UTEP Football Uses Bye Week to Recruit Future Prospects

The bye week that UTEP endured was a good opportunity for the players to get healthy, but also was an opportunity for the coaching staff to do some much needed recruiting

During his weekly press conference, head coach Dana Dimel updated media members with recruiting efforts for the team. Dimel revealed that he and his staff visited 72 junior colleges and about 106 total schools.

Here’s what he had to say about the bye week:
“We had some good practices. We allowed the guys to try to get caught up on their injuries and get healthy a little bit. Then we also put a lot of focus on our schoolwork. As coaches, we went out and recruited. We had a really heavy workload."

“There were 72 junior colleges that we hit, and I think it was 106 schools overall that our staff hit from Wednesday evening through Saturday before preparing for the LA Tech game. Myself, I went out and did a lot of windshield time. I hit a couple of junior colleges in Kansas. They said it was the first time that they’ve seen a head coach there in probably a long time if ever. We’re out there making efforts to really pound the pavement and find some good players for us.”

If you divided 106 schools by each of UTEP’s 14 coaches, it would make each coach averaging more than seven visits in just one week.

“It was really good because we’re trying to get some JUCO guys to put some pieces together of what we need,” Dimel said. “All the way from California, to Texas, hitting areas in Arizona and [Kansas]. Now we have a good list of guys that we saw work out. We had a few on official visits. Now we have a good jump start on the recruiting side of it.”

Having a good jump start is exactly what Dimel wants in terms of recruiting. Last year after former head coach Sean Kugler left the program, the Miners were left without a single recruit until about January of 2018.

Here's who the Miners have as verbal commits so far:

• Ajani Carter (WR) - 3 star - 6'2 - North Shore (Houston, TX)
• Deion Hankins (RB) - 3 star - 6'0 - Parkland (El Paso, TX)
• TJ Goodwin (QB) - 3 star - 6'5 - Cypress Falls (Houston, TX)
• Juice Tupua (DT) - 2 star - 6'1 - Narbonne (Harbor City, CA)
• Quintavius Workman (WR) - 2 star - 6'5 - Chapin (El Paso, TX)

Click Here for a full list of prospects they are targeting.

Dimel said positions the staff will focus on recruiting receivers, offensive linemen, safeties, cornerbacks, linebackers, among others.

Via Twitter, here are some athletes that announced they picked up an offer from UTEP:

It seems like Dimel and staff are going the JUCO route early on in the process. They are hoping to get players to join the team and make an immediate impact.