The UTEP Miners and Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders do battle Saturday in a week 9 C-USA college football matchup from the Sun Bowl.
The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders will be out to snap a three-game losing skid, falling to 3-4 on the year after a 35-17 loss at the hands of Western Kentucky last time out. Chase Cunningham has thrown for 1,792 yards, 10 touchdowns and 5 interceptions on 65.9% passing while Frank Peasant has rushed for a team-high 362 yards and 6 TDs. Jaylin Lane leads Middle Tennessee with 509 receiving yards while Izaiah Gathings has 352 receiving yards along with a team-high 39 receptions and Yusuf Ali has 229 receiving yards as well this season. On defense, Teldick Ross has a team-high 51 total tackles including 35 solo tackles while Zaylin Wood has 4 sacks and Marley Cook has 3.5 sacks as part of Middle Tennessee’s 19 sacks as a group this season. The Blue Raiders also have 10 interceptions this season.
The UTEP Miners will hope to build on wins in 3 of their last 4 games after picking up a 24-21 win over FAU in their last game, improving to 4-3 on the year in the process. Gavin Hardison has thrown for 1,764 yards, 9 touchdowns and 7 interceptions on 52.1% passing while Ronald Awatt has a team-high 490 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns to lead the Miners on the ground and Deion Hankins has 479 rushing yards and a pair of scores as well. Tyrin Smith has a team-high 46 grabs for 686 receiving yards with 4 touchdowns while Reynaldo Flores has 39 grabs for 441 receiving yards. On defense, Tyrice Knight has a team-high 64 total tackles and Kobe Hylton has 63 total tackles with Knight logging 35 solo tackles while Kobe Hylton has a team-high 40 solo tackles this season. Jadrian Tarloy also has a team-high 7 sacks and Cal Wallerstedt and Bryton Thompson each have 3.5 sacks.
Middle Tennessee is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 conference games and 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games following an ATS loss while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. UTEP is 9-4 ATS in their last 13 games against a team with a losing record and 8-1 ATS in their last 9 games in October while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 games following an ATS win.
I get the case to be made either way in this game, but I’m looking at the over in this one. UTEP’s on a bit of a roll over the last month, but I’m not sure how much I trust it to be sustainable. Middle Tennessee on the other hand has a solid offense, but the defense hasn’t been very good and this doesn’t feel like a good spot for it to slow down even UTEP. I just think this ends up being a high-scoring track meet with very little defense, so give me the over in this one.