New Mexico Bowl: Fresno State vs UTEP 12/18/21 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The UTEP Miners and Fresno State Bulldogs square off Saturday afternoon in the college football New Mexico Bowl from Dreamstyle Stadium in Albuquerque.

The Fresno State Bulldogs come into this game with a record of 9-3 representing the Mountain West conference in this bowl matchup. Jake Haener threw for 3,467 yards, 28 touchdowns and 9 picks on 66.8% passing, but it’s worth noting that Haener will not play in this game after transferring to Washington, following head coach Kalen DeBoer. Ronnie Rivers and Jordan Mims has combined for 1,333 rushing yards and 9 TDs in the Fresno State backfield. Jalen Cropper has a team-high 827 receiving yards with a team-high 11 TDsand Josh Kelly has 768 receiving yards for Fresno State and Keric Wheatfall has 582 receiving yards and Zane Pope’s got 434 receiving yards as well this season. On defense, Evan Williams leads Fresno State with 87 total tackles along with 3 interceptions while Kevin Atkins and David Perales each have 7 sacks this season.

The UTEP Miners will look to finish strong after a 7-5 mark this season, repping C-USA in this bowl game. Gavin Hardison’s thrown for 2,966 yards, 17 touchdowns and 12 interceptions on 56% passing while Ronald Awatt has 803 rushing yards and 5 TDs and Deion Hankins has 425 rushing yards and 6 TDs this season. Jacob Cowing leads UTEP’s receivers with 67 grabs for 1,330 yards and 7 touchdowns and Justin Garrett has 669 receiving yards Tyrin Smith has 509 receiving yards this season. On defense, Breon Hayward leads the Miners with 97 total tackles while Jadrian Taylor has 6.5 sacks and Praise Amaewhule has 5.5 sacks this season. Dy’vonne Inyang also has a team-high 3 interceptions for the Miners this season.

Fresno State is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 bowl games while the over is 9-4 in their last 13 games following an ATS win. UTEP is 9-21 ATS in their last 30 non-conference games and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 bowl games while the over is 6-2 in their last 8 games against a team with a winning record.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Bulldogs handle things without their head coach and starting QB and I know Fresno State faithful isn’t happy about it. I can see why. UTEP isn’t a great team by any means, but they did win 7 games and are hungry for their first bowl win since the 60s. I think this is a hungry Miners team and the Bulldogs will just be down on themselves in this spot. Give me UTEP here.