By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

EL PASO, Texas — In the end, it wasn't close between the University of Hawai'i and Texas-El Paso football teams Saturday night.

Not on the scoreboard — or on the sidelines and coaches' booths, either.

As lopsided as the game eventually became in a 31-6 UH win, so, too, was the coaching.

The schemes the UH coaches drew up — some of them on the fly — put the Warriors in the better position to win.

Witness the adjustments UH defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa made in stacking a nine-man line to bring the Miners' running game to a halt and allow the Warriors to pick clean the passing game. Or what June Jones did in juggling quarterbacks and giving the green light to the fake punt and working the officials.

Of course, it is the athletes who play the games, not the coaches. It is the players who ultimately must make the plays no matter how well diagrammed they might be.

But if you're looking for a game that demonstrates the importance of coaching and the premium placed on experience and expertise, this was it.

On one sideline you had UTEP, which is the WAC's least experienced coaching staff. On the other, you have UH, which is the conference's most experienced.

Who would you have bet on in this confrontation: Lempa, who has nearly a decade as a defensive coordinator on the D-I level plus three years in the NFL, or UTEP offensive coordinator Patrick Higgins, who has three years at D-I?

Who is your pick between Jones calling the offensive plays and UTEP first-year defensive coordinator Troy Reffett trying to stop them?

Talk about a tale of two coaching staffs: UTEP has three coaches in their first Division I-A jobs. UH has that many coaches who have NFL credentials.

The UH staff's average age is 45 compared to UTEP's 34. UH coaches have an average of 14 years in coaching college or above, nearly twice that of UTEP's staff. Half of UTEP's staff is 35 or under. UH has one.

The Miners have lost five assistants to higher paying jobs in the past two years. UH has lost one — Greg McMackin — and he became the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the country.

Last year only two of nine assistants at UTEP made more than $46,000, according to the El Paso Times. At UH all but one of nine assistants is believed to have made more — and he reportedly has a raise.

The Miners pay their 10-man coaching staff — head coach Gary Nord and nine assistants — a reported $577,000 a year plus bonuses and benefits. UH, meanwhile, is believed to be up at about $900,000. Though by Division I-A standards even UH is below average since more than 20 schools pay their head coaches alone at least $1 million.

In the end Saturday night, UH got what it paid for.

And, you'd have to say, so did UTEP.