Monday, September 12, 2011

UTEP is beatable for Aggies

The UTEP Miners are a beatable football team this weekend for the Aggies — NMSU is 2 1/2-point favorites going into the game.

Here's some reasons why UTEP is beatable.

• The team is dealing with injury issues. Freshman quarterback Jay Hall is starting in place of Nick Lamaison who separated his shoulder last weekend at SMU. Starting defensive lineman Germard Reed will also miss the game with a neck injury as will long snapper Matt Camille who also has a hurt shoulder.

• The Miners offensive line hasn't played very well this year.

• UTEP hasn't had a running game so far this year. The Miners ran the ball 26 times for 30 yards last week in a close game against SMU — a 28-17 loss. UTEP couldn't establish the run despite being down just 21-17 in the second half.

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The Miners defense played good in the second half against SMU. The Miners didn't give up a defensive touchdown in the second half — SMU recovered a fumble in the endzone late in the fourth quarter.

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I wrote on column on this weekend's game that appeared in Tuesday's Sun-News. Click here to read it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

First, I can't recall the last time the Aggies were favored by the odds makers.

Second, I think this is an incredibly important game for the Aggies. Like Teddy mentioned, they can't afford to fall flat after a big win. If they want to energize the fan base for at least one more week. They have to win.

Its been a great week here in Albuquerque. The local stations have been giving the Aggies love up here. Meanwhile the Loobs have been taking a beating. I couldn't be happier.

Go Aggies!!

Mas

Anonymous said...

Working in El Paso and a lot of people think NMSU is going to beat utep.

Heres where it gets dangerous. Utep believes this is their best chance to get a "W" and will be up for this game.

Has NMSU put the Minnesota win in the back seat and started focusing on utep?
Learn from the 1999 teams mistakes. Don't let history repeat itself!

Jefe

Anonymous said...

Keep the mistakes to a minimum and the Miner running game (running backs and QB) bottled up, and the Aggies have a great shot at winning.

There is no reason why the Aggies can't win this game and the next three on the schedule.