UTEP Football Announces New Coordinators

The UTEP football team will have an entirely different look to its coaching staff next season. New head coach Dana Dimel announced that Mike Canales and Mike Cox are joining the team as offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively.

Canales, who spent this past season coaching quarterbacks at Tennessee, has also coached at North Texas, Arizona, South Florida, Utah State, and North Carolina State. The former Utah State quarterback also coached the New York Jets receivers in 2003.

"Mike Canales and I have known each other for a long period of time and worked together," Dimel said in a school press release. "Mike understands the positive message and energy we want to bring to the players and the program. Mike is highly regarded as a great developer of quarterbacks as well as outstanding offensive coordinator. He has tremendous experience in three different Power Five Conferences and the NFL and also in Conference USA as an interim head coach as well as a coordinator. Mike will be a great mentor to help develop our student-athletes in reaching all their goals as a player and a person."

Cox has spent his entire coaching career with linebackers, but will get his first chance at defensive coordinator with the Miners. In addition to Kansas State, Cox has coached at Louisville, Utah State, Michigan State, and Idaho.

"Mike [Cox] is a very knowledgeable coach familiar with what I wanted from a coordinator. We worked side by side for five years," Dimel said. "His experience and reputation as an outstanding coach has spanned from three different Power Five Conferences as well as the NFL. Mike will be a great resource for The UTEP players and help develop them as best student athletes and young men. Mike will bring an aggressive and physical defense to the Miners."

Dimel said that the rest of his coaching staff is in place but he will wait until after the new year to announce his other hires. The Miners also did not add any players yesterday during the first ever early signing period. Football coaches will be able to recruit from January 12th through February 3rd. However, Dimel is confident that his staff will deliver a quality recruiting class on Wednesday, February 7th.

"We’re pleased to say that the initial stages of our recruiting process are going well," Dimel said. "The first step that we have taken is to evaluate the personnel within the program. This has allowed us to address our needs. The next step was to get a good feel on numbers we have in each class. This allows us to have a plan for balancing our numbers in the future. There are several recruits across Texas and the country that we have had conversations and contacts with. We have chosen not to sign any so we can further get to know them and allow them to officially visit our campus in January. Some of these recruits could be mid-year transfers. We are moving swiftly but are doing our due diligence. Each decision is based on the long-term future of our program."