Mike Price and UTEP

[50's PONY]

Out in West Texas town of El Paso ... Price finds home
May 3, 2004
By Dennis Dodd
SportsLine.com Senior Writer
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EL PASO, Texas -- Mike Price thought all the bile had settled. The bitterness pretty much was gone. All the stares he got in supermarkets, the advice from counselors. A bout with depression. Faded, painful souvenirs. Don't even start on the embarrassment of putting your family -- your wife -- through such a public wringer. That wound was finally scabbing over, too.

"Quite frankly, I thought it was one of the safer things as far as him getting in trouble in the future," said Price's new boss, Bob Stull. "I think he said his wife stopped beating him about three weeks ago. He was down to one beating a day."


Mike Price and El Paso look like a promising fit so far.(AP)
Everyone had a good laugh at that one after Stull, Texas-El Paso's athletic director, hired his old friend. Joyce Price is at the side of her husband these days, the same way she was a year ago this week when Alabama president Robert Witt confirmed for the country what he had told his coach brusquely in the hallway moments before.

"It's not going to work out," Price quoted Witt as saying.

"I said, 'What do you mean?' He says, 'Mike, guys like you and I don't get second chances,' and he walked down and walked out to the press conference and fired me."

That day, May 7, 2003, began the worst year in Price's life. His conduct one fateful night in Pensacola, Fla., haunted him. It chased him out of Tuscaloosa. It got him turned down for other jobs. But he had no idea it would follow him to a portal of a stadium hewn out of the side of a mountain a mile from the Mexico border.

Forty-five minutes before the UTEP spring game, Price strode proudly through that portal into the Sun Bowl for the first time as the Miners coach on a game day. All arms in this lonely college football outpost had embraced him. It looked like Extreme Makeover had kidnapped him. Price had lost 30 pounds and his glasses, having undergone laser surgery. The distinguished gray hair was slicked back in a dashing sort of way. The second chance was his. How do you like him now, Dr. Witt?

Then some knucklehead in charge of the Sun Bowl's pre-game music couldn't resist one last tweak.

Sweet Home Alabama.

"Did I notice it?" Price asked incredulously. "I just happened to be coming into the stadium at the same time. I thought, 'Holy cow, how ironic is that?'"

In the time it took Price to say those words, the anger passed through him. For an instant, he thought playing the song was intentional, then thought the better of it. This is America. The only things more common than second chances are Starbucks, Wal-Marts and classic schlock 'n' roll.

Besides, he couldn't blame people anymore. It was a year ago this week, after the country speculated whether Price could stay upright, whether he had been forthright, and finally, his mind and life are just plain right.


The Comeback
Diana Natalicio nursed a Dos Equis. Hey, college presidents can relax, too. This was an opening night of sorts. Spring game. Price's debut. She talked about her decision to hire Price while looking out at one of the most spectacular views in college football. From the Durham Center at the west end of Sun Bowl, you can see blue sky, spectacular mountains, another country and a bright future.

Natalicio is a baseball fan. The St. Louis native once tutored one of Stan Musial's daughters while attending Saint Louis University. Her current favorite book is Moneyball, the Michael Lewis account of how Oakland A's GM Billy Beane beat the system.

"UTEP is the higher education equivalent of the Oakland A's," she said. "We have to be very strategic because we don't have George Steinbrenner's money. Hiring Mike Price was a Moneyball decision. We would have never been able to recruit him here under normal circumstances. He would have been at Alabama."

Mike Price's Career Record
Year School Rec.
2002 Washington St. 10-3
2001 Washington St. 10-2
2000 Washington St. 4-7
1999 Washington St. 3-9
1998 Washington St. 3-8
1997 Washington St. 10-2
1996 Washington St. 5-6
1995 Washington St. 3-8
1994 Washington St. 8-4
1993 Washington St. 5-6
1992 Washington St. 9-3
1991 Washington St. 4-7
1990 Washington St. 3-8
1989 Washington St. 6-5
'81-'88 Weber State 46-44
Totals 22 Seasons 129-122
It's a long drive and about $750,000 less per year going from Tuscaloosa to El Paso. A visitor called it "Fort Apache" in terms of college football importance -- an outpost of 700,000 operating below the BCS radar, caught between two cultures.

The landscape itself reflects your status. The higher up you are in the Franklin Mountains, the better the homes. The valley, though, has trees, grass and water, important in a place where annual rainfall is only 7.82 inches. Thirty-three years ago, Natalicio came here and thought she was going to be to be a short-timer. She fell in love with the place and never left.

El Paso is Texas and Mexico. It shares a border with sprawling Juarez. It's closer to Los Angeles than it is to Houston. New Mexico is only 35 miles away, but Albuquerque is further east. From here, Dallas might as well be New York.

There's great food and even better people, but not much relief from bad college football. The 2000 WAC championship was the program's first conference title in 44 years. The WAC coach of the year that season, Gary Nord, went 2-11 last year and was shown the door.

Last week, UTEP changed conferences from the WAC to Conference USA looking for a better athletic identity. Don Haskins once scratched a national basketball championship out of the rock and dust with an all-black starting lineup in 1966.

More recently, Billy Gillispie took the Miners from six victories to the NCAA Tournament, then split for Texas A&M.

It will have more Olympians this year in Greece (as many as 15) than it has winning football seasons since 1988 (one).

"Who really claims it as a city?" wondered defensive coordinator Tim Hundley. "Who really claims it as part of their state? You need to convince kids this is a good place to go to school."

Price claimed UTEP quickly when he said yes to the school, or rather Natalicio said yes to him, on Dec. 21. Stull had rounded up [deleted] Tomey, Bob Toledo and a slew of coordinators as candidates for Natalicio in the beginning but warned, "There is going to be one person in there who is going to be pretty controversial."

"She kind of raised her eyebrows a little bit," Stull said. "She reacted the way any president would react initially."

It wasn't easy. Price flew into the Phoenix airport for the interview. Natalicio wanted to know, needed to know, "whether this baggage is going to get heavier. If there is a problem, you need to be honest about all this."

And so Price poured his heart out. The man had sued Witt, a colleague of Natalicio's from way back. Price had literally gone from Lear Jet to motor home. He and Joyce bought an RV after the firing and toured the country.

Price went from a $10 million contract (the one he never signed at 'Bama) to pricing KOA campgrounds across the country. No, Joyce would say, there is one down the road that is cheaper than $24.95 per night. How many million-dollar coaches know that if you really want to be frugal, any Wal-Mart will let an RV stay in the parking lot for the night?


UTEP athletic director Bob Stull believes Price's version of events.(Getty Images)
"What was reported was so grossly exaggerated," Price said of Alabama. "What I really did -- I'm looking at coaches that did a hell of a lot worse than I did, guys cheating on their wives."

Price is still suing Sports Illustrated for $20 million over some of their reporting. The, "It's rolling baby" quote alone (in reference to Price allegedly having sex in his hotel room last April) was enough to ruin a man.

"It certainly was not a good night for Mike Price," Stull said. "He did not use a lot of common sense. But I don't believe all the things that were written happened."

Witt and Natalicio talked. UTEP was still willing to believe in him, if he would believe in it.

In the interim, Price made it a point to learn how to use a computer. He and Joyce retreated to Ryan Leaf's place near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He logged on to MinerDigs.com and read the reaction in one of UTEP's chat rooms.

"Shoot," he thought to himself. "At least these people want me."

If nothing else, the man was genuine. He wanted to coach again -- soon. He got along with people. No one doubted his coaching credentials. He was affordable (at $250,000 per year). He was resilient. Arizona president Peter Likins already had publicly disgraced Price by shooting down his chances of replacing John Mackovic before they were run up a flagpole.

When Stull got back to El Paso, he compared notes with Natalicio's assistant Richard Adauto. He liked Price.

"How about the president?" Stull dared to ask. "He said, 'You know what? She does too.'"

It wasn't a hard sell to the community or the players.

"The thing that went through my mind," said quarterback Jordan Palmer, "was 'big time.' He made a mistake. All of us screwed up in our college careers. That got some credibility with us. He screwed up, and now he's going back up."

The national media largely ignored the hiring or at least didn't criticize it.

"I believe that people deserve a second chance," Natalicio said. "I don't think one incident in anybody's life ought to condemn him forever. He's determined to redeem himself and we'd love to have him do it here."


The Program
Price was lucky in another way. Just about everyone he wanted for this new adventure was available. The coaching staff has a combined 50 bowls, including about eight Rose Bowls among them.

There is a definite Northwest-Huskies-Cougars feel to it. Hundley was Washington's defensive coordinator when he got the call. Six years ago, 29-year-old recruiting coordinator Jeff Banks was leading the Pac-10 in punting at Washington State. Before linebackers coach Jeff Woodruff was fired at Eastern Michigan last year, he coached at Arizona and Washington.

Sons Aaron and Erin turned down NFL assistant offers to stay with their dad. Price knew Stull because Stull had spent several years on Don James staff at Washington. A bold five-year plan that resulted in $15 million in facilities had Price as its cherry.

An offseason coaching retreat has turned into what Price calls a "Chia Pet Vacation" (it keeps growing). Forty-seven staffers, wives and families will take a bus trip this summer to a Mexico resort "so we can bond," Price said.

"I thought it would be criminal if he were not in the game," Hundley said.

The Price charisma started clicking almost immediately. He had headlines clipped and copied from the El Paso Times when the basketball team won the WAC. He signed each copy, "THIS COULD BE US! --M.P." and stuffed one in each locker.

UCLA running back Tyler Ebell transferred in the offseason after Price's hiring. Parade All-American Marcus Thomas of Phoenix was in the first recruiting class. He picked the Miners over USC.

The practices are littered with the usual Price trademarks. A trick play will be put in every week. For every "big play" in practice (as determined by the coaching staff), players will have to run one less sprint.

"The thing that kind of puzzles me is how we can have this much discipline on the team without him being a jerk," tight end Jonas Crafts said.


The Community
Aaron Santos offered a beer. No? How about a Jack and Coke?

Oh well, Santos, a junior Sig Ep, still had cornered a couple of reporters while tailgating in "Miner Town," the school-sponsored pre-game before the spring game. He can't wait. Price reminds him of [deleted] Vermeil, coach of his favorite team, the Kansas City Chiefs. Vermeil cries at supermarket openings. Price's emotions aren't far behind.

"He parked back here," Santos gestures across the road as if ET had descended from the sky. "I never saw a coach like that come down and shake your hand. He brings that passion to the game."

One of the first people Price had to meet was Maynard Haddad. The owner of H&H Car Wash and Coffee Shop is the conscience of the people. You can get huevos rancheros and a dose of Maynard's opinion in the same stop.

"Unfortunately, with UTEP football the teams always quit in the middle of the second half," Haddad said. "I said something to Coach Price, and he looked at me in bewilderment, 'I've never had a team quit.'

"He's already a hero to us."

The fit is obvious. In a lot of ways, El Paso is Pullman, Wash., with more movie theaters. Price spent 14 years at Washington State taking the Cougars to two Rose Bowls. With a metro population of 2.5 million, El Paso is large enough to be a big city but small enough to have a heart.

When Price was introduced at halftime of a basketball game, the crowd stood for five minutes.

He's not a country club guy, but now he lives by one. In the valley, by the way, near laid back El Paso Country Club. Guests there in sports jackets are looked upon as almost out of place. Price can have a leisurely dinner with friends (even sip a couple of glasses of wine) without being mobbed or having moral sentence pronounced on him.

"This community is so different," he said. "It's kind of a forgiving community. They're not pious at all, they're down-to-earth people."

So down-to-earth that sometimes in their happiness, they don't realize what they're saying.

"Coach Price has endorsed that attitude to have fun and cut loose," linebacker Robert Rodriguez said.

Quick story: Stull was driving his coach around town one day. Price noticed what looked like a nice restaurant. Stull suggested it might not be such a good idea to stop. Prince Machiavelli's is an El Paso strip club.

"I drive by there every day (on the way to work)," Price said. "Then you open up the sports page. Here's all these strip clubs, and there's always an article about football next to them. I think, 'Oh shoot, it's never going to go away.'"

But for now it has, in the bosom of a place that will love him as long as he loves it back.



Talk Back!
Time Subject Author
5:18 pm Re: MOST BAMA FANS WISH jtep24
5:03 pm "TOO MUCH SUN FOR THE DRUNK" [poll] woolverine
4:32 pm Re: MOST BAMA FANS WISH knockman1
4:08 pm Re: MOST BAMA FANS WISH

[ALEX LIFESON]

GREAT STORY! HE MAY GET THOSE GUY'S ROCKIN', AND THAT WOULD ONLY MAKE CUSA STRONGER!

[Corso]

I agree, he'll make C-USA stronger - significantly. And before we get too excited about his presence in the conference, let's remember he can recruit like hell. UTEP will get a lot better under Coach Price.

[Stallion]

yeah it took him a whole 3 weeks to sign TWO Parade All-American Running backs although each was either a transfer or academic casualty

[EastStang]

And he has all the hookers he wants right across the Rio Grande at half the price of the Alabama babes (just get those shot big fella).