Rice Owls (3-7) vs. UTEP Miners (6-4)
November 20, 2021 4:00 pm EDT
The Line: UTEP Miners -10 ; Over/Under: 47
(Get latest betting odds)
The UTEP Miners and Rice Owls clash Saturday night in week 12 Conference USA college football action from the Sun Bowl. Rice is fresh off a game versus Western Kentucky this past Saturday. In that one the Owls lost by three touchdowns. As for the Miners, they matched up against North Texas in their last game. UTEP would end up losing by just three points there. Check back all season long for free college football picks at Sports Chat Place.
Rice skidded to an 0-3 start this year, then managed a couple of wins against Texas Southern and Southern Miss in games four and five. The Owls hit a 1-3 skid after that, beating UAB while otherwise falling to UTSA, North Texas and Charlotte in that span.
In last weekend’s matchup versus Western Kentucky, the Owls went into the break down 28-0 and it didn’t get much better in a 42-21 loss. QB Jake Constantine finished with 380 yards, one TD and four picks. Ari Broussard led the rush with 60 yards from 15 carries.
Over on the Miners’ side, they went 4-0 in their first quartet with wins over Stephen F. Austin, Abilene Christian, UTEP and Bethune-Cookman. UTEP went 4-3 in their next seven, taking out New Mexico, Old Dominion, Southern Miss and LA Tech with losses to Boise State, FAU and UTSA.
In the North Texas game, UTEP had a 7-3 edge going into halftime but was outscored 17-10 from there in a 20-17 defeat. QB Gavin Hardison put up 273 yards with one TD and a pick, and Ronald Awatt had 85 yards and a TD on 17 carries to lead the rush.
The Owls are 2-5 ATS in their last seven after an ATS loss and 2-8 ATS in their last 10 overall. Rice is 1-4 ATS in their last five conference games.
Meanwhile, the Miners are 4-1 ATS in their last five on turf and 5-2 ATS in the last seven overall. UTEP is 2-13-1 ATS in their last 16 in November.
PICK: I’m going to stick with UTEP. The Miners need to bounce back on offense, though. UTEP had 382 yards with 6.2 yards per play in their loss to North Texas. That said, the Miners had only 14 first downs and went a sketchy 5-of-16 on third-down tries. The game should have been a win.
As for Rice, the good news is that they put up 503 yards in the Western Kentucky loss, along with 26 first downs and 6.0 yards per play. The bad news is that the Owls committed eight penalties and gave away five turnovers. I don’t see them recovering well enough to cover in this one.
