![MARK LAMBIE-EL PASO TIMES UTEP head coach Sean Kugler gets his team pumped up for Monday's practice at Camp Ruidoso. [Via MerlinFTP Drop]](https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/xxx__utep_fbc_6109_75065524.jpg?w=1000&h=600&crop=1)
Holding fall camp away from El Paso has certain advantages for UTEP’s
football team, with no bigger plus than the cool, 75-degree temperatures
found as a result of this sleepy resort town’s high altitude. Oh, but
there are negatives.
Take curfew, for example: UTEP players must be in bed at 11 p.m. or face drastic consequences — ranging from immediate expulsion back to campus if they’re lucky, and if they’re not, an early-morning date with strength and conditioning coach Kirk Davis. Only the latter could make the former seem appealing.
Davis is tasked with nightly bed checks, a door-to-door stroll through the three floors and 53 rooms of The Lodge at Sierra Blanca containing members of UTEP’s 2015 roster. In traditional strength-coach fashion, Davis doesn’t start his routine at 11 on the nose; it’s more like 10:58, maybe 10:59, to be precise.
Rest assured that there are three people no college football player wants to disappoint, in no particular order: his mother, his head coach and his strength and conditioning coach.
“Nobody’s crazy,” sophomore wide receiver Tyler Batson said.
Rules are made to be broken everywhere but here, where the Miners have rapidly adapted to a familiar routine. Practice, lunch, meetings, lifting; practice, round two, followed by dinner; video games, laughs; then, at 9:30, downstairs for some snacks, and then off to their rooms.
“It’s about becoming a team, a family,” said junior wide receiver Jaquan White. “There’s no one out here but us.”
Only one player has broken curfew since Sean Kugler was hired as UTEP’s head coach prior to the 2013 season, but the player in question — he preferred to remain anonymous — had a valid excuse: A teammate had rolled his ankle at that day’s practice, so the curfew-breaker had gone to his room to, well, pray for a speedy recovery. He was back in his room at 11:20, with Davis waiting, but avoided any penalty.
The good news: UTEP players aren’t missing anything. The bright lights of Ruidoso are of a lower wattage, to put it lightly, and trust me when I say that the one establishment proudly billing itself as the top bar in town “five years running” has defended its crown largely due to a disappointing lack of competition.
Take curfew, for example: UTEP players must be in bed at 11 p.m. or face drastic consequences — ranging from immediate expulsion back to campus if they’re lucky, and if they’re not, an early-morning date with strength and conditioning coach Kirk Davis. Only the latter could make the former seem appealing.
Davis is tasked with nightly bed checks, a door-to-door stroll through the three floors and 53 rooms of The Lodge at Sierra Blanca containing members of UTEP’s 2015 roster. In traditional strength-coach fashion, Davis doesn’t start his routine at 11 on the nose; it’s more like 10:58, maybe 10:59, to be precise.
Rest assured that there are three people no college football player wants to disappoint, in no particular order: his mother, his head coach and his strength and conditioning coach.
“Nobody’s crazy,” sophomore wide receiver Tyler Batson said.
Rules are made to be broken everywhere but here, where the Miners have rapidly adapted to a familiar routine. Practice, lunch, meetings, lifting; practice, round two, followed by dinner; video games, laughs; then, at 9:30, downstairs for some snacks, and then off to their rooms.
“It’s about becoming a team, a family,” said junior wide receiver Jaquan White. “There’s no one out here but us.”
Only one player has broken curfew since Sean Kugler was hired as UTEP’s head coach prior to the 2013 season, but the player in question — he preferred to remain anonymous — had a valid excuse: A teammate had rolled his ankle at that day’s practice, so the curfew-breaker had gone to his room to, well, pray for a speedy recovery. He was back in his room at 11:20, with Davis waiting, but avoided any penalty.
The good news: UTEP players aren’t missing anything. The bright lights of Ruidoso are of a lower wattage, to put it lightly, and trust me when I say that the one establishment proudly billing itself as the top bar in town “five years running” has defended its crown largely due to a disappointing lack of competition.
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