With Incarnate Word looming, UTEP's Dana Dimel defends play calling
As UTEP opens the home portion of its schedule against Incarnate Word in one of those unusual matchups between a team that's played a game and a team that hasn't, here is one thing the Cardinals can learn about the Miners.
Coach Dana Dimel isn't going to go into it with regrets about the end-game management in the 17-14 loss to Jacksonville State.
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Backing the play calling
The decision to throw on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 from the 24 yard-line in the final 90 seconds was more of a hot topic than UIW at Dimel's weekly press conference and his thinking was straightforward.
"It was a calculated decision that didn't work," Dimel said. "The calculation was, with the time getting to where it was getting to, we needed to move to get some yardage as quickly as we could and I felt like that was our chance to get big plays.
"If we get that first down, they are going to go back into that umbrella type of look. I was playing to win, I wasn't playing to tie. I wanted to go win that game, that's aggressiveness. If I was playing for a tie I would have run the ball.
"I was playing to win, and I felt like our best chance to win instead of going to overtime was to try to get them convinced to stop the run game on third and fourth and short. I thought it over, it didn't work, but I wouldn't do it any other way if I had another chance."
He also admitted having a freshman kicker in Buzz Flabiano, who had never made a collegiate field goal factored into that.
"If it was Gavin (Baechle, last year's kicker) I probably would have kicked it," Dimel said. "I didn't want to put one play to tie the game on a freshman. I wanted to put two plays on seniors, experienced guys, to win the game. I said to myself, 'Do we want to put it on our best players, Kelly (Akaharaiyi), Gavin (Hardison) and Tyrin (Smith) to win the game, or do I want to put it on a freshman to tie the game.
"The percentage from 41 yards is not high percentage. Let's don't put it on a freshman when we can put it on our best players."
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Third downs and turnovers
What Dimel wants to change against Incarnate Word, the point of emphasis for this week, is turnovers and third downs. The Miners lost turnovers three to zero and were three-of-12 on third down as opposed to Jacksonville State's seven-of-16.
"We were horrible on third down and they were really good on third down," Dimel said. "A lot of things we did a lot better than them, the two things they did better were turnovers and third down. That's the two things we did not do well enough in that game."
As to how, "it comes down to efficiency," Dimel said. "We're so good in time of possession — 34 minutes — but if we were good on third down we might have held it for 40 minutes. For us, that's the learning we do. We have to be precise in certain situations at a higher level. That's what we focused on yesterday in meetings, (Monday) in practice, let's be precise in those situations."
About Incarnate Word
That's not going to be easy against Incarnate Word. An FCS semifinalist last year that lost much of that team, UIW is loaded with transfer portal players. Dimel said last year's Cardinal team would have finished toward the top of Conference USA.
The Cardinals' nine starters who transferred in from power five schools, including quarterback Zach Calzada, who led Texas A&M to an upset of No. 1 Alabama two years ago, and defensive end Steven Parker. Parker transferred from Kansas and was the leader of the Incarnate Word defense last year, and Dimel said he'll be one of the best players UTEP sees this year.
"They are a really good football team, they were super talented last year," Dimel said. "They are the same football team this year — a good quarterback, good running backs, talented receivers, a talented defense. ... They are loaded with Division I talent."
Incarnate Word's inherent advantage in this game is that it has film of this year's UTEP team to study. The Miners' advantage is that they have played, and there is an old cliché that a team's biggest improvement is from Week 1 to Week 2.
"All through our first few games they'll have more game to watch on us, we have more games played," Dimel said. "The dynamic is what's the advantage? I don't know what the advantage is. In a game like this where they have a whole new coaching staff and all transfers, I was anxious to get the depth chart. They have our depth chart.
"In this game we don't know as much about a team as we would normally because of all those factors."
They'll know plenty by the end of Saturday night.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: With Incarnate Word looming, UTEP's Dana Dimel defends play calling
