Dana Dimel fired after six seasons as UTEP head football coach

Dana Dimel has been fired after six seasons as the head football coach at UTEP, the school announced on Sunday. Dimel went 20-49 overall with the Miners and finished below .500 in five of six campaigns.

“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,” AD Jim Senter said in a statement. “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.”

Dimel was hired in 2018 after spending the previous nine seasons at Kansas State, his alma mater. He took the Miners to the New Mexico Bowl in 2021 after winning 7 games in the regular season, but never finished higher than 4th in the CUSA West.

credit to AP Photo/Andres Leighton for the image