The Miners fought gamely for almost three quarters with an erratic passing game that was compounded by an injury to senior starting quarterback Brandon Jones. Up to this point they had overcome three interceptions, including one by Jones.
“We’ve made huge strides as a football team,” coach Dana Dimel said. “When you compare it to where we were a year ago, we played UNLV, team in the bottom half of the Mountain West, and they blew us out. Today we played a top Mountain West team and there were plenty of chances for us to win.”
On their very first drive of the day, The UTEP Miners took the ball 79 yards on 10 plays and continually punched it up the middle.