Former UTEP football head coach Dana Dimel lands job at Illinois

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — After being fired by UTEP at the end of the 2023 college football season, former UTEP head coach Dana Dimel is onto the next chapter of his coaching career.

Dimel is joining the Illinois football program as a senior offensive assistant. Illinois made the announcement on Monday.

Dimel heads to Illinois after he spent the last six years of his career as the head coach at UTEP.

In his first two years at UTEP, winning was something Dimel and the program experienced twice as UTEP went 1-11 in back-to-back seasons.

After a 3-5 season in 2020, Dimel turned the program around as he led UTEP to a 7-6 season and an appearance in the New Mexico Bowl, the program’s first bowl game appearance since 2014. UTEP went onto lose to Fresno State, 31-24, in the New Mexico Bowl. UTEP’s 56-year bowl game win drought.

UTEP’s bid for back-to-back bowl game appearances was denied by UTSA in the final game of the 2021 season. With a 5-6 record and needing one more win to reach bowl eligibilty, UTEP blew a 24-0 lead and suffered a 34-31 loss to UTSA, that year’s CUSA football champions.

In 2023, injuries riddled Dimel’s squad for that year and led the Miners to a 3-9 campaign. It was his fifth losing season in six years at UTEP and that led to his firing.

Now, Dimel will tackle the next chapter of his coaching career. Dimel is part of Bret Bielema’s coaching staff that is looking to lead Illinois to a back bounce type of season after it finished 5-7 in 2023.

“We are so excited to bring Dana, and his long history of experiences throughout his career, to Illinois,” Bielema said. “He will be a great voice and another experienced coach on our staff.”

“My family and I are very much looking forward to joining Coach Bielema,” Dimel said. “He is an outstanding football coach and leader and I have always admired how his teams play the game. We can’t wait to start working with the talented staff to help the program and players reach high levels of success.”

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