Price fixing in order at UTEP
Coach is mining for turnaround
Resurrection projects seem to be a way of life for Mike Price.
When he coached at Washington State, he turned the Cougars into a Pac-10 contender and Drew Bledsoe and Ryan Leaf into first-round draft picks. The University of Texas-El Paso, his current school, won just six games in the three years before his arrival yet managed to win eight in his first season. Price even managed to resurrect his own career after a short stay at Alabama.
But after enjoying back-to-back bowl seasons in 2004 and ’05, the Miners have suffered through two losing seasons. Time for Price to work his magic again.
The University at Buffalo is hoping that doesn’t occur until after the 7 p. m. game Thursday at UB Stadium. But eventually, it will. When Price works the sidelines, the results are generally positive.
When Price led Washington State to the Rose Bowl in 1998, it was the Cougars’ first trip in 67 years. Washington State lost to Michigan that season and the Wolverines shared the national title with Nebraska, where current UB coach Turner Gill was an assistant. Before Price took over at UTEP in 2004 the Miners qualified for just two bowls since 1967.
“People have talked about him as a coach who gets his players to play well,” Gill said. “Wherever he’s been, eventually he gets those players to play well. . . . I admire him as a coach.”
After Price led Washington State to a second Rose Bowl appearance in 2002, he was hired by Alabama but was fired without coaching a game for what the school called improper behavior after spending time in a Pensacola, Fla., strip club and drinking too much the night before a charity golf outing. But at UTEP, Price rebuilt his career quickly.
The Miners finished 2-11 in 2003 under Gary Nord, but Price went 8-4 with a trip to the Houston Bowl in his first season and followed with another 8-4 record and a GMAC Bowl appearance.
“We kind of changed the attitude here,” Price said. “The expectation level of the players, the community, and everyone was kind of down on the Miners. They weren’t drawing very well and everyone had a loser mentality that the Miners were going to screw it up one way or another.”
But UTEP is in another tailspin. The Miners went 5-7 in 2006, 4-8 last season and have lost six consecutive games.
“I wish I could put a finger on it,” Price said. “I wish I could say it was injuries which was part of it. We lost focus late and lost some games in the last seconds and overtime. We just didn’t pull the trigger good enough.”
The Miners were beating Texas Tech on the road at halftime before losing, 45-31, and lost a heartbreaker at home to East Carolina, 45-42, after giving up a late lead. UTEP was beating Rice by 20 points with eight minutes remaining but lost, 56-48.
“How do you lose that game?” Price said. “At the tail end of the game we played very poorly. If I could figure it out I’d bottle it and sell it to somebody.”
The defense was one of the worst in the nation. The Miners surrendered 504.7 yards a game and ranked 117th in total defense last season, so Price brought in Osia Lewis from New Mexico as his new defensive coordinator. The Lobos finished 13th nationally in total defense last season.
None of it changes the Miners newly rediscovered expectation: winning. Generally, that’s what happens when Price is coaching.
“We have a young team, but we’re going to get better as the season progresses,” Price said. “By the end of the year, we’re going to have a pretty good team.”
