This edition of the Life of Fitz podcast features host Tim Fitzgerald calling his longtime friend Dana Dimel in El Paso, Texas. Fitz covered Dimel in the 1984 and '85 seasons when Dimel was an offensive lineman and Fitz was a student journalist. Dimel transitioned into coaching and Fitzgerald began covering Kansas State football on a full-time basis in 1995, overlapping for two seasons with Dimel serving as K-State's offensive coordinator. Then, at age 34, Dimel became the head coach at Wyoming in 1997, going 22-13 in three seasons before taking on the task of rebuilding the Houston program in 2000. Three seasons into that project, Dimel went 5-7 but a change of leadership led to his unexpected firing right as the program was building momentum. He eventually ended up on Mike Stoops’ staff at Arizona and returned to K-State when Bill Snyder came out of retirement in 2009, again as offensive coordinator. Then, in 2018, he took over the UTEP program head coach.

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Tim Fitzgerald is a sports journalist who writes, does TV, radio and is a long-time podcaster. He has served as publisher of GoPowercat.com, a website that focuses on Kansas State sports, for more than 20 years. Fitz also has stage 4 prostate cancer, so his doctors have advised him to stay home and lay low. Welcome to his life and the Life of Fitz podcast.

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