With bowl eligibility on the line, UTEP returns to the Sun Bowl for the third time this season, with aspirations to win their first game of the season.
Week eight welcomed the Florida International University Panthers, a team the Miners beat last year on an ESPN Wednesday Night Primetime off the back of then sophomore Cade McConnell.
But this year, McConnell is stuck on the sidelines rehabbing a wrist injury. If UTEP wanted to reignite last year’s weeknight magic, they’d need it to be cast from sophomore Skylar Locklear, who was recently demoted to second string after starting the Miners’ first four games
The night started off all too familiar to UTEP fans as a blocked punt against the Miners would set up Panthers’ sophomore quarterback Keyone Jenkins’s 16 yard-pass to junior Dean Patterson, who would find the endzone to give FIU a 7-0 lead early in the first.