UTEP hopes Week 0 lessons from 2022 loss flip fortunes against Jax State

UTEP head coach Dana Dimel knows his Miners can’t afford another slow start to the campaign. The 2022 team started 1-3, including a home loss to North Texas in Week 0 and a road defeat at New Mexico in Week 3. If the Miners win one of those contests, they’re bowling for the second consecutive season. Instead, UTEP finished below .500 for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. 

The momentum heading into 2022 was dampened – literally – before the opening kick as a rain delay thinned the first sellout crowd in the Sun Bowl for a conference game since 2005. Dimel slipped on some steps leading down to the field and broke his back before kickoff. And that wasn’t as painful as watching North Texas run away in the second half of an eventual 31-13 victory over UTEP in El Paso.