When the final buzzer sounded on UTEP's 30-21 win over FIU, the Miners showered head coach Scotty Walden in a Gatorade bath and carried him on their shoulders.
"I feel like we just won a national championship; I don't care what nobody says," Walden told the CBS Sports Network in a postgame interview.
UTEP improved its record to 1–6 on Wednesday night, but going 357 days without a win makes it difficult to care about the celebration police. Every Miner player lined up to sing the school's fight song; some even jumped into the student section, but none wanted to leave the Sun Bowl. They'd endured six long weeks to get to this moment.
The Walden era has mastered the bark off the field, but the FIU game was one of the first times it showed bite on the field.
The Orange Swarm defense, predicated on creating havoc, intercepted three different FIU quarterbacks and had eight tackles for loss. Meanwhile, the Blue Blaze offense, which couldn't find a spark for six games, scored 30 points and sustained drives. UTEP had a 10-play, 76-yard drive, which gave them a fourth-quarter lead they'd never squander. Nine of those play calls were handoffs where FIU's defensive line was too off balance to react becuase of the frenetic tempo.
But for Walden's tenure in El Paso, at a program which hasn't won a bowl game since 1967, the bark is part of the bite. Dave Campbell'sTexas Football wrote in UTEP's summer magazine preview that the final record this season wouldn't matter in the long run as much as the attitude displayed. UTEP could've shaken hands, exchanged a few laughs and jogged off the field. The celebration proved this UTEP team had stayed invested during a trying first half of the season, where they went over a month without even leading a game.
"I tell them every week, 'The number one thing I want as a head coach, I want to see them happy,'" Walden said. "These boys are going to be happy tonight. Our coaches are going to be happy tonight."
Some will say it was just a win over a 2–4 FIU team on a Wednesday night. But it was more important than that.
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