Since the 2004 season, UTEP Head Coach, Mike Price, was embraced by the city with open arms, but now everyone's body language is telling a different story.

Bottom line, is when you compare Price's tenure at UTEP thus far in contrast to his predecessors, he hasn't seen a conference championship in the last eight seasons, but only two coaches in the last century have. Puts things into perspective, right? He's in his ninth season and fans are now placing the blame on him for what feels like a lousy decade of football.

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Mike Brumbelow was the coach and athletic director at Texas Western (UTEP) for the Miner football squad from 1950-1956. He had a .651 overall winning percentage and ended his career with a 46–24–3 record. He was the first to claim a conference championship in 1956 for the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

Bobby Dobbs put El Paso on the map for Miner football while Don Haskins was taking care of business on the basketball-side of things. Dobbs' 1967 team led the nation in passing and scoring. One of the things he was known for was sending many players like Billy Stevens and Fred Carr into the pros to play for Vince Lombardi.

Right before Price came to the old town of El Paso, Gary Nord, coached the Miners from 2000-2003 with a 14-34 overall record. In 2000, Nord led the Miners to their second-ever conference championship as apart of the WAC with an 8-4 overall record.

Price is the 24th coach since Tommy Dwyer took the helm in 1914. Price has had one of the longest tenures as head coach for the the Miner football team alongside Mack Saxon, Brumbelow, Dobbs and Charlie Bailey.

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Since the 1980's UTEP has been to five bowl games of which they lost all of them. Three of which were under Mike Price's leadership in 2004, 2005 and 2010. Granted they lost, however, what Price did for the team and the city so soon in his coaching career raised the bar as well as the expectations from El Pasoans.If Coach Price is not on the field for the 2013 season, then who should be?

 

 

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