishing 0-12, and failing to score more than 21 points all season (along with only surpassing the 20-point mark twice).

Each of Dimel’s first two seasons have been single-win seasons, but he’s optimistic that things will turn around soon.

The Miners’ 2019 recruiting class finished just 112th nationally, and the 2020 class finished 132nd in the country (there are just 130 FBS teams), so that turnaround may not be happening immediately.

There are young faces and inexperience all over the roster, leaving coordinators Mike Canales and Mike Cox with even more of an uphill battle heading into this season. With a schedule that opens with Texas Tech, Nevada and Texas, the Miners will be diving headfirst into the deep end in 2020.