If there was a turning point in the UTEP football team's 2021 season, when coach Dana Dimel's four-year tenure where fortunes looked to be balanced on a knife's edge, it was Sept. 25 against New Mexico.
The Miners came into their fourth game with a 2-1 record, some rare high water for a program that went 2-34 from 2017-19, but by halftime against the Lobos they were in a 13-3 hole and groping for answers.
This was a moment the season could have gone either way, where in past years it would have fallen off a cliff.