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The UTEP Miners (4-5) will face off against the Rice Owls (4-4) in a Conference USA matchup on Thursday. Both teams are on a short week, given they played last Saturday. The Miners' offense ran out of gas in Week Nine, failing to find the endzone in the second half during a 24-13 loss to Middle Tennessee. The UTEP defense was picked apart by MTSU QB Chase Cunningham, allowing the senior to complete 77% of his passes for 265 yards and three scores. After being deadlocked at ten at the break, the Miners couldn't put anything together on offense before settling for a Gavin Baechle field goal with a little over seven minutes remaining in the fourth. One play later, Cunningham threw a 75-yard strike to WR Jaylin Lane to put the game out of reach.
The Owls also took the L in Week Nine, getting their doors blown off by lowly Charlotte 56-23. It seemed that Rice was open to the idea of the 49ers busting off big chunk plays, given that Charlotte QB Chris Reynolds threw for 254 yards and five tuddies on only 19 pass attempts. The 49ers totaled a ridiculous 514 yards on only 27 minutes of possession. Outside of WR Bradley Rozner, who had five catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns, the Owls were largely inefficient on offense despite scoring 23 points.
UTEP Miners vs. Rice Owls Betting Odds
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Tale of the Tape
Mike Bloomgren is in his fifth year at Rice University, and at 4-4, he is one win away from guaranteeing the Owls their best record since 2015. After playing musical chairs with the quarterback position last year, Bloomgren finally settled on TJ McMahon to run the show solo in 2022. McMahon's 16 touchdowns already equal the team's total from last year, but his 11 interceptions rank second in the country. Instead, the Owls are better off leaning on a ground game that features Cameron Montgomery and Nebraska transfer Luke McCaffrey. McCaffrey, the younger brother of San Francisco 49ers standout Christian McCaffrey, has 47 receptions for 613 yards and six scores to go along with 117 rushing yards in eight games this season.
As far as C-USA teams go, the Owls' defense is relatively intermediate compared to their counterparts. They allow the third-lowest yard total in the conference, 370 yards per game, but get gashed for over six yards per play. The numbers are most likely inflated from the Owls' dubious performance against the Charlotte 49ers last Saturday.
At 4-5, UTEP must finish the season with two more wins to qualify for a bowl game in back-to-back seasons for the fourth time since 1935. The offense has had trouble reeling off big plays this season, ranking ninth in the conference in yards per game and yards per play. However, a bright spot for the Miners this year has been WR Tyrin Smith. The redshirt sophomore is ninth in the country with 803 receiving yards despite UTEP throwing for under 230 passing yards per game. The ground attack has also struggled to execute big splash plays, posting a yards per attempt under four.
The defensive metrics slightly favor UTEP and its ability to play opposing quarterbacks. The Miners keep competing signal callers to a 57% pass completion with just over 200 yards per game. They rank in the top half of the C-USA in all defensive team metrics except turnovers per game.
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UTEP Miners vs. Rice Owls Prediction
In a game between two middling teams, the stars should play a vital role in deciding the winner. Rice not only has a better quarterback, but has a more well-rounded running game and the little brother of "CMC". The Owls' biggest bug-a-boo is their secondary, but luckily for them, they go against a UTEP passing attack that is held up by one receiver. Shutdown Tyrin Smith and in turn shut down the Miners.
Prediction: Rice -3.5 (-105)
