UTEP Miners (6-1) vs. FAU Owls (4-3)
October 30, 2021 6:00 pm EDT
The Line: FAU Owls -11.5 / UTEP Miners +11.5; Over/Under: -48.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The FAU Owls meet the UTEP Miners Saturday in C-USA Week 9 college football action from FAU Stadium on Saturday night.
The UTEP Miners come into this game looking to build off of their 4th straight win in the form of a 19-3 win over Louisiana Tech in their last game. Gavin Hardison’s thrown for 1,549 yards, 8 touchdowns and 7 interceptions on 5.6% passing while Ronald Awatt has 469 rushing yards and Deion Hankins has 251 rushing yards and 5 TDs this season. Jacob Cowing leads UTEP’s receivers with 35 grabs for 775 yards and 4 touchdowns and Justin Garrett has 338 receiving yards while two other Miners have at least 100 receiving yards this season. On defense, Breon Hayward leads the Miners with 47 total tackles while Jadrian Taylor has 6.5 sacks and Praise Amaewhule has 4.5 sacks this season. Dennis Barnes and Dy’vonne Irving each have a pair of interceptions as well this season.
The FAU Owls will look to build off of their 38-9 win over Charlotte in their last matchup. N’Kosi Perry has thrown for 1,696 yards, 14 touchdowns and 4 interceptions on 61.7% passing while Johnny Ford leads the Owls in rushing with 403 rushing yards and Malcolm Davidson has 240 rushing yards as well this season. The Owls have another four rushers with at least 100 rushing yards this season. LaJohntay Wester and JaQuan Burton make up the pair of 300+ yard receivers for the Owls to lead FAU in receiving while Brandon Robinson has 278 receiving yards and the Owls have another four pass-catchers with at least 100 receiving yards this season. On defense, Caliph Brice leads the Owls with 53 total tackles while Jaylen Joiner has a team-high 3 sacks and three Owls have a pair of interceptions this season.
UTEP is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall and 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games as an underdog while the under is 18-7-1 in their last 26 games following a win. FAU is 3-0-1 ATS in their last 4 games as a favorite and 0-4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a win while the under is 8-0 in their last 8 games against a team with a winning record.
It’s not often that you see a team giving up double-digits on the road that’s 6-1 on the year, but I think that’s just telling us the kind of schedule that UTEP’s played. It’s not the Miners’ fault, but they just haven’t had a tough test. FAU has battled the likes of Florida and USF, and have been rock solid in C-USA play so far this season. A 14-point win for FAU wouldn’t surprise me at all here so I’ll lay it and play it with FAU here.
