UTEP coach PREDICTS win

[EP Pony Fan]

Found this in today's paper:

Linebacker says Nord's words provided spark

By Matthew Aguilar
El Paso Times

You can count linebacker Thomas Howard as one of the UTEP Miners fired up about head coach Gary Nord's insistence that his team will win three games in a row -- the second of which is Saturday at SMU.

"He is very confident in us going out there to get a win," Howard said Tuesday. "He said, 'There isn't any losing! Play like winners for 60 minutes.' "

The embattled 1-4 Miners are using Nord's passion -- and last week's 59-14 demolition of Sam Houston State -- as leverage going into this week's game with the winless Mustangs in UTEP's Western Athletic Conference opener. A second straight victory would give a program that was on life-support just weeks ago a profound kickstart.

A win would give UTEP a 1-0 start in league play, end a dubious 17-game road losing streak and provide the Miners with their first 1-A victory in almost a year.

Perhaps most importantly for UTEP, it could all but quiet the critics who were calling for coach Gary Nord's job.

"We proved ourselves (Saturday)," said Howard, who grabbed an interception against Sam Houston. "We want to win the next three games before our break."

Imagine UTEP 3-4 and 3-0 going into the bye week. Nord, returning to the feel-good days when he talked about kicking A-double-S's, doesn't think it's inconceivable.

"It was a comment I made to the football team when we got beat by a good Louisville football team," Nord said. "We made a lot of progress against Louisville. I saw us win the line of scrimmage battle on both sides of the ball. If you win the line of scrimmage battle, you have a chance to win the football game."

UTEP, currently listed as 11-point underdogs for Saturday, also is coming around in the turnover department. For the first time this season, and just the seventh time in its last 29 games, UTEP had fewer turnovers than its opponent. The Miners committed three miscues, the Bearkats six. It was the most turnovers forced by UTEP since Oct. 1, 1994, when Hawaii lost six fumbles in a 34-27 defeat to the Miners.

The offensive line blew out the Bearkats Saturday and opened up gaping holes. The Miners also received excellent blocking by their fullbacks and receivers.

"We're feeling good about ourselves; we've had a decent two or three weeks," said tailback Howard Jackson, who has put together back-to-back 100 yard games for the first time in his career. "One of the biggest issues was getting in sync as a team and becoming the team we know we can be and compete for a WAC championship."

Though confident, Nord isn't overlooking SMU. He knows the Mustangs will present a formidable challenge -- especially at 32,000-seat Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas.

"They are going to give us all we can handle," Nord said.

[Nacho]

I can see how a win over Sam Houston State would give someone the big-head.

[Pony Up]

Hey, a gutsy coach should be confident. I want to hear my coach tell me he expects the Ponies to win every time out. But calling three wins in a row?

There's been some talk that Coach Nord's job is on the line out there, so maybe he's trying to fire up his guys by talking about going on a run. But winning a football game -- ONE football game -- is hard to do, especially when you consider UTEP's talent. That's not a shot at them, it's reality. I would think he should orchestrate a single win over a Div. I team before he starts talking about streaks.

Someone who knows some players should print this article out and blow it up for the locker room wall. The fact that Coach Nord even knows LaTech is next on his schedule is an insult to SMU.

[PonyFan]

Pony Up's right. If Nord gave the generic "we're going to play hard and go out and win our next game" speech, that would be one thing. But to suggest that they're going to reel off 3 straight suggests that he doesn't respect any of his opponents.

Which might explain his record.

[The PonyGrad]

UTEP will not be a gimmie. They should be able to run the ball on us. Their passing game is not good though, nor their defense. We had better find some offense.

[The PonyGrad]

This prediction appears to be before the QB went out. I wonder what he says now and what the players are thinking.