University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Getting to Know...UTEP
8/10/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -
The countdown continues for the start of the 2016 Southern Miss football season.
In a rundown of the Golden Eagles’ opponents for the upcoming season, the latest installment highlights the UTEP Miners, as Jay Hopson’s squad travels to El Paso on Saturday, Sept. 24. Game time from the Sun Bowl is 7 p.m. CT.
This will be the fifth time the Golden Eagles make the trip out West to El Paso. Here is a look at this year’s UTEP Miners.
Getting to know... UTEP
General Information
Location: El Paso, Texas
Founded: 1914
Enrollment: 23,003
President: Dr. Diana Natalicio
Athletics Director: Bob Stull
Conference: Conference USA
Nickname: Miners
Colors: Dark Blue and Orange
Stadium (Cap.): Sun Bowl (51,100)
Playing Surface: Artificial (matrix 46)
Series Record: 4-4
Last Meeting: W, 34-13
Oct. 31, 2015 - Hattiesburg, MS
Head Coach: Sean Kugler
Record at School: 14-23 (fourth season)
Overall Record: Same
2015 Record: 5-7
2015 Conference Record: 3-5
2015 Postseason: n/a
Final AP Rank: n/a
Letterwinners Returning/Lost: 48/22
Starters Returning/Lost: 17/9
Offense: 8/3
Defense: 6/5
Special Teams: 3/2
Head Coach:
Former UTEP player and assistant Sean Kugler was named the 25th head coach of the Miners on Dec. 10, 2012.
In his third season at the helm, Kugler and his staff saw the injuries pile up. Fifteen players sustained season-ending injuries, including star running back Aaron Jones. Despite the injuries, UTEP came up one win short of being bowl eli¬gible. The Miners, after a 0-2 start, finished 2015 with a 5-7 mark.
Since Kugler’s arrival as head coach, the offen¬sive line has done a tremendous job of protect-ing the quarterback. In 2015 the Miners led Con¬ference USA in sacks allowed (12) and ranked no. 6 nationally in sacks allowed per game (1.0). In Kugler’s three seasons, UTEP signal callers have been sacked 52 times in 37 games (1.4 per game). During previous three campaigns (37 games), the Miners went down 84 times (2.3 per game).
He was a four-year letterman at UTEP (1985-88), playing under head coach and current UTEP Di¬rector of Athletics Bob Stull for three seasons. In 1988, Kugler led the Miners to the only 10-win season in school history and a berth in the In¬dependence Bowl. His position coach at UTEP was current Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.
He signed with the Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 1989. Kugler started at guard for the Sacramento Surge in the World League of Amer¬ican Football in 1991.
Football Stadium:
There was something special about the Sun Bowl Stadium when it opened on Sept. 21, 1963. On the first play from scrimmage at the then- 30,000-seat stadium, Miner running back Larry Durham bolted 54 yards for a touchdown against North Texas State University. The Miners went on to score a 34-7 victory over the Eagles.
The facility was originally designed to hold 30,000 spectators. The second deck on the press box was completed in 1969, and in 1982 extra seating was added. The present seating capacity is 51,500. The stadium is not only home to the UTEP football team, but also houses the Sun Bowl game every December.
Recent additions to the stadium have included a state-of-the-art video board and scoreboards and a FieldTurf Classic HD CoolPlay playing surface.
Over seven million fans have passed through the Sun Bowl turnstiles, and the Miners set a school record for attendance in 2005 at 47,899 fans per game.
UTEP has played 300 games in the Sun Bowl, and enjoyed undefeated home records in 1988 (6-0) and 2000 (5-0). The Sun Bowl was recently selected as the “Best Stadium in Conference USA” by The Sporting News magazine.
About El Paso:
El Paso (from Spanish, "the pass") stands on the Rio Grande river across the border from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The two cities, along with Las Cruces (in the neighboring state of New Mexico), form a combined international metropolitan area, sometimes referred as the Paso del Norte or El Paso–Juárez–Las Cruces. The region of over 2.7 million people constitutes the largest bilingual, binational work force in the western hemisphere.
The city is the headquarters of one Fortune 500 and three publicly traded companies, as well as home to the Medical Center of the Americas, the only medical research and care provider complex in West Texas and southern New Mexico, and the University of Texas at El Paso, the city's primary university. The city hosts the annual Sun Bowl college football postseason game, the second oldest bowl game in the country.
El Paso has a strong federal and military presence. William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Biggs Army Airfield, and Fort Bliss call the city home. Fort Bliss is one of the largest military complexes of the United States Army and the largest training area in the United States. Also headquartered in El Paso are the DEA domestic field division 7, El Paso Intelligence Center, Joint Task Force North, U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector, and U.S. Border Patrol Special Operations Group (SOG).
Notable Alumni:
• F. Murray Abraham – Academy Award Best Actor winner, Amadeus
• Nate Archibald – NBA Hall of Famer, chosen as one of the Top 50 Greatest NBA Players
• Bob Beamon – Olympic gold medalist, world record holder in track and field
• Fred Carr – Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame
• Antonio Davis – NBA All-Star, president of the National Basketball Players Association
• Sam Donaldson – ABC News veteran and former White House Chief Correspondent
• Vickie Guerrero – General Manager of WWE Smackdown
• Tim Hardaway – NBA All-Star, 2000 Summer Olympics gold medalist
• William D. Hawkins – U.S. Marine awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously during World War II.
• J. P. Hayes – professional golfer
• Chris Jacke – BBA 1989, All-American place kicker, Super Bowl champion with Green Bay Packers
• Seth Joyner – 1991 NFL Defensive Player of the Year by Sports Illustrated, one-time Super Bowl champion
• Don Maynard – Pro Football Hall of Fame
• Blessing Okagbare – Olympic and world medalist in the long jump
• John D. Olivas – first UTEP alumnus to be selected as an astronaut by NASA, member of Space Shuttle Mission STS-117 crew aboard the Atlantisv
