Dana Dimel
Dana Dimel went 50–88 as a head coach, 1997–2023, at Wyoming, Houston and UTEP. Share
- Record
- 50–88 career
- Seasons
- 12
- Schools
- 3
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Oct 9, 1962
- Alma mater
- Kansas State 1986
- Best season
- 1998 8–3
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Wyoming | 7–6 | T–4th | |||
| 1998 | Wyoming | 8–3 | 2nd | |||
| 1999 | Wyoming | 7–4 | 4th | |||
| 2000 | Houston | 3–8 | T–7th | |||
| 2001 | Houston | 0–11 | 10th | |||
| 2002 | Houston | 5–7 | 8th | |||
| 2003–17: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2018 | UTEP | 1–11 | T–6th | |||
| 2019 | UTEP | 1–11 | 7th | |||
| 2020 | UTEP | 3–5 | 7th (West) | |||
| 2021 | UTEP | 7–6 | 4th (West) | New Mexico Bowl L | ||
| 2022 | UTEP | 5–7 | T–7th | |||
| 2023 | UTEP | 3–9 | T–6th | |||
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
Players he coached
Brian LeeConsensus All‑American, 1997
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 15 | 2–13 | 13% |
| Against top-10 teams | 4 | 0–4 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 15 | 7–8 | 47% |
| Conference games | 89 | 29–60 | 33% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 46 | 21–25 | 46% |
| At home | 67 | 32–35 | 48% |
| On the road | 70 | 18–52 | 26% |
| At neutral sites | 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 54 | 36–18 | 67% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 84 | 14–70 | 17% |
His own 138 games on file, 1997–2023, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seth Littrell 2018–2022 | 0–5 | North Texas | 5 | |
| Ken Hatfield 1998–2002 | 2–2 | Rice | 4 | |
| Mike Bloomgren 2018–2022 | 2–2 | Rice | 4 | |
| Skip Holtz 2018–2021 | 1–3 | Louisiana Tech | 4 | |
| Mike Cavan 1997–2000 | 2–1 | SMU | 3 | |
| Todd Berry 2000–2002 | 2–1 | Army | 3 | |
| Fisher DeBerry 1997–1999 | 1–2 | Air Force | 3 | |
| Sonny Lubick 1997–1999 | 1–2 | Colorado State | 3 | |
| John Smith 2000–2002 | 1–2 | Louisville | 3 | |
| Doug Martin 2018–2021 | 1–2 | New Mexico State | 3 |
Dana Dimel’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Riceseries | 8 | 4–4 |
| Louisiana Techseries | 7 | 2–5 |
| New Mexico Stateseries | 5 | 2–3 |
| UNLVseries | 5 | 2–3 |
| Southern Missseries | 5 | 1–4 |
| UABseries | 5 | 0–5 |
| North Texasseries | 5 | 0–5 |
| UTSAseries | 5 | 0–5 |
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987–88 | Kansas State | Graduate assistant | |
| 1989–92 | Kansas State | Offensive line coach | |
| 1993–94 | Kansas State | Running game coordinator and offensive line coach | |
| 1995–96 | Kansas State | Offensive coordinator | |
| 1997–99 | Wyoming | Head coach | |
| 2000–02 | Houston | Head coach | |
| 2005 | Kansas State | Graduate assistant | |
| 2006–07 | Arizona | Tight ends coach | |
| 2008 | Arizona | Tight ends and running backs coach | |
| 2009–17 | Kansas State | Offensive coordinator and running backs and tight ends coach | |
| 2018–23 | UTEP | Head coach | |
| 2024 | Illinois | Senior offensive assistant |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Stan ParrishKansas State
- Bill SnyderKansas State
- Mike StoopsArizona
- Bret BielemaIllinois
Assistants who became head coaches
- Mark StoopsKentucky
- Todd WhittenTarleton State, Sam Houston
- Vic KoenningWyoming, Illinois
- Manny MatsakisEmporia State, Texas State, Bethany (KS), Defiance College
- Bradley Dale PevetoNorthwestern State
- Keith BurnsTulsa
- Mike CanalesNorth Texas
Worked under (4)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stan Parrish | Kansas State | 1987–88 | Graduate assistant | |
| Bill Snyder | Kansas State | 1989–2017 | 1989–92: offensive line coach; 1993–94: running game coordinator and offensive line coach; 1995–96: offensive coordinator; 2005: graduate assistant; 2009–17: offensive coordinator and running backs and tight ends coach | |
| Mike Stoops | Arizona | 2006–08 | 2006–07: tight ends coach; 2008: tight ends and running backs coach | |
| Bret Bielema | Illinois | 2024 | Senior offensive assistant |
Coached under him, later head coaches (7)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Stoops | Wyoming, 1997–99: defensive backs coach; Houston, 2000: co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach | Kentucky | |
| Todd Whitten | Wyoming, 1997: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Tarleton State, Sam Houston | |
| Vic Koenning | Wyoming, 1997–99: defensive coordinator | Wyoming, Illinois | |
| Manny Matsakis | Wyoming, 1999: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Emporia State, Texas State, Bethany (KS), Defiance College | |
| Bradley Dale Peveto | Houston, 2000: assistant head coach and defensive backs coach; 2001–02: co-defensive coordinator; UTEP, 2021–23: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | Northwestern State | |
| Keith Burns | UTEP, 2018–19: defensive backs coach | Tulsa | |
| Mike Canales | UTEP, 2018–20: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | North Texas |
Other assistants under him (7)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Clancy Barone | Wyoming, 1997: offensive line coach; 1998–99: offensive line coach and running game coordinator; Houston, 2000: offensive line coach; 2001–02: offensive coordinator and offensive line coach | |
| Dave Warner | Wyoming, 1998: co-offensive coordinator; Houston, 2001–02: co-offensive coordinator; UTEP, 2021–22: offensive coordinator | |
| D. J. Eliot | Wyoming, 1999: graduate assistant; Houston, 2000–01: graduate assistant | |
| Dick Bumpas | Houston, 2000–02: co-defensive coordinator | |
| Phil Davis | Houston, 2000: offensive coordinator | |
| Mike Cox | UTEP, 2018–20: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Scotty Ohara | UTEP, 2023: offensive coordinator |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Kansas State | offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $170,400 | $472,600 USA Today | |
| 2016 | Kansas State | co-offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $170,400 | $474,200 USA Today | |
| 2015 | Kansas State | co-offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $157,600 | $433,325 USA Today | |
| 2014 | Kansas State | co-offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $148,000 | $403,325 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Dimel’s teams went for it on 24% of fourth downs and on 45% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 48% of plays and took 28.2 seconds a play, 2018–2023.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 12 g | 15 of 100 15% | 28% | 48% | 27.8 | −0.13 | |
| 2019 12 g | 25 of 101 25% | 50% | 48% | 29.2 | 0.00 | |
| 2020 8 g | 13 of 54 24% | 52% | 47% | 28.6 | −0.01 | |
| 2021 13 g | 20 of 104 19% | 40% | 46% | 28.4 | +0.11 | |
| 2022 12 g | 29 of 100 29% | 50% | 50% | 27.3 | 0.00 | |
| 2023 12 g | 33 of 99 33% | 52% | 47% | 28.0 | +0.02 | |
| All 69 g | 135 of 558 24% | 45% | 48% | 28.2 | 0.00 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.