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Price tags winner label on Texas-El Paso
By Jack Carey, USA TODAY
Perhaps the only thing more surprising than Mike Price landing the coaching job at Texas-El Paso is the turnaround he's engineered there.
Price, who took two Washington State teams to the Rose Bowl but lost his job at Alabama 18 months ago before he could coach a game after an infamous visit to a Pensacola, Fla., strip club, is making the most of his chance in the Southwest.
The Miners, who have had three winning seasons since 1970, are 5-2 in Price's first year after Saturday's 44-27 victory at Louisiana Tech and are one win from being eligible for their third bowl game since 1967.
UTEP has lost only to No. 21 Arizona State and No. 15 Boise State and will take a four-game winning streak into this week's contest at San Jose State.
"We changed the attitude, emphasized discipline and worked on their confidence, and it's been working out," Price said Sunday. "We've tried to be positive and tried to make it fun."
People are noticing. The Miners received votes in the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches' Poll and Associated Press media rankings Sunday, heady stuff for a program that was 6-30 the last three years.
Quarterbacked by sophomore Jordan Palmer, whose brother Carson won the 2002 Heisman Trophy at Southern California, the Miners are averaging 33.7 points using a one-back, spread offense.
Palmer, who played the position for only a year in high school, passed for 259 yards and four touchdowns Saturday. "It's kind of on-the-job training for him, and he's proving to be very coachable," Price said. "He played his best game (Saturday)."
The season has been personally gratifying for Price, whose career was in limbo less than a year ago. "I'm not going to mess this up," he said. "I'm going to be the best employee UTEP's ever had."
By Jack Carey, USA TODAY
Perhaps the only thing more surprising than Mike Price landing the coaching job at Texas-El Paso is the turnaround he's engineered there.
Price, who took two Washington State teams to the Rose Bowl but lost his job at Alabama 18 months ago before he could coach a game after an infamous visit to a Pensacola, Fla., strip club, is making the most of his chance in the Southwest.
The Miners, who have had three winning seasons since 1970, are 5-2 in Price's first year after Saturday's 44-27 victory at Louisiana Tech and are one win from being eligible for their third bowl game since 1967.
UTEP has lost only to No. 21 Arizona State and No. 15 Boise State and will take a four-game winning streak into this week's contest at San Jose State.
"We changed the attitude, emphasized discipline and worked on their confidence, and it's been working out," Price said Sunday. "We've tried to be positive and tried to make it fun."
People are noticing. The Miners received votes in the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches' Poll and Associated Press media rankings Sunday, heady stuff for a program that was 6-30 the last three years.
Quarterbacked by sophomore Jordan Palmer, whose brother Carson won the 2002 Heisman Trophy at Southern California, the Miners are averaging 33.7 points using a one-back, spread offense.
Palmer, who played the position for only a year in high school, passed for 259 yards and four touchdowns Saturday. "It's kind of on-the-job training for him, and he's proving to be very coachable," Price said. "He played his best game (Saturday)."
The season has been personally gratifying for Price, whose career was in limbo less than a year ago. "I'm not going to mess this up," he said. "I'm going to be the best employee UTEP's ever had."
