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Miners fired up by SMU press guide (2:51 p.m.)

By Matthew Aguilar / El Paso Times
El Paso Times

As if last year's embarrassing 40-27 loss to Southern Methodist University wasn't enough motivation, the UTEP football team is looking forward to Saturday's game against the Mustangs for another reason.
The 2006 SMU media guide.

“Their press guide is a nice looking press guide, showing all their players on it,” UTEP head coach Mike Price said today. “I've seen many press guides like this, and you'll see that our press guide is similar. Except we don't have opponents' players lying underneath their team, destroyed and knocked down.

"But, for some reason, they have Marcus Thomas, a UTEP football player, on their press guide, getting knocked down and lying on the ground and being trampled," Price said. "Is that respect? Or is that disrespect? That's not respect for our program.”

Price was fired up at his weekly press conference at the Larry K. Durham Sports Center. Partially because UTEP was coming off a dramatic 44-38 victory over Interstate 10 rival New Mexico State in the Sun Bowl. And partially because of SMU's media guide, which includes six action shots of Mustang players, and Thomas on the ground beneath them.

SMU assistant athletic director for media relations Brad Sutton, who was responsible for compiling and designing the media guide, said the cover was not meant as an insult to UTEP players or coaches.

“First let me say that we have the greatest respect for the UTEP football program and its players,” Sutton said. “In accumulating the best action photos of players, specifically defensive line players, often times the photos you take and that get included are of a player being tackled on the play. This instance was no different.

"This is what we considered one of our action photos of (senior defensive end) Justin Rogers and decided to use that," Sutton said. "It's no different, in my opinion, than the Marshall media guide, which has a photo of (an opposing) player being tackled. Or Florida State's media guide, which has a North Carolina State player being tackled by a Florida State player.”

The photo was shot after an apparent Rogers tackle of Thomas during last year's game in Dallas.

Thomas was apparently not superimposed onto the media guide, as Sutton emailed the El Paso Times a complete photo of the tackle. The photo included both players.

“This was a situation where the (photo) we used for Justin this year happened to include this player from UTEP,” Sutton said.

Nevertheless, it is something that Price took offense to today.

“Show me a press book in the country that disrespects its opponent any more than this,” Price asked.

Matthew Aguilar may be reached at [email protected]; 546-6166.

Anybody smell a little gamesmanship from Mike Price on this one?

Note - I have it on high authority that next years media guide cover will have Mike Price hanging out with call girls. Because, you know, at SMU - we really care what happens in El Paso, I mean it's so much more important for us to offend/disrespect them then to celebrate our players and the fact that we beat a pretty darn good team at the end of last season.

If I were Mike Price, I'd be concerned about next year's New Mexico Lobos media guide.

The question with which Price concludes-wondering if similar features occur in other media guides-wasn't it already answered in the preceding paragraph?

The football gods do not appreciate such a reach, and UTEP will be punished.

Sounds like Price has too much time on his hands now that he doesn't get drunk with hookers...or does he?

I know someone has a press guide, scan and post please.

I take this as a compliment. I guess he's concerned about motivating his guys so they don't get trampled again by SMU. UTEP opened an 11.5 favorite but aready down to 10 pts? Are people starting to believe in this SMU team?

Is this what we're doing?
Going after somebody because they had the nerve to put your players on your media guide?

OK. Go for it, Mike.

I guess he's trying to use something through the El Paso media, who eats out of his hands, to get his squad's attention. Everybody has their agent. But if this is the story the El Paso Times wants to use, that's useless reporting and why that beat writer is going to be stuck out there.

I don't have a problem with it. We beat their [deleted] bad last year after a couple of years of them sticking it to us.

I guess this will be a battle of who can have the more creative 2007 media guide cover.

I think he should come up with better things to do with his time.

I'm laughing so hard over Price's comments I can barely type. Props to Sutton.

thats really weak smack. Price should be embarrassed. is he kidding?

Pathetically desperate to say the least.

50's PONY wrote:“I've seen many press guides like this, and you'll see that our press guide is similar. Except we don't have opponents' players lying underneath their team, destroyed and knocked down.

Lying under the team? Sorry no. He had just gotten tackled by Justin Rogers and the UTEP guy is blocking half of Justin's body so obviously they're going to put the guy in there. Sad and pathetic way to get your team motivated...but whatever. Whatever works I guess.

I think he fits perfectly with an administration who hires clowns like him -- and let players like Rouse, who fail drug tests and get suspended and then get kicked off the team for dealing and smoking weed, then gets arrested for B&E, join the team/university.

Doesn't really surprise me -- it has been and always will be a circus in El Paso.

This claim by Coach Price, to me, is nothing short of comical.

1) Mike Price didn't win all those games at Washington State and throughout his career by firing up his teams with pictures of his players getting tackled by players at USC or Oregon or Washington or UCLA. He won games because he recruits good players and he's a hell of a coach. Imagine the media guide presented a different picture .... "we're hoping to finish second in Conference USA, because we all know UTEP is the cream of the crop." You think Price would be thanking Brad Sutton for his generous display of respect and admiration for the UTEP program? Of course not -- his response would be "that's just a publication, a recruiting tool, and while we appreciate the comments from Coach Bennett and the support staff at SMU, we have to concentrate on what happens on the field, not what another school is nice enough to say about us." After all, coaches always insist they don't read media clips and message boards .... yet they're worried about a picture in the media guide?

Translation: ThadFilms is right -- this is nothing but gamesmanship on Coach Price's part. If Jordan Palmer and the Miners need a picture from last year's game to get motivated, this game is already won. Fearless prediction: Palmer and his teammates are too damn good -- they don't give a damn about SMU's media guide. All they have to do if they need any motivational help is remember last year's score and the fact that they were hoping to compete for the Conference USA title before losing three straight at the end of last season. Palmer is a very good quarterback. Marcus Thomas is a very good running back. Jeremy Jones is a very good linebacker. These guys do not need to see a picture to realize that they have to show up and play if they want to win. They're great competitors, and they're smart players. The photograph in the SMU media guide is an absolute non-issue .... apparently to everyone in El Paso except Coach Price.

Big10PonyFan: I'd be hesitant to say we beat UTEP bad last year: yes, we won the game, and it felt great after taking it on the chin in previous years, and putting up 40 points on a solid program like UTEP felt damn good to every Pony and PonyFan. However, in last year's game, some stats suggest the game was a lot closer than the score suggested:
• First downs: UTEP 28, SMU 21
• Passing yards: UTEP 360, SMU 211
• Total yards: UTEP 455, SMU 440
• Penalties: UTEP 4-32, SMU 13-112
• Third downs: UTEP 7-of-15, SMU 5-of-18
The reason SMU won:
• TURNOVERS: UTEP 7, SMU 0

2) Anyone who knows Brad Sutton knows the picture of Rogers was not used in an attempt to "disrespect" Marcus Thomas, the UTEP football program, Coach Price, the UTEP athletic department, the entire university, the University of Texas school system, the city of El Paso, the manufacturers of Old El Paso taco shells or any other BS motivation that is being spewed out of El Paso. Sutton is a publicist, and his job includes putting together a publication that highlights SMU and its players. Justin Rogers is one of SMU's best players, a senior who piled up a slew of preseason honors and is expected to be one of the leaders of the team. As a defensive end, and a big strong one, at that, part of what makes him so effective is the fact that he's one seriously strong guy, meaning (surprise) he can tackle ball carriers. Look at the picture -- it's not like Rogers is standing over Thomas and mocking him. If anything, Rogers looks as if he's already looking back to the bench or a teammate for the next page. He's not doing a Mark Gastineau dance over Thomas, he's not screaming at him, and he's not making any kind of gesture of "disrespect." Every player plays with emotion, Rogers included, and more often than not, there's a hell of a lot more visible show of emotion than anything visible in the picture in question. Rogers is a very emotional player, but he also is very respectful -- always -- to SMU's opponents.

Sutton's job is to make SMU and its athletes and teams look good. He had to put together a media guide the year after the Ponies went 0-12 in 2003, and I'm sure he could have complained about pictures that appeared in other teams' media guides that year. But he never said a word about it. If he or Coach Bennet or any other SMU staffer didn't like to see pictures of SMU players being sacked, blocked or tackled, the way to answer that is go out and win the game when the teams meet again. I've known Brad Sutton since he came to SMU, and showing up an opponent not only isn't worth his time and energy, it's not in his nature. (I'm not sucking up here, because I have no need to .... although I do expect extra chow at all pregame media meals from here on out.) He's far more professional than that.

In 2003, Boise State came into Ford Stadium and beat SMU, 45-3. After the game, I asked Coach Bennett if he was upset at the score, if he thought Boise State had run it up in an effort to embarrass the Mustangs. He said no, he didn't think so. He said all of the professional things you would expect him to say about how much respect he had for Boise State coach Dan Hawkins and his team, and said if he (Bennett) didn't like the score, he needed to guide his team to a win. He said that Hawkins was doing his job, running his system, and that the Broncos played a solid game and deserved to win as they had. He also said that one day, he'd be on the other end of such a score, and that the other team would be obligated to try to stop the score from getting lopsided. When the Ponies whipped up on Sam Houston State and Arkansas State this season, he could have run it up a lot more than he did; instead, he played lots of backup players and ran very vanilla, predictable plays in order to allow his younger players to gain experience in game situations. How many teams have scheduled SMU as a Homecoming opponent? I guarantee you that's a far bigger show of disrespect than any picture in a media guide. This claim that a photograph of Justin Rogers is "disrespectful" is embarrassing .... for Coach Price.

Coach Price is a great coach, and he is far better than this embarrassing ploy of complaining through the media about Brad Sutton and the SMU media guide. Based on his résumé, I would expect Coach Price to be above resorting to such an amateur move. After his indescretions during his five minutes as Alabama's head coach, Coach Price -- more than any coach in America -- should know the value of having a top-shelf sports information director like Sutton. He has a very good one of his own in Jeff Darby (a former assistant of Sutton's at SMU), and I'd be interested to know what Darby thought of Coach Price's comments. Darby knows Sutton well, and while he'd never say it, I'm guessing Darby wishes Coach Price had asked his (Darby's) opinion before whining about SMU's media guide. Sutton was doing his job, and he does it damn well. Darby understands that, and given a chance, would explain it to Coach Price. Clearly, he was never asked for his opinion.

Again, if Jordan Palmer and his teammates need this picture of Justin Rogers to get motivated, then the Ponies will roll in El Paso. But they don't need a picture for motivation. The Miners are a talented team, and certainly have the talent to beat the Ponies Saturday -- perhaps comfortably, if the folks in Vegas know anything at all -- if they play well Saturday. They also could lose, as the Ponies are playing better. If UTEP does win, however, it sure as hell won't be because of a picture in the media guide. To suggest that would be the reason ranks right up there with any "error in judgement" Coach Price ever has made.

Somebody ought to blow that photo up to friggin' billboard size, slam a couple of beers, put a flask in their boot, and march right up to the top of the Sun Bowl and open that baby up with a caption that says "Bite me, Mike Price".

Price can kiss my royal Scottish...um...heinie.
(Hope that passes the PG rating on this board.)

What a weaksuck that this guy has to use a media guide to make his players motivated to play us.

News flash, you dork. We beat your sorry butts last year, and guess what, now we are going to come to your house and do the same thing.
If you already do not have enough ammo to go at SMU, then no amount of huffing and puffing about media guides is going to help.

And another thing, Brad Sutton. Why don't you grow a pair and stop being polite. Tell Mike to go find a tiddy-bar and complain to someone who is paid to listen, 'cause you are not, and we don't want one of our own being somebody else's...um...buddy...replace the "-uddy" with "-itch".
(Can I say that? Hey PonyPride, will you just this once let me get away with it? I swear to Buddha that I won't say "Bush Library"...oh darn, I just did. I promise not to do it again.