UTEP parts ways with Dana Dimel after six seasons
EL PASO, Texas ( KTSM ) – Following a 2023 season that began with high expectations and ended with a whimper at 3-9, UTEP parted ways with head football coach Dana Dimel on Sunday, sources confirmed to KTSM. ESPN first reported the news and the university officially confirmed it a short time later.
Dimel’s firing was done with one year remaining on his contract; he signed a two-year contract extension after the 2021 season. UTEP will owe Dimel a buyout payment of $667,292 in exchange for cutting him loose a season early.
“We would like to thank Dana for the dedication and hard work that he has put in over the last six years, and we wish him the best in the future,” UTEP Director of Athletics Jim Senter said. “Under his leadership, our football program has shown improvement in all the academic metrics, and we have had minimal off-the-field issues. When he was hired, UTEP Football was coming off a winless season, and he built a more competitive team. However, we have not seen the kind of improvement necessary to compete for and win championships. We determined that a change in leadership was needed for the program to move forward.”
A team meeting for UTEP’s players has been scheduled for Monday morning, sources said.
Sources told KTSM this week that there was extensive pressure on Senter, internally, externally and from UTEP boosters to make the move with one year left on Dimel’s deal.
The decision comes after Dimel spent six seasons with the Miners, trying to rebuild a program that went 0-12 in 2017, the season before he was hired. In his six seasons at UTEP, the Miners went 20-49 under Dimel.
Dimel rebuilt the Miners program from scratch and after back-to-back 1-11 seasons in 2018 and 2019, UTEP showed improvement in 2020, going 3-5 during the COVID-19 season.
The 2021 campaign was UTEP’s best season under the former Kansas State offensive coordinator. The Miners opened the season 6-1, eventually finishing 7-6 with a close loss to Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl.
Expectations for the program were very high following the 2021 season, but UTEP’s inability to live up to them in 2022 and 2023 is what ultimately doomed Dimel.
The Miners went 5-7 in 2022, narrowly missing out on a trip to a bowl game for a second consecutive season. 2023 was thought to be Dimel’s best team at UTEP, given the amount of talent and experience Dimel’s coaching staff had stockpiled and there were hopes of a potential run at a Conference USA championship.
Instead, the Miners fell flat – due in part to a slough of injuries to key players – and finished the season 3-9. Questions about Dimel’s future began swirling after a 1-5 start to the season.
Questions swirled about Dimel’s job status for weeks. Multiple sources told KTSM this week that it was, “likely” that Dimel would be let go at the conclusion of the 2023 season. However, after the loss to Liberty, Dimel told KTSM that he expected to return to UTEP in 2024, the final year of his contract.
“Sure, yes, absolutely,” Dimel said when asked by KTSM on Saturday if he expected to return next season. “I think there’s a lot of things that we’ve been able to do and bring this program (back). One bad year like this after we played our last three for chances to go to bowl games, this year was out of my control. An honest assessment of what we were able to accomplish this year, I can’t do anything about the type of injuries that we can get but I can do something about us being competitive and playing hard and having our players that are healthy step up and do some neat things. We’ve been able to recruit really well, so we get out and recruit well and get the guys back that got hurt and the guys that redshirt and we’ve got all of our offensive production back and only lost nine seniors so we’ve got a team that I think could be a really good football team next year.”
A national search for UTEP’s next head football coach is expected to begin immediately. Early National Signing Day is slated for Dec. 20, so whoever UTEP hires will need to move quickly in recruiting to convince current Miners to stick around and recruit new players to the program. The transfer portal will open next Monday, Dec. 4.
