EL PASO, Texas (AP) UTEP football coach Sean Kugler resigned Sunday after an 0-5 start.
Kugler stepped down a day after the Miners’ 35-21 loss at Army, and meeting with outgoing UTEP athletic director and former coach Bob Stull.
This was Kugler’s fifth season at his alma mater. He leaves with an 18-36 record, 11-22 in Conference USA games. His best season was 2014, when the Miners were 7-6 and played in the New Mexico Bowl.
Kugler was an offensive lineman at UTEP, and his last three seasons (1986-88) were when Stull was the Miners coach.
”We mutually agreed the best thing is for me to step down as the head coach,” Kugler said about his meeting with Stull. ”My love for UTEP is in my heart forever, and my love for all the players that I have coached here is even stronger.”
UTEP officials didn’t immediately name an interim coach, and said plans for the program would be announced Monday.
The 71-year-old Stull’s contract as AD expired Aug. 31. He had announced his intention to retire then from the role he has held since 1998, but said agreed to stay in the job until his successor was chosen.
”Sean will always be a Miner and we wish him the best in his coaching future,” Stull said in a statement.
After serving as graduate assistant at UTEP in 1993, and then as an assistant from 1994-2000, he spent 11 of the next 12 seasons as assistant coach in the NFL. He was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive line coach from 2010-12 before replacing Mike Price as UTEP’s coach.
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