UTEP introduces Sean Kugler as new head coach

By John TaylorDec 10, 2012, 4:54 PM EDT

Exactly three weeks after Mike Price decided to retire from the coaching game, UTEP has found a replacement.

At a press conference Monday, UTEP introduced Sean Kugler as the Miners new head football coach. Kugler heads to El Paso after coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line the past three seasons.

“We’re so pleased to get Sean back at UTEP,” athletics director Bob Stull said. “I’ve known him since he was a player here, including as a member of our 10-win team in 1988. He has gone on to become a terrific coach, from working with our WAC championship squad in 2000 to being a part of the Boise State team that was undefeated in 2006 and coaching in the Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He brings a lot of enthusiasm and experience and, most importantly, has a great love for UTEP and the city of El Paso.”

Kugler has spent 11 of the past 12 seasons at the NFL level, with stops in Detroit and Buffalo along the way. He last coached at the collegiate level at Boise State in 2006.

Kugler’s hiring also marks a homecoming as the 46-year-old spent four seasons at the school as a player and eight seasons as an assistant (1993-2000), beginning as a grad assistant before moving on to tight ends and ultimately the line.

“I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to be the next head coach at UTEP,” Kugler said. “I’m very grateful to Dr. Natalicio and coach Stull. I’m hoping to build on the tremendous job that was done by coach [Mike] Price and his staff. I have been the Miners’ biggest supporter from afar, and the job coach Price and his staff did was outstanding. I can’t wait to work with the players in the near future. I spent 13 years as a player and coach at UTEP and loved every minute of it. I’m excited about starting a new chapter in my coaching career at a place that has so many fond memories.”

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By John TaylorApr 25, 2018, 10:44 AM EDT

Nebraska AD: Urban Meyer, Jim Harbaugh ‘running a little bit scared right now’

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By John TaylorApr 25, 2018, 8:48 AM EDT

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This is just the cutest, bless his heart.

As evidenced by the record-breaking spring game earlier this month, there’s an air of excitement once again surrounding the Nebraska football program, thanks in very large part to the return of Scott Frost as the head coach. Riding that wave of optimism, new NU athletic director Bill Moos was a speaker at an Omaha Press Club luncheon Tuesday and, well, let’s just say that he may have initially been planning on dipping his toes into the feel-good spring pool but instead ended up doing a cannonball into the thing.

From the Omaha World-Herald:

We’re gonna run that uptempo offense we saw (at the spring game), and we’re gonna get the Blackshirts back to being Blackshirts. And that’s extremely important,” Moos said. “You’ve got Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh thinking, ‘We better put a little more into that Nebraska game coming up.’ And that’s the way we want it. They’re running a little bit scared right now. And they won’t admit it. We’ll leave that at that.

Nebraska will face both Michigan and Ohio State this season, with each of those serving as road games for the Cornhuskers. Given the heat that seems to be growing under the highly-paid Harbaugh’s seat — finishes of third, third and fourth in the Big Ten East in three seasons in Ann Arbor — mentioning the U-M coach might be apropos. But Meyer? In his six seasons in Columbus, Meyer’s Buckeyes have lost three games combined in conference play; in three meetings under Meyer, OSU has woodshedded NU by a combined score of 181-55.

Perhaps, instead of the Big Dog of the conference, Moos should focus these early public comments on Paul Chryst, whose Wisconsin Badgers are the class of Nebraska’s division — Big Ten West champs three of the last four years — and have beaten the Cornhuskers in five straight meetings (three under Chryst) dating back to the 2012 Big Ten championship game. Or even Kirk Ferentz, whose Iowa Hawkeyes have won three in a row in the rivalry, and by a collective 96-24 score the past two seasons.

Maybe start by finishing higher than fifth in your own division, where you were a season ago, and then work your way up? Just a thought.

As the kerfuffle over Moos’ comments began to gain traction, the athletic director told the Associated Press in a text message that his words were “[a] bit tongue in cheek.”

“Meant to point out that the competition is aware that there’s a renewed energy at Nebraska and we aim to get back in the hunt,” Moos added in an apparent attempt to cram the toothpaste back into the tube.

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