After falling to Old Dominion on Saturday at the Sun Bowl, Sean Kugler did not mince words as to where his team stands.
“We’re where we’re at right now. There are four games left in the season. We understand where we’re at.”
The Miners now have no margin for error if they want to be bowl eligible. Kugler realizes this and will focus his energy this week on getting his team ready for the home stretch of the season.
“We’re at 2-6, so we’re not in a situation where we can overlook anybody. We’re going to prepare for this game like it’s a one-round playoff game. That’s got to be our mentality the rest of the year.”
One thing that Kugler isn’t questioning is his team’s effort. He was very pleased with his team’s effort despite the 10-point loss. He named former El Paso Coronado receiver Cole Freytag as his captain of the game and recognized Klein Oak defensive back Dashone Smith’s second straight game with an interception.
“If there’s any questions about our players laying down or our coaches laying down, don’t even ask that question, because I’m not going to answer it.”
UTEP’s remaining schedule includes Rice, Florida Atlantic, and North Texas. But first things first, the Miners face an FCS opponent in Houston Baptist that Kugler has a lot of respect for. Kugler anticipates the Huskies showing some unusual formations defensively and also recognized the need to do a better job of matching up with Houston Baptist’s big receivers.
“This is a solid football team. I refer back to last year when we played Incarnate Word, an FCS team from the same division they came in. They were a very physical team and gave us everything we could handle in that game.”
Teams may take their foot off the gas playing an FCS opponent this late in the season, but Kugler realizes that his team doesn’t have that luxury and has his full attention on the Huskies Saturday.
“We’ve got four games and any one of those, if they turn into a loss, we’re not bowl-eligible. If we win all four, we’ll be bowl eligible. We’re going to approach it one week at a time.”
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