Dana Dimel names Cade McConnell starter as New Mexico State looms

UTEP coach Dana Dimel answered the question succinctly at his Friday news conference in advance of the New Mexico State rivalry game.

Will Cade McConnell get the start after his immaculate game against Florida International Wednesday?

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McConnell to start

"Yes," Dimel said. "Yeah, definitely. He definitely will start."

Matters aren't always that simple at UTEP, and when pressed about what happens if Gavin Hardison, still listed No. 1 on the depth chart, suddenly gets healthy, Dimel hedged just a bit.

"I don't have to go there, so I won't," he said.

Where he did go was into detail about what McConnell, a fourth-teamer as recently as a week ago, can bring to the lineup. In his first career start, McConnell went 11-of-17 for 262 yards with no interceptions and two touchdowns, staking the Miners to a 21-0 lead that turned into a 27-13 win that got them to 2-5.

"I'm really proud of him," Dimel said. "I'm proud of what he did, I was proud of the way he handled it. He told me Tuesday, he said, 'I'm not nervous, I'm not going to be nervous for this game. I'm prepared.' He's a case in point of somebody who sat there as our fourth-team quarterback and never came to practice one day pouting, or acting like, 'I should be No. 1.'

"He's been nothing but supportive of the other three guys. The next thing was taking diligent, diligent notes at every meeting like he was starting. He prepared like he was starting.

"Very seldom do you get to your fourth-string quarterback, when we did, it was about the way he prepared himself. Instead of feeling sorry for himself or pouting about it, he prepared like he was a starter. That's what happens when you do that. That's an important lesson for everybody."

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Can UTEP replicate that?

Of course the next question is if that can happen again? Of UTEP's 28 quarters of football, the first one against FIU looked different from the others. If the Miners can duplicate that against New Mexico State, or anyone, they will be a tough out.

Dimel said the first quarter against FIU was a bunch of different factors coming together.

"I hope we can (duplicate it)," Dimel said. "It was a combination of execution, also taking the things that were there. There were some good throws and catches. The 40-yard pass to Jeremiah Ballard was a check by Cade, he checked into that.

"It was a combination of all those things. Cade managed the offense well, the receivers played outstanding, the line did a good job of blocking for them. For us to have those kinds of numbers we have to be humming on all cylinders."

Hot New Mexico State

New Mexico State is also humming on all cylinders. Winners of three of their last four, the Aggies are 4-3 after back-to-back comfortable wins against Sam Houston and Florida International.

The key has been the play of quarterback Diego Pavia, a dual threat who leads Conference USA in total offense.

"He's a really good player," Dimel said. "It's not easy to slow him down. He's a very talented, very competitive player. He does a lot for their offense, he's a huge part of what they do offensively.

"They are like anybody, they know how to use their playmakers and he's definitely a playmaker for them."

That has led to NMSU playing its most consistent football of the season.

"They've gotten on a good run, they've played really well as of late," Dimel said. "They are playing their best football, that's going to be important for us to know we're playing a team that's playing hot and match that."

What UTEP can be sure of is that it will largely have the college football market cornered Wednesday against NMSU. There is an FIU-Sam Houston game that starts two hours earlier, but those are the only two games on Wednesday.

"It's amazing how many shout outs we got from fellow colleagues and people we hadn't heard from, these games on Tuesday and Wednesday night, it's incredible how many people reach out to you who got to see these games," Dimel said.

"It's just what the conference wanted, it's a lot of exposure."

The spotlight will shine on the Battle of I-10 Wednesday, a showdown between a red-hot veteran quarterback and a red-hot sophomore from UTEP making his second career start.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Dana Dimel names Cade McConnell starter as New Mexico State looms