Dana Dimel is no longer the UTEP Head Football Coach

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- With one year remaining on his contract, Dana Dimel has been let go as the head coach of UTEP Football, sources close to the program confirmed to ABC-7 and UTEP later officially announced.

In a statement released by UTEP Athletic Director Jim Senter he said, “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. 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.” 

The news was first reported by Adam Rittenberg of ESPN, the move comes a day after the Miners fell 42-28 to No. 22 Liberty in the final regular season game.

UTEP finished 2023 with a 3-9 overall record which marks Dimel's fifth losing season in his six years at the helm of the program. Dimel has an overall record of 20-49 at UTEP.

Dimel took over the program in 2018 and had to rebuild it from the ground up after the Miners went 0-12 the season before. In his first two years he grabbed just the two wins out of 22 games but by 2021 he led the program to its first bowl game since 2014 and just the 15th in program history.

After that Dimel received a pay bump and a two year contract extension. That contract isn't set to expire until January of 2025 which means UTEP will now have to pay Dimel a buyout of $667,292.

ABC-7 reached out to Dimel for comment and has not heard back.

A national search will now begin for UTEP's 27th head football coach.