EL PASO, TX (KFOX14/CBS4) — DeLane Fitzgerald, head football coach at Southern Utah University, made dramatic claims about UTEP and the border area on the Thunderbirds Coaches Podcast.

On the podcast, Fitzgerald said that despite the new changes, the UTEP football program should not be called a “rebuild.”

“You have to call them a rebuild, it’s a rebuild. ‘Re’, what? ‘Re’ means they were good once. Someone has to tell me what year that was.”

The Thunderbird coach also talked about UTEP’s fan base.

“You will have 20,000 to 25,000 people in a 52,000 seat stadium. We will cope with the crowd,”

Fitzgerald also spoke about El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.

“I’ve heard it’s a phenomenal place, a ‘vacation destination’. Maybe we’ll lay on the deck chairs Friday night and look at Juarez. I’ve heard it’s a beautiful city too,”

The Thunderbirds and Miners face each other tonight at 7:00 p.m. in the Miners’ first home game.

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