The Kyyote's Howl

UTEP Quarterback Tate Smith

As the team began arriving at the Glory Road Practice Field, I had an opportunity to talk with senior quarterback, Tate Smith.

I asked him how the Spring Ball had gone.

“Good. I think spring has gone pretty well. You know, we’ve come a long way from day one. You can tell the team’s coming together. The offense is rolling. Obviously, from the first scrimmage to the last scrimmage, it’s come a long way. We’ve come a long way”, was his reply.

I asked him what he had worked on, primarily, over the off season.

“Mostly, I felt like I had to work on timing with the receivers. You know, we had a whole new receiving corps coming in. Basically, getting my timing back down with Lavorick (Williams), Jordan (Leslie), Russel Carr, Julio (Lopez), you know, hopefully we get Marlon (McClure) back. That’s kind of what we’ve been doing, is getting the young receivers involved, and just working on our timing and stuff.”

I asked how he felt about the quarterback competition, and what it had done for him.

“You know, I think it’s been a big help. Any time there’s competition it makes you better. So, obviously, I’ve felt like I’ve gotten a whole lot better than I was at the beginning of the season, spring, and I felt like I’ve come a long way from day 1 to now.”

Interview video;
http://www.kyyotesden.com/DenGallery/albums/apr11/20110428155507.wmv

UTEP Quarterback Nick Lamaison

I had a chance to visit with Miners’ quarterback Nick Lamaison before the last practice of the spring. I started with a general question, asking him how he felt that he has done since Spring Drills began.

“I think I’ve done pretty good. I always, I obviously know that there is always room for improvement, and there’s things that I’m going to have to be evaluated on, and see what I’m doing real well on, and see what I’m doing not so well, and just go back and fix those not so well things, and just try to complete well roundedness in my game”, he told me.

His answer led me to my next question. I asked him to talk about what he had done well, and what he needed to improve upon.

“I think I’ve got to work on just getting a bit more comfortable with all of the different plays that we have put in in the springtime. It’s a lot of installs. We’re installing new plays every day. So, it’s just developing a comfortability, running the plays. That’s what I can work on. I think I’ve done well on, when I’ve felt comfortable, and I know where I’m going, I think I’ve thrown the ball very accurately. I think I move well in the pocket. Leadership is something I think I’ll be able to improve upon, once I feel more comfortable, you know, and I understand it, so I can trust and understand it”, he replied.

I asked how the team has received him, and if he had been welcomed with open arms.

“Yeah, yeah. Everybody’s everyone has been real cool with me. They help me out with things that I’m new to, because they understand. When they were new here someone helped them out. So, they kind of relate to my situation, everybody does, coming in new, and being the new guy, helping them along, it’s part of the role.”

So, there it is. He has had 14 practices, in a span of a month, to get prepared to lead the troops into the Spring Game, and establish his claim on the starting spot at quarterback. On Saturday, the fans will have a chance to see what he can do. The fun starts at 4 PM, and the Game will begin at 6 PM.

Complete video;
http://www.kyyotesden.com/DenGallery/albums/apr11/20110428154645.wmv

Nick Lamaison Will Quarterback the Blue Team Along With Javia Hall For the Spring Game

This will be just a quick report. Coach Price was happy with the practice. The team conitues to work on the 4 minute and two minute drills, scoring inside the twenty yard line and on the last play of the game.

Asked about how practice went, he said this, “Good. Good. Last practice for those seniors. They practiced hard all of the way through it.”

The normally five minute periods of practice, usually about 22-24 of them, were cut to four minutes so that the players could attend a mandatory domestic violence seminar.

The teams had been put together, but Coach Price had not released them, nor had he told the players as of yesterday afternoon.

Javia Hall and Nick Lamaison are the quarterbacks for the Blue Team. The Blue team is defininately the supposedly stronger team. Running Backs Vernon Frazier, Leilyon Myers, and Joe Banyard are all on the Blue Team, as are Wide Receivers Russ Carr, Lavorick Williams, Julio Lopez, and Jordan Leslie. The starting offenive line is on this team, too.

To me, this indicates that Nick Lamaison has won the starting quarterback position, although it has not been announced. In years past, Coach Price has at times heavily loaded the offense with starters, under Palmer and Vittatoe, and used the Spring Game as a way to build team chemistry and confidence.

This means that Tate Smith and Carson Meger are once again in the position of playing the underdogs, considerably handicapped in the Spring Game against a much stronger opposing offense.

Defensively, it appears that the Blue team is also stacked with more of the starters.

The big difference I see, is that in the past, the starters on the Blue Team has had a much greater advantage, because of the difference in the quality of the first team and the quality of the second team. That gap has been narrowed, but the white team still will have a huge disadvantage to overcome.

So, it appears, to me, that Lamaison has won the starting job.

The team’s rosters are at this link;

http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/mineshaft/2011/04/the-rosters.html

I will put up some video from yesterday’s practice, and I also will post the three interviews I did with Lamaison, Smith and Hall, yesterday, later today.

Big Man Corin Brooks

Corin Brooks is one of the swelling ranks of talented defensive lineman looking to make their presence felt, this season and in the future. The 6′ 3″, 320 pound red shirt freshman from Riverside, California is quite a physical speciman. His 320 pounds is not 120 pounds of fat on a 200 pound frame. It is 320 pounds of big, strong, man, and an agile 320 pound man looks to give offensive linemen fits.

I asked him what was the toughest thing he had had to deal with on the team.

“The toughest thing is this, making sure that you get all of the plays right, because last year we were following cards, and so now we had to kind of learn the play book. We weren’t able to learn the defense with everybody else, but I’m just trying to grasp it, and go along with it”, says Brooks.

How’s that coming along, I asked.

“It’s going well. I’m trying to do everything right, and hopefully get some playing time” replied Brooks.

I asked how he liked playing for Coach Paterson.

“It’s a good thing. Coach Paterson is a real good dude. He’s fair to everybody. I mean, he knows his thing, so hopefully I’ll just learn from him and become a better player”, he said.

I asked him what area he needed to work on most.

“The area I need to work on most is just the mental part, and my hand placement, because I’m already stronger than most everybody. I mean, I can get through anybody, but it’s just I’ve got to get my hands in the right place, and then break offensive plays.”

I asked him what his strength was.

He grinned, and said, “My strength is my strength”.

He is another one of those defensive lineman that kind of breaks the stereotype of mindless, raw meat eating, animals. The articulate young man is a Business Finance major, and is pushing to get over the 3.0 GPA mark.

Coach Price After April 26th Practice

It was one of those days in El Paso when you can’t tell where the mountains end and the sky begins because they are both a blur of brown. Plastic grocery bags seem to come to life and launch themselves into the upper reaches of the atmosphere atempting to break the earthly bonds of gravity.

The wind made it nearly impossible for the coaches to continue their attempt to determine a starting quarterback. So they did what they could with the practice and the weather conditions as they were.

Coach Price talked about winnig games when it comes down to final minutes of halves and getting the ball in the end zone once inside the red zone. He has talked about this before, this spring, about how many football games come down to a few plays that can decide the games.

There has been a concentration on four minute drills and two minute drills, and today they were emphasizing scoring touchdowns inside the 20 yardline.

He wasn’t real happy with his offense in that area.

“We didn’t do very good, today. We’ve got work to do and that was in the orange zone and the red zone, offensively. Defensively, we did good. But, we had two fumbles in the orange zone and you can’t have that. So, games are won and lost nowdays and I told the team, just like the NC two A basketball tournament, games are lost in the last seconds of the game.”

He went on to say, “We want to win the close games. We’ve got to make plays in the orange zone, and make plays in the red zone. Two minute offense. Four minute offense.”

He explained that the red zone was from the 20 to the ten, and the orange zone was from the ten to the three. The goa line was from the three to the goal line.

“So that’s the areas we need to, and we worked on third and short, third and medium, and third and long”, he said.

I asked if he had determined the quarterbacks for the two teams for the Spring Game. He grinned, and said, “Yeah, I think there’s going to be four of them”.

He said he hadn’t decided which two would be on the two teams. He said that he was going to put the teams together. In the past there has been a time or two in which he allowed the players to chose the teams.

Javia Hall Let's One Fly

Saturday’s morning scrimmage was supposed to be the day that a quarterback would establish himself as the starting quarterback for the Miners.  Instead of clearing up the situation, it got worse.  The one quarterback that wasn’t seen as being in the hunt was red shirt freshman Javia Hall.  It isn’t that he hasn’t looked good.  It’s just that he is just a red shirt freshman.  The battle was supposed to be between Tate Smith, the senior, with experience starting Div 1 football at UNM, Nick Lamaisin, the top ranked junior college star who transferred into UTEP to supposedly push the UTEP quaterbacks or make an outright claim to the starting spot, and the scrappy sophomore Carson Meger who has amazed everyone since he walked on to the program by just finding ways to lead whatever team they give him and do the things a winner does.  Hall was the thin kid who was supposed to be the face of the Miners in years to come, but he was kind of out of the picture with the scout team last year.  In Spring Ball he has looked good, but all of the real focus has been on the other three.  Yesterday, he made it clear that he had no intention of standing patiently in line, waiting his turn.  The day was supposed to be a cage match to see who was left standing.  Instead, when everyone else was exhausted, it was the quarterbacks that were still throwing the punches.

Coach Price joked about the situation at the end of practice.  He was trying to recall the Laurel and Hardy quote,” Well, here’s another fine kettle of fish you’ve gotten me into,” to describe how the decision on the starting quarterback battle had only gotten tougher.

He went on, sarcastically, “Obviously, it’s easier to say who the quarterback should be after today”.

“Our offense made plays.  It was exciting to watch”, Coach Price said smiling braodly, and obviously pleased with the performance of his offense on Saturday.  He aslo explained that the coaches had put in two new defenses, and that has a tendancy to cause the defense to play a little tentatively, and that was part of the reason they seemed to be playing back on their heels.

Up until Saturday, the defense had been pretty much dominating the offense in practices and scrimmages.  But, Saturday the offese exploded and got into the end zone ten times.  The four quarterbacks combined were 38 of 57 for 454 yards.  Smith led the way statistically going 10 of 15 for 133 yards.  Meger was right there with 11 of 15 passes completed for 121 yards.  Hall and Lamaison were 6 of 10 for 106, and 11 of 17 for 94 yards, respectively.

Nathan Jeffrey continues to show that he will become a star at the running back position in the future.  Vernon Frazier has simply been amazing.  The little big man seems to have not only recovered, but has gotten stronger and faster.  Given the slightest opening he just blows past defenders, and in the open, defenders almost look helpless trying to catch him, often reaching for him and finding nothing but his jetstream in their arms.

Now, it wouldn’t be right to leave you believing that the defense had nothing.  The defensive line had periods where they were dominant, and making plays in the offense’s backfield.  Bagley has shed 10 pounds, and it looks like more because he has switched some of the extra pounds he carried last year into muscle mass this year.  So, although he looks a little thinner (and that is a relative term, as he is by no means thin) he is stronger and quicker.  Ayala and Davidson give the team a terrific one two punch at the left defensive end, and Obi and Watkins are exceptional at the other end of the line.  Ayala has six tackles and two sacks.

With all three starting linebackers out for the spring rehabbing, they may just find themselves in a dogfight to get back on the field.  There is a whole bunch of linebackers that seem to come in waves.  Alexius has gotten bigger and stronger, Springer has stepped up his game, Michael Pickett has moved fro safety to linebacker and hits people with bad intent.  DeAndre Little looks like he could be one of those guys who will add his name to the list of great Miners linebackers, and Hunter Nix was the leading tackler in Saturday’s scrimmage with 7.  David Logsden, a sophomore transfer added his name to the list with 5 tackles Saturday.  Then there is Josh Fely who was out with an ankle injury Saturday but has caused quite a buzz all spring after coming in from San Diego Mission College, and fellow juco transfer A. J. Ropati who had spectators flinching in sympathy for tackled offensive players on Saturday.

Defensive back C. J. Haley, son of Cowboy’s great Charles Haley, had an impressive morning with 5 tackles and an interception.  

There are so many stories coming out of this spring’s practices that it impossible for me to tell them all.  You should come out and see for yourself.  If you can’t make it to the two remaining practices this week, you really need to come out to the Spring Game.  There will be a Fan Fest at 4, and the Spring Game at 6.  This season and these new players getting their chance to show their stuff are going to bring a renewed excitment and energy to this year’s team, and Miners fans are going to want to be a part of it.

I will add a video of some of the action from Saturday’s scrimmage at the link below;

http://www.kyyotesden.com/DenGallery/albums/apr11/Srimmage42311.wmv

Jamie Fehoko is 6′ 2″, and weighs 300 pounds.  The senior defensive lineman has a combination of quickness, strength, and a single minded desire to get to the man with the ball.  He has been on a tear in Spring Ball. 

I visited with him after practice, and I wanted to know if it was him that was different this spring, or was it the offensive line that was allowing him to look so unstoppable.    He explained it pretty well, I think. 

We started with the offensive line.

“It’s good.  I mean, even though they need a lot of work, but you know, we had a year with Coach Pete’s defense.  Now we know the defense pretty well, you know, we’re working the offense, and they’re getting better, you know what I’m saying, as we’re working them”, he said.

“You guys are getting better, too, huh?’. I asked.

“Yeah, we’re getting better, too”, said Fehoko.

Then I asked him about his own game.

“Well, I had uh, last year, was kind of slow, for me.  First year, I think that happens to everybody, as well.  But, I had to change the way I was playing.  Like the way I came out to practice last year wasn’t, I didn’t have that hype.  I wasn’t motivated.  But, this year, it’s my last year.  Like everybody else did last year, I might as well go balls to the wall and go all out, because that’s what I’m trying to do”, says the big man.

I told him that to me he seemed like a man on a mission.

Fehoko agreed, “Yes, I am.  I’m trying to rip it, this year, man.  No holding back.  I’m giving it all.  One hundred and ten, anything.”

So, time has come for the man who transferred to UTEP from the College of San Mateo, and saw action last season.  This is his season to “rip it” and “go balls to the wall”. 

Here’s the complete video interview;

http://www.kyyotesden.com/DenGallery/albums/apr11/20110422122927.wmv